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[on:]

A few weeks ago I made a photo from my car (in very slow traffic) because there was a beautiful double rainbow. The photo failed because the interval timing of the screenwiper was "perfectly" timed so the wiper was diagonally over the photo. Thanks to digital age I just made another one that looked better (wiper off).

Today I came accross a similar question to synchronize with the wiper-position (can't tell details here, but the question is similar)

So the question is simple: - how to synchronize the wiper and the camera?

To make it a bit difficult, my car wiper increases speed when it rains harder ... adaptive system ...

My first idea would be to measure the last interval and assume the next one is equally in


Q: is the wiper position available in the OBD interface?

all ideas are welcome!

[Reply #1 on:]

I seem to remember there was a similar problem in WW1 with fighter aircraft shooting their own propellers off. Allegedly, the Germans solve the problem by synchronizing the machine guns with the engine rotation; the English solved it by putting metal reinforcement over the but of the propeller that was getting shot up.

Does that help? Probably not. I suppose you could find out when the wiper passed the park position by reading the state of the park switch. Or by having a light sensor looking through the windscreen that detected when the blade passed over it.

[Reply #2 on:]

Wiper is NOT in the OBD. The "open" part of the protocol only supports emmision-related info.

If you have a can-bus car, you maybe can catch "wiper on", if that is controlled by can-bus - but no position

[Reply #3 on:]

If you can get access to the wiper motor, a simple voltage or current sensor should do the trick.

A mirror on the wiper with an emitter-dector through the windshield may work.

[Reply #4 on:]

I seem to remember there was a similar problem in WW1 with fighter aircraft shooting their own propellers off. Allegedly, the Germans solve the problem by synchronizing the machine guns with the engine rotation; the English solved it by putting metal reinforcement over the but of the propeller that was getting shot up.

Does that help? Probably not. I suppose you could find out when the wiper passed the park position by reading the state of the park switch. Or by having a light sensor looking through the windscreen that detected when the blade passed over it.

The Germans extended a shaft from the engine, that had cams on it that lined up with the propeller blades. The cam lifted a rod that disengaged the machine gun trigger every time the propeller blade was in the way. It worked pretty well, until the cam wore down, or the rod bent, and the pilot shot their propeller out.

Couldn't this be solved with a limit switch placed on the bottom of the windshield, so you would be able to tell when the wiper was out of the way?

Edit: or a light sensor like you mentioned, would be easier.