Electricity: motive power systems – Automatic and/or with time-delay means – Moisture content or wetness
Patent
1996-06-17
1998-03-10
Sircus, Brian
Electricity: motive power systems
Automatic and/or with time-delay means
Moisture content or wetness
318480, B60S 108
Patent
active
057265470
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a windshield having a wiping area and a sensor-active surface on its wiping area; a wiper disposed adjacent the windshield for sweeping over the wiping area thereof during a wiper operation, the wiper further having a parking position; and a wiper control system operatively coupled to the wiper.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One such device is known from German Patent Disclosure DE-A 41 41 348. The reference discloses the attempt to make the signals, furnished by an optoelectronic sensor, accessible for controlling a windshield washer installation. Since a wiper device is necessary for reliable cleaning of the windshield, the passage of the windshield wiper over the sensor produces signals that adulterate the control signals for the windshield wiper motor. For acting upon the drive motor, only those signals that are generated by the sensor shortly after the last wiping passage over it until a new wiping cycle is initiated are used, that is, the signals generated during the passage of the wiper over the sensor are ignored. Wetting gradually reduces the constantly present signal until a reference value corresponding to the state of the windshield fails to be attained, which causes tripping of the wiper. The reference value is re-furnished continually, so that the signals caused by wetting are filtered out of the high noise level. Individual droplets cannot be detected in terms of size.
A programmable interval switch is also known in the prior art. In such an arrangement the driver actuates the interval switch as a function of his loss of visibility caused by the wetting. The time between two actuations is measured and subsequently used as the time interval.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Based on the prior art, it is the object of the present invention to create a simple, economical arrangement for utilizing the signals furnished by the sensor to control a windshield wiper installation.
The above object is attained by the implementation of a counter arrangement having a counter for detecting the signals caused by a passage of the wiper over this sensor. The counter counts the signals communicated by the sensor during a wiper operation. If a certain threshold value of the counter is exceded, a further wiping operation is tripped. The threshold value is at least greater than the number of signals generated by the sensor while the wiper passes over the sensor, and can be reset to a starting value.
In German Utility Model DE-GM 93 09 837 corresponding to part of the subject matter of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/578,658, an optoelectronic sensor is described in which a plurality of measured sections are acted upon in clocked fashion, and the thus-furnished clocked signals are corrected via a subsequent evaluation device as a function of a time constant. As a result, it is possible to eliminate external factors, such as an extraneous radiation superimposed on the radiation of the arrangement, so that only signals dependent on the wetting are produced. However, since, as a result of the above the noise level no longer plays any role in the input signals, each film and each wetting is necessarily clearly associated with the signals, that is, each film and each wetting necessarily corresponds with the droplet size and quantity. As a result, the signal itself, which is analogous to the wetting, can be used to control the windshield wiper. Instead of a time slot of the kind required in the prior art for fading out the signals caused by the windshield wiper, the entering signals can thus be evaluated over the entire period of time. There is no need to evaluate the incoming input signals in terms of amplitude. Rather it suffices merely to count the number of signals (i.e. of arriving droplets). The passage of the wiper over the sensor, which also generates signals, is taken into account quite simply by providing that signals for controlling the windshield wiper motor do not exist until the number of signals is greater than the signals of the sensor that ca
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