DC Voltage / Current Sensor

Question

Hi,

I need to take continuous voltage and amperage readings from 24 x 2V DC 1200Ah Lead Acid Batteries and pass the information as sensor readings into an Arduino so I can log it and display it on a web page.

The batteries voltage and amperage rises up and down during use and charging and quite high during desulphation.

Each bank of 12 batteries rises to 32 Volts (collectively) the amps upto 130 collectively.

I am working on a temperature sensor for each battery, but I am also looking for a specific gravity sensor for each battery.

I am fairly new to electronics and realise that volatge dividers comes into this somewhere, but I would really love a simple sensor circuit for volatge and another for current if possible.

Thank you to anyone who cares to help me. I cannot do onsite checking much anymore as I have become disabled hence neeeding remote checking.

Kind regards,

jB

soumitrab · Answer

Hi

For voltage checking you can have a voltage divider with 2 resistors in a 1:3 or 1:4 or any other suitable ratio so as to have an acceptable drop within 5v for the comparator/ADC input. Higher value connects to the +ve rail and you could use the internal or external reference voltage to get actual voltage reading across the divider.

For the current you could use a simple low value (in ohms) but higher wattage resistor for example as a current sensor to read the voltage drop across the sensor via the ADC to get current. Connect the resistor between the battery ground and lead. Alternatively you could also look up current sensors from a host of manufacturers for more accurate readings.

Hope this helps

Best wishes

DC Voltage / Current Sensor

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