Does anyone live is a hot climate and like to crack the sunroof open during the hot summer days? Yeah, that's fine and great until it rains. Has anyone come up with a solution? Maybe just a sensor idea and I can probably figure out the controller and power supply.

There is one company that I know of that makes a rain sensor like this; it's made by Webasto and looks like this:

That piece is $200; not quite what I had in mind.

I know some cars have built-in rain senors that use the refraction change of glass when raindrops hit the surface... although these are typically used for auto wipers.

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

you can make a set-up where if you turn on your wipers your sunroof closes.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tobe2be &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you can make a set-up where if you turn on your wipers your sunroof closes. </TD></TR></TABLE>
so will the sunroof close and open like it turn on/off the intermittent wipers?

 

no it wont. the wipers send a signal to a timer relay that makes the wipers intermitent. but that would be hella funny.

 

is there an alarm out there that will close all windows and sunroof when armed?

 

Yes. Its out there. My friend has one that does that. All you need is an alarm that has relays set up to open/close what ever you want. When I had my bagged truck back in the day, if I walked more then 40 feet from my truck, the windows would roll up, alarm would set and the truck would dump itself to the ground. All you need is relays.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tobe2be &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">no it wont. the wipers send a signal to a timer relay that makes the wipers intermitent. but that would be hella funny.</TD></TR></TABLE>

usually its not the alarm that controls the opening/closing of windows, its usually an extra window module that you install with the alarm. all the alarm needs to have a (-)neg armed output, which most alarms should have

 

i am assuming he ment something that actually closes the sunroof when it starts raining, requiring no human intervention at all.

I was going to say if you could find some moisture sensor that has a high tolerence, or if you can fork over the $200 for that window mount unit thingy you put a picture of up, and could intergrate either one into the DEI 529T (IIRC), that would do the trick. The 529T is the unit that controls 1 window in either direction. You could actually apply the moister sensor setup to a setup of 530T's to control all your windows so they would all close if they were open.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EGPrelude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

usually its not the alarm that controls the opening/closing of windows, its usually an extra window module that you install with the alarm. all the alarm needs to have a (-)neg armed output, which most alarms should have

</TD></TR></TABLE>
i never mentioned anything on an alarm all i said is that you can set it up so when you turn on the wipers the sunroof can close

 

Relays are beautiful. But in order to make your sunroof close when it rains, you definatly need that sensor!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rjr162 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i am assuming he ment something that actually closes the sunroof when it starts raining, requiring no human intervention at all.

I was going to say if you could find some moisture sensor that has a high tolerence, or if you can fork over the $200 for that window mount unit thingy you put a picture of up, and could intergrate either one into the DEI 529T (IIRC), that would do the trick. The 529T is the unit that controls 1 window in either direction. You could actually apply the moister sensor setup to a setup of 530T's to control all your windows so they would all close if they were open.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, you've got the right idea. I'm not in the car when all of this happens. I'm already prepared to wire up a 529T.

Any leads on a rain sensor?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PupaScoopa &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yeah, you've got the right idea. I'm not in the car when all of this happens. I'm already prepared to wire up a 529T.

Any leads on a rain sensor?</TD></TR></TABLE>
The problem is you already have a solution. Design costs are expensive I doubt you could design one that is as good as the one you already found for under $200 exspecially if you weren't going into production.

 

There are a few ways to accomplish this. What I found is a practially "finished" product. I have a suspicion I can find the same type of device from an OEM for a lot less. Remember, their product is a ready-to-install package. I'm willing to do some hacking.

On that note, does anyone know of anyone who has one of those 130-in-one or 200-in-one electronic project kits? Maybe a cousin or little brother or someone like that...

I had one years ago... Anyways, the manual is filled with various projects (like a rain sensor, that I've seen on various websites). If someone will either point me to where I can find a .pdf version of one of those manuals or scan me a page or two. You'll be the first to know the solution to this rain sensor and I'll help you build the project.

 

Hello PupaScoopa I Googled rain sensor and got 718,000 sites, did you know TRW makes one, and I though they just made bearings for cars 94