Rain Sensors
11-20-2004, 07:58 PM
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Rain Sensors
I wanted to know if anyone has installed rain sensors on their windshields. I saw one on www.rainsensor.com
Any recommendations?
Any recommendations?
11-20-2004, 08:03 PM
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It's main purpose is for turning on the wipers automatically when your windshield get wet or snow. Most new euro and jap cars have rain sensors on their upper class models and I thought it would be more of a convinience.
11-20-2004, 08:11 PM
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Optical rain sensor
Figure 2. Optical rain sensor.
Control Device Inc. (Standish, ME) has designed and developed an optical rain sensor for automobiles (Figure 2). It is mounted to the rear-view mirror bracket at least 2 cm from and facing the windshield.
The principle of operation is to emit an IR light beam through the windshield and measure the returned light. A dry windshield will either pass the emitted light through the glass or it will scatter it so that there is little or no returned light to the photodetector. If the windshield is wet the emitted light is reflected back (some but not all of the energy) to the photodetector. The amount of IR light reflected is proportional to the number and size of the droplets on the windshield.
The 2-cm sensing unit placement from the windshield provides a viewing area greater than 20 cm2. This large window gives good accuracy in gathering data on moisture accumulation precipitation range. There is also the sensor's ability to perceive windshield shearing resulting from accumulation of road dirt and salt. This condition can be filtered out by applying the sensor's algorithms. Under severe conditions such as sudden splashes, wiper activation will occur in less than 1 second. The driver can select one of five sensitivity settings (insensitive to very sensitive), tailoring the wiper activation rate.
Figure 2. Optical rain sensor.
Control Device Inc. (Standish, ME) has designed and developed an optical rain sensor for automobiles (Figure 2). It is mounted to the rear-view mirror bracket at least 2 cm from and facing the windshield.
The principle of operation is to emit an IR light beam through the windshield and measure the returned light. A dry windshield will either pass the emitted light through the glass or it will scatter it so that there is little or no returned light to the photodetector. If the windshield is wet the emitted light is reflected back (some but not all of the energy) to the photodetector. The amount of IR light reflected is proportional to the number and size of the droplets on the windshield.
The 2-cm sensing unit placement from the windshield provides a viewing area greater than 20 cm2. This large window gives good accuracy in gathering data on moisture accumulation precipitation range. There is also the sensor's ability to perceive windshield shearing resulting from accumulation of road dirt and salt. This condition can be filtered out by applying the sensor's algorithms. Under severe conditions such as sudden splashes, wiper activation will occur in less than 1 second. The driver can select one of five sensitivity settings (insensitive to very sensitive), tailoring the wiper activation rate.
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