Recommendation for windshield rain sensor

[Chancy99]

Hi All -

Can anyone recommend a source for a windshield rain sensor ? Preferably one that doesn't require a 10,000 unit purchase

I'll take pretty much any technology, resistance, refraction, whatever. I just want to retrofit an auto-trigger for the wipers on our cars ... Interfacing to a small microcontroller shouldn't be too much of a worry. One pin for the output relay, one for an enable switch and one or two for the sensor input.

Thanks -

Dean.

 

[SpazyMoto]

This may be a stupid idea but what about that conductive tape that alarm companies put on glass to tell if the glass has been broken, you could put a couple of small pieces together and if water was present it could complete the circuit like a switch.

 

[GregLocock]

One option would be to use a camera poking out of the windscreen, typically behind the rear view mirror. This is used to detect drops on the windscreen. Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[Chancy99]

Yup, that would work. Little expensive, but it would work.

Most of the commercial ones on the market seem to use an IR LED and photo-transistor setup.

http://www.raintracker.com/

http://www.rainsensors.com/performance_issues.htm

Starts at $129, for about $8 in parts and some code

Dean.

 

[SolidStateAutomotive]

You could try the MLX90255. It is a linear array which is suitable for automotive, the drawback is you would have to interpret a bit-stream to get the output information. I don't know if you already thought about this? But it's an appropriate sensor and you can buy them in single pieces I think at Melexis.com

 

[Emetz564]

Check out the QProx sensors from Quantum Research Group.They are very cheap($2) touch sensor IC's, they work very well at sensing rain through glass.

http://www.qprox.com/products/index.php