cars with incandescent lighting in interior

[jsp56]

I did think about putting grey film over lights and things, but there are a few cars that are still available that would do (corsa and Toyota Avensis) so they are the better option.

I stick film over things like fridge lights, and that works a treat. :-) Thanks for the idea. :-)

[David87]

What you need is Saab and its Night Panel dials, but it may be older than three years!

[jsp56]

Ooo! That Saab feature does sound good.

I was reading the Ford documentation justifying the extremely bright lighting that they include now and apparently its meant to keep drivers awake. (!?) Bizarre.

[R33DNJ]

My DS3 has LED lighting on the dash and can be dimmed or turned off... it also dims the climate panel, radio panel and ambient lighting - there is a night panel function that only leaves the speedo on, until fuel get low of you use cruise and then it illuminates the relevant area on the dash - at night anyway, it will not dim with the lights off...

[V8forweekends]

I don't suffer from being able to "see" the flicker from pulse width modulation that the OP describes, but I do like the panel dim - too bright and it's a distraction from seeing outside at night.

[Raynkar]

The part that stands out for me is the fact that LEDs can be dimmed, and I own several torches that do just that. Some have finite levels while others have infinite dimming.
The issue you have is that manufacturers aren't putting the electronics in cars that would suit you. A car with LEDs for illumination could have a rotary dimming wheel just like your mk3 Mondy does.

[V8forweekends]

Raynkar said:

The part that stands out for me is the fact that LEDs can be dimmed, .

Do they use PWM to dim though? That's the issue for OP.

[jsp56]

Thanks for the mention of the DS3. I hadn't heard about that one.

I gather that one of the issues with LEDs is that blue LEDs emit 20 times as much light as other colours. tvs and computer screens ( and mobile phones and tablets) are backlit with the blue LEDs which is why they are so difficult for so many people. I always used to get on just fine with the nice muted green or white LEDs on mobile phone keypads. The other comment is probably quite right though, I think car manufacturers are just not putting in the right electronics to dim the lights sufficiently inside the cars. Apparently many years ago one make of car (I can't remember which) came with a "P" button that just turned off all internal lighting. I think that sounds great, but it's not available now. I've always been a Ford person and for some reason the Fords are super-bright inside.

[Krikkit]

You're right about blue LEDs - their power output is non-linear and related to their frequency (blue has a higher frequency than red). Ideally they should be given increased filtering over red etc, and PWM can be used to give a dimmed effect.

Out of interest can you really see the refresh with PWM LEDs? I can when done in a very basic method, but most manufacturers are using very high refresh rates these days (>60Hz) so they shouldn't be visible.

[jsp56]

I'm not sure if the flickering is the problem for me. I gather that that is the problem for others. I think it is just the brightness that bothers me, but tbh, it's quite hard to tell.

Obviously if there is a car with LED lighting inside that can just be turned right off then that would be a pretty good option, though a lot of them have screens now, so would lose significant functionality by turning right off.

[jsp56]

Hi Krikkit,

I can't see the refresh rate at all actually. We just read about the when I last tried to buy a new laptop and found that it was very spiky on the eyes. We tried all sorts of things, including I think, software that claimed to turn down the brightness by different methods, but none of it worked.

The whites on these modern laptops are just super-spiky-bright on the eyes for me. It's almost like staring at the sun. My old CCLF laptop and CRT tv have an almost sepia look to them by comparison, which is much more like reading a piece of paper. I see that manufacturers are bringing out computer screens that claim to have this sepia look but I haven't seen them in person yet.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.e...

Thanks for all the ideas. :-)

[Swanny87]

Are there not glasses you can buy that protect your eyes when on a computer all day? Maybe those would work? Or a decent pair of driving sunglasses?

[herewego]

I'm sure you can turn down the screen brightness on every laptop.

Edited by herewego on Tuesday 26th May 17:21

[jsp56]

Hi, Yes I tried sunglasses and gunnar glasses but they didn't help. The brightness controls on LED backlit laptops don't seem to help either. If I look online there are oodles of other people with the same problem. I figure the manufacturers are working on it though. I wrote to HP and they said it was a known problems and they were trying to sort it out.

[rscott]

The current MX-5 still has 'old school' incandescent lighting..

[jsp56]

LOL! The MX-5 looks excellent. I could totally live with having to buy one of those 'for my health'. :-)