[cc3]

I have a 335d Touring x Drive love the car but don't like the orange instrument lighting of a night. Is there any way to code this out to stop them defaulting to orange when dark ??

[XKxRome0ox]

Originally Posted by cc3

I have a 335d Touring x Drive love the car but don't like the orange instrument lighting of a night. Is there any way to code this out to stop them defaulting to orange when dark ??

what do you mean by defaulting to orange?


orange light is best for night visibility

[anotheran]

You can disable the orange instrument lightning by disabling night mode in the instrument cluster light level. That way you'll only have the daylight white light. But you'll have to manually adjust the brightness level between day and night if you do this.

FEM_BODY > Ambiente_Nachfuehrung (change this to nicht aktiv)
Separates Ambient Light Level and Instrument Cluster Light Level

[cc3]

Originally Posted by anotheran

You can disable the orange instrument lightning by disabling night mode in the instrument cluster light level. That way you'll only have the daylight white light. But you'll have to manually adjust the brightness level between day and night if you do this.

FEM_BODY > Ambiente_Nachfuehrung (change this to nicht aktiv)
Separates Ambient Light Level and Instrument Cluster Light Level

Thank you I will try that.

[anotheran]

Originally Posted by cc3

Thank you I will try that.

Sorry CC3. Did some checking

DIM_NACHT_EIN >Werte=FF
Changes orange night colors of KOMBI to be white at night (No Navi Night Switch too)

Sorry for the wrong info

[tex2670]

The only way to turn off the orange IP lighting is to drive without your lights on, or trade the car in for a car that's not a BMW.

[bad karma]

The almost entirely amber gauge cluster (in addition to the amber LEDs on the nav stack and the rest of the vehicle) are one of the things I love most about BMWs. Any other color of light (white, blue, etc) like most other manufacturers have is downright garish at night. Night driving is best when it's just you and the open road (maybe a bit of music, too). And a dark interior with soft, orange lighting only where needed, allows the car to disappear around you.

[Prossx]

Well put. I heard the LCI went to a white HVAC display though. I like all orange. One of best BMW design elements. I hope they retain the old school gauges in the next gen, and do not succumb to overly electronified screens everywhere that seem to be all the rage.

[tex2670]

Originally Posted by Prossx

Well put. I heard the LCI went to a white HVAC display though. I like all orange. One of best BMW design elements. I hope they retain the old school gauges in the next gen, and do not succumb to overly electronified screens everywhere that seem to be all the rage.

Yes, but it still changes to orange at night.

[jmg]

It took some getting used to for me as well. I really liked the red lighting in my S4 compared to BMW's traditional orange. 3 BMWs later and I think the orange is the better choice for night visibility.

[paul e]

In my VW it had cool blue lighting. Compared to the BMW, IMHO the orange is easier to focus on.

[Aekdbrich]

I love the orange. Orange doesn't fatigue the eyes. So when you are doing a lot of night driving, blue, white, etc. can be horrid and tire your eyes out, while with your orange lights you could drive FOREVER! but it's merely preference. I wish I had orange lights in my 74 Camaro some days. Lol

[instalher]

they spent months and months getting the exact color for ease of fatigue on your eyes, they monitored the cones and rods and the stress different colors played on them. I must say they nailed the right color. very easy to live with at night, zero eye fatigue and its a bmw thing. Try driving a Hyundai with there terrible blue dash lights at night... so stressfull...

[AndDown]

I remember the dash lights to be more reddish in my '77 320i, but again that's almost 40 years ago, lol. Those lights were one of the unique features of BMW's at that time; I'm glad they've continued with the tradition and not followed the current trends of the other manufacturers.

[tex2670]

Originally Posted by instalher

they spent months and months getting the exact color for ease of fatigue on your eyes, they monitored the cones and rods and the stress different colors played on them.

I have a hard time believing this is the case. If it is so scientifically proven that orange creates less fatigue on the eyes, why doesn't every car have orange IP lighting?

[Aekdbrich]

Originally Posted by tex2670

I have a hard time believing this is the case. If it is so scientifically proven that orange creates less fatigue on the eyes, why doesn't every car have orange IP lighting?

Because it is less dynamic and doesn't stand out like white, blue, or green. Each car manufacturer wants to create a certain ambiance with certain colors or even changing colors. There are many cars coming up with ambient lighting and changing themes.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by tex2670

I have a hard time believing this is the case. If it is so scientifically proven that orange creates less fatigue on the eyes, why doesn't every car have orange IP lighting?

Because it isn't flashy or appealing. In the end, most car manufacturers just want to wow the customer to get them to buy cars. They see a blue mood-lit interior and think "ohhh so modern!". Blue isn't a new color. It's been around since red. There is no extra cost or technology that BMW needs to make a blue interior. It doesn't make the car more expensive. BMW chose this color decades ago for the driver and they stuck with it. Now, one could argue that the multicolor display on the dash that shows album art is a huge distraction and almost negates the function of having an orange/red lit interior, but that's a whole other argument. Personally, I really liked the more red lit interiors of my Audis.

[jmg]

"Rhodopsin in the human rods is insensitive to the longer red wavelengths, so traditionally many people use red light to help preserve night vision. Red light only slowly depletes the rhodopsin stores in the rods, and instead is viewed by the red sensitive cone cells."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_vision

[instalher]

Originally Posted by jmg

"Rhodopsin in the human rods is insensitive to the longer red wavelengths, so traditionally many people use red light to help preserve night vision. Red light only slowly depletes the rhodopsin stores in the rods, and instead is viewed by the red sensitive cone cells."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_vision

yeah what he said....lol... I saw a documentary on youtube about the makings of bmw vehicles, this was highlighted as well as the audio portion of the vehicles, it was a good watch.. ill see if I can find the link.

[tex2670]

Originally Posted by jmg

"Rhodopsin in the human rods is insensitive to the longer red wavelengths, so traditionally many people use red light to help preserve night vision. Red light only slowly depletes the rhodopsin stores in the rods, and instead is viewed by the red sensitive cone cells."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_vision

Thanks--but if the best information you can find on this topic is a non-sourced statement on a Wikipedia page, I'm going to continue to be doubtful of this.

Another theory posits that since stars typically emit light with shorter wavelengths, the light from stars will be in the blue-green color spectrum. Therefore, using red light to navigate would not desensitize the receptors used to detect star light.[5] [6]

[RoundelM3]

A long time ago at a training base far, far away, I sat in a bleacher seat while a Drill Sergeant explained how we would use red lenses on our flashlights at night, so as not to lose our "visual purple" which would compromise our night vision. I also recall every small aircraft I ever flew in had red/orange illumination for its instruments for the very same reason. The amber night lighting in my BMWs is exactly right for me and I hope they never change it.

[instalher]

We have rods and cones in our eyes. Cones are used at normal light levels and give us our visual acuity and color discrimination also called photopic vision. Rods are used in low light levels and give us night vision capability also called scotopic vision. At night or low light levels our eyes are dark adapted and the cones in our eyes are essentially "switched off". We are just using the rods in our eyes. Rods do not distinguish color only brightness. At a certain brightness level (~>0.3 cd/m^2) the rods get saturated with light and the cones take over. The rods are insensitive to longer wavelength lights (red region) so it is possible to increase illumination levels to provide high acuity vision needed to read gauges and displays and still remain dark adapted as you look out into the dark road in front of you. You're basically tricking the eye to activate both photopic and scotopic systems at the same time. I hope this helps