Current12 Bricklet¶

Features¶

• Measures currents up to 12.5A
• Measures direction of current
• Output in 1mA steps (12bit resolution)

Description¶

The Current12 Bricklet can be used to extend the features of Bricks by bidirectional current flow measurements of up to 12.5A. Additionally events can be configured to receive signals when a specified current is exceeded.

Typical applications can be found in robotics. With the bidirectional current flow measurement it is possible distinguish between charge and discharge.

Technical Specifications¶

Resources¶

• ACS711 datasheet (Download)
• Schematic (Download)
• Outline and drilling plan (Download)
• Source code and design files (Download)

Test your Current12 Bricklet¶

To test a Current12 Bricklet you need to have Brick Daemon and Brick Viewer installed. Brick Daemon acts as a proxy between the USB interface of the Bricks and the API bindings. Brick Viewer connects to Brick Daemon. It helps to figure out basic information about the connected Bricks and Bricklets and allows to test them.

Connect the Current12 Bricklet to a Brick with a Bricklet Cable. Connect a motor and a battery to the Bricklet as displayed in the following picture (or anything else connected in series to the Current12 Bricklet that produces a current).

If you connect the Brick to the PC over USB, you should see a new tab named "Current12 Bricklet" in the Brick Viewer after a moment. Select this tab. If everything went as expected you can now see the current used by the motor and a graph that shows the current over time.

In the screenshot you can see a high current peak. This is caused by the starting of the motor when the battery is connected.

After this test you can go on with writing your own application. See the Programming Interface section for the API of the Current12 Bricklet and examples in different programming languages.

Programming Interface¶

See Programming Interface for a detailed description.