[SOLVED] Voltage divider and high current

[P.Copper]

Hi y'all

I want to use voltage divider as a voltage sensor and my concern is that i will be dealing with power rating of about 300 Watts from the solar panels. Should the resistors be the power resistors? and if they should be how much power would they be able to dissipate without them burning up? oh and the other thing of note is that the current I will be dealing with is about 24 Amperes.

 

[yassin.kraouch]

what is the voltage of the solar panel ? if your resistor is only for sensing, you don't need a high power LEDs, you only need to have high resistance to avoid that you voltage divider will dssipate too much current,

 

[Borber]

You can build voltage divider voltage sensor which can dissipate all your 300W or 24A with no problem. Problem is that no power will be left for any useful purpose.

 

[P.Copper]

what is the voltage of the solar panel ? if your resistor is only for sensing, you don't need a high power LEDs, you only need to have high resistance to avoid that you voltage divider will dssipate too much current,

the maximum is 21.4V

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You can build voltage divider voltage sensor which can dissipate all your 300W or 24A with no problem. Problem is that no power will be left for any useful purpose.

I don't want to dissipate all the power from my panels. What I'm concerned about is if i don't design my resistors with the power rating in mind the resistors might not be able to withstand the current when my panels are operating at it's maximum power rating

 

[FvM]

Perhaps it's helpful to sketch a circuit with the solar panel, a load resistor and the voltage divider and try to answer the question yourself.

Hint: A voltage divider is sensing voltage rather than current.

 

[yassin.kraouch]

the maximum is 21.4V

what is the output voltage you want to sens ? will it be with a microcontroller ?

 

[Borber]

How about this you build voltage divider that will spend only 25mW of your 300W power or draw only 1mA of your 25A current.

 

[P.Copper]

what is the output voltage you want to sens ? will it be with a microcontroller ?

yes my output is 5V which will be going to dsPIC30f