New 2022 PW.. Screen "Nighttime Mode" behavior?

[dirt-merchant]

So just took delivery of my new 2022 2500 PW.. Absolutly love it so far.

Have a question: How does one get the Uconnect screen to auto switch to night mode when the headlights go on? I assume that, at night, when the headlights go on the Uconnect screen should automatically switch to the Nighttime Mode correct?. Dark/black theme etc..

Mine does not. I've set the "Nighttime Brightness" to Auto, theme mode to "Auto", headlight dial is set to "Auto". The only way I can find to get the Uconnect screen to switch to Nighttime Mode is to turn the dial down a touch on the dashboard dimmer dial (lower left "lights cluster" dials next to the steering wheel). Turning that causes the Uconnect screen to switch to nighttime mode, but also makes everything get dim which is what that dial is supposed to do but I shouldnt have to do that to make the Uconnect switch to "Nighttime Mode".

Edit: Mabe this should be in the Uconnect 5 section.. not sure..

 

[Sixtime43]

Mine does the same thing, so I'm in for any answers. That white background is really bright at night.

 

[Brutal_HO]

Have you tried going to manual and setting a baseline brightness for Night and Day and then back to auto? Those seem backwards (6 is dim, 1 is bright?)

 

[Sixtime43]

Have you tried going to manual and setting a baseline brightness for Night and Day and then back to auto? Those seem backwards (6 is dim, 1 is bright?)

I see what you mean. I haven't tried that yet, but that sounds like a solid option. Like the OP, I assumed the AUTO function under Theme Mode would just turn the display to "dark mode" when the headlights came on.

 

[Brutal_HO]

I see what you mean. I haven't tried that yet, but that sounds like a solid option. Like the OP, I assumed the AUTO function under Theme Mode would just turn the display to "dark mode" when the headlights came on.

Does it switch to dark theme if you put the headlight switch in the On position?

 

[Sixtime43]

Does it switch to dark theme if you put the headlight switch in the On position?

No, it doesn't. The only way it will go to Dark mode is by manually selecting it. This is just one of a rather large growing list of bugs with Uconnect 5 that I've found.

Without question, the most irritating bug for me is the fact I have to manually turn on the system after I start the truck. I mean really... $70k truck and I can't even get the Uconnect system to automatically turn on when I start it. I pretty sure a pack of monkeys could have coded this thing better.

 

[dirt-merchant]

Have you tried going to manual and setting a baseline brightness for Night and Day and then back to auto? Those seem backwards (6 is dim, 1 is bright?)

No, I will try that today. But in theory I dont see why that should matter. Auto is Auto...

Does it switch to dark theme if you put the headlight switch in the On position?

No mine does not.

No, it doesn't. The only way it will go to Dark mode is by manually selecting it. This is just one of a rather large growing list of bugs with Uconnect 5 that I've found.

Without question, the most irritating bug for me is the fact I have to manually turn on the system after I start the truck. I mean really... $70k truck and I can't even get the Uconnect system to automatically turn on when I start it. I pretty sure a pack of monkeys could have coded this thing better.

I dont have to manually start the screen. I think you have something bigger going on, tried a soft reset?

 

[dirt-merchant]

Ok, I just switched to "Manual" and adjusted the brightness settings. I set the Daytime to 10, but the Nighttime is greyed out and I cannot adjust it. I tried setting the Headlights to On vs. Auto and it didnt make a difference.
I tried setting the Theme Mode to Light/Dark/Auto and it didnt change the Nighttime Brightness being greyed out at all..

@RamCares Any ideas?

 

[tyler2you]

I was struggling with getting mine to dim when I first got the truck. I finally figured out that if the left wheel (ambient lighting control) is pushed all the way up into the detent, the screen would stay at full daytime brightness. Once I turned that wheel down out of the detent, the auto brightness with headlights on started working.

 

[dirt-merchant]

I was struggling with getting mine to dim when I first got the truck. I finally figured out that if the left wheel (ambient lighting control) is pushed all the way up into the detent, the screen would stay at full daytime brightness. Once I turned that wheel down out of the detent, the auto brightness with headlights on started working.

I actually noticed that too Tyler.. Seems unintuitive to me though. "Auto" should mean "Auto" and not "Auto but only if the wheel is out of the detent" lol... I dont like the gauge cluster getting dimmed so much when its out of the detent.

I'll play around with that wheel and the Manual settings more tonight, see if I can get it to function better...

 

[Crusty old shellback]

Shouldn't the detent on the ambient interior light be the interior lights always on position. Then if you are just out of it, the interior lights come on and off with the doors or unlocking. That's the old school way things used to work before the fancy computer electronics controlled everything.

So if you have it in the detent, the system is thinking the interior lights are on so it will not dim the display. I'm pretty sure that's how it works on my '21. The new uconnect 5 may work different. But this is what seems logical.

 

[dirt-merchant]

Shouldn't the detent on the ambient interior light be the interior lights always on position. Then if you are just out of it, the interior lights come on and off with the doors or unlocking. That's the old school way things used to work before the fancy computer electronics controlled everything.

So if you have it in the detent, the system is thinking the interior lights are on so it will not dim the display. I'm pretty sure that's how it works on my '21. The new uconnect 5 may work different. But this is what seems logical.

