Help me with "light sensitivity" setting on infotainment unit

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brotherjethro

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 3, 2017
Messages
53
Location
Vancouver, WA
I've done a search and not found much, so here goes:

I've had a 2013 SV for a few months now and I really love it. I could use some help with something though:

I have found that when the headlights are set to auto mode, they come on and the dash dims when it's still pretty bright out. I see that there's a setting for this in the infotainment unit, but the setting doesn't seem to do anything, and on top of that, I can't understand which way the setting is supposed to work. It's labeled "light sensitivity" and there's + and - settings. In the manual, it just says "Adjust the sensitivity of the automatic headlight by touching [+] or [-]". Excellent.

So which way (+ or -) is going to turn on the headlights later (when it's darker outside)?

And where is the sensor?

I've tried all the settings and I'm just getting confused.

I don't really care about the headlights being on early, but the dim dashboard is what bothers me.

Help?
 
I haven't tried this, but just parsing the language, the lights should come on later and later according to how many times the "-" key is pushed, thus reducing the sensitivity. Have you actually tested the results at dusk, or just in your driveway?
 
I could never tell any difference, so I just gave up and set it in the middle. :roll:

The sensor is up on the dash-top somewhere near the windshield iirc. I think I covered it accidentally once.
 
LeftieBiker said:
I haven't tried this, but just parsing the language, the lights should come on later and later according to how many times the "-" key is pushed, thus reducing the sensitivity. Have you actually tested the results at dusk, or just in your driveway?

Yep, I've tried under various conditions, usually right after it turns on before I want it to. It seems to have little or no effect, so perhaps it's a futile effort, though if I at least knew which way was which, I could adjust it that direction.

Re the language: When the sensitivity is reduced, I agree that would mean something like "less sensitive to light". But what does that mean? Less sensitive to light, so it takes more sunlight to keep the headlights off? (The opposite of what I want) Or less sensitive to changes in light, so that the lights would stay off longer.

I guess I'll just try a leaving it at each end for a week and see what happens. If I can't tell the difference, no point in worrying about it. :geek:
 
Nubo said:
I could never tell any difference, so I just gave up and set it in the middle. :roll:

The sensor is up on the dash-top somewhere near the windshield iirc. I think I covered it accidentally once.

Well, at least the feature is consistent. ;)

I'll look for that sensor -- maybe it's dirty.
 
So I've been using the "minimum sensitivity" setting for about a week now, and I'm kind of liking it this way... And I think I might have realized what it actually does: Rather than adjust the absolute brightness value that turns the headlights on or off, I think it might simply adjust the speed of response to changes in external lighting. Because now, when I back out of my garage, it seems to take longer to turn the headlights off. And it hasn't annoyed me on my way home from work (yet).

As a firmware guy myself, this sort of makes sense: It might be adjusting the averaging algorithm to respond more slowly (or more quickly).

If I can stand it, I'll try a week at the other end of the adjustment and see what happens.
 
brotherjethro said:
...Rather than adjust the absolute brightness value that turns the headlights on or off, I think it might simply adjust the speed of response to changes in external lighting....

Ah! Hysteresis adjustment. Now that makes sense. I'll be interested to see your follow-up.
 
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