2019 Digitial Dash Brightness level

[Stuart W]

The only variable would me a minimum required voltage for the LEDs perhaps

[tj3964]

Originally Posted by redbaron73

I agree. Yesterday when Spencer told me he had not heard about the problem I jokingly told him to brace himself.

I am happy to see everyone jumping on board and letting newmar know there is an issue. It is easy to dismiss a single or infrequent issue. It is hard to ignore it when your phones light up with the issue.

I just got off the phone with Spencer (the Dutch Star Rep whose photo adorns the window) and we had a good discussion. He confirmed that he has only received one other complaint so far - yesterday.

We had a conference call with Freightliner - Dave York. Dave confirmed they are looking at it, their engineers are working with the vendor, and their major recall folks are now involved.

Dave was telling me the dash dims to 10%. Clearly he has never seen the dash dim. I told him while that may be true by whatever measurement they are using, to the naked eye it only dims by maybe 10%. He also said the dimmer affects other dash lighting like switches. I confirmed that as well but told him, as an example, that the Allison transmission gear indicator lights will either go so dim you can't see them during the day or completely dark. The Optiview remains a brilliant, reflecting orb in your face.

I also referenced in my complaint to NHTSA that others had made complaints. Spencer said until yesterday he was unaware of any other complaints. He did want to know where I found out about others and I referenced this forum. I told Spencer it was my feeling that few people drive at night an that may be impacting the complaint ratio. He said he thinks less than 25% of people drive their coaches at night.

Not to cloud the issue, and not related (yet) to the NHTSA issue, I mentioned to Spencer the headlights being pretty horrible. I told him I had replaced my bulbs with LED's from M4 and he seemed quite interested in a $70-80 fix.

In any event, I was left with the feeling that Newmar is very concerned. Freightliner was a little different but it may be their natural response as they are so much bigger and less personal of a company?

Lastly, notwithstanding this problem, we love our coach and would buy it again in a heartbeat! This is our 5th RV and fourth motorhome over 25 years and by far the best experience with an RV company yet.

[RHoop]

Just filed NHTSA and Freightliner complaints. See below for a laugh from Newmar CS. The first paragraph is from my email, the second paragraph is from their reply 9 days later.

October 1, 2018

"On another note, the glass dash doesn't dim enough for night driving. Is there a fix for that? The low beam headlights are very weak compared to modern cars, and the glare from the dash makes it very hard to safely drive after dark. I understand that I can replace the headlight bulbs with better ones, but I don't see why I should have to do this on a new vehicle."

Reply from Jeff Johndon, CS:

October 10, 2018

"This is the first complaint that I’ve heard about this but, we don’t have a lot of owners that drive at night. We would be happy to put you in touch with Freightliner to see if there is a way they can dim the dash more. As for the headlights, they are the same as used in an automobile and should be bright enough. It’s possible the headlights just need adjusted."

[RHoop]

Another thought: on my New Aire, the dimming switch also dims the lighting on the armrests, which is for sure a Newmar lighting system tied into the Freightliner circuit. Could that be screwing up the dash dimming?

[turbopilot]

Originally Posted by RHoop

Just filed NHTSA and Freightliner complaints. See below for a laugh from Newmar CS. The first paragraph is from my email, the second paragraph is from their reply 9 days later.

October 1, 2018

"On another note, the glass dash doesn't dim enough for night driving. Is there a fix for that? The low beam headlights are very weak compared to modern cars, and the glare from the dash makes it very hard to safely drive after dark. I understand that I can replace the headlight bulbs with better ones, but I don't see why I should have to do this on a new vehicle."

Reply from Jeff Johndon, CS:

October 10, 2018

"This is the first complaint that I’ve heard about this but, we don’t have a lot of owners that drive at night. We would be happy to put you in touch with Freightliner to see if there is a way they can dim the dash more. As for the headlights, they are the same as used in an automobile and should be bright enough. It’s possible the headlights just need adjusted."

Ok, let's clear up this "I never heard of the problem" statements from Newmar and Freightliner.

We had a complete discussion about this last March and I recall other discussions before that. Both IdleUp and I tried to get some traction but finely gave up.

See this post.

[redbaron73]

Originally Posted by RHoop

Another thought: on my New Aire, the dimming switch also dims the lighting on the armrests, which is for sure a Newmar lighting system tied into the Freightliner circuit. Could that be screwing up the dash dimming?

