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I am trying to measure the current drawn by my entire circuit (which contains a few ICs and a microcontroller). Some of these components such as the microcontroller are connected using 'Hidden Pins' to power rails VCC and GND. How do i connect an ammeter in series with this to measure the current drawn by the MCU ? or is there a way i can measure the total current drawn by my circuit ?

Edit:

The solution provided in Connecting Switches to Hidden Supply Pins in Proteus ISIS does not solve the user's problem due to the following reason. This is how we want the circuit to be. enter image description here Creating a schematic like this in Proteus will throw an error saying No power supply specified for net SRC1 in Power Rail Configuration

If you try to fix this by following the answer in the link above and goto Design->Configure Power Rails and add netlist SRC1 (our custom netlist) to VCC power rail, then we are essentially just creating a link from SRC1 to VCC. This essentially bypasses the switch and just connects the hidden pin VDD directly to VCC hence doesn't provide the intended result.

PhilipT
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  • Put a standard multimeter in series with the power supply. Start on the largest range to avoid blowing any fuses. As long as your circuit doesn't draw more current than your multimeter can handle, this method will work. – Robert Stiffler Oct 28 '15 at 04:12
  • Sorry, i should have made this more obvious, but the whole objective is to measure the current draw inside Proteus application where the circuit is simulated (mentioned in the subject). – PhilipT Nov 06 '15 at 16:57
  • I think using the Power Rails do not make able to measure this current, because the net got internal and no probe can be introduced. Unfortunately what i do is simply do not use this feature. – Brethlosze May 07 '18 at 15:54

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