I had to move my mum's car last night when I went to my parents house and I noticed the dash lights didn't come on with the normal lights. It was not that dark, but I took it for a spin and suddenly they did, do they have a light sensor for the dash illumination or is it a fault ?

Thanks

Yes, they are light sensing. And I wish they had designed them with more hysteresis, then they wouldn't flicker on and off quite so much

zanes said:

Yes, they are light sensing. And I wish they had designed them with more hysteresis, then they wouldn't flicker on and off quite so much

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I wish you could just turn it off. I like to have the dashlight on all the time.

306maxi said:

I wish you could just turn it off. I like to have the dashlight on all the time.

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That too would be useful

The sensor is a small black dot at the very top of the instrument cluster, just above your speedometer.

Hmmm, wonder how easy it would be to get behind the dial window and cover it up. I assume it's just a simple LDR or photo diode/transistor.

then it would be dim all the time

pearce_jj said:

then it would be dim all the time

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I meant cover the sensor

If you cover the sensor, it will think it's dark - so the display would be dimmed.

pearce_jj said:

If you cover the sensor, it will think it's dark - so the display would be dimmed.

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I'm missing something here- When it's dark my dash lights come on. Do they have variable lighting?

yeah but the centre bit goes dim.

zanes said:

I'm missing something here- When it's dark my dash lights come on. Do they have variable lighting?

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I think they do yes.

It works like this. My Nokia e71 has 3 settings for the LCD backlight.

Off
low
high

High is for when it's daytime so you can see it
Low is for the evening so it's not too bright
Off is ..... well off

Never twigged that, thought the dash lights were purely on/off. Which makes things more complex!

zanes said:

Never twigged that, thought the dash lights were purely on/off. Which makes things more complex!

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Everything is complex if you look at it in detail. bear in mind I don't know if the 500 has a similar setup to my phone but I suspect it probably does

306maxi said:

Everything is complex if you look at it in detail. bear in mind I don't know if the 500 has a similar setup to my phone but I suspect it probably does

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I was thinking from the electronics viewpoint. Bearing in mind the warning lights on the dash are multiplexed, I think it will probably be too much work. That and I'm just too damn lazy!

Edit: Actually, no they're not, just quite slowly refreshed.

I have my DRLs on all the time, I thought in the past that the dash would light up in darker areas, but it doesn't seem to now!

am I just getting confused and it only does this with headlights or is there a setting somewhere I could have changed by mistake??

The button and dash lights come on when it gets dark, if you have your headlights on or not. They are fairly dim, but they do light up.

The speedo lights up ONLY if you have your headlights on AND it's dark. In this situation the button and dash lights will also be slightly brighter (IIRC).

Are the illumination dash board, climate and buttons light standard on every model? I think mine has it one all the time.. is there a setting thingy?

Thanks

Nasrouz said:

Are the illumination dash board, climate and buttons light standard on every model? I think mine has it one all the time.. is there a setting thingy?

Thanks

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They are standard on every model, the sensor is at the very top of the speedo pod and if that detects darkness, the buttons will light up. If you then turn on your headlights, the speedo will light up too. If it detects light, then they should all go off.

I think, however, the dash buttons and steering wheel controls are dimly lit at all times. Try cupping your hand around one of them and see if it's illuminated.

*dash* buttons are, not the A/C controls from what I've seen. A/C controls only with lights on (but I have de-activated my DRLs)