Measuring Power Consumption

You may be wondering how I can be so sure about the power consumption of my various devices, what with the amounts being so tiny. Well, I’m using one of these. It is supposed to be used for testing batteries and power supplies, but it gives a rather useful four digits of power consumption information. I’ve made up a special connector from an old USB cable and I’m getting depressingly accurate readings.

In case you are wondering about the device at the top, that is something you can use to apply a hefty load to a USB power source. If you do decide to use it, remember that the resistors (the two green things) will get very hot.