iPad too bright at night - FIX

[FlyDave]

I've been frustrated flying at night with the iPad display because it's just too bright - it is almost blinding in a dark cockpit. So I went looking for some sort of a screen protector or some sort of light filter that I could put over the iPad screen at night to dim it further than the stock lowest setting.

What I found was the following iPad/iPhone setup "trick". It worked great tonight with the lights off/dark room. I don't think it will be perfect but it's definitely a big improvement over the stock slider settings.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-dim-your-ios-screen-with-an-accessibility-setting-trick/

Dave

[Marauder]

Nice post Dave! I use the Garmin Pilot app and switch it to dynamic maps and night mode to deal with this. Your technique allows me to keep it on the original charts! Nice.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tony]

• If you go into "settings" , then "Display and Brightness" you can turn off auto brightness.  Then  you can manually the brightness down to something you will like at night.

[FlyDave]

Chris,

Garmin had implemented this in Pilot a few years ago when I started using it. But they removed this feature - I think because it darkens the screen so much that if you shut down with it in this mode and turn the iPad back on in bright light you can't see the screen. At least with the home button triple tap feature you can make out the screen enough to get to the slider. Or, if you shut down at night, be sure to do the triple tap and turn up the brightness a little before shutting it off.

Dave

[Marauder]

Chris,

Garmin had implemented this in Pilot a few years ago when I started using it. But they removed this feature - I think because it darkens the screen so much that if you shut down with it in this mode and turn the iPad back on in bright light you can't see the screen. At least with the home button triple tap feature you can make out the screen enough to get to the slider. Or, if you shut down at night, be sure to do the triple tap and turn up the brightness a little before shutting it off.

Dave

Not sure which feature Pilot removed. I still have a "night mode" that works with the dynamic maps. I find it handy when I know I will be flying in low light conditions. Here are the screen shots;

Normal IFR dynamic map:

Selecting the "night mode" from the menu:

Night mode:

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[Ned Gravel]

I have used Forefilght in the triple-tap night mode and it works fine. 

[kpaul]

I don't use the triple tap because I don't like inverted approach plates and it makes the VFR charts have odd colors.  I instead just swipe up from the bottom of the iPad and slide the dimming slider all the way to the left.  I even fly that way when using NVGs and does not interfere with visibility.  If you forget that it is dimmed down the next morning it will be very hard to see anything on the screen in daylight.    

[FlyDave]

13 hours ago, Marauder said:

Not sure which feature Pilot removed. I still have a "night mode" that works with the dynamic maps. I find it handy when I know I will be flying in low light conditions. Here are the screen shots;

Normal IFR dynamic map:

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Chris,

The extra dim mode described in the article I listed was implemented in Garmin Pilot when I first used it. But they eliminated it shortly thereafter. I don't remember if it was an option under settings or just the left most position on the slider.

Dave

[cnoe]

I quickly read this and didn't see if anybody mentioned Foreflight's secondary screen brightness control available in settings. Once you turn the iPad's native brightness all the way down you can dim it even further within settings.

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[FlyDave]

1 hour ago, cnoe said:

I quickly read this and didn't see if anybody mentioned Foreflight's secondary screen brightness control available in settings. Once you turn the iPad's native brightness all the way down you can dim it even further within settings.

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cnoe,

I didn't know that FF had implemented this. I think they do tend to stay a step or two ahead of Garmin on features. I can only speculate that Garmin eliminated this extra screen dimming due to users complaining that the couldn't read anything on the iPad screen after this was turned on and not off before shutdown.

Dave

[FlyDave]

PIREP: I flew 2.5 hours with Garmin Pilot on Friday night and this change made the iPad Air 2 usable at night instead of a blinding nightmare.