Disable KIB backlighting?

[MapNerd]

Anyone know how I might disable the backlighting on this? There is no backlight button like some of the others have. Maybe there is a wire I can cut? It’s way too bright at night.

 

[lostinfla]

Ours must be an older style, but there is a button to turn off the backlighting in each section of the coach. Strange there isn't one on yours.

 

[flyboy013]

I have the same issue for the 1/2 bathroom. There is no button to turn the backlighting off. I’ve been looking at commands that can be sent on the VBUS to turn this particular switch’s backlight off, but no luck to date.

The switches have 3 wires: power, ground, and VBUS (communications). I believe that someone put a switch on the power wire in order to turn the backlighting off. Of course, this disables all functionality of the switch. So you could install some sort off on/off switch (somewhere) that turns the power on/off.

 

[MapNerd]

It’s the half bath on ours too. Some of the other switches do have a backlighting control but they only disable backlighting for that particular switch.

 

[lostinfla]

If nothing else, it wouldn't be hard to fabricate some sort of cover like a drop down cloth to cover it at night. I used to turn them off at night in the living area, but have learned to live with them on. The BR is always off at night.

 

[Neal]

Can you replace the switch with one with backlighting control?

 

[flyboy013]

I don't think so. The backlighting isn't controlled by a physical button per se. You press the button and it sends a command to the control panel. The control panel then responds with a command to turn the light off.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

The backlighting isn't controlled by a physical button per se. You press the button and it sends a command to the control panel. The control panel then responds with a command to turn the light off.

That’s true in our 2018 Mountain Aires, but I don’t believe the Ventanas use the SilverLeaf control system. I think they are controlled at the switch level.

Probably a dumb question, but has anyone asked Newmar about this? Surely, one of their techs would know.

TJ

 

[flyboy013]

The Silverleaf and KIB systems are independent, although there are a few modules that takes a KIB command and passes it to the Silverleaf system. An example is turning the water pump on/off.

In the MA, the lights and shades are controlled by KIB with no interface with Silverleaf.

 

[MapNerd]

I asked Newmar and they asked KIB. Unfortunate response below:

So the short answer is no, it cannot be done easily or at all. This is because depending on the age and year of the coach, backlighting works differently in different coaches. This is all determined by what the Newmar requests were for those years and those coaches. Backlighting is usually setup by regions throughout the coach with one of the switch in the region controlling backlighting in that region. This is all setup by the programming each part is initially set with and cannot be changed. Not all switchs can or do have backlighting buttons. Hope that helps and answers your questions.

 

[flyboy013]

@MapNerd Well ... I'm happy ? ? ? to say that I finally figured out how to turn off the panel backlighting for the 1/2 bath. It had bugged my wife to the point that she had thick paper covering the switches and the paper had the names of the button written on it. I had an incentive to figure it out, and I just did. I have now setup my coach to automatically dim the backlight at 8pm and turn if off at 9pm. Then turn it back on in the morning. All times are configurable.

As you may know, I have built a Smart RV system for my Mountain Aire ... complete with Alexa and Siri integration. It allows me to monitor and manage nearly everything thats accessible via Silverleaf and KIB. While my primary incentive for this development effort was for my personal use, I have developed the capability to so that it can be used by others. I plan on attending the Newmar International Rally in West Virginia in July and hope to show it to Newmar as well has coach owners.

 

[MapNerd]

I don’t have silverleaf. Any chance it would work for me?

 

[flyboy013]

Most definitely. The system interfaces with both the KIB and RV-C (Silverleaf) networks. Obviously the capabilities are limited to monitoring and managing the devices that are on the network(s) its plugged in to.

For my coach, I control the shades, lights, water pump, exhaust fans, and KIB panel backlighting via the KIB interface. Basically those thing you can control from a KIB panel. It’s my belief that different year and model coaches probably have a different addressing scheme and possible devices, so additional work is required on my part to ensure that the coach specified stuff is user configurable. Given that I only have one coach, I’ve been limited in this area.

 

[MapNerd]

Let me know if you want to test on a 2020 Ventana

 

[Mgriffith67]

Most definitely. The system interfaces with both the KIB and RV-C (Silverleaf) networks. Obviously the capabilities are limited to monitoring and managing the devices that are on the network(s) its plugged in to.

For my coach, I control the shades, lights, water pump, exhaust fans, and KIB panel backlighting via the KIB interface. Basically those thing you can control from a KIB panel. It’s my belief that different year and model coaches probably have a different addressing scheme and possible devices, so additional work is required on my part to ensure that the coach specified stuff is user configurable. Given that I only have one coach, I’ve been limited in this area.

Let me know if you want to try this on a 2016 DSDP 4369

 

[SteveMA]

Love to try on our 2020 4569 MA. Really want to also work on the somewhat irrational user page set up on the KIB LCD touch panels in our 2020 MA. example - We can turn some lights or function on/off from only specific panels, and not others... Like... getting to the bathroom lights, which are as far back in the bathroom from the entrance is down right silly. At night we take a flashlight to go to the bathroom. Kinda like when we were tent camping a few decades ago.
Flyboy013, PM me, would love to talk. I own a company that does very sophisticated control systems for Fortune 100 installs with a full design and development team as well as manufacturing from custom pieces to 10,000 pc runs. Been thinking for some months about how to resolve the next generation of coaches to avoid the rather messy way that the higher end coaches are currently cobbled together with cable and devices that are really not keeping up with the state of control electronics.