There are two "wheels", 1 for the interior cabin "mood" lights, and 1 for the gauge/dash lights. Its the gauge/dash lights wheel that has the detent. When you pop it out of the detent all gauge, dash and screen illumination gets dimmed. I prefer the gauge/dash lights to be at full illumination so I leave it all the way up.

The way it 'should' work, as it did in my last vehicle, is even with the wheel in the detent, the nav screen should still switch to 'nighttime' mode when the headlights go on.

---I just re-read Tyler2's post. I do not have a 'detent' on the ambient lighting wheel, only on the instrument lighting wheel.

 

[dirt-merchant]

PS. I noticed that if I switched the headlights to 'on', and set the "Display Mode" to Manual I was able to adjust the Nighttime Brightness level. But only when the headlights were on...

 

[tyler2you]

There are two "wheels", 1 for the interior cabin "mood" lights, and 1 for the gauge/dash lights. Its the gauge/dash lights wheel that has the detent. When you pop it out of the detent all gauge, dash and screen illumination gets dimmed. I prefer the gauge/dash lights to be at full illumination so I leave it all the way up.

The way it 'should' work, as it did in my last vehicle, is even with the wheel in the detent, the nav screen should still switch to 'nighttime' mode when the headlights go on.

---I just re-read Tyler2's post. I do not have a 'detent' on the ambient lighting wheel, only on the instrument lighting wheel.

Yep, my bad. It's the dash illumination wheel that keeps auto brightness from working when it's in the detent.

 

[Brutal_HO]

I was struggling with getting mine to dim when I first got the truck. I finally figured out that if the left wheel (ambient lighting control) is pushed all the way up into the detent, the screen would stay at full daytime brightness. Once I turned that wheel down out of the detent, the auto brightness with headlights on started working.

I was just going to ask that - what is the instrument dial position? The radio should be talking to the BCM on that lighting control.

 

[Brutal_HO]

There are two "wheels", 1 for the interior cabin "mood" lights, and 1 for the gauge/dash lights. Its the gauge/dash lights wheel that has the detent. When you pop it out of the detent all gauge, dash and screen illumination gets dimmed. I prefer the gauge/dash lights to be at full illumination so I leave it all the way up.

The way it 'should' work, as it did in my last vehicle, is even with the wheel in the detent, the nav screen should still switch to 'nighttime' mode when the headlights go on.

---I just re-read Tyler2's post. I do not have a 'detent' on the ambient lighting wheel, only on the instrument lighting wheel.

You sure that would work for everyone?

When towing, I always run with my lights on as the running lights power my TTPMS repeater. To keep the screen bright in daytime, the wheel is in the detent (max).

 

[Jimmy07]

I actually noticed that too Tyler.. Seems unintuitive to me though. "Auto" should mean "Auto" and not "Auto but only if the wheel is out of the detent" lol... I dont like the gauge cluster getting dimmed so much when its out of the detent.

I'll play around with that wheel and the Manual settings more tonight, see if I can get it to function better...

When the dimmer wheel is all the way up into the detent, the panel lamps are in “parade mode” at full brightness (just like they are any time the headlights are off). When in parade mode, nothing will auto dim when the headlights are on because the very purpose of parade mode is for situations when you have the headlight switch set to auto, and you are driving in an ambient lighting situation where the headlights will come on in daylight, and dim the panel lamps to the point you can’t see the radio screen or cluster. One of these situations would be if the sun is behind you (dusk or dawn), and not enough to trigger the sun sensor to keep the headlights off, but shining too bright through the back window that you can’t see the displays because they are dimmed when the headlights are on, you would flip the wheel into parade mode so they stay full brightness. This causes the radio screen to stay in light mode until the dimmer wheel is taken out of parade mode.

 

[Crusty old shellback]

Went and played with mine a bit this morning. 2021 with the Uconnect 4 12" screen.
When in auto on the Uconnect display, I cannot change anything.
When I go to manual, I can change the day time display.
When in manual and the headlights turned on, I can change the night time display.
Then I go back to auto.

The dial switch on the dash.
If it is in the detent, the dash and uconnect do not dim when the light switch is turned on.
When out of the detent and the lights are turned on, it all dims. The dial switch can then be used to adjust the brightness some.

 

[dirt-merchant]

Based on Jimmy's and Crusty's coments it seems my system is behaving normally then. My previous vehicle must not have had a "Parade" mode I guess.

I guess what I need to get answered then is: When the dimmer switch is out of the detent "parade mode" can I adjust the brightness of the gauge cluster? It is too dim for my taste (even with the dimmer all the way up as high as it goes w/o being in the detent (parade mode).

 

[silverheep]

No, it doesn't. The only way it will go to Dark mode is by manually selecting it. This is just one of a rather large growing list of bugs with Uconnect 5 that I've found.

Without question, the most irritating bug for me is the fact I have to manually turn on the system after I start the truck. I mean really... $70k truck and I can't even get the Uconnect system to automatically turn on when I start it. I pretty sure a pack of monkeys could have coded this thing better.

Resurrecting this old post in case anyone finds it. The uConnect system not turning on when you start the truck is tied to a setting in an odd place - specifically in Audio, there’s a setting to turn the “radio” on, off, or remember last setting when the truck starts. I found that it doesn’t mean radio(i.e. AM/FM), it means the full uConnect system.