Kenwood DNX 7200 bright dim lights
 

Hi all,
A while back I posted a question about how to get the DNX7200 in my WRX2003 blobeye to go dim at night and bright during the day, as I run with my lights on all the time and the Kenwood therefore thinks it's always night. During the night this is ok, but during the day, especially in the summer, the screen is unreadable.

There are three modes in monitor setup; off, on and sync. Sync is the one you need to change the brightness when the headlights go on/off but it doesn't work when you run with lights on.

I had a thought that the 'bright' switch on the left stalk could be used to manually tell the unit when it was 'day' or 'night', independent of the headlights, as it can make the dash and clock dim/bright also independent of the lights.

Anyway, after getting a set of Defi centre gauges, I finally had the excuse to investigate it. The connector to the clock has 12v, Ground, Illumination and Ignition 12v. Remove the centre clock console and they're nicely labelled on the clock connector.

On the DNX the unit to ISO connector has an orange and white wire with a bullet connection in-line labelled "Illu". Disconnect this.

Now get a 12" piece of wire and put a bullet socket at one end and plug this into free the socket that goes into the Kenwood unit's connector. Wrap some electrical tape around the free socket, as this carries 12v when your lights are on, and you don't want it shorting out behind the dash.

Feed the wire up behind the dash to the top where the clock panel is and make a good connection to the Illumination wire. A soldered, heat shrink wrapped connection is best.

Refit your clock panel, and that's it. The dim bright function is now controlled by the stalk switch instead of the headlights!

Usual disclaimers as to safety, competence, risks etc...
Hope this helps.
Steve