Dimming the dash lights

[ericinmich]

Did a search but couldn't find much on the forum on the subject.

We do a lot of boating at night with my '09 22Ve. Dash lights are very bright, currently try to cover with towel.

I found this on ebay, probably worth a try: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dimmer-Light...-/170963123400

It would be great if I had a wiring diagram for the boat. Anyone have one for the dash for an 2009'ish Tige? I bet most would be wired about the same.

Any other options for dimming the dash lights? I suppose I could add a switch to cut the dash lights but leave the Nav lights on...

[Bryan]

What style dash/gauges are in the '09?? I know with my Faria gauges you hold the up and down buttons on the speedo at the same time and it brightens and dims... You've probly got a newer style gauge but maybe the same type of procedure??

[ericinmich]

I'm not sure what gauges are on the boat and won't see it for another month. It's in Northern Michigan, 4 hours away, and they just got 9 inches of snow last weekend...

It would be great if there was a way to dim them built in.

Can anyone else shed a little light on the subject?

[chpthril]

Blue/white is typically illumination wire color.

[ericinmich]

Blue/white is typically illumination wire color.

Thanks. I'll try doing a 'non-destructive' test of adding a potentiometer into the circuit and report back.

[scoot18]

I had the same issue, do a lot of boating at night and the instrumentation lights were way to bright. I did what you had mentioned, I took the output ckt wire from the light switch for the instrument lights and ran it to a toggle switch which I mounted under the steering column on the plastic shroud. This way I could eliminate all of the dash lights and not effect the navigation lights. The only light that stayed on was the nav light rocker switch indicator its self. Could see so much better after doing that.

[ChrisSnow]

A potentiometer alone isn't going to work. Too much current.

A pwm based solution would work much better.

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[IDBoating]

A potentiometer alone isn't going to work. Too much current. A pwm based solution would work much better.

Took the words right out of my fingertips. Presuming you don't want to build one yourself, this search on eBay revealed a bunch of ready-made LED controllers, many including wireless remotes. They're almost certain to be PWM based. Most can run from a 12V supply and are three channels; you'll only need to use one channel and you'll need to make certain that channel can handle the current of the (likely incandescent) lights you're trying to control. But retrofitting something like this should be fast, cheap, and easy.

You could use the 2nd and 3rd channels to control other things, such as the courtesy lights in the passenger area.

[Peadad1]

Not the cheapest, but looks like exactly what you're looking for:

https://otrattw.net/Blue-Sea-Deckhand-Dimmer.html

[ChrisSnow]

Hardly expensive though and could be integrated with easily.

Plus it's actually suited to the job. Good find :-)

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[ericinmich]

An update on this thread I started about dimming my dash lights, finally spent some time on my 09 22Ve after another night run home with a towel across the dash.

I unscrewed the panel to get access to the Nav/Anch light switch, started pulling wires. It is a 2 way rocker and as expected, the middle provides power, and the pins opposite the on position becomes hot. On my boat, the bottom has 2 blades and one of the blades had 2 wires on it, and the other had 3. The female/wire side that plugs into the blade has a blade as part of it's connector allowing multiple wires to be hooked to the same blade on the switch. The wire that goes to the dash lights was the middle of the 3 wires on the starboard side of the switch, and it has a diode in series about an inch off the connector. The wire was black.

So, with that wire disconnected all the dial gauges and the radio remote do not light up when the Nav lights are turned on (as desired). The only thing left was the center multi-function display (whatever it's called). It stays fully light... bummer. I looked at the large connector that goes to it, but decided not to dig into that... for now! Just a small towel needed now, much better than before.

Here is the pic from the side of the switch. You can see the disconnected black wire near the top. I probably will put a hidden switch to open the wire when desired vs. just leaving it disconnected. I need to find the right connectors, or just cut the wire and solder in some length to mount a switch under dash.

IMG_20160730_185919501.jpg