Ammeter

The ammeter provides for the easy measurement of current flowing through a part.

Pressing the “Setup” button toggles the length of the ammeter, so that when its setup is complete, the ammeter becomes only as tall as its display band.

First choose a part in a B2 Spice circuit and then choose a pin on the part. This can be set under the General tab.

The next option is the ammeter’s display range. The meter displays its measurements in two ways: text and a moving bar graph. The bar’s length expands and contracts with the current being measured, which makes it an analog readout. When the measured current exceeds the ammeter’s range, the bar changes color from its normal blue to red. Pressing the “Auto” button overrides the fixed range and auto adjusts the range to twice the highest current reading it sees.

Under the Functionality tab, choose whether the current signal is a DC or AC one. If the signal is AC, then choose whether the RMS (Root Mean Square) value, Average, Absolute Average, Peak-to-Peak, or the peak value should be used. Then select a sample period for the ammeter.

Behind the scenes, the ammeter instrument severs the wire connection to the selected pin and then it bridges that gap with a SPICE ammeter in the netlist sent to the SPICE engine.
Note that a virtual ammeter is automatically inserted into the virtual instruments display if an ammeter device is placed into the schematic.