GTN 650 Dimmer Settings

[douglassmt]

This falls under the category of "minutiae" or "obscure but potentially important."

I have a GTN 650 and opted to use its internal dimmer instead of connecting it manually to the panel dimmer - advice from Aerotronics and/or Stein I believe.

However, when I occasionally fly at night (or into the night) the panel won't dim, leaving me with a bright, night-vision-destroying light in the cockpit. I stopped at Aerotronics last week and Jason changed some settings that I am certain will help, but I thought I would plumb the vast reaches of VAF for that lone soul who might have already trod this path.

If you have a GTN 650 that is set up to use the integral dimmer, and you fly at night, have you found settings that cause it to dim properly between bright sun and low light?

I have had the following problems with different dimmer settings I've tried: it wouldn't dim at all when flying from daytime into night; it would dim so far that it went black; if started in the dark for a before dawn departure it wouldn't turn up the light so it was visible in daylight.

[rleffler]

Bryan,

Let me know what you end up with. Now that it is dark before my bedtime, it's time to get night current and start playing with all the dimmer settings. I'm configure like you are.

thanks,

bob

[RV8iator]

Next time I'm at the airport I'll get mine. There's 2 or 3 different settings that affect the dimming. I have mine adjusted where it works great. It dims a bit slower I would like but it finally settles into a nice display.

I know they are buried in the SETUP menu.

[douglassmt]

Here are my settings. It still seems to lock on bright when started in the bright light. When started in the dark it seems to dim appropriately. Any help would be appreciated.

[CharlieWaffles]

Ever get a resolution to this? My GTN is dimming properly when I start up, but as the sunrises, the dim never increases the brightness to accomodate. It's acting like it just reads the light at startup but never looks for a brighter level later on. I am having to powercycle the GTN in flight to get it to properly raise the brightness.

[Walt]

That's why I always install a dimmer pot!

[Aiki_Aviator]

Originally Posted by CharlieWaffles

Ever get a resolution to this? My GTN is dimming properly when I start up, but as the sunrises, the dim never increases the brightness to accomodate. It's acting like it just reads the light at startup but never looks for a brighter level later on. I am having to powercycle the GTN in flight to get it to properly raise the brightness.

I have the same issue and I recycle in flight to get appropriate response also.

Regards,
Andrew.

[CharlieWaffles]

I guess it's time to call Garmin and see if this is a bug.

[jliltd]

Can an external dimmer control attached to the GTN lighting circuit be a PWM type or does it have to be a legacy type rheostat? Or either?

Jim

[Aiki_Aviator]

Does anyone have a solution as yet?