Police Lighting Feature write up

So, played around with the "Police Lighting" feature in AlphaOBD. Here are the details that I've been able to work out with my 2017 RAM Laramie Limited - this may or may not apply to other models or years, and may not cover every feature - these are just the ones I know of:

1) Instrument cluster, all knobs, ambient lighting, and possibly radio (will update tonight) go completely dark, with the exception of the digital speedometer gauge and other info in that center part of the instrument cluster - NOTE: The dimmer knob must be turned all the way to the left for this to happen. CAUTION: At night: You will not be able to see the analog speedometer, oil, battery, fuel, transmission temp, odometer, or tachometer around the digital speedometer in the center. See #2 for more info:
2) The digital speedometer/vehicle info, towing, trip odometers, etc., can be hidden (center of the vehicle instrumentation panel): if you push the up/down buttons on the steering column, and get to "Vehicle Info" - an EXTRA page is present to right after the Hours driven and idle page. This page is basically a "blank page" that is black, and when selected, there is almost no ambient light - note that the center does not go completely black - there is still back lighting, and whatever minor gauges you have configured for the corners, and the cruise control still are visible.
3) When the dimmer light is all the way left, and the "Blank Screen" button is pushed on the center console, the radio goes completely dark - as in there is no backlighting in the screen - like turning off the power to a monitor. This is different from normal civilian radio-stack behavior - which only presents a blank screen with dim backlighting. This has always driven me up a wall - If I want the screen off, I want it completely off - no backlight, nothing.
4) Drivers overhead map light - Goes into extra dim/night light mode and present only the dimmest possible lighting when the dimmer knob is all the way left. The passenger overhead map light does not turn on at all if the dimmer knob is all the way left.
5) Passenger doors do not unlock when using the auto-unlock feature by grabbing hold of a door handle - only the driver's door unlocks. To unlock the other doors, either press the unlock button on your key fob, or press the unlock button on either of the door controls in the front (driver or passenger).
6) Rear windows only roll up/down if the driver rolls them up/down. They do not roll down with the associated window up/down button.
7) Front passenger window does roll up/down with the front passenger window control.
8) MTF - but I believe the DRLs (if you have them or have enabled them) do not turn on. Will update tonight.
9) I will verify the following tonight: Bed LED lighting and bed cargo light; brake, CHMSL, Tail marker, Hazard, Headlight, fog light, turn signals below certain speeds being "off". I heard that if they are off when you start driving, they won't turn on till 15 or 20 MPH is reached - but I doubt the source.
After testing, these lights do not drop out or stay off at low speeds when first starting up. I believe this has to be enabled using a 3rd party vendor after market system.

Activating: To activate, you'll need an OBDLink MX+ or similar, and AlphaOBD. Using AlphaOBD navigate as follows (presuming you have successfully enabled and connected to your OBDLink MX+ at some point):

1) Put your truck's ignition into "Run" but do not start your truck
2) Open AlphaOBD
3) Connect using your preferred method (bluetooth is what I use)
4) Select the correct Body Computer Control Unit - for my 2017 RAM, it's the "Body Computer MY2016+ PowerNet".


5) Connect:


6) Select the Icon with the car hood that is up:


7) Click the Dropdown arrow next to "Procedure" and scroll down to and select "Car configuration change":


8) Click the dropdown next to "Select Option" and scroll down to and select "VehConfig3: Police Lighting Feature":


9) Click the dropdown next to "Value" and select "Yes", then click "Start". Once the BCM is scanned the current value will be displayed in the text section, and the "Start" button will change to say "Next". Click it. Now wait for a few seconds. Once the procedure is complete, you will see "Procedure Complete".


Congratulations - you've now got "police" lighting modes inside your vehicle.

Being able to completely turn off interior lights is how cars/trucks used to be ....forever. On long highway drives at night on rural or low-traveled interstate hwy's, I would frequently turn all dash lights completely off ...so I could best concentrate on the road. Esp to help spot darting deer/elk and other animals which could cause a very serious accident. NOT having that capability, (like most cars in the last 15yrs) I always felt was the loss of a good safety feature.

Glad you posted a way to do it.

Jeepwalker said:

Being able to completely turn off interior lights is how cars/trucks used to be ....forever. On long highway drives at night on rural or low-traveled interstate hwy's, I would frequently turn all dash lights completely off ...so I could best concentrate on the road. Esp to help spot darting deer/elk and other animals which could cause a very serious accident. NOT having that capability, (like most cars in the last 15yrs) I always felt was the loss of a good safety feature.

Glad you posted a way to do it.

Click to expand...

Exactly we live rural area and 90% of our driving is highway and deer are bad out here hit 2 deer this year truck first then jeep. My summer car has blackout deature for all dash lights and radio and its nice so im going to have to give this a try.