Thanks for your suggestion, I'm always interested in other IC's / sensors that do current monitoring / reporting as my experience in current metering started and ended with using maxim 4172's...

As for their use in my posted "theoretical circuit" diagram, I've used diodes to "direct traffic" (possibly stupidly) at various points in the circuit... flow should at any any given point should be unidirectional. But perhaps there is a more reasonable "topology" that I should consider.

Nice information.. lets keep the ideas rolling folks hopefully by chatting we can come up with some kind of ideal way to layout this circuit.

(please note, just in case you were wondering, I do not intend to profit from or otherwise abuse any contribution made by fellow members towards this discussion, and if there is anything I can help others with (4172's, 18F4550 hardware etc) I will try to do so)

My vision here is to create a "open source" green power battery system that many people can cheaply use, enjoy, and almost more importantly understand.