Hello everyone! This is my first post here but Ive been lurking around for awhile. I have a little project Im working on for my car and I need some help with a circuit design.
Basically my goal is to have a rain sensor automatically raise my windows on my car when it detects rain. After some research I opted to buy this unit called the Raintracker RT-50A designed as an aftermarket add on for automatic windshield wiper control. The sensor mounts inside the car on the windshield and actually detects light disturbances that are caused when its raining.
Anyways enough about the unit itself. Seemingly the sensor was going to be the hardest part but now I still need to tie it into my car to raise my windows which. Fortunately my car (2006 Acura TL) has the comfort feature built in which will close all my windows when one particular wire in my door is pulsed twice & held for 7-10 seconds (Time to close the windows).
Thus far Im fairly confident I know exactly what I need to do but need help getting there.
Well thats it! Simple right? Im sure it would be fairly easy with a microcontroller but unfortunately Im not quite there yet. So far I have really only built circuits using relays, V. regs, diodes, transistors N/P Channel, caps, resistors & a few 555 timer projects.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know it looks like a lot but FIRST I need to focus on taking a 12v signal (duration unknown should be considered pulse I suppose) and converting it into a PULSE-PULSE/HOLD.
Thanks everyone!
Basically my goal is to have a rain sensor automatically raise my windows on my car when it detects rain. After some research I opted to buy this unit called the Raintracker RT-50A designed as an aftermarket add on for automatic windshield wiper control. The sensor mounts inside the car on the windshield and actually detects light disturbances that are caused when its raining.
Anyways enough about the unit itself. Seemingly the sensor was going to be the hardest part but now I still need to tie it into my car to raise my windows which. Fortunately my car (2006 Acura TL) has the comfort feature built in which will close all my windows when one particular wire in my door is pulsed twice & held for 7-10 seconds (Time to close the windows).
Thus far Im fairly confident I know exactly what I need to do but need help getting there.
- I need to tie the raintracker into to a constant 12v source so it will be activated with the car ignition off.
- The raintracker will give me a strong positive trigger to work with when rain is detected (wire used to drive the wiper motor). Which I need to somehow convert to a pulse-pulse & hold signal.
- After this sequence is complete and my windows close I would like the raintracker to disconnect from 12v constant so it doesnt drain the battery and continue trying to close my windows during a storm.
- When I arrive back at my car I need to unit to turn back on, but I also need to cut the connection to the window control so the unit can function normally to control my windshield wipers.
Well thats it! Simple right? Im sure it would be fairly easy with a microcontroller but unfortunately Im not quite there yet. So far I have really only built circuits using relays, V. regs, diodes, transistors N/P Channel, caps, resistors & a few 555 timer projects.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know it looks like a lot but FIRST I need to focus on taking a 12v signal (duration unknown should be considered pulse I suppose) and converting it into a PULSE-PULSE/HOLD.
Thanks everyone!
