Here is a handy measurement data display to help you see in real time the load flowing into your devices as they charge via
USB-C. You'll have immediate readings of voltages, amps, and watts along with their peaks.
This Tootsie Roll-sized power meter has a small
OLED display (18mm x 10mm) that shows off voltage, watts, amps, and mAh and instantly reads the numbers for testing devices, such as chargers, cables, and devicess. It comes packed with a few nice extras, such as showing the ambient temperature (press the button on the back) and calculating the cumulative Watt-hours and milliAmp-hours over a running time. Basically, it's an all-in-one power management solution that doesn't require any calculation or data logging on your part.
We use it to help analyze our USB PD projects, and also to do rough power measurements on circuits when we don't want to haul out our power supply - or to do it on the go!
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- OLED
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OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, a display type where each pixel produces its own light. It matters because OLED screens are thin, high-contrast and easy to read for small status displays, but they can be more sensitive to image burn-in than some other display types.
- USB-C
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USB-C is a small, reversible USB connector that can carry power, data and, on some devices, video over a single cable. The same connector can range from charging only to high-speed data, so the functions a given port actually supports vary.
