Updated on 22 October 2024

How to Measure & Calculate DC Power in PicoScope 7

What is DC Power? #

DC stands for direct current, a one way flow of electric charge in a circuit, often represented as positive to negative, though in reality the inverse is true. Usage of direct current is incredibly widespread with almost all consumer electronics internal circuitry being primarily DC-based, and all battery power applications being DC.

Automated measurement #

Setup and configuration #

The DC power measurement can be found under the Power category (see Fig. 1).
After adding the measurement, it can be further constrained to only measure between horizontal and/or signal rulers within the viewport specified by the ruler view setting (see Fig. 2).

Calculation and algorithm #

To compute the DC power measurement, the mean is taken for the voltage channel and is multiplied by a mean taken for the current channel. This produces a reasonable average current throughout the waveforms.

For the math channel, the DC power function is a shortcut for a multiplication math channel of voltage * current.

DC power math channel #

The dc power math channel is set up similarly to the measurement.

The  math channel can be found within the math channel wizard, nested under the scientific functions category (see Fig. 3). The output range can be adjusted, and the default is the maximum amplitude possible in the signal (see Fig. 4).

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