What's With the Hocky Puck?

[JRyan]

A technical explanation from my understanding of the technology.

The rain sensor uses an infrared diode and a sensor to detect reflection from water droplets on the windshield, thus the amount of water on the windshield. Once a threshold is reached, the wiper is activated for a single wipe.

For the technology to work, the sensor must reside below a wiped area of the windshield. For most cars with tandem wipe pattern for both wipers, it is incorporated nicely into the rear view mirror mount on the windshield in a tidy package. As the passenger wiper will always clean the sensor area.

However, in the smart, it has a very large windshield (for its size), served by an opposed wipe pattern, the mirror mount area, being how high up it is, is never wiped. Thus, the sensor must move somewhere where it is wiped, thus the ugly extension you see here.

There are other options, such as the top left/right edge of the window, it can be shorter, but will always remain visible to the driver. So at least the current setup is partially covered by the mirror on the inside. The same argument would be true to move the sensor to the bottom of the windshield.

So smart did the best they can, pick the best possible spot given the wiper setup.

Not what you want to hear, but this is what we are dealing with.

[saronian]

Thanks JRyan! I do actually appreciate knowing there was some thought and logic behind the choice. I can see now that because Mercedes-Benz uses the beautifully engineered articulated wiper(s) their rain sensor is covered by the larger wiper pattern versus the smart's standard double-opposed wipers.

So it does make sense!

[SnakeFarm]

Originally Posted by saronian

Thanks JRyan! I do actually appreciate knowing there was some thought and logic behind the choice.

Agreed Saronian. I like to think that this is a well designed piece of transportation equipment even if it is not well marketed.

[Karl Roth]

Originally Posted by saronian

Thanks JRyan! I do actually appreciate knowing there was some thought and logic behind the choice. I can see now that because Mercedes-Benz uses the beautifully engineered articulated wiper(s) their rain sensor is covered by the larger wiper pattern versus the smart's standard double-opposed wipers.

So it does make sense!

huh the wipers remain the same
karl

[AliSmart]

That's where I put my EZPass. Between the Rain sensor, EZpass and GPS... and the tach/clock it will be awlfully cluttered

hope this is not a dumb question but can you turn it off so when you go through a car wash it does not turn on?

[jediknight36]

Originally Posted by AliSmart

That's where I put my EZPass. Between the Rain sensor, EZpass and GPS... and the tach/clock it will be awlfully cluttered

hope this is not a dumb question but can you turn it off so when you go through a car wash it does not turn on?

Yes, i think someone said it was a twist on the stalk. Aperently you can twist up one click to turn it on and then up from there you can manually turn the wipers. Did any of that make any sense. I hope so.

[JRyan]

Yes, there are four positions you can position the wiper lever:

From lowest to highest:
* Intermittent/rain sensor
* Off
* Low
* High

Flip it to Off when you go through the car wash.

BTW, the rain sensor is preset at the factory and is not variable (in some cars, you can control how much water you will allow on the windshield before the rain sensor activates a wipe).