Coding Anti-Dazzle and Variable Light Distribution

[gtgoff]

Good news - I got some components of Glare Free High Beam working last night - specifically, the high beam LEDs are now operating in brightness stages when coming up behind other cars (ie, they’re dimming to half brightness) and then sometimes fully deactivating for oncoming cars that get closer. They’re not yet using lighting zones (ie, turning on or off individual high beam LEDs) but I’m still hopeful on that one too if I can find the right things to enable.

Has anyone else had some success yet?

[tongsli]

Good news - I got some components of Glare Free High Beam working last night - specifically, the high beam LEDs are now operating in brightness stages when coming up behind other cars (ie, they’re dimming to half brightness) and then sometimes fully deactivating for oncoming cars that get closer. They’re not yet using lighting zones (ie, turning on or off individual high beam LEDs) but I’m still hopeful on that one too if I can find the right things to enable.

Has anyone else had some success yet?

Did you code your vehicle to activate? can you bring the rest of us up to date? I have not read the other forum posts yet.

https://www.bimmer-tech.net/bmw-idrive-coding/. Anti Dazzle headlight coding for $125.00

"Want to keep your high beams on when driving at night without the risk of blinding other drivers? Our anti-dazzle BMW coding will make it possible! A 15-minute remote coding session with our technician is all it takes to turn your LEDs into intelligent light distribution sensors.

With this option your vehicle will recognize cars approaching from behind or in front of you and turn on and off certain beams to maintain your high visibility while avoiding releasing a beam of light into the trajectory of other cars."

https://youtu.be/G4uWDX6XGK0

https://youtu.be/ITx6bev6P8E

shows coding using Bimmercode

https://www.2addicts.com/forums/showpos ... ostcount=5

[frictioncircle]

"Want to keep your high beams on when driving at night without the risk of blinding other drivers? Our anti-dazzle BMW coding will make it possible! A 15-minute remote coding session with our technician is all it takes to turn your LEDs into intelligent light distribution sensors.

What a future we live in – they can remotely turn my light-emitting diodes into sensors!

I only shake my head in wonder at these times.

[alohart]

shows coding using Bimmercode
https://www.2addicts.com/forums/showpos ... ostcount=5

Ours is a 2019 U.S. i3 with the Technology + Driving Assistant package which includes 5AC High-Beam Assistant and 5A4 LED Headlights with Extended Scopes. It also includes options 5AP Decoding Anti-Glare High-Beam Assistant and 8S4 Decoding Variable Light Distribution which disables advanced headlight features standard in other markets like being able to turn off some of the 4 individual LED's in each high-beam headlight to reduce glare rather than switching to low beams. If your i3 doesn't have these options, it apparently has LED headlights that don't implement these advanced features so they cannot be activated by coding.

I rarely drive at night on dark roads at highway speeds, so I rarely use the high beams. However, I would like to activate the advanced headlight technologies that the headlights on our i3 apparently implement. It isn't worth paying someone to do this remotely, so I'd like to try doing it myself.

I've never owned a BMW vehicle other than an i3 and am not really familiar with various types of coding. The computer scientist in me concludes that VO (Vehicle Order) coding is top-level coding that could change the values of multiple coding parameters in multiple modules, something that BimmerCode cannot do. VO coding is required to cancel options 5AP and 8S4 directly. However, BimmerCode might be able to change the values of coding parameters that options 5AP and 8S4 set.

The post at the above URL claims that options 5AP and 8S4 change the values of 3 coding parameters in the FEM Body module which doesn't exist in an i3. I found these coding parameters in the Body Domain Controller (BDC) module. These are the changes that I made using BimmerCode in Expert Mode:

Code: Select all

Body Domain Controller (BDC)

Enable Enable Variable Light Distribution (VLD)
    3073 LaMaster1->C_AFS_ENA: set to I001_enable (0x01)
    3073 LaMaster1->LUT_FLC_FORWARDLIGHTING_Y: set to I001_mit_AFS (0x9C 0x9C 0x9C)

Enable Glare-Free High Beams (GFHB)
    3073 LaMaster1->C_HBA_ENA: set to I001_enable (0x01)

There seem to be several choices for values of each of these parameters. However, if you look at the numeric values, there are only 2 values for each parameter. BimmerCode lists several textual descriptions of these values that appear to reference various BMW vehicles. Before I paid attention to the numeric values, I chose values whose textual descriptions begin with "I001", the i3 model. I then noticed that changing the "I001" value also changed the values of the textual descriptions beginning with "F015", "F045", "F056", and "M013".

I made these coding changes and verified that the headlights still function correctly However, in about 2 weeks, I'll be storing our i3 for 3 months while we travel internationally, so I probably won't be able to test these changes at night on a dark road at highway speeds with some traffic. If you'd like to activate this advanced headlight functionality and your i3 has the necessary adaptive LED headlights, please report your experience.

[websterize]

Thanks for, uh, shedding some light on this puzzle. I'll edit those three lines of the BDC_body module and post if anything changes.

One question: Did you see the headlights pan after your coding, as someone wrote at the bottom of that 2addicts post?

How do I know if the coding worked?

To verify that VLD is enabled:
Start your car's engine and turn on headlights using the automatic setting
Put your car in drive, you should see your left beam pan to the left
Put your car in reverse, you should see your left beam pan toward the right

On my 2020 with the Adaptive headlights, as coded from the factory, when I follow the procedure above, the headlights move down and slowly up (leveling check maybe?), but there is no panning side to side. I wonder if yours now pan.

[mojo]

On my 2020 with the Adaptive headlights, as coded from the factory, when I follow the procedure above, the headlights move down and slowly up (leveling check maybe?), but there is no panning side to side. I wonder if yours now pan.

Based on what my car does (2021 vehicle, UK spec, with Adaptive Headlights - options S552, S5AC, S5AT) I don't think "pan" is the right word to use here.

If I follow the suggested procedure (put into Reverse, then into Drive), the headlights do *not* pan as such. All that happens is that when in reverse, the leftmost of the headlamp's four elements lights up more brightly. When back in drive, that element goes dim again.

I haven't yet seen any evidence that full-spec adaptive headlights are able to steer left and right on the i3.

[websterize]

I haven't yet seen any evidence that full-spec adaptive headlights are able to steer left and right on the i3.

You might be right.

OK, Art, I coded the three lines you posted above and the high beams still work. Will see how things shake out on some silent country roads this evening. More to come.

[websterize]

Good news - I got some components of Glare Free High Beam working last night - specifically, the high beam LEDs are now operating in brightness stages when coming up behind other cars (ie, they’re dimming to half brightness) and then sometimes fully deactivating for oncoming cars that get closer. They’re not yet using lighting zones (ie, turning on or off individual high beam LEDs) but I’m still hopeful on that one too if I can find the right things to enable.

Has anyone else had some success yet?

What settings, please?

[alohart]

On my 2020 with the Adaptive headlights, as coded from the factory, when I follow the procedure above, the headlights move down and slowly up (leveling check maybe?), but there is no panning side to side. I wonder if yours now pan.

No panning on mine. However, I wonder whether this panning behavior occurs with BMW adaptive headlights that are different from those in an i3. BMW seems to have installed several different adaptive headlights over the years.

I look forward to your report about driving at night. Try to find a dark road on which you could drive over 40 mph. I've read descriptions of adaptive headlights not being adaptive in brighter conditions and at slower speeds.

[mojo]

I've read descriptions of adaptive headlights not being adaptive in brighter conditions and at slower speeds.

That's certainly true of mine - if I drive into an area with streetlights then the main beams automatically turn off - and then turn back on again automatically when the ambient light level drops.