Adafruit Redesigns its INA219 FeatherWing to Combat Ongoing Component Shortages

Adafruit has updated its INA219 FeatherWing design, built for power monitoring applications, as it continues to battle against ongoing industry-wide component shortages.

Built around Texas Instrument's INA219 current shunt and power monitor chip, the Adafruit INA219 FeatherWing was designed to add accurate power monitoring to Feather-format projects. "Instead of struggling with two multimeters," the company explains, "you can just use the handy INA219 chip on this breakout to measure both the high side voltage and DC current draw over I2C with 1 per cent precision."

Recently, however, Adafruit — in common with the rest of the electronics industry — has been struggling under the weight of ongoing component shortages. As a result, the company has revisited the INA219 FeatherWing's design — and while it retains all the features of the original design, its accuracy will now vary depending on precisely which parts the company can get its hands on at the time.

"Due to the severe chip shortage," Adafruit says, "we've had to update this design to use either the INA219A or INA219B and in SOT-23 or SOIC package — whatever we are able to get on the market! The A version is ±1 per cent total max current measurement error over the entire temp range (±0.5 per cent max at 25°C [77°F]) and the B version is ±0.5 per cent total max current measurement error over the entire temp range (±0.3 per cent max at 25°C [77°F]). Overall functionality is otherwise the same."

Thankfully, the shift hasn't brought about any changes to the device's operation — meaning projects and software built around the original design can use either new variant without change, including those using Adafruit's Arduino and CircuitPython libraries. Those looking to pick an INA219 FeatherWing up, however, can't choose the A or B at the point of purchase — it's simply down to the luck of the draw which one you receive.

The redesigned INA219 FeatherWing is now available to buy on the Adafruit store for $7.95 before volume discounts.