Having a wide dynamic range to handle power-conscious projects including IoT and wireless applications, the probe – STLINK-V3PWR - measures current values from nanoamps to 500mA and remains accurate up to ±0.5%. It can also supply up to 2A to the target system through a single USB cable, enabling developers to power the board without a separate supply.
The STLINK-V3PWR is supported directly within the STM32CubeMonitor-Power graphical tool, which helps visualise the power demands of the application in real-time and analyse the effects of design changes to improve energy efficiency.
The probe is also supported within the Arm Keil development tool and IAR integrated development environment (IDE), enabling users to synchronise code execution with energy-consumption measurements to optimise the application energy profile.
“Ultra-low-power microcontroller applications use energy harvesting or run for years on batteries, however small design errors can create unexpected power issues,” said Reinhard Keil, senior director, embedded technology at Arm. “The new STLINK-V3PWR probe enables power profiling with Keil MDK. The µVision debugger can correlate program events with power consumption, providing analysis to help developers identify potential design errors and enabling multifold improvements to battery lifetime.”
The STLINK-V3PWR provides additional support for embedded developers alongside the STM32 Power shield (X-NUCLEO-LPM01A), a programmable power supply source that provides dynamic current measurement from 100nA to 50mA. It’s typically used to analyse applications running on ultra-low-power STM32 MCUs.
In addition, the energy meter of the STM32L562E-DK Discovery kit intermediate board measures dynamic current from 300nA to 150mA. STM32CubeMonitor-Power acquires power measurements through any of these devices and allows data rendering in real-time as well as updating of acquisition parameters.
As a programming and debug probe, STLINK-V3PWR also features single-wire debug (JTAG/SWD) interfaces to communicate with the STM32 MCU on the application board. There is also a Virtual COM port interface and a multi-path bridge allowing the host PC to communicate with the target microcontroller through a SPI/UART/I2C/CAN/GPIO communication to facilitate firmware update as well as power measurement tests in the field.
