Hi all,
Just want to share that for the homebrewers what i recently found:
The ACS712:
http://www.allegromicro.com/en/Products/Current-Sensor-ICs/Zero-To-Fifty-Amp-Integrated-Conductor-Sensor-ICs/ACS712.aspx
It is an isolated current sensor running at 5V DC. The current range is
available in 5A, 20A and 30A. It isolates about 2 kV and has an analog
output. In operation it consumes only 10 mA and can be powered off if
not in use. It's power on response time for accurate measurements is
very short so the 10 mA consumption can be reduced even more.
This is most useful for homebrewers, for example if you want to
measure/monitor the current consumption of a 12V VLF/LF/MF PA whithout
wasting I*200mV into a shunt resistor. When using e.g. an Arduino to
drive a LCD, it is then easily possible to display the electrical
parameters of your PA, like voltage, current, power. Not sure if it
works up to LF/MF but if so, you can also measure output power, SWR and
efficiency.
I'm going to use it in my remote site to monitor the battery current, so
i can calculate/monitor/display: voltage [V], current [A], (daily)
charge [Ah], power [W] and (daily) energy [Wh]...
BTW these ICs are available on Amazon or ebay on ready to use pcbs, so
don't worry about the SOIC-8 housing if you don't like SMDs :-)
http://www.amazon.de/EasyWordMall-sensor-ACS712-Current-Arduino/dp/B00WMJNJRS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1453395732&sr=8-3&keywords=acs712
73, Stefan
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