Adjust brightness of DRL LED when Headlights ON!

[mrq]

Thanks to DAVID @audizine, visit his website for additional coding.

Adjust LED Brightness
This will allow you to change the intensity of the LED's when your headlights are on. By default the LED's are only 8-9% or brightness.

[09 – Cent. Elect.]
[Security Access - 16] (enter security code. One of the default codes is- 20113)
[Adaptation - 10] -> Channel 3
Enter new value for LED brightness i.e. "100" If you want LED's at 100%.
Values bellow 5 turns the LED's off and generates an error code and warning in DIS

[larryollie]

any before and after pics?


thanks

[RS5ive]

Now that is interesting - for a long time we believed it simply wasn't possible. I'll give it a try tonight - and will try to take some pics.......

[mrq]

well I tried to take pictures of different brightness, but from the pictures its kind of hard to notice the difference from when you're looking at them in person. Below are the pictures in this order. 100%, 50%, 30% then stock mode which is in 9%.
I think in my opinion its too bright at 100 and even at 50, I set mine to 30 right now, but I still haven't seem them at night time yet.. so it might change to 50.

100%


50%


30%


stock(9%)

[iinviktus]

mrq- Do you have aftermarket bulbs? They seem to match the DRLs in your pics. If so, what temp. do you have?

[A5turbo]

as default Are the drls at 100% when the headlights are off?

[mrq]

iinviktus- no I have stock bulb, its yellow compare to DRL color. Its just the photo that they appears similar but its not.

A5turbo- yes DRL at default is 100% when headlights are not on.

[RS5ive]

Originally Posted by mrq

A5turbo- yes DRL at default is 100% when headlights are not on.

Good question (precisely the one I had) and really useful answer - thanks! Just charging up my 'VCDS netbook' then off to have a go. Interested why you feel daytime brightness is too much for running in parallel with the headlights - is there any such things as 'too bright'?

Let me go and find out.......

[mrq]

Originally Posted by RS5ive

Good question (precisely the one I had) and really useful answer - thanks! Just charging up my 'VCDS netbook' then off to have a go. Interested why you feel daytime brightness is too much for running in parallel with the headlights - is there any such things as 'too bright'?

Let me go and find out.......

that's what I figured, but I'm sure you'll agree with me after seeing in person that 100% brightness + headlights is not good combo, DRL LED just over powers it... I think 30 is good enough, or even 50 will do...

[RS5ive]

Hmmmm..... (netbook still charging). I personally would love to have the LED definition at night, same as daytime. I prefer to think of it as 'accenting' rather than 'overpowering' but you've seen it and I've not yet so I think you may have a point - more thoughts as soon as this poxy battery has sucked up some juice.......

[Ageing Biker]

Hi RS5ive,
I still need to tie you down to a VAGCOM session. This will difinitely be one of the mods as soon as you've investigated what looks best. Speak soon.

[Hawk375]

I just set mine to 50%, I have to agree that 100% would be too bright at night.
50% may be a tad bit on the high side as well. Since the LED's aren't aimed downwards, they may create a hazard to oncoming drivers at night.

[acowabunga]

I started at 75% and eventually ended at 35%. I too found the LEDs just overpowering and there were times when I was just sitting in my car at work and the LEDs lit up the entire area. It just drew too much attention (as if the car needed any help) for my tastes and that's why I ended at 35%.

[larryollie]

wow!!

[btlalum]

Just a couple of useless thoughts on the LED brightness issues:

1) LEDs are current-driven and so the light output is basically proportional to the current that's put through them. Having said that, their output is also a function of their operating temperature and the more current going through them, the hotter they get. Often what happens is the light output suffers so-called "droop", meaning that the intensity starts going down as the current is raised beyond a certain point. Have no idea what operating range 0-100 covers for these LEDS, but "droop" is a characteristic of LEDS in general.

2) the pictures of the LED arrays may be saturated for the higher values since the camera's CCD detector (or any other one for that matter) won't have the dynamic range beyond a certain point (used to worry about saturated detectors in a former life), particularly if the shutter speed's low enough and the lens is fast enough. We used to use neutral density filters to deal with this sort of thing.

Observations, notwithstanding, thanks for the coding!

[ragazzi_07]

if you have it set to 100% brightness, will the LED's burn out quicker? due to more usage

[btlalum]

Originally Posted by ragazzi_07

if you have it set to 100% brightness, will the LED's burn out quicker? due to more usage

Hard to say, unless someone knows to what current value 100% corresponds and the ratings of the specific LEDs used. Generally, LEDs' lifetimes are shortened as more current is pushed through them owing to the fact that the semiconductor junction temperature will go up with the current. Heat's always the enemy of semiconductor devices' lifetimes. So, one would assume their lifetime may well be shortened by setting the value to 100% versus a lower value. In addition, owing to the "droop" I mentioned in the previous post, it may not even be as bright as a lower percentage. Having said that, LED lifetimes are usually measured in several 10's of thousands of hours. So is it a big deal shortening it from maybe 60000 hours to 30000? I don't know. But, without knowing the current values corresponding to the percentage, it's tough to be very quantitative.

[ragazzi_07]

whoa wasn't expecting such a thorough answer.

I currently have it set to 100% lets see what happens.

[maxpowers]

I was waiting for someone to crack this nut. I'm going to try it tonight. I guess no one has had an issue with the security code.

[zee007]

I did this - and adjusted the brightness just like mrq - 30%. Worked fine per the coding.

[Ryan_T]

I think the % is in relation to the LED's duty cycle. Not necessarily direct current input.

[btlalum]

Ah, hadn't considered using pulse duty cycle--good point. Current could be limited to a desired value that way.

[andyhud007]

Going to be checking this one out tonight I think..

30% seems to be the ideal setting from what most are saying.

nice find, cheers!

Andy

[philc]

i al lost...

what does [09 – Cent. Elect.] mean??!! do you find this in the main menu on the mmi?

cheers

[mrq]

philc, u need vag-com cable to access and use vag-com program from ross-tech. Check out and learn more about vag-com by visiting www.ross-tech.com

[maxpowers]

I just did mine at 32%. Have to wait until night to see how it turns out.

[maxpowers]

Final verdict.....I went down to 28%. Looks good

[billeuz]

Also I modifiy to 30%.

[Jace]

Guys,

Its been bugging me for a while now but even though I have Auto lighs, when i manualy turn on the side lights for the rear clusters to come on the DRL's on the front dim to almost nothing and that really annoys me. With no lights on they are very bright and give the car its characteristc look, but with the side lights on they dim right down on the front...


Can this be changed?

[zee007]

Originally Posted by Jace

Guys,

Its been bugging me for a while now but even though I have Auto lighs, when i manualy turn on the side lights for the rear clusters to come on the DRL's on the front dim to almost nothing and that really annoys me. With no lights on they are very bright and give the car its characteristc look, but with the side lights on they dim right down on the front...


Can this be changed?

Yes Jace - the behavior can be changed with VAGCOM. See here: http://www.a5oc.com/forums/showthrea...490/index.html