This automotive reference design demonstrates an approach for powering remote, off-board loads, often over coaxial cables (i.e. "phantom power"). This design is capable of protecting against and digitally diagnosing different faults that off-board cabling is susceptible to. Reverse polarity, reverse current, short to-battery, short-to-ground, and thermal shutdown are protected against and diagnosed through I2C and a fault flag. The integrated reverse-current protection does not require an external diode at the output of the device, which saves cost and avoids increasing the dropout voltage.