I need help to detect an AC burned heater element

[igeorge]

Hello igeorge,
Could you elaborate a bit on the conditions you want to test the device? It seems you want / need to test during the welding operation. Can you install a tiny reed switch along the power wires? Honestly I do not know if a reed will activate on an A/C load wire, a coil like a Tape Head or a guitar pickup will. If you do not need to test during operation, then a simple continuity test should work, neon lights used to work very well for that.

Thanks Archangel for reading my post and offer to help.
Here are the conditions:
I must check during the weld process, and i have to make sure that the current going through the wire is over 1 amp.
I do not think the other solution is feasible, due to the number of wires involved.
What i have in mind is to have a PCB for 16 heaters and bring the wire heater to it to one terminal, run a trace through some device to get the current, then get out on the next terminal and go to heater.
Current transformers is not a solution, as they are bulky, not to many models PCB mount and i still need to interpret the reading.
My option was for ACS712 , but if you look at the attached graph you will see that the output is + and -
I need somehow to convert it, or do something that i will get only the + portion, but not pulsating, i need it as a continuous line.
Also, i need that any voltage over 2.6 volts to be a logic 1 and any voltage from 0 to 2.6 to be a logic ZERO. In this case, i will have my inputs to PIC set to read 1 for a good heater, and 0 for a bad heater.
Thank you