Recomendations Please - Power Measurement & Phone Measurements

[Gramo]

Hi all,

I'm looking to add two new tools to my electronics bench and would appreciate any recommendations:

• Power measurement/analysis tool: Something like the Otii Arc, USB connected with an optional external power source (25W+ @1.8-5+V). Ideally, it should have software and a GUI for viewing power over time, with features like click-and-drag sections to view watt-hour totals, similar to a scope.
• Phone-pairable measurement device: A modern, well-supported tool for measuring voltage, current, and DMM tasks. I'm thinking of something along the lines of the Mooshimeter, but more up-to-date.

I did some light searching on the forum, though it gets a bit decentralised and dated in some conversations. Looking for "today's" sort of advice based on recent experiences/recommendations. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[Zucca]

Don't know your user case, but I would never touch a paired phone DMM for serious stuff.

[shabaz]

Only addressing the second bullet-point:

Keysight U1282A has Bluetooth (separate plug-on interface) and it's good, impressive multimeter. But pricey. Has the capability to add a formula for conversions on-the-fly.

Far cheaper, Multicomp MP730624 has built-in Bluetooth, is quite low-cost (about $60; and surprisingly accurate for that price) and I wrote an app that works on all normal desktop/tablet and mobile devices (apple devices annoyingly first need the purchase of a third-party app called WEBBLE from the app store, but it costs just a few $).

[makahdz]

Hey Gramo,

Both the Otii Arc and the Otii Ace from Qoitech are great alternatives for what you shared. The decision between the two is mainly based on the measurement ranges, accuracy, and support for additional features in the Otii Software. So, Otii Ace would be the best choice to cover all the new features, even the upcoming ones. Here you can see a technical comparison that may be useful: https://www.qoitech.com/hardware/

Keep in mind that Otii previously had a Pro license for the software, and since months ago, it is no longer required – it's FREE now. Here you can see all the details: https://www.qoitech.com/blog/license-model/

With Otii, you can both power your device under test and measure current, power, and voltage channels for the entire system or subsystems (sensors, communication modules, actuators, etc) by making use of the additional pins available, which also has an external power supply that can go up to 15V, with an isolated ground in the case of the Otii Ace. In addition to the measurements, you have various tools to visualize, analyze, zoom and investigate the recordings in detail, including the possibility of debugging your code over UART.

In case you are interested, below there is a Quick Start series that walks you through the first steps, as well as some use cases:


https://www.qoitech.com/usecases/

Nevertheless, Otii Product Suite goes beyond measuring devices. It is a compact and flexible tool that can be adapted to other uses. For example, profiling and emulating batteries/PV cells based on the performance of your device under test, as well as automating device measurements and battery emulations for device verification.

I highly recommend to check. I am biased, but here to help!