Dim Out failure mode? SPOF?

[John Bright]

Dim Out… I’m wondering what happens if it is used to control screen brightness and backlighting on other devices… is this an SPOF that could make everything go dark? Maybe better to think in terms of partial panel operations and independent brightness controls.

 

[Rhino]

If you're speaking of the DIM OUTPUT on pin 26 of the Skyview, it doesn't control backlighting of other devices. It's used to control things like panel lights, so they dim along with the HDX. It only works with LED lighting that uses a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal for dimming. It is not a variable voltage, such as what's produced by the SV-KNOB-DIMMER. It's actually a switch to ground that gets turned on and off to create the pulses.

 

[Rhino]

I will amend my previous remark by saying the pin 26 output could control other backlighting if the other device accepts an external PWM dimming input. To my knowledge, few do.

 

[John Bright]

Thanks Rhino,

I had to remind myself that the Skyview Dim Output is open collector PWM to ground.

It took some studying for me to understand how the IFD440 dimming works. https://pilotsupport.avidyne.com/kb/article/99-ifd-dimming-setup-tutorial/

Maybe the Dynon Skyview, IFD440, and GMA245 built in light sensor dimming functions will work well. I’ll leave space on the IP to allow adding dimmer knobs later.

I’m thinking I’ll have separate dimmer controls for other lights like glareshield LED strips, map lights, and interior lights.