The average current drawn by the nRF52840 System on Chip (SoC) can be measured using an ampere meter. This method monitors the current in series with the nRF device.
Make sure you have prepared the Development Kit (DK) as described in Preparing the development kit.
Connect an ampere meter between the pins of connector P22 as shown in the following figure.
Figure 1. Current measurement with an ampere meter
Note: An ampere meter measures the average current drawn by the nRF52840 SoC if the following conditions are true:
- The SoC is in a state where it draws a constant current, or, the activity on the device changing load current, like Bluetooth® LE connection events, is repeated continuously and has a short cycle time (less than 100 ms) so that the ampere meter averages whole load cycles and not parts of the cycle.
- The dynamic range of the ampere meter is wide enough to give accurate measurements from 1 µA to 15 mA.
We recommended that you use a true Root Mean Square (RMS) ampere meter.