If you go into the diagnostics screen, you should see the brightness level change from 100% to 10%.

Mine does, but the amount of light reduction does not equate. That tells me that they have values that are wrong

Example:

MAS: 100
MIN: 90

So 10% would equate to a value of 91% brightness.

The min value should be something much less than it is now.

Also in regards to glass dash regulations, my BMW is a FULL DIGITAL glass dash, same as this mercedes/freightliner. My BMW will dim very low, and the color scheme is such that it does not affect driving at night.

I know that BMW's are meant to be driven (their slogan is "The Ultimate Driving Machine") but I would assume that Mercedes/Freightliner would not want to adopt a slogan of "Daytime use only".

Right now, with the headlights and dash issue, it is UNSAFE to drive a 2019 Newmar Dutchstar on a Freightliner Chassis at night. I sure hope the word gets out and drivers plan ahead and don't get stuck on the road after dark until this is fixed.

[turbopilot]

Originally Posted by redbaron73

Also in regards to glass dash regulations, my BMW is a FULL DIGITAL glass dash, same as this mercedes/freightliner. My BMW will dim very low, and the color scheme is such that it does not affect driving at night.

OptiView panel used by Freightliner is the same panel used in the S-Class Mercedes. Anybody got one for comparison?

[RHoop]

How do you display the diagnostics screen? Sorry for the dumb question. I think my 2019 NA lacks some of the display functions of the 2018 NA.
Thanks

[tj3964]

Originally Posted by RHoop

How do you display the diagnostics screen? Sorry for the dumb question. I think my 2019 NA lacks some of the display functions of the 2018 NA.
Thanks

On the Dutch Star it is a little House button on the right pad. If you hit the House (Home) it will take you to a list of options. Scroll down and you will see the diagnostics line. Enter that and you will be taken to the diagnostics screen.

[LabRat]

Originally Posted by turbopilot

Ok, let's clear up this "I never heard of the problem" statements from Newmar and Freightliner.

We had a complete discussion about this last March and I recall other discussions before that. Both IdleUp and I tried to get some traction but finely gave up.

See this post.

From this thread, it's clear many are talking to different people within the organizations (both Freightliner and Newmar) and maybe up until it his critical mass, the information was not spread. Also, last March the NA were the only coaches with this display, so the numbers were much smaller. Now that the rollout to other models has happened, there are just more potential complaints. Neither company now is saying they never heard of the problem. They are now well aware of the issue and now we must just keep on them for a resolution.

[turbopilot]

Originally Posted by LabRat

From this thread, it's clear many are talking to different people within the organizations (both Freightliner and Newmar) and maybe up until it his critical mass, the information was not spread. Also, last March the NA were the only coaches with this display, so the numbers were much smaller. Now that the rollout to other models has happened, there are just more potential complaints. Neither company now is saying they never heard of the problem. They are now well aware of the issue and now we must just keep on them for a resolution.

Just so we are all on the same page. OptiView was obviously designed from the beginning to be field upgradable. As you are talking to these folks remind them about this screen. It appears all we need is a USB stick with revised OptiView parameters. I really don't think this is a tough problem to solve but punching through to someone who cares is the real problem.

[redbaron73]

Originally Posted by turbopilot

Just so we are all on the same page. OptiView was obviously designed from the beginning to be field upgradable. As you are talking to these folks remind them about this screen. It appears all we need is a USB stick with revised OptiView parameters. I really don't think this is a tough problem to solve but punching through to someone who cares is the real problem.

I have found the RJ45 connection for the network interface, but I have not found the USB connection. Have you found this?

[LabRat]

Originally Posted by turbopilot

Just so we are all on the same page. OptiView was obviously designed from the beginning to be field upgradable. As you are talking to these folks remind them about this screen. It appears all we need is a USB stick with revised OptiView parameters. I really don't think this is a tough problem to solve but punching through to someone who cares is the real problem.

Yes, that screen. That's why some got confused when they talk about "turning down the back lighting". This is a digital screen, there is no backlighting like with a traditional instrument cluster.

[46490]

Originally Posted by LabRat

Yes, that screen. That's why some got confused when they talk about "turning down the back lighting". This is a digital screen, there is no backlighting like with a traditional instrument cluster.

Is this issue unique only to Freightliner? What about Spartan?