How to build a USB current clamp

By mvuilleu, in Measures, june 10,2022.

A few years ago, we demonstrated how to use a Yocto-milliVolt-Rx to measure DC current, by measuring the very low voltage at the terminals of a shunt resistor. More recently, we thought that it could be useful to extend this scenario to the measure of strong alternative currents using simple ring-shaped current transformers, like current clamps.

Using a proximity sensor behind a window

By mvuilleu, in Measures, march 25,2022.

Infrared proximity sensors, such as the Yocto-Proximity, are an effective alternative to pressure switches in order to detect when an object has been placed at a given location. But for reliable and robust use, you must respect a few implementation rules, especially if you put a protective glass in front of the sensor.

Using inertial sensors in a vehicle

By mvuilleu, in Measures and Misc, february 11,2022.

MEMS inertial sensors used in products such as the Yocto-Inclinometer or the Yocto-3D-V2 can determine their orientation with regards to terrestrial gravity, like an electronic spirit level. It is tempting to use them to measure the orientation of moving objects, such as vehicles, but it's not as easy as we might hope. Here are some explanations on the difficulties one might expect, as a reminder of your kinematic physics courses...

Using Yoctopuce sensors with Prometheus and Grafana

By mvuilleu, in Measures, january 21,2022.

A few years ago, we showed you how to integrate Yoctopuce sensors in a Grafana dashboard used with InfluxDB, which was a very common solution at the time. In the mean time, GrafanaLabs has set its sights on another time-series database, Prometheus, which offer many more possibilities to extract data than InfluxDB. We have therefore added to our modules the possibility to provide their data in a format directly recognized by Prometheus.

GSM power usage for sensor monitoring

By mvuilleu, in Measures, Electronics and Internet of Things, november 20,2021.

When you must design a system that sends back measures through a GSM connection, there are two physical quantities that you want to estimate: que quantity of transferred data and the power consumption. We already had the opportunity to provide orders of magnitude for data consumption in a previous post, but we are going to see today how much power is needed to send back data periodically through a 3G or 4G GSM connection.