Not to drag it off topic, but did/does anyone market an automotive ammeter with the shunt at the battery and only a low-amp signal to the gauge? I haven't installed one in a car in decades, but that's the only way I'd be comfortable nowadays.
Interesting. You would think with all the new technology, that someone would come up with a system that just uses an inductive coil at the battery cable and some kind of device to send a signal meter.
I have a similar kind of thing on my Onan generator. It is a gauge system with power/amp/watts and uses a small coil on the output power lead.
That is what is used on all the chillers that we run on campus, to monitor current draw on various stages of the big compressors and electric motors that drive them. I wouldn't think it'd be hard to adapt to an automotive system; you'd just have to come up with the right inductive coil and meter. Unfortunately, I'm not up on that stuff enough to know what's out there that could work on a low voltage DC system. I should ask the lead tech guy at work. He's a pretty smart fella and would know.
