Display to bright

[longhaireddwb]

I have a Galaxy 94hp and I find that the channel display is just too bright when its dark outside. I can turn it all the way down but still too much. I can then turn it off but I'd like to have it on just but dimmer.

Does anyone know how to go about dropping the brightness on the channel display? The meter light is ok but if I can lower it some more too would be great. But you know, The back lighting on all the words on the face-plate is fine. That don't bother me. I'd leave them up and turn the rest down if possible but I think that might be a bit more of a PITA do try to figure out.

I'm thinking a resistor added to the dimmer pot to drop it? Anyone?

Thanks.

 

[sonoma]

A resister will drop all of the lights. sounds like you have the blue lights for the channel display. you can try a resister and see what ohms you will need to dim it. try different values.100 ohm to 470 ohm. just see if one in that range will do what you want.

 

[JCH]

Maybe a piece of dark window tint.

What the heck is the deal with the blue lights anyway? I emailed Galaxy about that the other day.

 

[222DBFL]

My magnum 257hp has the blue display and boy is it bright early in the morning, I use a small dark towel and cover my radio at night while driving, the blue display is definitely hard on the eyes after dark. Like posted try some phone protectors that are dark or provide tint. This may help, or do what you are going to try with the resistors, or change the bulbs out with something easier on the eyes. JMO. God bless.

 

[longhaireddwb]

Window tint. Thats a great idea! I can add a resistor on the lightbulb to bring down the brightness of the meter and window tint to dimm the channel display. This sound like the way to go.
Thanks for the ideas.

 

[Grogan]

My problem is different but my connex CX-3300FHP the RX/TX light is to bright so I cut some 3m electric tape white in color and used 2 layers and put it over the light to dim it some. Worked great. It has a bright dim sw but the One light is to dam bright.

 

[longhaireddwb]

Well, Project done and it turned out just as I wanted. Here is what I did. If you are looking to do something like this you will need to be able to disassemble your radio a bit. Just a warning!

This is a newer Galaxy 94HP. I found that the Meter light is two led's. And behind the LED's is a mirrored looking piece of tape to help with reflection. I took a big magic marker and blacked out the mirrored sticker. That took care of the too bright meter light.

The frequency display and channel display was done with a piece of window tint. I have a car window tint shop just down the road from me. I went in and said I need a piece of tint that is a couple inches square. Maybe just a piece of trash? The guy went in the back and came out with a piece that is two feet long and 8 inches wide.

I took the face plate off the radio and with two small pieces of scotch tape and some scissors I covered the windows on the inside of the face plate with the tint.

Now when I put the dimmer on the lowest setting it is DIM! I didn't have to cut into any wires or modify any circuits with resistors. Turned out just as I wanted. The only thing it cost me was an hour of my time and a trip down the street. I had to go get some beer anyhow so that trip down the street didn't count.

 

[JCH]

So how does the dimmer knob work - does it only dim the face plate, or everything? Can you turn off the face plate before the channel and freq lights get too dim for daytime operation.

 

[longhaireddwb]

The dimmer controls everything the same. It does dim from bright variably down to dim but then the pot clicks off and all lights go out. Even the dimmest setting wasn't dim enough for night driving IMO. Now it is!

 

[JCH]

Thank you.