• OtherPWM
  • New car, LED screens/lights, PWM

tomek I can say that you may have a point with Volvos. My bosses XC90 seems ok when I am in the car with him. But i cant buy this one 😁, so I will have a look at a cheaper one to see how it is. Their displays seem more friendly in the eyes for me.

4 months later

valex13 In my job they will provide me as a company car the new Toyota Corolla. My wife has an older model and it does create me strain. Have you managed to somehow ease the discomfort with the Rav4? Thnx

+1 for Chevy Equinox, paper like feel. Matte TN, no glare, not too bright.

    daniel_mate at the car show, along with the forester, the equinox / terrain had the lowest strain screens

    someone else in this thread though had a bad luck with his Subaru where as the one he test drove was fine, so we can have panel lottery with our cars too :/

    I will be doing this dance soon. My problems are made worse because I want a very specific thing in a car. I am looking at the Subaru WRX and the VW Golf GTI because they have a manual transmission and are performance cars. I will also consider older BMW like 2015-2016. I haven’t even looked at Volvo yet although maybe they made a stick in 2019?

    The lighting on my 2014 Ford Fusion (Mondeo) hybrid screens was very bad for me at first but I adjusted. The lighting on my wife's Subarus (2015 XV/Crosstrek, 2018 Crosstrek, 2019 Forester) was an adjustment but now is fine. So I’m hoping even a 2021 WRX will be ok since it uses the exact same displays but as people have noted it is hit or miss.

    I was ok driving older VW's. A 2012 Passat was fine. The Golf GTI in the USA has not been refreshed like their other cars have sonic still uses components from 2017 era and I’m hopeful, as I spent some time driving a friend's 2016 with no issues.

      Gurm Subaru XV-Crosstrek purchased in 2019 and the dashboard lights are great, no impact at all from the first day.
      Same car purchased in the 2020, the dashboard lights are piercing my eyes. Tried it a few times because a colleague owns it. Dashboard lights are more bright than mine, even when dimmed. The dealership swears that 2019 and 2020 models are identical, but probably Subaru changed something.
      I think it is a good idea to sit in front of the dashboard for some time and see what it does.

      • Gurm replied to this.

        Peter I’ll definitely give it a try. The WRX tends to be leftover parts from prior years - it is basically unchanged since 2017 at this point - so I’m not too worried but I will definitely check it out.

        3 months later

        Peter

        Bad news - I bought a wrx and it definitely has bad strain for me that can affect me even 24 hours later. I’m going to trade it but now I don’t know for what. I’m looking at an older BMW - before they switched to digital screens (2018 has analogue dials and just one heads up screen in the middle above the dash) - and hoping it is tolerable, as their new (2019 and up) digital screens are reported to be bad. I can also consider Volvo - not brand new but 2017-2019 era - and although those are all digital people here have reported that they are acceptable…

        • mike replied to this.

          As an aside, if it is LED's in the dash/display bothering you, it is possible in at least some care to disassemble the dash, get to the PCB that drives the display, and unsolder/resolder in new LED's. I heled a friend do this in an old Mazda he had because he wanted everything blue, so we got the PCB out, removed all the red LED's, and put in blue ones.

          I do not know if you could replace actual screens, but from an electronics standpoint, as long as the new screen had the same pinout as the existing connectors (or you felt like wiring up an adapter) there's no reason it shouldn't work.

          • Gurm replied to this.

            ensete

            So I contemplated this. Not sure what the difference in screens is, but let's say I really loved the WRX and wanted to keep it and it was just ONE screen bothering me - I'd absolutely source that screen from a 2019 model and swap them.

            Where it's ALL the screens as well as the dials, I suspect there is some inverter that is shitty, or else the entire thing is driven by bad current, or … something.

              Gurm

              I was curious, so I looked into this. Apparently in the US it is the law since 2018 that all cars must have a backup camera. This means there never again will be a vehicle that doesn't at least have a cheap screen for the radio.

              That said, it seems that Mazda has made the conscious decision to eliminate touchscreens from their lineup in favour of button controls and I saw this intriguing blurb "The head-up display that top trims of the Mazda 3 get is now projected onto the windshield. The amount of time it takes the eyes to focus on the head-up display is greatly reduced because it’s now focused on a point 7.5 feet ahead of the driver."

