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Building a power monitor

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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That's a lot better.

However I notice a slow drift in the results. Any idea why that is happening?
 

jgauthier

Mar 22, 2013
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I didn't even notice that. I will run a much longer sample and see if the trend continues. I'm using a hair dryer to create load, and it seems to create some noise. But the drift... odd.
 

jgauthier

Mar 22, 2013
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The drift is because the DC offset is dropping. It starts at 1.65V, and dips to 1.61V and stays there. But it happens in the first few full waves. This being caused by the capacitor, which is a 10uF. When I remove it, the DC offset drops instantly. The source voltage never waivers from 3.3. I'm looking for a replacement cap.
 

Harald Kapp

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Alternatively add a hardware zero crossing detector and connect it to a capture/timer input of the µC. You then only have to register the time between two zero crossings as counted by the timer. this count will give you the period of the signal and hence the frequency.
 

jgauthier

Mar 22, 2013
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I've solved the drift. My DC offset resistors were too high. The ADC wants little to no impedance on it's input. I read this can be solved by using an op-amp, but reducing the resistors in the voltage divider was enough that after constant readings, I experience 1/1000th of a volt drop. So, that is perfectly acceptable.

With my measurements, I am also recording the time in ns. I will use this after the readings to calculate frequency using my own algorithm, and it will not slow down my readings at all.
 
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