This questions has bothered me for years:
Is the dimming of the display variable or does it just have bright and dim?

When the lights are off the display is bright, but when I turn on the lights (headlights) the display dims. When I try to dim the instrument lights it doesn't change until a certain threshold where it goes bright again (it thinks the lights are off).

Is everyone else's like this?

 

Mine was like that until I rewired it and substituted an Explorer dimming module.

 

Does the explorer ones use a pulse train to do the dimming? (change in duty cycle)

 

Ok I just saw in my Explorer Wiring Manual that the switch does in fact use PWM. So what are the advantages to the explorer dimmer compared to the ranger?

 

Although the 2nd Gen Explorer dimming modules have changed more than once over the years, I believe that all have two separate outputs, one PWM and the other some sort of variable DC. There may also be some internal differences in the consoles themselves besides the obvious change in display color from blue to green.

Similar to the early Gen2 Explorers, the 95~96 Ranger dimming modules also had both outputs from the dimmer. By contrast, the 1997~2006 Ranger used only a simple variable resistance to drop the DC output to all dimmable lights/displays. From the info I have, it looks like the 07~11 Ranger dimmer was changed to a solid state device with PWM output only.

I have heard that certain combinations of Ranger dimmer and Gen2 Ex console work OK together and others don't. With all the combinations possible, I guess this is not that surprising.

When I was having trouble with the dimming, I was using a 99~01 Ex console in a 2003 Ranger. Later, I swapped in a 99~2001 Explorer dimmer to match the console and modded the harness to mimic the Explorer wiring of the same years. No problems since.

 

So the explorer one you would have the variable DC to factory ranger things, but you would wire the PWM signal to the explorer add ons?

What explorer addons use the PWM signal? Obviously some OHC, but what about the EATC and Message Center?

 

There are inconsistencies in the way things are labeled in the 2nd generation Ex Wiring Manuals, so I question what is correct. Some years seem to say that the overhead console display is on the PWM side and others show it on the DC Out side. Different years show the labels reversed between the two dimmer output color codes and the later books show the circuit using both color codes on the way to the console.