Navigation too bright

[jyi786]

I'm slowly but surely learning about my new ride. The most annoying things by far is the limitations with the infotainment system; it has lots of limitations. One of them I find dangerous: it's too bright at night.

I know I can adjust it using the dimmer, but then my dashboard becomes dangerously dim as well. Anyone have any recommendations/suggestions to get around this? Is there a software update that can remedy this?

 

[MichaelSE]

Not sure what year you are, but this procedure should be similar for all NNBS nav systems. Press the menu button on the unit itself. Then touch "Display" on the top right side. Then touch "Brightness/Contrast/Mode." From there you can set it to night mode, which will make it very dark.

There are 3 modes: Auto, day, and night. Yours is probably stuck on day mode, which makes it very bright regardless of whether the light sensor says it's night or not. Auto mode will make it darker automatically when the light sensor detects enough darkness to turn the headlights on.

 

[jyi786]

Not sure what year you are, but this procedure should be similar for all NNBS nav systems. Press the menu button on the unit itself. Then touch "Display" on the top right side. Then touch "Brightness/Contrast/Mode." From there you can set it to night mode, which will make it very dark.

There are 3 modes: Auto, day, and night. Yours is probably stuck on day mode, which makes it very bright regardless of whether the light sensor says it's night or not. Auto mode will make it darker automatically when the light sensor detects enough darkness to turn the headlights on.

Thanks for the response. I already tried this and it makes no difference for some reason; it stays on what looks like full brightness.

 

[jyi786]

Update: I was driving this evening, so I had a chance to see the vehicle lights automatically switch when it got too dark out. When it did this, the infotainment system display didn't even flinch. I've even confirmed that it's on "night mode".

Anything I'm doing wrong?

 

[iamdub]

Putting it on "Auto" is what makes it change automatically based on the light sensor. Maybe it's on "Night" mode but the brightness is turned all the way up? Put it on "Auto" and turn the key on or start the car. You can even turn the headlight knob to turn off the Auto Headlights, parking lights, etc. If it's still at full brightness or makes no change with any of these actions, then there's definitely a problem. Also, there is no brightness adjustment when on "Auto", only contrast.

 

[jyi786]

Putting it on "Auto" is what makes it change automatically based on the light sensor. Maybe it's on "Night" mode but the brightness is turned all the way up? Put it on "Auto" and turn the key on or start the car. If it's still at full brightness, then there's definitely a problem. There is no brightness adjustment when on "Auto", only contrast.

Sorry, that was dumb of me.

It's been on Auto this entire time, except for today. It's at full brightness even on Auto. When I change it to Night mode, the brightness doesn't change at all. Neither do I get any contrast/brightness controls. The only thing that happens when I put it on Night mode is that the navigation maps turn black. That's all it does.

 

[iamdub]

On mine, the screen gets a bit darker when I mess with the contrast adjustment. Turn yours all the way up or down and see if it changes any. Try twisting your gauge/dash dimmer knob to make sure it's not all the way up. Beyond this, I'd say you've ruled out everything.


Just to make sure- your light sensor IS working and turning on/off the headlights?

The only way I could guess to pin it on a car or head unit fault is to find what wire is the dimmer signal from the car and see if it's signaling the HU to dim when the lights are on. Of course, it's probably a CANBUS thing and not a varying 12V signal like the older ones, so I don't know how you'd test it.

 

[jyi786]

I guess here's the answer. It's in the manual.

"To change the overall brightness setting for the display, use the vehicle interior lighting dimming control."

I already knew that I could lower it via that dial, but this sucks. So it means that in order to dim it to acceptable levels, the instrument cluster lighting will get dangerously low, or I just have to put up with the display being outrageously bright at night.

Edit: I just found something that I think might help!

http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/nav-screen-not-dimming.24846/#post-290363

 

[jyi786]

Just went outside and played with it.

Nothing I do to get it to dim works, except using the dimmer knob on the dash. I don't get the plus/minus buttons that others say they have on their units.

 

[iamdub]

Maybe yours has on outdated software version on it?