DRL LED Bar brightness boosted using Forscan

[ROBB1]

I don’t.. I can take a look. It’s percentage is hex to dec.

Am I right in reading there were early builds that had full brightness? If so possibly we pull a vin and look at what is there on those?

I’m sure there are people on here that better understand PWM than I do. My understanding from fuel systems is you have to increase the duty cycle if you increase the demand? I could be way off base but if you’re looking to increase the brightness wouldn’t the duty cycle also need to be increased?

Just my thinking and it could be wrong

Jesse you maybe on to something. I myself experienced the flicker and rolled back to normal. It is not a consistent issue it just appears randomly. In DRL mode they run full bright normally and no one reports a flicker, the difference with this change is they would normally dim with the headlights on, but now stay full bright. Myself and the others that have experienced the flicker all seem to have the protector headlights. I’m starting to wonder if this mod along with the higher power demands of the projectors are what is causing this issue.

Duty cycle might fix it, but it might also burn out the LED (increased effective current). My understanding is the PWM controls the effective current flow to the load. So in theory increased load should require an increased duty cycle all other thing remaining equal. In reality the load required for the DRL leds has not changed with this mod. Full bright with head lamps should require the same current as full bright in DRL mode. Now the total load on the BCM with the headlamps, parking lamps, and DRLs is the difference from my perspective. We may be bumping up against the max output of the BCM with this mod and projector/ adaptive headlamps. All leds flicker, but too fast for the human eye in normal circumstances in this case the frequency is lowering to the point it’s visible.

The odd part is everyone only reports one led strip doing it at any given time. I never see it reported as both sides or both fog light drls. I’m not sure if we are borderline on the max capability and the weakest link then exhibits the flicker or what and it’s damn near impossible to reproduce the flicker on command to troubleshoot.

Sponsored

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

Ok, so the current Duty cycle for Brightness is 64 in hex which is 100 percent.

The dim is 0A which is 10 percent.

That is the same for XLT and Projector. So I dont know what to think. Not sure if the dim is the issue? Since when the lights are on they are supposed to dim and the duty cycle is too low now they stay at full bright?

Is the flicker only present when headlamps are on? If so possibly turn the Dim to 64 also?

THis is just thinking out loud

 

[Nightshade]

This is interesting. Ford really out done themselves with the higher electronics in this gen honestly.

 

[antho]

It’s possible as the dim cycle is default but I’m not too sure however most people just dislike the dimming of the LED bar honestly. I know why ford dimmed it due to the “complaints” some owners received via getting flash-back from the previous gen models but so far, loving it and no flickering on my end since the change. I’m not sure why only a few people are having this issue.

There are numerous people posting about the flickering in the raptor forum, f150 forum, ford trucks forum, 14th gen forum etc. Not sure why you still think this is just a few people.

There was one that reported one of the headlight led bar was flickering, which is beyond me.

98% of the complaints are the headlight LED bar.


The original issue was that the DRL would remain active instead of dimming to "parking" lights when you manually switched from autolamps to Headlamps on.

 

[ROBB1]

Ok, so the current Duty cycle for Brightness is 64 in hex which is 100 percent.

The dim is 0A which is 10 percent.

That is the same for XLT and Projector. So I dont know what to think. Not sure if the dim is the issue? Since when the lights are on they are supposed to dim and the duty cycle is too low now they stay at full bright?

Is the flicker only present when headlamps are on? If so possibly turn the Dim to 64 also?

THis is just thinking out loud

I need to go back and look at it closer, but I think the “mod” basically cuts out the dim completely, so that duty cycle no longer matters. However, what may be worth a try is setting dim duty to say 80 or 90% and see if it gets rid of the flicker, but still achieves basically the same result.

 

[Nightshade]

There are numerous people posting about the flickering in the raptor forum, f150 forum, ford trucks forum, 14th gen forum etc. Not sure why you still think this is just a few people.



98% of the complaints are the headlight LED bar.


The original issue was that the DRL would remain active instead of dimming to "parking" lights when you manually switched from autolamps to Headlamps on.

Well not to be rude but for one I don’t have that much time to look at all the forums in existence related to the flickering hence why I only posted it in this forum because it’s a popular one. There’s no need for me to go into a Raptor forum for example, if I don’t own one. I only see the issues that are reported and commented under this thread, that’s why I said I only see a handful on basis from what I see here.

Yes that’s true, the LED bar remains active, whether it’s on switch 2 (parking mode) or with low beam headlights on (auto or switch 4). The LED bar remains unchanged in any switch you have it in and overrides it to stay full. I would need to look back at the cycle in more depth but should achieve the same result as @ROBB1 said.

