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Development of a Rain Water

Sensing Window
July 2016 · Journal of the Association of Engineers India
86(3&4):73-77
DOI:10.22485/jaei/2016/v86/i3-4/130871

Authors:

Spandan Guha
KIIT University

Dwaipayan Talapatra

Dhruba Jyoti Das

References (1) Figures (1)

Abstract and Figures

The present development of rain water sensing

window is very helpful to protect the interior of
houses as it works automatically by sensing the
water. It is particularly very helpful device to use in
rainy season. The concept of sensing rain water to
close the window is not new. It has been developed
to use in the automobile sector. But this invention
can be use successfully for domestic purpose. This
system can evaluate whether the water particles are
contracting with the window or not and sensing this
it will close automatically to protect the interior of the
house. Key Words: Mechatronics, Water sensing,
Window, Rain water.

Figures - uploaded by Spandan Guha

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Journal of the Association of Engineers, India

Vol. 86, No. 3 & 4, 2016 [ISSN 0368-1106]

DEVELOPMENT OF A RAIN WATER SENSING WINDOW

Spandan Guha1a, Dwaipayan Talapatra2b and Dhruba Jyoti Das2c

1Assistant Professor, 2Undergraduate student

Mechanical Engineering Department, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology,

Sikkim-737136, India
Emails: aspandan.guha@yahoo.com, btalapatra.dwaipayan@gmail.com,
cdhrubadeejay@gmail.com

Manuscript received on: July 27 2016, accepted after revision on: November 01, 2016

Abstract
The present development of rain water sensing window is very helpful to protect the interior
of houses as it works automatically by sensing the water. It is particularly very helpful
device to use in rainy season. The concept of sensing rain water to close the window is not
new. It has been developed to use in the automobile sector. But this invention can be use
successfully for domestic purpose. This system can evaluate whether the water particles are
contracting with the window or not and sensing this it will close automatically to protect
the interior of the house.
Key Words : Mechatronics, Water sensing, Window, Rain water.

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, so many advanced equipments are used to make life easier and comfortable. Those
equipments are related with different engineering field (e.g. electrical, mechanical etc.) In order
to protect the household in rainy season, this device has been developed. The field of this work
is mechatronics, which is a combination of mechanical and electronics has had great advancement
in the past few years. Mechatronics is implementing in this development to construct an
automatic controlled commercial window. Hashim et al. [1] tried to develop a new wiper system
to wipe rain water from vehicle’s windscreen. In older system, wiper was used to control
manually and the process of pulling up the wiper was quite difficult. So, objective of their work
was to modify the system by providing automatic wiping system. They developed an automatic
control system by using a Peripheral interface controller and water sensor. Their system could
manage to achieve the aim as it could remove rain water automatically from outside the car. The
rain sensing automatic power window has a rain sensor, a motor operating circuit, a pair of motors
and a driver mechanism for sliding type windows. Powered by 12V DC power from a
transformer, motors have enough torque to move the windows back and forth as required. When
rain falls on the sensor, it sends signals to the circuit. The microcontroller is programmed with
Matlab, which acts as a relay for the circuit that sends signal to the motor driver which gives
power to the motors. The windows are sliding windows with smooth bearings to reduce drag and
73

Guha, Talapatra and Das

friction for proper sliding movement.

The aim of this project was to develop a rain sensing automatic window mechanism for house
hold. This project has been done derived for introducing automatic rain sensing windows of luxury
cars and has been modified for application in commercial house window. The same principle
works for both.

2. METHOD OF DEVELOPMENT
The rain sensor is a PCB board having parallel metal strips. Two terminals are connected to the
board, both on separate strips. When water falls on this board the circuit gets completed and it
starts conducting electricity as water acts like a conductor. The rain sensor is a trigger for the
circuit board. When signals are sent to the microcontroller circuit, it sends command to the motor
driver. The microcontroller is connected with a crystal oscillator. The crystal oscillator contains a
piezo electric material such as quartz. The piezo electric crystal vibrates with a frequency of 12
MHz. This vibration is converted into precise electrical signals. These signals reset the internal
clock of the microcontroller.
The motor driver is a microcontroller which can rotate the motor shaft as per requirement
depending on the signals from the microcontroller. The window frame holds a window pane with
ball bearings for smooth movement. Two motors are positioned at the ends of the frame, and
connected to them is a chain or a rope and pulley assembly. The motors are so connected that
they rotate in the some direction i.e. anti-clockwise or clockwise. This, in turn, gives motion to the
chain or rope and pulley assembly. The window pane is connected to the rope or chain such that
motion gained from the rotation of the motor shaft also gives motion to the window pane. Also
to toggle the circuit off, there is a limit switch at the end of the window path, so that when the
window closes, it hits the toggle which breaks the circuit, and thus stops the motors. The most
commonly used rain water sensing window in automotive industry is based on internal reflection.
From the interior an infrared light is beamed with 45° into the windshield. A rain sensor was
constructed by using a PCB (printed circuit board) strip and wires. The PCB strip has parallel
conducting strips connected with two wires.
When rain drops fall on the PCB strip it conducts current through it which completes the circuit.
In this case, the PCB is connected with an Arduino programmed microcontroller. Microcontroller
ATMEL AT89552 used for this project. A voltage regulator controls the range of voltage
fluctuation through the circuit. An L293D dual H bridge motor driver is used to drive the motors
in either direction. A 12 MHz crystal oscillator is used to reset the internal clock of the micro-
controller. Diodes are used for unidirectional flow of current, resistors are used for resistance in
circuit for different components and transistors are used as switching device. The circuit is
prepared on a breadboard and switches are provided for manual opening and closing of the
window as per requirement. A 10 rpm DC motor is used for the window pane movement. A limiter
is used at the end of the window to break the circuit when the window reaches the extreme point.
A sensor detects rain droplets and sends signals to the microcontroller. The microcontroller is pre-
programmed with Arduino. Signals are sent to the motor driver which acts as a relay to electric
74

