MetaShunt is an electronic instrument designed for high-bandwidth, very high dynamic range measurements of the instantaneous current and power and accumulated energy use of low-power, ultra-low power and IoT devices between 50 nanoamps and 500 milliamps.

MetaShunt leverages a simple idea - by quickly and accurately measuring the voltage across a current shunt resistor and engaging additional shunt stages when needed, MetaShunt ensures that it can provide accurate current measurement across a range of approximately 10,000,000:1 (from 50nA to 500 mA) without providing significant voltage burden. This range of current is specifically targeted for use with ultra-low power and IoT systems. By measuring current rapidly over time, the total energy use during a given portion of your code can be determined. MetaShunt acts as a virtual ground for your system, so that you can use your battery. Or, MetaShunt can provide 3.3V or 5V to the system under test if desired.

Q: Why do you need this tool?

• You are developing low power electronic projects, and need to know how much power you are using during short wake-up cycles
• You develop IoT systems, and the power consumption changes drastically during data transmission and you want to measure it
• You are testing components to validate them against the datasheet, and the current is lower than your multi-meter can measure reliably

Open source Python scripts are available to assist with calibrating MetaShunt and for interfacing with it. MetaShunt can stream measurement data over USB at nearly 4k samples/second, or can burst read over 25k samples/second with onboard buffering. MetaShunt measures and changes gain stages at >480kHz to ensure the DUT does not brown out as its current requirements rapidly change.

NOTE: The User Guide for MetaShunt is available on the GitHub repository here.

NOTE: Two versions of MetaShunt are available. For both, you will need an Alkaline AA battery and a quality USB-C cable. For the basic version, you will also need a soldering iron, solder, and a multimeter to complete a calibration process.