car interior illumination at night
Discussion
Hi,
I am doing some research to find out about car interior lighting (in the dashboard and stereo area of cars).
Some cars I can find out about by doing a google image search, but a lot are very hard to find. I wondered if it might be possible for forum members to post pics of their own cars instrument panels as they appear when illuminated in the dark? (preferably two photos: one with the dashboard illumination set at full brightness and one at minimum brightness). It would really help my research, and would be an amazing resource if we could get a good collection going with the car specs listed.
To give a couple of examples, this is something called a Crosstrek:
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/crosstrek/crosstrek1...
This is a ford Fiesta of extreme cheerfulness:
http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2007/08/25-fo...
I'll add my car as soon as I can get a camera into it in the dark.
Thanks ever so much for thinking about this!
Best wishes,
JSP
I am doing some research to find out about car interior lighting (in the dashboard and stereo area of cars).
Some cars I can find out about by doing a google image search, but a lot are very hard to find. I wondered if it might be possible for forum members to post pics of their own cars instrument panels as they appear when illuminated in the dark? (preferably two photos: one with the dashboard illumination set at full brightness and one at minimum brightness). It would really help my research, and would be an amazing resource if we could get a good collection going with the car specs listed.
To give a couple of examples, this is something called a Crosstrek:
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/crosstrek/crosstrek1...
This is a ford Fiesta of extreme cheerfulness:
http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2007/08/25-fo...
I'll add my car as soon as I can get a camera into it in the dark.
Thanks ever so much for thinking about this!
Best wishes,
JSP
Yes it's this very dim, or not-lit-at-all look that I'm aiming for. Just at the moment it's very hard to buy a car that does that at all.
The Toyota Avensis does it and the 2011 Ford Focus can be got that way by covering over a couple of small screens with smoked acetate.
The Vauxhall Corsa is fairly muted but is about to be updated to a lot of screens.
My Ford Mondeo 2006 is perfect in this area too. I'm kind of hoping that the current lighting schemes are just a fashion that will come and go within then 5-10 years, and then a more classic look may return.
The Toyota Avensis does it and the 2011 Ford Focus can be got that way by covering over a couple of small screens with smoked acetate.
The Vauxhall Corsa is fairly muted but is about to be updated to a lot of screens.
My Ford Mondeo 2006 is perfect in this area too. I'm kind of hoping that the current lighting schemes are just a fashion that will come and go within then 5-10 years, and then a more classic look may return.
I do also wonder whether it's possible for a competent technical person to just remove the dash cover and interfere with the lights so as to calm them down a bit. I gather that is used to be possible to change the bulbs, but that this is no longer a thing.
The Ford garage told me that for a fee they can sell me a Fiesta with a choice of 6 colours backlighting the keys of the stereo, but the lights still do not seem to be significantly dimmable. I gather that dimming an LED is not currently possible, because the laptop makers are still dimming their screens by just flashing the LEDs of and on more and more slowly to produce less and less light, rather than just turning the power down.
The Ford garage told me that for a fee they can sell me a Fiesta with a choice of 6 colours backlighting the keys of the stereo, but the lights still do not seem to be significantly dimmable. I gather that dimming an LED is not currently possible, because the laptop makers are still dimming their screens by just flashing the LEDs of and on more and more slowly to produce less and less light, rather than just turning the power down.
Triumph Man said:
May I ask what your research is for? Are you building the perfectly illuminated dashboard for your own car or is this a uni project?
Thanks for asking. :-) I'm actually just trying to buy a car, and realising that this is an area that isn't well served at all in the market just now. I thought if I could do the research then it might help others too, and maybe send a signal to the car designers that we'd appreciate more effort on the dimming function. Here are photos of my Mondeo 2006 dashboard and stereo:
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/0tlX1Pci.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/VY5H6VOi" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/VY5H6VOi.jpg)
It turns out that it's quite hard to get a true representation in the dark because the camera displays the bright and dim parts very differently from the way they are perceived by the human eye.
In these pictures you can see all the lighting that is there, which is to say almost none. I find it prefect for the job, both in daylight and in darkness, and while driving and stationary. I was perplexed the other day when a car salesman said that the fiesta had to be lit up like a Christmas tree so that drivers could see the buttons (For SAFETY reasons, he said).
