I'm an auto mechanic that does remote start installation and electrical troubleshooting. I'm interested in building a device that can monitor the current draw of a vehicle and send notifications to my phone or email if the current goes above a preset value. The reason for this is that I often deal with parasitic draw on batteries and if I received a notification when I am at home I can check the cctv at my work when the vehicle acts up to determine what may be at fault. A better idea might be to have it set up so that once the notification is received I could monitor the current draw through wifi. If I could see the amount of current being used and how long it persists that could help me narrow down where the issue is. I'm looking at using an uno, acs712 current sensor and an esp8266 wifi shield. I don't have any experience using arduino components yet but have built my own electronic projects in the past. The hardware setup will be straightforward for me but I don't have experience in coding. Any suggestions or input on such a setup would be greatly appreciated.
How are you going to power this, the test setup will probably draw much more current then the existing parasitic draw. I would suggest looking for a sensor that will handle the dynamic current range of a few micro amps to several hundred amps (starter motor draw at -40). You can shunt the ACS712 with an appropriate sized shunt but there will be almost no signal at the micro amp range. Try sketching a block diagram, that would me understand your question.
Make test code exercising each part of the hardware. One for the current measuring circuit, one for the communication device etc. Use available example code. That way You get familiar with the devices and learn how they are operated. This also verifies the connections. When each subpart work You can integrate all functions into one main code.
My setup would be powered by a separate battery as its only for diagnostics while its in the shop. Thank you for the suggestions. I'm working on more details now.
I use a phone power bank to power a portable GPS based speedometer. I've estimated the 6000mAh bank to last for days....
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