I love the dimmer for our instrument lighting, but wish it would dim the led's on my my non-navi HVAC controls. They are simply too bright and distracting on a dark night. I'm looking for options to dim them down.

I tried some tint 'dots' I cut with a brass tube but they wouldn't stick. I'm not opposed to tearing the radio apart and putting some resistors in if that would work but I'm unsure if the led's are board mounted or what. Anyone have a HVAC wiring diagram and instructions to tear the HVAC controls out?

I thought I read here somewhere (couldn't find it again) about someone using a sharpie on those lights? Would like to hear how that worked.

Any other 'bright' ideas...haha sorry.

If you turn the dimmer down, the lights will go dimmer along with the instrument cluster. The knob is located on the instrument cluster (the speedo) where you reset the trip odometer.

Does the LX-SE have a 6 disc in dash or just the single disc player? If its just the single disc (and the text lights up white) I remember someone saying that this deck uses an incandescent bulb to light everything up.

I'm no electrical engineer, but if for whatever reason turning the knob that dims the dash doesn't affect the HVAC/HU then couldn't you just rip the HU apart and put a bulb with a lower wattage in its place?

The only other thing you could do is turn it off. If you press and hold the CD/AUX button for 10 seconds, it will turn off the display all together. I used to do that on road trips when driving 2 or 3 hours at night. The display gets obnoxious when there aren't any outside lights to help diffuse it.

Different Honda radios over the years have different ways to turn of the displays. In my 89 Prelude, I pull out the Bass/Treble dial and it cuts the LCD display.

Trip, how'd you do it in your 98?

I need to clarify, I'm talking about the lights above the hvac buttons (vent, defrost, floor/vent, recirc, etc) They are little green round lights that do not dim with the dash dimmer. Ideas?

If your manual doesn't have anything about audio system lighting like this:

https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/om/AC9797/AC9797O00097A.pdf

...you prolly can't turn off the display.

With my '98, I don't ever remember the display being so obnoxious that I wanted to turn it off. If I remember correctly from my 98, the LCD display in the radio would dim with the other lights. I don't think there's a way to turn off the back lit LCD displays because the display isn't as bright as some of the other displays. :dunno:

I need to clarify, I'm talking about the lights above the hvac buttons (vent, defrost, floor/vent, recirc, etc) They are little green round lights that do not dim with the dash dimmer. Ideas?
I don't think there is a way to turn those off... At least in the EX with dual-zone climate controls, you could hit a manual button to turn off the Auto LED...

If you press and hold the CD/AUX button for 10 seconds, it will turn off the display all together.

I'll be. It works on my 2006 Canadian EXL. I have to know. How did you find this out.

Jay

I'll be. It works on my 2006 Canadian EXL. I have to know. How did you find this out.

Jay
It was in one of the service center newsletters... It's posted somewhere on this board, but I don't remember which one it is. :dunno: It basically says something about customers bringing in vehicles with a blank display and to try holding the CD/AUX button for ten seconds before ruling it as a defective screen.

I love the dimmer for our instrument lighting, but wish it would dim the led's on my my non-navi HVAC controls. They are simply too bright and distracting on a dark night. I'm looking for options to dim them down.

I tried some tint 'dots' I cut with a brass tube but they wouldn't stick. I'm not opposed to tearing the radio apart and putting some resistors in if that would work but I'm unsure if the led's are board mounted or what. Anyone have a HVAC wiring diagram and instructions to tear the HVAC controls out?

I thought I read here somewhere (couldn't find it again) about someone using a sharpie on those lights? Would like to hear how that worked.

Any other 'bright' ideas...haha sorry.

To clarify; LCD-liquid crystal display, as in our radio display, not what I'm talking about, LED-light emitting diode, as in the lights above the hvac buttons, this is what I'm talking about. I want to DIM them, not turn them off. Anyone have any suggestions?

To clarify; LCD-liquid crystal display, as in our radio display, not what I'm talking about, LED-light emitting diode, as in the lights above the hvac buttons, this is what I'm talking about.

On my EX, the dashboard light control also controls the intensity of the HVAC buttons themselves. Since the EX display then shows what button is pressed, there's no indicator light. Not being able to find a picture of the LX's dash, I must assume that the LED's you've mentioned, are indicator lights of a particular function.

I would think the fix would be to swap-out the offending LED's for ones of less intensity, since each one is probably controlled by the button underneath-it.

You could try simply using a magic marker, or even a paint, to reduce the light emitted.

He is talking about the green LEDs right above the selected mode ...

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showpost.php?p=73986&postcount=10

Yep that's the one, right above the vent button, glowing like a lighthouse beacon on a dark night. Thanks for the pic.

Maybe try glueing the tint dots with elmers glue. It dries clear, removes easily, and won't damage the plastic if you have to remove it. You can buy tint that has no glue on it, but relies on static - like those plastic labels they put on your windshield to tell you when you next oil change is due.

To clarify; LCD-liquid crystal display, as in our radio display, not what I'm talking about, LED-light emitting diode, as in the lights above the hvac buttons, this is what I'm talking about. I want to DIM them, not turn them off. Anyone have any suggestions?

The only thing I can think of is a current limiting resistor. I wouldn't be surprised if the led's are on a pcb so it might be a pain to add a resistor.

If it's easy to just change out the led's them maybe get ones that have a lower luminous intensity.

I decided to disassemble my radio and dim my LED's with tint. Here's the link: http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?p=99426#post99426