Development of a rain water sensing window

motors. Motors operate with rope and pulley mechanism. The window is a sliding mechanism
window. The windows are clamped to the rope at certain points. When the motors rotate, the rope
and pulley mechanism gets into action. This gives closing or opening motion to the window pane.
220V AC power is derived from the household circuit; a transformer converts power to 12V DC
appropriate for the circuit.

Table 1 Component used

Name Characteristics
Microcontroller AT89S52, 8 bit CMOS, 8 KB flash memory
H-Bridge motor driver L293D
Voltage regulator L7805CV
Metal brush DC motor 10 rpm, SRF500TB
Crystal oscillator 12 MHz

The microcontroller is programmed with matlab and the following is the programmed.

RAIN SENSOR

MOTOR MOTOR
TRANSISTOR

WINDOW

MOTOR DRIVER

LIMIT SWITCH

Figure 1 Block diagram of the system

75

Guha, Talapatra and Das

Figure 2 Circuit diagram of microcontroller

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After final construction and a few tests, the window seems to work fine. Still some issues are
there related to the sensitivity of the sensor. The 10 rpm motors give steady motion to the window
pane and the circuit breakers work fine. The circuit tends to heat up and a proper heat sink might
be required. The PCB rain sensor can be changed to an internal refracting type rain sensor used
in cars. The sensitivity of such sensors is higher than that of a PCB sensor.

4. CONCLUSION
The work is successful and application of such a simple method in a house window seems to be
reasonable as unattended open windows can be closed when it rains to protect the indoor from
rain. The circuit can further be modified to add a wind speed sensor so as to close the windows
when winds of a certain limit of speed blows, thus it will prevent the indoors from unwanted
impurities like dust. The circuit and the window structure and mechanism can further be modified
for better efficiency and with the consumption of less energy. Another modification is that a
battery can be added as a backup power source under no current conditions.

REFERENCE
[1] Hashim, N.M.Z, Husin, S.H., Ja’afar, A.S, Hamid, N.A.A, Smart Wiper Control System,
International Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering & Management, vol. 2, pp.
409-415, 2013.
76

Development of a rain water sensing window

Acknowledgement: Facilities extended by the authorities of Sikkim Manipal Institute of

Technology, Sikkim-737136, India are thankfully acknowledged by the authors. They also wish to
sincerely thank Prof. Santanu Das, Head of Mechanical Engineering Department, Kalyani
Government Engineering College, Kalyani- 741235, India for his encouragement to undertake and
to publish this work.
Appendix- A

ORG 0000H
SETB P2.3
MOV P1,#0FFH ;INPUT for
SETB SIREN
op\cl\op_stop sw & cl_stop sw
SJMP CL_WNDO
MOV P2,#00H ;OUTPUT
;--------------------------------------------------
for WINDOW motors
OP_WNDO: JNB P1.0,CL_WNDO
MOV P0,#00H
JNB P1.3,OP_STOP
MOV P3,#00H
SETB P2.0;
SIREN EQU P0.0
CLR P2.1;MOTOR1 ON
SJMP MAIN
SETB P2.2;
MAIN: JNB P1.3,OP_S
CLR P2.3;MOTOR2 ON
SETB P2.0;
SETB SIREN
CLR P2.1;MOTOR1 ON
SJMP OP_WNDO
SETB P2.2;
;-------------------------------------------------
CLR P2.3;MOTOR2 ON
CL_STOP: CLR P2.0
SETB SIREN
CLR P2.1
SJMP MAIN
CLR P2.2
;----------------------------------------------
CLR P2.3
RAIN: JNB P1.0, CL_WNDO ;Close Sensor
CLR SIREN
JNB P1.1, OP_WNDO ;Open Sensor
SJMP RAIN
CLR P2.0
;-------------------------------------------------
CLR P2.1
OP_STOP: CLR P2.0
CLR P2.2
CLR P2.1
CLR P2.3
CLR P2.2
CLR SIREN
CLR P2.3
SJMP RAIN
CLR SIREN
;-------------------------------------------------
SJMP RAIN
CL_WNDO: JNB P1.1,OP_WNDO
END
JNB P1.2,CL_STOP
CLR P2.0 ; MOTOR1 ON
SETB P2.1
CLR P2.2 ; MOTOR2 ON

77

Citations (0) References (1)

Smart Wiper Control System

Jan 2013 · 409-415
N M.Z Hashim · S H Husin · A S Hamid
Hashim, N.M.Z, Husin, S.H., Ja'afar, A.S, Hamid,
N.A.A, Smart Wiper Control System, International
Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering
& Management, vol. 2, pp. 409-415, 2013.

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