A Compact Bluetooth Voltage and Current Monitor

Lim Han Yang works with wireless devices. As neat as they are, field testing for him meant having to get up every few minutes to check out how they’re doing. Often this is just a simple voltage check, or making sure the battery is still sufficiently charged.

The next logical step, of course, is to perform such testing wirelessly. While high-end measurement devices can do this, his newly designed tool is able to take basic readings with just a few components.

This unit can be constructed on a custom PCB, or since it only uses a few components, could also reasonably be made on a breadboard. When powered up, it starts taking measurements and transmits voltage and current data to a phone or other smart device via a JDY-08/HM-11 Bluetooth module.

An Android app for the system is in the works, with an iOS app to follow. This will allow for the user to easily monitor wireless devices… wirelessly, along with the potential for remote GPIO capabilities. One could also pass Bluetooth data to a Raspberry Pi, and use SSH to theoretically collect data from anywhere in the world.

An ATmega328P processor is microcontroller is listed as the “brains” of this operation, however, the design concept can accommodate a variety of other microcontrollers or dev boards depending on how it’s put together. Given the current chip shortage, it’s good to have options!