Instrument Panel (IP) Dimmer Control

WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2018 Jaguar XE and 2017 Jaguar XE. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.

The dimmer rotary thumbwheel controller is located adjacent to the headlamp leveling control (if equipped) in the auxiliary lighting switch. The dimmer control provides a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) output to control the illumination brightness of the IC, switches and other IP illumination.

The dimmer rotary thumbwheel is connected to a rheostat and a high side switch. The rheostat is a variable resistor which provides a high or low resistance according to its set position. This output is passed to a switchable capacitor or a high side switch. The high side switch uses the output from the rheostat to determine the switching frequency of the capacitor which provides the PWM output of between 8 V and 12 V to determine the brightness of the illumination.