Mini clamp meter for breadboard/prototype board?

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Might be a silly question, but is there such a thing as a mini clamp meter for measuring current on breadboards/prototype boards?

I am trying to avoid breaking a circut so I can measure current, something like the following but small enough for components: Best Clamp Meters | Fluke Digital Clamp Meter | Fluke

2

Hi,
What magnitude current do you want to measure?

Thanks.. Tom.. :smiley: :+1: :coffee: :australia:

3

Hi,
look this meter. (it's not clamp, but it's not invasive).

ZMCT103C

Or SCT013. (This is clamp)

4

Hmmm, good question @TomGeorge now you mention it. I suppose anything you would expect in arduino and/or breadboard circuits. I can't imagine anything above 1A?

5

Thanks @ruilviana , that's a good one for me to note but I'm looking for some kind of meter I can probe around with.

6

The problem is most of the smaller clamp meters usually only do 4 to 20mA or have a large clamp as they do higher ranges.

Google;

milliAmp clamp meter

You will find DC types are more expensive than AC types.

Tom.. :smiley: :+1: :coffee: :australia:
PS. Usually measuring current in circuits can be found by measuring volt drops across resistive elements in the circuit.

7

Thanks again @TomGeorge, all good info to help learning.

Good point ref voltage drop.

8

I think those are both current transformers for AC only?

9

Maybe a "USB tester" will do.
Leo..

10

What's a USB tester @Wawa, can you share a link for me to look at please, thanks.

11

Click here.
Now click on the images tab.
Leo..

12

Thanks @Wawa, that kind of thing looks interesting and useful; but not sure if it would help in my use case.

Ignoring the previous advice of measuring voltage drop and doing calculations, let's say I have a circuit with 3 LEDs, each with a different resistor.

In a breadboard, I could disconnect each LED one at a time to measure the actual current by completing the circuit with a multimeter.

Rather than having to break the circuit, I was curious if there was something like a min clamp meter I could clip around the LED legs to measure current directly.

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14

If you measure the voltage across each resistor you can calculate the current for each LED independently - no need to disconnect anything. Measuring the voltage across any (known) resistor in a circuit tells you the current at that point.

15

Thanks @jhaine, I now know a) it exists, and b) a bit expensive for hobby work :slight_smile:

16

Thanks @Willem43, yep similar to measuring voltage drop; I was curious if it could be measure directly without doing any calculations, thanks.

17

You could, of course, build an Arduino based system to measure the voltage, do the calculations and display the result

18

Yep, I could do that thanks @UKHeliBob; I was more curious about other options; think I have all I need now thanks.

19

That's what I thought!

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