Garage parking assistant

Sensors Distance
1

Hi, newbie here. Our garage is laid out in a way that prevents me from using the various parking assist devices out there, because there is no front wall to attach them to, and the ceiling is too high for a suspended ball or one of those laser doodads. So, I’d like to mount something on the side wall of the garage (which is about 3-4 feet from the car when it’s parked) that will detect when the car bumper reaches a certain spot. I can’t use a “break a beam” solution, either, since there is no place to mount anything on the other side of the car. Hence, ultrasonic sensor? I have read a ton of stuff about the unreliability of these sensors, so I’m looking for some tips to get me started. I’ve downloaded a bunch of stuff on Arduino, and being a retired electronics engineer and computer scientist, I’m not afraid of the learning curve. I’m hoping for some guidance here on product selection. Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Allan

“Stupidity is forever, ignorance can be fixed”

2

Cheap hobbyist ultrasonic sensors may be unreliable; expensive industrial ones are not.

Pressure mat that the tires roll over?

[Inductive loop glued to the floor? Cheap and you should be able to DIY it all the way.](Building An Inductive Loop Vehicle Detector | Hackaday)

3

Just wondering if you’ve thought about a “low tech” solution like markings on the drivers side wall or on the floor for visual lineup. Less likely to fail as well :slight_smile:

4

lyndon - snow/salt/mush kind of preclude mats on the floor - inductive loop may be worth investigating… although that project looks expensive…

amongstmyselves - thought of that but there’s no wall on the driver side. I use the backup camera on my car to see that the rear end is far enough in to allow the door to close, but my wife needs a more “in your face” indication. She loved the tennis ball in the old house, but this won’t work in the new one.