Daytime vs Night display on Garmin GPS

Go to settings, display, color mode and click daytime mode.

Thank you. I will follow your instruction.

If you use it on daytime mode for night use it is to bright and distracting

I agree, it is also better on your eyes, no eye strain.

Ray

My first gps( garmin i2) did not have a night setting. I had to reduce the brightness at dusk and return to a day setting each morning when traveling. As stated by others the auto dusk setting reduces the distracting bright light emitted by the gps. It's a major improvement to have the auto dusk feature.

gusb

Add me to the list. I tried using a dimmer day-time screen as well, but it simply wasn't as easy to see as the night-time screen (in my opinion). But that's why they have those setting... to let you do your own thing!

car has accent lightning inside, those blue luminescant types, the dim is the way to go. It's easier to see the gpsr dim because some of the major roads I travel on are highlighted.

I have mine set to auto. But how does it know when t change the display?

Depending on your unit, this is programmed in my Garmin. Other units have a daylight sensor which measures the ambient light and switches over to night mode.

Daylight Sensor? I thought they all just had daylight savings when clicked on auto and the sats would tell it to change at x time after sun-up/down?

Day light savings time.

The unit changes the display based on when sunset occurs. At least that's the way my 76CSx works and I assume the other units work the same way. The 76CSx has calendar screens that tell you sunrise/sunset, phase of the moon, etc. Since the data is available I'd guess that, even though there isn't a calendar screen on the 760, it still has has access to the data.

That's what I thought as well...however, on my 760, the screen changes to night mode even when there's 30 minutes to an hour left of sun peeking over the mountains.

Does anyone know if there's a way to manually set the time of day/night that the screen switches brightness?

I thought the calendar feature was how it operates also but when I heard sensor that measures light (which I would assume would be a camera eye), I have not seen one of those yet.

Yeah - mine switches at "Dusk" or "Dawn" according to DST. You can normally find the exact times on any weather site.

I actually saw it switch between modes while I was driving for the first time the other day. It was pretty cool.

I agree night mode is easier on the eyes and less distracting.

Mine changs the same time everyday, 5:15 give or take a minute.

My understanding is that it changes a half hour or so before civil twilight.

Does anybody else but me seem to think that there is less detail in night mode than in daylight mode?

As I recall, most of the detail (lakes, parks, etc) is dark/black in night mode.

Stay out of the lakes at night, don't you know they're dangerous?

Seriously, I imagine the reduced detail is to help reduce the overall distraction. After all, isn't that what the night display is all about?

The auto mode switches the display according to the time of day and the time zone that you are in. It switches when it is officially "dusk".

Set it the way that works for you...if you don't like the way it looks in night mode you can switch it to day mode and it will not change. Personally I like the night mode as it is less distracting at night.

I like the fact that it switches modes automatically. My buddy's built-in nav in his Civic turns to night mode when the headlights are on -- annoys the heck out of me.

Now that's pretty lame. It would annoy me as well. It would be especially annoying in cars that run the headlights all the time!

I do remember reading about some brand of GPS that used a light sensor to determine when to switch to night view. The reviewer liked that as it would switch even when driving through a tunnel at noon and then go back to day view when you came out.

Or a grimlin that lived in the unit....

I have a built in system in a Lexus and it must work on some type of photo cell because if you have it set to auto if you go through a long tunnel it will change to night mode.

There is a setting to change it to auto.

my stock navigation display change background color when headlight turns on or off.

The main display of my Tesla switches background color at dawn and dusk, the same time as my Garmin.

I think.. it is programmed into the map

If your headlights come on also, then it's tied to the car's electronic sensor.

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For all the others that use a Garmin standalone GPS unit, it's tied to the Time Zone you're in and the time of day. The GPS satellites know the sunset/sunrise times and the unit makes the calculation based on your location.

I think tunnels are built into the map and it will go to night mode in the tunnel. Even some long underpasses seem to go into night mode. I don't think one can trick it into night mode by placing it in a dark spot.

It would appear from these replacement instructions that the nuvi 3590 has a light sensor. Maybe other models that seem to change automatically also have a sensor that we are unaware of.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Garmin+n%C3%BCvi+3590+LMT+Light...

Although the site you link does appear to suggest a light sensor that can be replaced, no where else I can find does, not Garmin, GPS City, nowhere could I find a light sensor in the description/features of that, or any other, Garmin GPS. I know the GPS's I have have to dark mode regulated by sunset and sunrise time, and as part of the map.

In my area there are two relatively long underpasses, both equally as dark, one the map changes the other it does not.

Basically the same unit as John from PA, mine is the 3790 with a bigger screen. Yes my 3790 will go to night mode entering a tunnel and switch back to day mode when coming out.

An interesting test would be to put the GPS in a light tight enclosure to see if it goes into night mode. FWIW, I would have thought that it would make more sense to tag the tunnels on the map rather than using a light sensor.
Mark

Most Garmin units that do that are doing it based on the map for 'tunnels' & GPS time for going from day to night and the reverse, (sunrise and sunset times) not light.

Trying some sort of test, as baumback mentions, just to see if those tunnels you mention are marked on the map as opposed to being light activated would be interesting to see.

Have to agree it would be an interesting test. If we were placing bets, I would bet on the side of it being in the map rather than a light sensor. That said, I don't know the answer. But it would be fun for someone to perform the dark room test on the model(s) in question and prove otherwise.

I tested my 2689 this morning by placing it in a hard sided black vinyl case. After driving for about 5 minutes I peaked into the case and the screen was on the daylight mode. I'm therefore inclined to believe that the 2689 looks primarily at tunnels, etc. that are programmed into the map but the other criteria would be sunset and sunrise time. As a former Naval Officer I can tell you that the calculation of sunset and or sunrise is easily accomplished once latitude and longitude are known. And I was doing the calculation back in the late 1960's using tables from Bowditch's American Practical Navigator and a slide rule. Gotta be easier today!

I cannot test this out again since it happened to me on my route in Mexico. Since Covid started I find that I can fly first class cheaper than driving what with fuel costs, motels etc.never mind the return trip of 10 or more days.

Just a thought, but turn the gps on, outside, let it run for a few minutes then put it in a dark box or something similar, leave it there for a few minutes then take a quick peek and see if the screen is dark or light. Of course you would need to do this after sunrise and before sunset. If it changes inside the dark box, then it does in fact change partly because of a sensor.