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Graduate II
December 30, 2024
Question

evaluation board for sensors

  • December 30, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 803 views

Hi,

I'm working on a prototype of a device. One of this device features is to collect data from gyroscope, accelerometer and e-compass. It is very important that the device will be ultra-low-power. One goal for the prototype is to verify how much energy will that device consume.
I have a question about components which I could use to build this prototype. I'm going to use STM32 NUCLEO-L432KC which will provide me ultra-low-power MCU. Is there any evaluation board with sensors (accel, gyro, e-compass) which I could connect to the Nucleo board?

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    2 replies

    Graduate II
    December 30, 2024

    Most aren't focused on the least-power objective, you'd likely need to fab a small custom board due to the nature of the parts and foot-prints

    Perhaps look if you can mod some of these, or similar GY-xyz boards, removing extraneous components or increasing resistance, etc. Most will have regulators to try to create quiet supplies and reduce noise to the sensors.

    https://www.adafruit.com/category/521

    https://www.robotpark.com/Multi-Sensor-Boards

    https://www.st.com/en/ecosystems/x-nucleo-iks01a2.html

    https://www.st.com/en/ecosystems/x-nucleo-iks4a1.html

    DPiór.1Author
    Graduate II
    December 30, 2024

    @Tesla DeLorean thank you for the hint. I will review those sensors, however looking now at Adafruit website I don't see in the specification any information about current nor power consumption :(

    For the prototype I need to have something ready to use, without wasting time on understanding the board design and modifying it. I can accept that it will not be the best in class if it goes about power consumption - I need it to be low power, to get the idea of power consumption during long period of time when the sensor is switching between different power modes. In other words, it can't be a sensor which consumes much, it needs to be sensor which consumes little energy but does not have to be the best ultra-low-power.
    What about the STM32 steval boards? From the description on the website is not clear for me how they can be used and what exactly they have on board? For example this one: https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/steval-mkit01v1.html

    Graduate II
    December 30, 2024

    You can typically find schematics and BoM under the "CAD Resources" tab of the products

    https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/steval-mki179v1.html

    https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/steval-mki179v1.html#cad-resources

    I'm not sure AdaFruit / SparkFun boards provide significant analysis of current consuption, they are really targeting a quick mash-up for design, where they might get you 80-90% to your destination and an ability to bread-board functional units via COTS parts rather than creating a simple quick-turn board from a PCB/PCBA vendor.

    I think they might have some TI INA devices for current measurement.

    https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/x-nucleo-lpm01a.html

    Perhaps find a local ST sales office, or rep, and have a conversation with your FAE