Hello,
I'd like to create a current meter for a small solar system that I've built. The system has a couple large deep cycle 6V batteries hooked up in series. It's mostly used in the evenings and the load is one or two amps. However, sometimes I like to use some short duration, high current loads on this system (hand power tools). These loads are on the order of 30-40A. I've looked into setting up a shunt resistor in series with load, but I don't like the idea that I could (a) cook that resistor, or (b) that it's wasting my precious solar electrons with resistive heating. So, knowing just enough to be dangerous, I've looked into using some flavor of Hall Effect sensor to measure current without introducing a resistive load. The H-E sensors that I've looked at have different sensitivities at different currents. For example, a
0-20A H-E sensor gives better resolution at, say, 3A than a 0-100A H-E sensor. Given that, I was wondering whether it would be okay to hook both 0-20A and 0-100A H-E sensors in series with my load. When the draw is below 20A, read the 0-20A sensor, when it's above, read the 0-100A. If I'm going about this all wrong, then I'd love to hear your solution.Thanks in advance,
-mt