X-NUCLEO-LPM01A PowerShield - Dynamic Current Range Too Limited?

[Andrew Neil]

The X-NUCLEO-LPM01A PowerShield has a dynamic current range maximum of only 50mA.

This is a long way short of the maximum current found in many STM32 applications; eg.

• STM32WL - max Tx current is 120mA;
• B-L072Z-LRWAN1 - max Tx current of the radio module is 128mA

Particularly annoying is that the PowerShield will simply abort the acquisition when the 50mA limit is exceed; eg, see:

https://community.st.com/s/question/0D53W00000KpzoVSAR/stm32l562edk-current-up-to-150ma

and:

https://community.st.com/s/question/0D53W00000ku5QLSAY/stm32cubemonpower-unhelpful-error-message-released-due-to-connection-issue

This makes the PowerShield useless in these applications.

Is there any workaround to this?

Even if it just gave an 'out-of-range' value in the logs, that would be preferable - then we could get measurements for all except the peaks using the PowerShield, and only have to find other means to measure the peaks.

[Richard.Chvr]

Hi @Andrew Neil​ ,

As mentioned in https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/development-tools/software-development-tools/stm32-software-development-tools/stm32-performance-and-debuggers/stm32cubemonpwr.html, ST offers currently 2 solutions that allow users to monitor current.

• From 100 nA up to 50 mA with ~2% accuracy for the X-NUCLEO-LPM01A expansion board
• From 300 nA up to 150 mA with ~2% accuracy for the Energy Meter of the STM32L562E-DK Discovery kit

Also I think that the STM32L562E-DK Discovery kit could be the appropriate solution for your needs.

https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-mpu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-mpu-eval-tools/stm32-discovery-kits/stm32l562e-dk.html

              Moreover a new solution with a highest max current value is currently under development. Due to business reasons we can’t communicate about future availability of this new product.

Regards

[Andrew Neil]

Ah - thanks for that. Worth a look ...

And looking forward to the new product ...

[Andrew Neil]

At the time of starting this thread, the STM32-LPM01-XN firmware for the X-NUCLEO-LPM01A board was at v1.0.1.

I see that the STM32-LPM01-XN firmware for the X-NUCLEO-LPM01A board is now at v1.0.6.

But I can't see any Release Notes.

Has anything been done about the behaviour on overload?

Again:

"Even if it just gave an 'out-of-range' value in the logs, that would be preferable - then we could get measurements for all except the peaks using the PowerShield, and only have to find other means to measure the peaks."

 EDIT

Asked as a separate question:

https://community.st.com/s/question/0D53W000014w80YSAQ/where-are-release-notes-for-the-stm32lpm01xn-firmware