[TigaFF]

I am considering the Vis Pack for my on order MCS. My main concern is the self adjusting windshield wipers. Do they work? Or is it just something else to fail. The self dimming mirror could be useful especially in such a low car.
Any experience? Thank you for the help.
Jeff

[Dennis77]

Hi,

I´m not from the USA.

But perhaps I can help you.


I don´t want to miss the rain sensor and the self dimming mirror. And the heated windscreen is very nice, too.
All works absolutely perfect. The small lines in the heated windscreen are almost invisible.

And you´re right. Especially in such a low car the self dimming mirror is very useful.

The self adjusting wipers work perfect. Just switch it on, and forget about the rest.

Go for it.

[Steevo]

Like Dennis said, the rain sensitive wipers work fine. They seem to be speed sensitive too - if you pull up at the lights they wipe much less often...

And the auto-dim mirror is great - it uses some sort of electo-photographic glass... there are two sensors. One on the front tells the mirror it's dark out, the other sees headlights behind and darkens the glass to varying degrees of blueness.. very cool.

Steve

[jeremyp]

I sometimes get annoyed with my auto wipers because sometimes they seem to take their time to wipe. When it is more 'occasional' rain, I would wipe the screen quicker than the wipers do.

JP

[HScott]

Can you use a radar detector with the heated windshield? On Ford products some years back, you could not.

[grumpy07470]

you do not get heated windshield in the US

[TigaFF]

Thank you all for your help. I think that I will add it to the list.
Jeff

[Martin L]

I've had my new MCS just over two months now and have discovered a "niggle" with the rain sensing wipers
I live in the countryside and I have to drive down unlit roads to get home. Tonight was the first night it was raining not too heavily and it was dark.
The rain sensors just cant handle these situations
I don't think there's enough ambient light for it to sense the correct amount of water on the windshield. When I wanted it to wipe it just wouldn't do it. I had to revert to pushing the stalk down all the time to get it to sweep
As soon as we came to a lit part of the road thought the wipes were fine...

Has anyone else noticed this????

[Shamster]

Quote: Originally Posted by Martin L

I've had my new MCS just over two months now and have discovered a "niggle" with the rain sensing wipers
I live in the countryside and I have to drive down unlit roads to get home. Tonight was the first night it was raining not too heavily and it was dark.
The rain sensors just cant handle these situations
I don't think there's enough ambient light for it to sense the correct amount of water on the windshield. When I wanted it to wipe it just wouldn't do it. I had to revert to pushing the stalk down all the time to get it to sweep
As soon as we came to a lit part of the road thought the wipes were fine...

Has anyone else noticed this????

I think you know my views on it! .

[Martin L]

Quote: Originally Posted by shamster

I think you know my views on it! .

You can get the sensitivity adjusted by your dealer if you're not happy with the sweeping
My problem though is unresolvable I think...

[Theo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Martin L

{snip}
As soon as we came to a lit part of the road thought the wipes were fine...

Has anyone else noticed this????

Interesting. My understanding of the "rain sensing" mechanism is as follows:
------------
A beam of IR light is directed at an angle horizontally through the portion of windscreen glass to which the rain sensor is attached (best seen from outside the car). The beam of IR light is emitted from one side of the sensor and "bounces" between the inside and outside surfaces of the glass on its way to the other side of the sensor where the IR dectector is located. If the IR light level as measured by the detector is comparable to the light level emitted, a "wipe cycle" is NOT performed. If the IR light level detected is less than a certain preset level (this may be how it is dealer-configurable) then the wipe cycle IS performed.

Raindrops and perhaps "deposits" on the outside of the windscreen in the path of the IR beam dissipate the light and cause a reduction in the level of IR light sensed by the detector. This lower light level triggers the activation the wipers.
------------

If I understand the system correctly, I am at a loss to explain why a well lit road would enhance the system's operation over that of an unlit road. Neither environment would produce additional IR light that might "confuse" the detector nor would the non-IR light source affect the dissipation of the IR light.


I do know that (as in my BMW) if you leave the wiper knob at the "auto" setting and turn off the car, you will need to reset the knob to the auto setting upon restart or the system will not work. However, I don't believe the circumstances you described would indicate this to be the issue either.

I am wholey perplexed!

Theo

[stryder]

Quote: Originally Posted by Theo

If I understand the system correctly, I am at a loss to explain why a well lit road would enhance the system's operation over that of an unlit road. Neither environment would produce additional IR light that might "confuse" the detector nor would the non-IR light source affect the dissipation of the IR light.


I do know that (as in my BMW) if you leave the wiper knob at the "auto" setting and turn off the car, you will need to reset the knob to the auto setting upon restart or the system will not work. However, I don't believe the circumstances you described would indicate this to be the issue either.

I am wholey perplexed!

Theo

Guessing here, but you never know.

Why wouldn't a well-lit road produce IR? A light bulb doesn't only produce visible light. Its possible enough IR is produced that it affects the wipe regularity (and could be accounted for in the design of the sensor) Night vision (usually in green if you don't know what I'm talking about) cameras show light from 'normal' sources and they only record IR, its just not very bright.

And just as an FYI the logic behind needing to reset the wipers if you leave them in Auto is because if you get snow or ice on your car, you'd run the risk of damaging many parts of the wipers if then started as soon as the car was running and were still frozen to the windshield.

[Goonery]

Stryder,
the system employed is as per Bmw 3 ,5, 7 etc. etc., so rain sensing wipers work , but take some getting used too, as for the auto dimming mirror, that is very good IMO, should be standard across the range, if they could manage the door mirrors as well, that would be awesome.

[Martin L]

Quote: Originally Posted by stryder

Why wouldn't a well-lit road produce IR? A light bulb doesn't only produce visible light. Its possible enough IR is produced that it affects the wipe regularity (and could be accounted for in the design of the sensor) Night vision (usually in green if you don't know what I'm talking about) cameras show light from 'normal' sources and they only record IR, its just not very bright.

These were exactly my thoughts

[Theo]

Quote: Originally Posted by stryder

Guessing here, but you never know.

Why wouldn't a well-lit road produce IR? A light bulb doesn't only produce visible light. Its possible enough IR is produced that it affects the wipe regularity (and could be accounted for in the design of the sensor) Night vision (usually in green if you don't know what I'm talking about) cameras show light from 'normal' sources and they only record IR, its just not very bright.

{snip}

Some miscellaneous (dated) info...

Night vision (the green or gray images) can use several technologies (if memory serves). One method is "light amplification" which basically brightens existing ambient light levels. Another method uses light amplification for distant objects combined with an IR emitter to "wash" relatively close-range objects (to about 15 - 20 meters). These signals converge in a detector/processor system that "constructs" the scene by merging the image information. Yet another night vision system combines the above systems with thermal imaging (particularly useful for discovery/targeting of personnel and certian machinery). A caution...this information may describe somewhat older technology.

Back to MINIs...

In the case where there may be ambient IR light, I would think that additional IR light would act to defeat the intended operation of the auto wipers by *increasing* the amount of IR received at the detector. This would actually counteract any loss of IR light caused by the raindrops' disipation effect. Basically, this would mean the wipers wouldn't perform as well. This does not seem to be the case as described.

Any BMW/MINI engineers please step-in to keep my head from imploding.

Theo