Automotive Lighting

Automotive lighting fulfills three important tasks in motor vehicles: illuminating the road in the dark, communication with other road users and contributing interior comfort.

The primary function of lighting is to illuminate dark areas. Only due to dipped beam and main beam light, a vehicle can be moved safely at night and without reversing light, accident-free reversing would be virtually inconceivable.

Indicators, flasher lights, brake lights and limiting lights all have one thing in common: they serve to communicate with others by emitting warning signals.

During a turning process, for example, the change in the direction of travel and the braking of the vehicle that usually accompanies it are signaled. Without these signals, the following road users would hardly be able to react in time to avoid an accident. The lighting system therefore also fulfills a safety aspect.

The interior lighting of vehicles is mainly for comfort. It makes getting into the car easier and is helpful when inserting the ignition key or when searching for various things in the interior.

These three short examples illustrate the importance of the lighting system in vehicles. Malfunctions pose a danger to vehicle occupants or, rare simply, annoy in terms of comfort. Therefore, not without reason, perfectly functioning vehicle lighting is a prerequisite for successfully passing the main inspection. A defective lamp or relay is not always the reason for malfunction. Cable breaks or ground faults can also occur in practice, but are far from being as easy to identify and rectify as a defective lamp.

In order to be able to detect more profound faults, the complex system of the lighting unit must be understood. This includes the ability to read and implement a circuit diagram, the application of electrotechnical principles and knowledge of how the individual luminaires work and how they interact.

How diverse the learned knowledge is practically tested strongly depends on the concept and functionality of the laboratory equipment. With regard to this concept, the new „Automotive Lighting“ system from ETS DIDACTIC GMBH sets new standards, especially if intensive training is to be carried out as quickly as possible. Despite new technologies such as CAN-bus or Xenon, the basics of vehicle lighting must also be understood.

And this is exactly where the new system comes in: it concentrates on the basic teaching of automotive lighting.

With the fault simulators integrated on all boards, practical malfunctions such as cable breaks or ground faults can be simulated and their effects, detection and rectification can be practiced and the basics can be intensified. The simulators are covered so that the simulated faults cannot be identified by looking at the circuit, but they must be found by interpreting the malfunction and by measurements. With the simulator, it is possible to simulate faults independently and this reduces the pressure on the instructor.

Unlike in other applications, the system could be placed on only 10 boards by using clever choice of components. A space-saving, practical and, above all, budget-friendly system was created.

The circuitry of the components is realized by 4mm safety connecting leads and bridging plugs. The system is supplemented by the courseware offering specified practical experiments in the student edition and, practical experiments with solutions in the instructor's edition, reducing the preparation time for the lessons.