I want to use a shunt resistor to measure the current flowing though a section of my circuit. I am deciding between using an off the shelf shunt resistor or simply drawing a wide track on my PCB and calculating the resistance (and hence voltage drop) of that section.
What are the pros and cons or each method, and from your experience which method is best?. For my application the accuracy is not highly important (avg of 10A flowing and I need to detect current to an accuracy of 1A).
From what i can see the advantage of using an off the shelf shunt resistor is the precision and accuracy of the resistance, however it is more costly and the requirement of soldering will add uncertainty to the resistance.
Drawing a section of copper track on my PCB seems cheaper and eliminates the uncertainly brought by the solder joint.