# 12V Battery Monitoring

**URL:** <https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/12v-battery-monitoring/4638>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [26 February 2019 03:33 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/12v-battery-monitoring/4638 "2019-02-26T03:33:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Paul81429](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Paul81429](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Paul81429)\
**Post date:** [26 February 2019 03:33 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/12v-battery-monitoring/4638/1 "2019-02-26T03:33:35Z")

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I am looking to work on a project that can monitor various batteries on a boat. I have four battery banks that need monitoring. My initial thought was a Raspberry Pi and four INA219s to monitor each bank. I have subsequently read INA169’s instead so am now a bit confused (it doesn’t take much). Can anyone recommend a better option, and perhaps even a “read this”?

TIA

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**Author:** ![Stephen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/stephen/32/1599_2.png) [@Stephen](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Stephen)\
**Post date:** [27 February 2019 04:28 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/12v-battery-monitoring/4638/2 "2019-02-27T04:28:33Z")

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Hi Paul,

Are you looking to monitor the current being output from the batteries or just the voltage of the batteries?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul81429](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Paul81429](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Paul81429)\
**Post date:** [27 February 2019 05:44 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/12v-battery-monitoring/4638/3 "2019-02-27T05:44:07Z")

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Just voltage

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stephen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/stephen/32/1599_2.png) [@Stephen](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Stephen)\
**Post date:** [27 February 2019 22:20 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/12v-battery-monitoring/4638/4 "2019-02-27T22:20:10Z")

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Hi Paul,

If you use some controller that has analog input this would be much simpler. The Pi has no analog to digital converter, so you would need to use an external one:

> **[ADS1015 12-Bit ADC - 4 Channel with Programmable Gain Amplifier](https://core-electronics.com.au/ads1015-12-bit-adc-4-channel-with-progrmmable-gain-amplifier.html)**
>
> For microcontrollers without an analog-to-digital converter or when you want a higher-precision ADC, the ADS1015 provides 12-bit precision at 3300 samples/second .. read more

  
This can only read up to 5v though, so you will need to make a voltage divider.  
[https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/voltage-dividers/all](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/voltage-dividers/all)

Or you can buy one:

> **[Analog Voltage Divider](https://core-electronics.com.au/analog-voltage-divider.html)**
>
> The Voltage Divider can detect the supply voltage upto 25V. The DFRobot Voltage Divider module is based on resistor divider principle.

and feed that into your ADC, then into the Pi. Make sure everything shares a common ground or you can fry your electronics!