              I've never seen a display projected onto the windshield and wonder how that might be for you.

              You should test drive the Dodge Challenger. It's an AWD and still comes with manual transmission which I think was part of your original ask.

              • Gurm replied to this.

                Sunspark

                I'm not sure I can justify a Challenger. ROFL but maybe!

                Mazda 3 is definitely on my list. Super fun car. I've softened on the manual transmission - I'm ok with VERY GOOD digital sequential, such as BMW or Audi's. (Although not ok with Audi's lighting…)

                tomek

                I'm going to drive a 2019 Volvo S60 and see what it's like.

                Gurm I’m looking at an older BMW - before they switched to digital screens (2018 has analogue dials and just one heads up screen in the middle above the dash) - and hoping it is tolerable, as their new (2019 and up) digital screens are reported to be bad.

                A couple of months ago i upgraded my car from a Volvo V70 -11 to a BMW 5-series 2020 with the new live cockpit (all big digital screens). Bad news, I got tension headache that wouldn’t disappear. I have a friend who has a 2018 5-serie, no troubles with his car. So my girlfriend drove and i sat behind her in the backseat, it worked. But driving wasn’t working because the live cockpit was in my field of vision. So after the three weeks with tension headache i sat in the car i the garage with one eye covered for 4-5 times x 12 minutes. After that it works for me!

                  mike

                  I'm glad to hear you adjusted! I also had serious strain from my wife's 2019 Forester when she first got it, and by a similar method - passenger seat, shielding one eye - I got used to it.

                  So I'm going to try to see if I adjust to my WRX, because it's a great car. But I'm not holding out much hope. I'm specifically going tonight to test drive a 2018 4-series without live cockpit, hoping that it will be nice, because I could really be super duper happy driving a 430i Gran Coupe for the next 10 years. 😉

                  I've also got a test drive scheduled for two Volvos from 2018 and 2019 (the 2018 is before they had 100% digital cockpit, the 2019 is with digital cockpit) to see if they are really as nice on the eyes as some here have said.

                  Either way, I have options.

                    mike

                    How long did you do that training for? A day, a week, a month, etc

                    • mike replied to this.

                      ensete

                      First i did training for 3 weeks back in Nov-Dec 2018 which gave me pretty good results. In the beginning of 2019 it took some time for me to go from a iPhone 4S with iOS 7 which was the only working phone for me to a 5S. In the summer I trained so I could use a iPhone 7. In the beginning of 2020 i bought a iPad Pro, had it a month, didn’t work so returned it. In the summer of 2020 I change to a iPhone 11 Pro, i had taking me around 9 month of training before I could use it. Then I bought a iPad Pro again and got it to work. After the summer of 2020 with all the training I discovered that with new screens i got tension, so i coverages one eye for 30-60 minutes with the new screen and then i worked. Have done it on 6-7 screens now and i am so happy for that.

                        mike

                        30-60 minutes one time, and it worked sae day? Or 30-60 minutes a day, then that was it, for some period of time, and then it was useable?

                        Sorry to bug you for more details but I still can't put together your exact training schedule and regime. Could you spell it out in very clear detail? How long per session, how many sessions a day, and how many days before training was no longer needed?

                        • mike replied to this.

                          Gurm

                          Nice to hear that you like nice cars. I have owned a couple of BMW M3, and drove them as they deserved. Back in 2007 i got the chance to drive with Colin McRae, a dream that come true. I have 2 friends that both have got BMW 440 Gran Coupe -18 for some months ago, they’re super happy. WRX is also a really nice car.

                          I keep my fingers crossed!

                          • Gurm replied to this.

                            mike

                            I love the WRX - handling, performance, everything - but it may not be… sensible… considering it's my only car most days and I have to do a lot of kid taxi service on questionable roads.

                            I am strongly leaning towards the 430i Gran Coupe - 440's are in short supply - from 2018 if my eyes can tolerate it (or 2017 which was Xenon instead of LED and had even better dashboard layout), they are really reliable as BMW's go and I can readily get one inside my budget with around 30k miles on it and in pristine condition.

                            I've never been in a financial situation to own an M car, but seriously an M440 is my dream - all that power but still civil enough to drop the kids off at school.

                            dev