> -----Original Message-----
> From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Dale Botkin
> Sent: January 28, 2003 02:10
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: [PIC]: Ridiculously low current?
>
>
> On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Robert Rolf wrote:
>
> > What do you read when you short and then reverse the meter leads?
>
> Same thing, but with a minus sign.  -.006uA.
>
> > What do you get when you hook your meter to the battery with a
> > 10M series resistor? It should of course be something near
> 3V/10M (0.3uA)
>
> Meter says the resistor is 9.77M, and current is .309uA.  So at least it's
> pretty close to being consistent...  the different lead arrangement
> between measuring the resistor and the current could account for some
> error as well.
>
> > And have you tried putting the two meters in series to see how well
> > they track (e.g. agree on the measurement)?
>
> The Fluke only reads down to .01mA, no uA scale.  It says 0.00.
>
> > And the current draw spec is 'nominal'. You could be getting better
> > than average performance from this chip.
>
> You can say that again.  Everything seems to agree this thing is getting
> by on no more than a slight breeze.  Wow.

        Well, a good test might be this: try heating it. We all know that silicon
is very temperature sensitive (especially when dealing with such low
currents), if the reading you are getting is valid you SHOULD see some
strong temperature dependence. Might be worth a try. TTYL

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