Heki Rain Sensor

[Adrianlle]

Greetings from a very hot UK. Can someone give me an easy electrical solution for disabling the Heki rain sensor with an on/offswitch please. I have read the various forum contributions but am confused as to the easiest way forward. I have also tried covering the sensor with tape but without much success. It would be good to sleep in this hot weather without the Heki closing automatically during the night! Thank you. Adrian

[E2nO]

Hi Adrian,

tape had been working absolutely fine for me. I had been using "Tesa-Transparent" with 19mm width.
Alternatively, you can just disconnect the sensor from the control panel. As far as I can recall, that had been an RJ11 plug that can easily be removed.
(The control panel is located underneath the white panel right of the led (looking in driving direction). That panel can easily be removed by applying slight presure on each (long) side, where the holds are located. Just start on one side and then move to the other).

Obviously you can plug-in some crimped Rj11 cable using a RJ11coupler and then have that cable run to a location that you want to fit a switch at. The two sensor wires are the middle ones.

In this thread I have described my solution, which is using a 3 state switch to have the sensor "on" (sensor wire(s) put through; sensor active); off (one sensor wire broken, sensor disabled); close (both sensor wires cut short, which is interpreted by the control as "rain" and result in closing the Heki. This now is our standard way to close the Heki, as you don't have to press the close button on the remote control all time any longer. Just the switch to "close" - that's it.)

I had the switch (which is the same as above the sliding door) placed where the (useless extra) switch for the bed lights (that you can just control at the lights themselves - that second switch did not make any sense at all) had been located. Because that existing switch is just a 2-way switch, I bought the 3-way one additionally. However if you are only interested in "on" and "off" you could just use that existing switch, as cables are just fitted with cable-shoes.

Cheers, Enno.

[Adrianlle]

Ennis that’s really helpful and a very speedy response. I will try some Tesa tape as a temporary measure and then go with a 3 way switch- it sounds like a much easier way if closing the Heki than fiddling around with the remote- which is a constant frustration as it often has to be dismantled and then reassembled to work. As for the switch for the upstairs lights, I ageee that is useless. I have already rewires that as a remote on/off switch for a Victron inverter which is situated in the bottom cupboard under the job. There is a lot of dead space in that cupboard so as well as the inverter I also have a water filter plumbed in so that we always have bacteria free cold water. So much fun modifying the Cook! Adrian

[Adrianlle]

Enno, please forgive all the predictive text mistakes in my last post including the spelling of you name! Adrian

[Adrianlle]

Enno, I have now looked at your original posts. I am no electrical expert but can do most basic things. But I can’t figure out the wiring diagram for your 3 way switch or indeed whether it is a spdt switch that I need or something else. So if you could explain then that would be really helpful. Also I am not sure where exactly you drilled your 8mm hole to enable the extended cables to be pulled through? Thank you. Adrian.

[E2nO]

For the switch:

Assuming you have wires a1 and b1 coming from the control board and a2 and b2 continuing to the sensor. (This would be the middle pair of wires from an uncut cable that had been fitted with RJ11 connectors. Because you will not have to break mass or +12V the outer wires of that cable should (if possible) not been cut in the very first place. Fortunally, it is very easy to just cut the outer coat of an standard RJ11 cable an extract those two wires that nee to be cut).

The tree way switch usually has a middle pin "M" (input) and a left "L" and a right "R" output pin that the middle pin is connected to when the switch is in left / right position. If the switch is in middle position, the middle pin will not be connected to anything (-> "off" position).

So the correct cabling for the switch would then be:
Connect the middle pin "M" with the wire "a1"
Connect the left pin "L" with the wire "a2"
Connect the right pin "R" with wire "b1" but also have this wire continued to connect with b2

(This also means: in case you just use a two way switch for "on" and "off" not having close, you would only cut the "a" cable and you would leave the "b" cable completely intact)

With this "Left switch position" connects a1 via "M" to "L" with a2 to the sensor and the return direction b2 is shortcut with b1 all time, thus the sensor would be integrated in the circuit and normally working (Left switch position this equals "on")

If you switch to "Right position" a1 will connect through "M" and "R" with "b1" thus "short cutting" the sensor loop. Never mind that b2 will still be connected to the sensor .... that is just an open ended cable with no functionality at this time. (Right switch position this equals "close")

Obviously Middle switch position that neither connects the sensor nor shortcuts the sensor, so that is just "off".

For the cable positioning:

I took off the complete inner frame of the Heki. There is plenty of space to positioning the cable between inner and outer frame, but you will need to have the cable move towards the cupboard at some position. I choose to drill a 8mm hole at the position where the loud speaker was adjacent: I removed the speaker to catch the cable I placed through the hole and used a fiber cable tool to bring the cable further down the side wall to the opening inside of the cupboard. That was not really easy and took a while and multiple tries to manage that. Eventually was lucky to have the fibre cable at the correct position - then I attached the RJ11 cable to the end of the fibre cable on the loud speaker side and pulled the fibre wire through the cupboard hole until the attached Rj11 wire was pulled through.

Kind regards, Enno.

[Adrianlle]

Enno, this is really helpful. In the meantime I have been trying to figure out how to wire it and came up with the scheme you have described. So reassuring. Therefore I have ordered some rj11 stuff from eBay and will give it a go when it arrives. In the meantime I will fiddle with my wire puller! I will post when all is done- hopefully!! Thank you. Adrian

[E2nO]

Just to make sure that you don't miss it out: I did not pull the RJ11 cable end to the cupboard (as both ends are in the Heki Frame, actually next to each other: one end plugs into the control board of the Heki - the other end via an RJ11 coupling connects to the original RJ11 cable to the rain sensor that had been unplugged from the control board.)

So I actually pulled a loop of the cable into the cupboard, and only then I cut the outer coat in and extracted the middle "a" and "b" wires in the middle of the loop. Obviously, I also minimized the excess cable that needed to stay in the cupboard, before I took on the cutter ...

[Adrianlle]

Ah! Thank you Enno. I hadn’t thought of pulling a loop of an rj11 cable into the cupboard as opposed to the cable end. Your solution is much neater as it avoids lots of cutting and splicing of cables. Also, when you used the cable pulling fibre rod, did you start from the speaker end or the cupboard end? Adrian

[Adrianlle]

Thanks to help from Enno (see the thread above) I have now done this modification using a 3 position switch. It was fairly straightforward but time consuming. For Others doing it you need to note that the plug on the wire from the sensor unit is an rj10 not rj11. As I could not find a coupler for joining 2 rj10 plugs , I bought 7.5 metres of rj11 cable prefitted with male rj11 plugs ; a coupler with male rj10 plug one end and female rj11 other end; another coupler female rj10 and female rj11. Thus everything connected together. I used a round 3 position switch under the cupboard above the hob. I chose a round switch because it is easier to fit and because at night in the dark I can easily identify the switch from the other 2 rectangular switches under the cupboard. So thank you Enno. Regards Adrian

[E2nO]

Thank you, Adrian for clarification with the plug. I can now recall that I had the same issue with getting a coupler and thus reverted to an RJ11 one (That would take the RJ10 plug).

Also for reference: I entered the fibre pulling cable through the small hole in the kitchen board and then "caught" it from the loudspeaker side, where I then attached the looped cable.

Cheers, Enno.