It turns out that it's quite hard to get a true representation in the dark because the camera displays the bright and dim parts very differently from the way they are perceived by the human eye.
In these pictures you can see all the lighting that is there, which is to say almost none. I find it prefect for the job, both in daylight and in darkness, and while driving and stationary. I was perplexed the other day when a car salesman said that the fiesta had to be lit up like a Christmas tree so that drivers could see the buttons (For SAFETY reasons, he said).
Riley Blue said:
If I want to switch off the dash lights in my car, I push the switch with 'P' (for 'panel') on it. Everything goes black. The car was made in 1963. Progress, eh?
I know just what you mean. I think the current LED trend is a bit of a retrograde step in many areas of technology. Hopefully just a passing phase though. A "P" button would be a very welcome addition to many dashboards though. It couldn't be that hard to put it in. zed4 said:
Slightly related – the one thing that annoys me most about dashboards is the fact that the blue main beam indicator is so bright!! On some of the work vehicles I drive the blue light is so bright it glares in my eyes/glasses at night and I can’t see the road. The dimmer doesn’t dim the main beam light. They’re often far too bright.
I've noticed that too actually. The Mondeo main beam indicator is also piercingly bright. I just don't use it. Hi,
I've just been doing some further research on this and the new corsa is quite good. The light in the dash board does not dim at all in the normal setting. However this is only because the car knows that it is daytime and sets the lights to super bright. If you cover up the light sensor in the back of the rear view mirror by slapping the car instruction manual on top of it on the outside of the windscreen, then the car thinks it's night time and then the dash can be dimmed very effectively - right down to blackness. Bonus.
I also visited the current Astra and it did not have the light sensor but had a instrument dimmer knob that seemed to just work. It dimmed all the lit parts of the interior down to complete blackness. Double bonus!
I think that when we need to buy a car it will be a visit to the Xauxhall garage for us. :-)
I've just been doing some further research on this and the new corsa is quite good. The light in the dash board does not dim at all in the normal setting. However this is only because the car knows that it is daytime and sets the lights to super bright. If you cover up the light sensor in the back of the rear view mirror by slapping the car instruction manual on top of it on the outside of the windscreen, then the car thinks it's night time and then the dash can be dimmed very effectively - right down to blackness. Bonus.
I also visited the current Astra and it did not have the light sensor but had a instrument dimmer knob that seemed to just work. It dimmed all the lit parts of the interior down to complete blackness. Double bonus!
I think that when we need to buy a car it will be a visit to the Xauxhall garage for us. :-)
Hi,
I just wanted to come back to this thread and update it as I have finally chosen and bought a car and I thought my research might help others.
I was looking for an ultra-stable car that wasn't emblazoned with LED lights on the dashboard and I was having epic trouble finding one that did all we needed. Basically I was looking for something exactly like our 2006 Ford Mondeo hatchback and there just wasn't anything that I could find that was half as good.
Well in the end we've chosen a BMW 3 series estate 218i with 17" wheels. It has a dashboard just like the Mondeo and drives just like it too, with a bit of adjustment. I changed the runflat tyres to standard ones and I have to put into something called "Eco pro" mode to make the ride super-comfortable like the Mondeo, but now I've figured that out it's great. The car is a 1 year old one with very low mileage and was a little under £20k. I hope that might help others who are looking for something similar.
Thanks for all of the helpful advice while I've been hunting. It really helped a lot.
Ta!
I just wanted to come back to this thread and update it as I have finally chosen and bought a car and I thought my research might help others.
I was looking for an ultra-stable car that wasn't emblazoned with LED lights on the dashboard and I was having epic trouble finding one that did all we needed. Basically I was looking for something exactly like our 2006 Ford Mondeo hatchback and there just wasn't anything that I could find that was half as good.
Well in the end we've chosen a BMW 3 series estate 218i with 17" wheels. It has a dashboard just like the Mondeo and drives just like it too, with a bit of adjustment. I changed the runflat tyres to standard ones and I have to put into something called "Eco pro" mode to make the ride super-comfortable like the Mondeo, but now I've figured that out it's great. The car is a 1 year old one with very low mileage and was a little under £20k. I hope that might help others who are looking for something similar.
Thanks for all of the helpful advice while I've been hunting. It really helped a lot.
Ta!
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