Thick Film Technology Sensor Applications

RAIN SENSOR

In this document we would describe an easy interface to use the Telecontrolli capacitive rain sensor. Telecontrolli rain sensor is made of thickfilm technology. It is made up of three parts:
Capacitive sensor Heater generator Temperature sensor

On the top side you can find the capacitive sensor. This side part is exposed to the natural agents (rain) while on the bottom side there are the heater generator, the temperature sensor and the connection interface (six pads). Each function of the rain sensor has stand-alone connections compared to the other in the same mode; so the user has more flexibility in the design of hardware interface. The capacitive sensor has a rain sensitive area, which in dry conditions assumes the nominal value. Moreover in presence of the rain, the capacitance goes to high values compared to dry conditions and the ratio changing is over 300%. In the table_1 is explained how the capacitance changes in the ratio of percentage of the sensitive area when covered by rain.

Sensitive area % Dry 100 75 50 0 % water 0 25 50 100

Capacitance pF 100 176 232 359 Table_1

Ratio Capacitance % 0 76 232 359

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Thick Film Technology Sensor Applications

RAIN SENSOR
To read the changing of sensor capacitance, we may adopt two strategies:

Frequency measurements (counter mode) Pulse measurements (timer mode)

The simplest hardware which satisfies both strategies is a low cost microcontroller and few other parts. In the diagrams_1 are showed the two hardware strategies for the capacitive sensor interface.

+5V C2 R8 R9 14 TC rain sensor SENS2 1

CAP_SENS

+5V

U2A 2 uC_counter

TC rain sensor SENS3 1

CAP_SENS

uC_COMP

6 3
NTC

6 3
NTC

4 2
HEATER HEATER

4 2

diagrams_1

On the bottom side of rain sensor you have one temperature sensor like NTC by Epcos p/n B57620C0102K with a nominal resistance value of 1000 Ohm @ 25C. This sensor may be used to monitor the environment temperature and to control the heather generator to avoid frost and dump.

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Thick Film Technology Sensor Applications

RAIN SENSOR
In the table_2 is reported the Epcos R/T characteristic (resistance/temperature).

T ( C ) -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85

Rnom ( Ohm ) 3564 2832 2267 1829 1486 1215 1000 828,2 689,9 577,8 486,6 411,8 350,2 299,2 256,7 221,2 191,4 166,2 144,8

Rmin ( Ohm ) 3068 2457 1983 1611 1318 1086 900,0 740,2 612,8 510,2 427,1 359,4 303,9 258,2 220,4 188,9 162,6 140,5 121,9

Rmax ( Ohm ) 4061 3206 2552 2046 1653 1344 1100 916,1 767,0 645,5 546,1 464,3 396,5 340,2 293,1 253,5 220,1 191,9 167,8

Table_2

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Thick Film Technology Sensor Applications

RAIN SENSOR
In the diagram_2 is showed a simple method for the NTC conditioning.

TC rain sensor SENS4 1

CAP_SENS

+5V

R10 6 3
NTC

uC_A/D

R11 4 2

HEATER

diagram_2 To drive the heather you need only one low cost NPN transistor with Ic 500mA / VCE 25V for 12V standard bus voltage. The nominal resistance is 42 and in this condition the current is I= 0.285A. It produces a power of P=3.43W. In the table_3 is reported the time that occurs to the heather to rise different temperatures of rain sensor. The test has been done on a capacitive sensor with a dry surface. t ( sec ) C Sensor Substrate 27 41 54 62 68.5 73.5 R_NTC ( Ohm ) 930 550 360 280 238 206 t ( sec ) C Sensor Substrate 76.5 78 79 81.5 82.5 83.5 R_NTC ( Ohm ) 188 175 169 163 160 156

0 15 30 45 60 75

90 105 120 135 150 165

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Thick Film Technology Sensor Applications

RAIN SENSOR
table_3 To estimate the time/power (Joule) that needs to evaporate some grams of water it is possible to use the approximative formula:

Time ( sec ) = grams_of_ humidity * 663 Conclusion The use of the Telecontrolli rain sensor is the simplest way to design your own applications. In the following diagram the whole hardware needs for the complete rain sensor management.

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Thick Film Technology Sensor Applications

RAIN SENSOR
+5V C1 R1 R2 TC rain sensor SENS1 1
CAP_SENS

+5V

R3 U1 R4 8 7 6 5 VCC PCINT/RESET/ADC0/PB5 PCINT2/T0/ADC1/SCK/PB2 PCINT3/CLKI/ADC3/PB3 PCINT1/INT0/OC0B/AIN1/MISO/PB1 PCINT4/ADC2/PB4 PCINT0/OC0A/AIN0/MOSI/PB0 GND 1 2 3 4

6 3 +5V
NTC

12V 4 2

CN1 1 3 5 2 4 6

HEATER

5 R5 Q1 R6

+5V

12V CN2 1 2 3 4 5 6

R7

D1

Indice Revisioni :

Disegnato

A. Cennerazzo
RAIN SENSOR INTERFACE Document Number 440016223 Monday , Nov ember 03, 2008 Sheet 1 of 1 Rev Draf t

Title Size A4 Date:

Propriet di telecontrolli s.r.l. Comunicazioni, riproduzioni e utilizzazioni vietate salvo comunicazione scritta preventiva

diagram_3

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