#258987 - 25/06/2005 07:49
Windscreen Wipers
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pooh-bah
Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
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I've just been round the Scottish Highlands in my new Renault Megane and rain has been a preoccupation, whilst the rest of Britain has been sunbathing.
It has automatic windscreen wipers, which are 100% effective: They sense heavy and light rain and move faultlessly from adjusting the intermittent wipe speed, right up to fast wipe: How do they sense? What's the technology involved? - I'm fascinated.
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Politics and Ideology: Not my bag
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#258988 - 25/06/2005 08:57
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: boxer]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 02/06/2000
Posts: 1996
Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden
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IIRC it works by refraction, sending out a beam that, to an extent, bounces on the (outer) glass/air boundary back to a sensor. When there is water on the glass, the beam doesn't bounce, it just bends a bit, travels through the water and out through the water/air boundary (or at least somewhere else than the sensor...It bends and/or bounces due to the different refractive indices of the glass, air and water.
Edit: Supportive pdf, doesn't go any deeper though.
Edited by mtempsch (25/06/2005 09:30)
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/Michael
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#258989 - 25/06/2005 15:22
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: boxer]
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addict
Registered: 24/07/2002
Posts: 618
Loc: South London
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Quote:
It has automatic windscreen wipers, which are 100% effective
Glad yours are better than mine, the ones on my clio are useless. They go slow/turn off when it's raining hard and go mental when it's light drizzle. No amount of playing with the sensitivity switch makes any difference either!
Grr..
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#258990 - 25/06/2005 16:00
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: sn00p]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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Mine were crap too, I always had to keep flicking them off then on again. The smart has a much better programmed precipitation avoidance system, it's called intermittent, much better.
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Cheers,
Andy M
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#258991 - 25/06/2005 16:46
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: sn00p]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
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Quote:
the sensitivity switch
Have I got one of those? where is it? Honestly mine work immaculately.
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Politics and Ideology: Not my bag
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#258992 - 25/06/2005 16:52
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: boxer]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 02/06/2000
Posts: 1996
Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Quote:
Quote:
the sensitivity switch
Have I got one of those? where is it? Honestly mine work immaculately.
To the best of my knowledge, the one in my Pug doesn't have a [driver operateable] sensitivity adjustment. Might of course be different between brands/mdels.
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/Michael
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#258993 - 25/06/2005 16:57
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: boxer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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Mine was on the wiper stalk, on other models it altered the duty cycle of the intermittent mode, about halfway down the stalk.
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Cheers,
Andy M
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#258994 - 25/06/2005 17:24
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: andym]
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addict
Registered: 24/07/2002
Posts: 618
Loc: South London
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Quote:
Mine were crap too, I always had to keep flicking them off then on again. The smart has a much better programmed precipitation avoidance system, it's called intermittent, much better.
When I asked how you disable it (Make the auto-wipe setting into intermittant mode) I was told by both my dealer and a head honcho at renault that the only way of getting intermittant mode was to replace the whole stalk!
I was amazed, I really couldn't believe that they'd not put it into the ECU, morons! Everytime I go into the dealer I ask about it out of principle, I actually think the auto mode is dangerous.
What's most annoying is that model below mine in the range has got intermittant mode.
Oh for the luxury of intermittant wipe..
As Andy said, on the clio the sensitivity setting is on the wiper stalk, it's a little "swivelly" thing!
(bah humbug)
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#258995 - 25/06/2005 19:02
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: sn00p]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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Quote:
I was amazed, I really couldn't believe that they'd not put it into the ECU, morons!
That's the exact opposite of the Smart, everythings on a CAN bus and as a result a lot of the options you would imagine require hardware changes actually just require a poke of the ECU, both the full auto gearbox upgrade and cruise are a case of adding a button or two to the loom and enabling it in the ECU. I'm sure if you wanted to swap the action of the turn indicators you could do it in software.
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Cheers,
Andy M
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#258996 - 26/06/2005 11:29
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: andym]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
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Quote:
I've just been round the Scottish Highlands in my new Renault Megane
I set out to do it in the motorhome, towing the economy car which the boxer family don't allow me to mention by name, preferring to describe it as: "The Sandwich Van".
We had a blowout on the M6 at speed, the most scary thing in 40 years of motoring.
The tyre tread destroyed the protective guard and flailed away into the interior, destroying the gas, water and electricity pipes and destroying the central heating boiler, so by the time the insurers deliberate, we could well miss the whole summer.
However, we had a lovely time in Edinburgh and up in the Highlands, but the expense was, well, expensive.....and the boxers had a week in kennels, which we like to keep to a minimum.
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Politics and Ideology: Not my bag
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#259001 - 27/06/2005 04:14
Re: Windscreen Wipers
[Re: mtempsch]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
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Yes, and it struck me after bonzi's post that gas means something different in the US: The stuff that drives the engine, which might well have caused a fire, is unaffected, the stuff that we use for heat and cooking is completely severed - in Europe, it's illegal to travel with it connected anyway, the gas cylinders and the diesel tank are both at the front of the vehicle.
....and the electricity pipe was an oversight on my part!
Edited by boxer (27/06/2005 07:11)
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You are lucky nothing caught fire!
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