Putting together a project to monitor my car's battery. It's a 12v 70ah battery and I am trying to figure out if I can just connect the INA226 sensor directly to the battery +- or if I need a shunt.
To me it seems the battery is within the sensor specs, but I would like to get a second opinion, voltage wise it seems straightforward, for the sensor max is 40v, the car charging system will never get that high.
If you want to measure the voltage then the 40V range should be sufficient for 12V. If you want to measure current you better use another (hall effect...) sensor.
I am interested in measuring mainly voltage, but they are saying this is to measure amps and volts. Why isn't this good enough? I am not an expert, I am at beginner level with electrics and I am looking to understand.
Please post next time a link to the complete data sheet. Not everybody knows what is a INA226 and what you want to use it for.
Which currents do you want to measure? Each shunt consumes some voltage and produces heat according to its resistance and actual current square. With a car battery you can use the cables to the battery as shunts.
Hi, I posted a hyperlink with the full data sheet above the picture, but it's easy to miss it so I will repost below
What I am looking to see:
Must have: voltage measurement -> checking battery charge status via screen or just a few LEDs
Nice to have: measure current draw, to monitor how much various components are drawing from the battery (alarm, aux heater, gps tracker, etc).
The point of this topic is to figure out if I can just wire the sensor to my car battery or I need something else between it and the battery.
Thanks!
See my #4 if you want to cover all ranges up to the generator and starter currents.
