Electronic – Measure current on a constant current source

currentvoltage dividervoltage measurement

I need to measure current on a constant current source(LM317), because I am using a 3v3 chip I also need a voltage divider to read it. Will this circuit work Or will it wreak havoc trying to increase voltage to drive current over the voltage dividers?

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

Best Answer

As long as the load is connected, it'll work, but if the load or the shunt becomes disconnected or burns out, expect it to fail as you described (the voltage you see depends on the voltage available to the current source : if that's only 12V, the ADC inputs have enough protection to survive).

However, it won't be very accurate. Unless you pay a lot for extremely high precision resistors, errors (say about 1% of 150ma * 20 ohms, 30mv ) in the voltage dividers will be larger in magnitude than the voltages you are measuring across that 10mohm (0.01 * 156ma=1.5mv) shunt.

A safer and more accurate version would put the current shunt on the earth side of the load and eliminate the dividers. You lose the inaccuracy of the dividers, and whether the load goes open or short circuit the ADC is still safe. You probably need to increase the shunt to 1 ohm, or add amplification, to get any accuracy though.