Template:CC3200 Active Current Consumption

Measurement Tools
It recommended to use the tools mentioned in  Current Measurement for Profile and Active states, in order to record the Tx current consumption.

Alternatively, one can modify the boosterpack or Launchpad board, and measure the voltage difference across a (0.1Ohm) series resistor. Using an oscilloscope and resistor These actions must be taken proactively.

Since the current is non static while perform the Tx packet transmission, an oscilloscope or data acquisition system is needed to capture the time domain waveform. The current is converted into a voltage using a series resistor (0.1 Ohm to 0.5 Ohm) or by using a current probe clamped around a loop.

Using a differential probe and resistor
The Launchpad has an option to solder a series resistor on the current path to enable measurements. This resistor R62 is not populated by default on the launchpads Rev 3.1 and above. For transmit current measurements solder a 0.1Ohm to 0.5 Ohm resistor on R62. Use a 1% tolerance or better to eliminate any errors. An external through-hole resistor mounted to the J12 can also be used for the measurement. The voltage across the resistor needs to be measured using a differential probe as it has a high DC content around 3.3V. The current can then be measured by dividing the voltage measured by the series resistance. The oscilloscope can be set to display a current value directly by using the probe setup options. (No all oscilloscopes support this)

Using a floating ground with regular oscilloscope probe.
Instead of using a differential probe, a floating ground on the oscilloscope or the laptop can be used. A laptop which is battery powered can be used to measure the current using the series resistor. The oscilloscope probe ground and signal can be connected directly across the resistor to measure the voltage. This method is prone to noise pick-up as we do not get the differential signal advantage.

Measurement steps

 * 1) Ensure that your device is running at the latest SDK.  This can be done by clicking HERE and installing the latest CC31xx SDK.
 * 2) *This runs an application on the CC3200 which communicates with the RadioTool application on the PC.
 * 3) Reset the board after removing the jumper on SOP2.
 * 4) Run the RadioTool Application on the PC & connect to the Launchpad using the COM port enumerated on the PC using the settings as shown below.
 * 5) On successful connection, the CHIP ID and the device versions are displayed.
 * 6) Select the “TX” tab and choose the desired modulation channel and no of bytes. An example is shown below


 * 1) Click on “Start TX Testing” Measure the current using the oscilloscope. An example waveform is given below

Measurement setup
The measurement settings are the same as for the TX packet mode.

Measurement steps

 * 1) Flash the “RadioTool_V1p1_PG1p32.bin" binary on the Launchpad. This runs an application on the CC3200 which communicates with the RadioTool application on the PC.
 * 2) Reset the board after removing the jumper on SOP2.
 * 3) Run the RadioTool Application on the PC & connect to the Launchpad using the COM port enumerated on the PC using the settings as shown below.


 * 1) On successful connection, the CHIP ID and the device versions are displayed.
 * 2) On the Radio Tool application, select the RX Tab and select the parameters desired. An example is shown below


 * 1) click on “Start RX Testing”.
 * 2) Then measure the Rx current using oscilloscope or multimeter. For measuring the current, use the “Mean” function as it would estimate the average current.