 

[antho]

Well not to be rude but for one I don’t have that much time to look at all the forums in existence related to the flickering hence why I only posted it in this forum because it’s a popular one. There’s no need for me to go into a Raptor forum for example, if I don’t own one. I only see the issues that are reported and commented under this thread, that’s why I said I only see a handful on basis from what I see here.

Yes that’s true, the LED bar remains active, whether it’s on switch 2 (parking mode) or with low beam headlights on (auto or switch 4). The LED bar remains unchanged in any switch you have it in and overrides it to stay full. I would need to look back at the cycle in more depth but should achieve the same result as @ROBB1 said.

Right. I just googled the issue. Took maybe 20 mins. That way i could see if it was a wide spread issue vs a single forum thread. I originally found this code for the raptors and a few folks reported the issue so i removed the info. I hae a feeling there are quite a few folks that dont even notice it. I didnt notice a issue until one night after driving 12hrs. I reverted back months ago and havent really messed with it. Its hard to see the flicker if your driving and your headlights are on. Only way i noticed it was a reflection off of a window.

 

[abd79]

From my experience my flickering has been in any mode except where the headlights are in the off position. It doesn’t happen immediately either, I can do some further testing and document my findings if it’d help.

 

[Nightshade]

Right. I just googled the issue. Took maybe 20 mins. That way i could see if it was a wide spread issue vs a single forum thread. I originally found this code for the raptors and a few folks reported the issue so i removed the info. I hae a feeling there are quite a few folks that dont even notice it. I didnt notice a issue until one night after driving 12hrs. I reverted back months ago and havent really messed with it. Its hard to see the flicker if your driving and your headlights are on. Only way i noticed it was a reflection off of a window.

Was yours the headlight or fog light? I always leave the truck running most of the time even hours a day, which is always in switch #2; not sure if I’m lucky or not but I haven’t seen it flicker yet, knock on wood. I do know some super duties do have the issue as well but not all of them.

 

[Nightshade]

From my experience my flickering has been in any mode except where the headlights are in the off position. It doesn’t happen immediately either, I can do some further testing and document my findings if it’d help.

Not sure but any help would help! Would be a lot easier for me if I have someone near me that has a flickering issue so I can look into it more and play around a bit but so far, none of my friends on my F-150 team, who owns 21s and 22s that did this mod, has flickering yet. Maybe you can help if you can? This would be interesting.

 

[antho]

Was yours the headlight or fog light? I always leave the truck running most of the time even hours a day, which is always in switch #2; not sure if I’m lucky or not but I haven’t seen it flicker yet, knock on wood. I do know some super duties do have the issue as well but not all of them.

Headlight strip. I have had the DRL to include parking lamps. I'm not sure if i had them set at the same time as the full brightness but that could possibly be an issue.

@abd79
You happen to have DRL to include position lamps?

 

[abd79]

Here is mine flickering.

 

[abd79]

Headlight strip. I have had the DRL to include parking lamps. I'm not sure if i had them set at the same time as the full brightness but that could possibly be an issue.

@abd79
You happen to have DRL to include position lamps?

No change from factory DRL setting. Only change was to brightness.

 

[antho]

I need to go back and look at it closer, but I think the “mod” basically cuts out the dim completely, so that duty cycle no longer matters. However, what may be worth a try is setting dim duty to say 80 or 90% and see if it gets rid of the flicker, but still achieves basically the same result.

I think thats worth a shot. I may try this out tomorrow. I have the DRL Lamp Circuit Usage set to Fixed DRL Position. I think its worth seeing what ramping up the duty cycle on the DIM cfg does. If it does work, It honestly seems like the proper way to do it. Listed values below for easy access

DRL_Ckt_FixedDim_DutyCycle_Cfg
726-38-01 xxxx **xx xx--

64 =100%
5A = 90%
4B =75%
32 = 50%
19 = 25%
0A =10%

 

[Nightshade]

I think thats worth a shot. I may try this out tomorrow. I have the DRL Lamp Circuit Usage set to Fixed DRL Position. I think its worth seeing what ramping up the duty cycle on the DIM cfg does. If it does work, It honestly seems like the proper way to do it. Listed values below for easy access

DRL_Ckt_FixedDim_DutyCycle_Cfg
726-38-01 xxxx **xx xx--

64 =100%
5A = 90%
4B =75%
32 = 50%
19 = 25%
0A =10%

Definitely report back and hopefully this fixed the flickering issue most people seem to be having. ??

Sponsored