Adafruit INA260 High/Low Side DC Voltage Current Power Sensor

Overview

If you’re tired of juggling shunt resistors, recalculating ranges, or dealing with noisy low-side measurements, the Adafruit INA260 High/Low Side DC Voltage Current Power Sensor is the upgrade you’ve been waiting for. Designed for flexibility, accuracy, and ease of use, this breakout brings professional-grade current and power monitoring to maker and embedded projects.

At the heart of the board is an integrated 2 mΩ (0.002 Ω), 0.1% precision shunt resistor, factory-matched to the internal measurement circuitry. This eliminates the need to swap shunts or recalibrate when changing current ranges. Thanks to the ultra-low resistance, voltage drop across the shunt is minimal—so low that many multimeters will even read it as a short.

The INA260 can measure DC bus voltages up to +36 V and continuous currents up to 15 A, whether placed on the high side or low side of the load. An internal 16-bit ADC provides fine-grained measurements with approximately 1.5 mA current resolution, while also computing power internally so you can read voltage, current, and power directly without extra math.

Unlike low-side-only sensors that shift your ground reference, or earlier high-side sensors that require external shunt changes, the INA260 handles both configurations cleanly. In high-side mode, bus voltage and power are measured directly and accurately. Advanced users who want low-side bus voltage measurement can do so by cutting the onboard jumper connecting V+ to VBUS and wiring the VBUS pin to the voltage bus manually.

All measurement data is delivered over a simple I2C interface, making integration straightforward with Arduino, CircuitPython, and single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi. The board supports 3 V or 5 V logic, so it drops easily into mixed-voltage systems without level shifting.

Specification

Technical details for Adafruit INA260 High/Low Side DC Voltage Current Power Sensor.

Pinout