Looking for a little help with a simple voltage regulator I'm building for an antique vehicle with a DC generator. The armature puts out a current that goes through a blocking diode in the regulator, into the positive terminal of the battery. I need to limit the current to 10 amps. If I just string the b/e junction of a bjt across a sense resistor, then the resistor would have to dissipate 6 or 7 watts during current limiting. I don't want to use a bulky sense resistor and develop that much extra heat so I'm looking for a scheme that will use a sense resistor with a lower voltage drop across it. Any ideas?
P.S. I have to put the sense resistor between the armature and the battery positive because the ground connection of the voltage regulator will carry only the field current, not the current from the armature. The charging current from the armature goes through the chassis and the ground strap attached to the battery's negative terminal.
Thanks in advance, Kell