Power monitor battery

[OvERKiLL]

Ok, I am putting together a car PC and i want to set up a PIC-based voltage monitor that reports back to the computer in a way similar to that of a smart UPS, it would also be cool if it could operate like a laptop battery, with a small icon by the clock.
The main thing i need is how to take the info from the ADC and get it to the computer in a way that can be easily utilized and reported.

 

[IanP]

If the A/D conversion is going to be done by a PIC then you can further convert 10-bit (or whatever) number to voltage in volts and send it as an ASCII string to the car PC via serial port ..
You can implement similar protocol to GPS NMEA code ..

For example:

$BAT,12.8V,CheckSum

It is not difficult to extarct 12.8V from a string similar to the above ..

Of course, you can send 10-bit number in HEX and convert it into volts at the computer end, but that is up to you ..

Regards,
IanP