I test drove an EX this afternoon and compared many things to the '13 that we own. I was surprised to find that when I turned the odometer dial that nothing seemed to happen. I looked at the manual online and it says that that's how to adjust the brightness of the instrument cluster. Are there certain conditions when the brightness is adjustable? The manual mentions when the parking lights are on, is this treated differently than when the headlights are on or set to auto?

 

It doesn't make a difference. When headlights are on you can adjust the dash brightness. I never had this problem.

Are you able to reset the trip mileage or cycle through trip miles, MPG and etc?

I am wondering something might be wrong with the odometer dial. Dealer should be able to fix that for you.

 

Assuming it's like the GE8 models, you can only adjust the brightness when the headlights are actually on. When they are off, the panel lights are at full brightness and the other control backlights are off. As I recall the manual seemed to say that there was a separate adjustment for the lights off case, but that isn't in fact true in actual practice.

 

when i first got my ex, i fiddled with the dimmer. i ended up leaving it at one notch under full brightness.

a few weeks ago, i wanted to change it, and nothing happened. button dial did nothing. i am in IT, so i followed my own advice, and restarted the car... low and behold, it works again...

 

Where did you find the CTRL-ALT-DEL buttons?

Seriously, there are also some anomalies that can be fixed on modern cars by disconnecting the battery for a minute.

 

didn't need them, i remoted in via Citrix...

 

Well played, sir.

There are a couple of things I haven't had time to try yet…

one is to see if the EX head unit will recognize a USB soundcard as an AUX in. Soundcard is a base spec USB device that doesn't require a driver.

the other (and I seriously doubt it) is to see if it will recognize the USB Internet connection to my 4G/LTE mi-fi. At least it should charge it.

 

I leave the dimmer one click under full brightness, this way it auto dims the main screen when the lights turn on.

 

Wonderful. I never thought I'd have a car that when there's a problem, if I were to call Honda Customer Support they would ask "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

 

The dimmer only works when the headlights are on and it may only work when the ambient light sensor indicates that it's actually dark out.