How to add a rain sensor to a Sunsetter awning?

[ford33]

I just purchased a Sunsetter awning for my home. It is a very large awning measuring 12-foot long x 17 foot-wide motorized XL model. This model has two very strong aluminum arms that move via a motor to extend out from the wall of the home to open the awning. It is operated by wireless remote control.

Sunsetter offers a wind sensor that automatically retracts the awning if the extension arms start to bounce around.

Having a wind sensor to close the awning got me thinking that a rain sensor would also be useful. These large awnings can collapse if rain collects on the fabric awning cover.

How can I add a rain sensor to this awning control system? I thought a sensor mounted in the nearby roof gutter and somehow connected by wire or wireless to the controller would be nice. I just don't know how to connect a sensor to the awning control system.

Any idea's?

 

[KDXSR5]

Do you have a wiring diagram? Does the controller have any open digital or universal inputs? Does the controller have to be programmed on site to function correctly? If so, is it configurable by the end user? Is there a safety circuit external to the controller that you could inturrupt with a normally closed set of contacts? How does the wind sensor wire in to the controller?

 

[matt_i]

As said you have to understand the circuitry before you can adapt something new to it.

Theoretically if you put a contact in parallel with the "close pushbutton" it would work.

However, I urge extreme caution when causing motion to happen automatically with no warning and no sensing of persons in the area. Someone doing something innocent like cleaning the underside could get crushed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Fabricator]

We have a 16' wide installed at our cabin located on the west end of the Olympic Rain Forest where we get a lot of rain. If rain is forecast, we only extend it about halfway out. When I installed it, I did not have to change the 'pitch angle' of the arms, and the awning will not collect water in it, even during the heaviest downpours.

After extending it, we always retract it a bit to pull any slack out of the fabric though.

 

[George in Rancho Cordova]

Any difficulties if the shade is stored while wet?

 

[Fabricator]

Any difficulties if the shade is stored while wet?

If it gets retracted in the rain, we always open it back up when we can in dry weather to let things dry out, or you are asking for mildew issues. Going on 5 (?) years of use now, so far, so good.

That, and when retracting it in the wet, it drips off the roller all over what might be underneath it...

 

[Vvmvbb]

Rain shouldn't collect on the awning it should run right off, no?
We like to put our awning out in the rain so we can hang out on the deck.
Stored wet is normal use- just dry it out within a few days if you remember. ~15 years in and cloth still looks clean. Ours is a different brand, though.