It may not be feasible in some cases (e.g. chargers) but unplugging devices entirely may be smarter than taping LEDs. Not every device needs to be in standby all the time. my granddad was obsessed with reducing power consumption and had built actual light switches into his living room walls that cut power for all TV devices at once. So in a way, the annoying LEDs also serve as a reminder that there’s a device consuming energy that we may not even be using 90% of the time.
Fixing annoying blue standby lights
211–220 of 257 posts
Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
I often wonder that when I use certain products. “How can this obviously terrible design choice not be reflected in reviews?”
I think it comes up in at least some product reviews, but where it's glaringly obvious, it doesn't show up in the reviews because people purposely look for products that aren't like that. Buying a TV for my bedroom, one aspect of the search would include looking in the manual and seeing if has a suppressible standby light or checking for a non-aggressive standby light color. An unrelated example is that, at Target st…
> one aspect of the search would include looking in the manual and seeing if has a suppressible standby light or checking for a non-aggressive standby light color
as if modern TVs had manuals or that was an information listed on any modern appliance manual
Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#213Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why is it that manufacturers go for blue or bright white LED indicators? I don't know but I'm sure allergic to red. I don't understand why so many devices are using red for standby or even to indicate work (I'm looking at you Raspberry Pi). To me red is "blood" and blood is "bad". Red means error. Thankfully some devices, like ethernet switches, are using proper colors: green for trafic, orange for "degraded" link…
For me red is pomegranates. A very happy colour. I suppose that colour preferences may be cultural.
I don't know: red seems to be the color of blood, a bad omen to witness. Green is the color of grass, quite okay. Blue is the color of the sky and yellow of the sun. Colors are not absolutely random I think, and could just as well cross cultural boundaries. But maybe "preferences" are sort of subjective: China really likes yellow and red a lot more than France for instance, even if they have the same meaning sort of (the red communist flag does suggest the blood of the people for both culture, for instance, and yellow does seem "valuable" for both as well - we like our gold statues just as much in both).
Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just travel with a mulberry silk eye mask. Seems to do the trick.
Since you went into such specifics (could have just sad eye mask/sleeping mask), why the specific mention of mulberry silk?
I find non-mulberry-silk ones quite bothersome texture wise, as opposed to pleasant.
Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#216I recently bought an adjustable bed base which has USB ports on both sides. Each port has a bright blue light that illuminates the whole bedroom at night. I don't use them so covered both with black electrical tape. Problem solved. I've had the same problem with several desk lamps that lit up the world with that blue light even when turned off. I returned a couple of those immediately. But I looked through the review…
ive done this for all the phone chargers in the house
Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate electrical tape. It becomes sticky after some time, when it starts to smear because it got moved or stopped sticking to the surface. I bought a set of nail polish and use the black one to paint over the LEDs, it even allows you to control how much you want to cover it, in case you still want to have a bit of light to see if it's on or off. Other colors can be used to mark pins on breakout boards or cables. It'…
I use sticker note tape for these. There are colord variant of it, which comes blue/red/green/yellow. They are tapes, so you can decide how long it is required, while being easily removable without leftover because it is sticker note. Something like these: https://images.app.goo.gl/aCK31v9x8Ea2uE7P6
Those tapes (which I sometimes describe as just the sticky part of a sticky note) are also great for labeling when you want something that takes ink/pencil more nicely than masking tape.
Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I hate electrical tape. Same. I’ve used aluminum tape to block LEDs, works great.
Oh, yeah. Aluminum foil tape is an all-purpose wonder. It's often used for air ducts, although it isn't what you think of when you say "duct tape."
Duct tape is/was actually duck tape. Duck is the name of a fabric.
Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#219[dead]
Re: Fixing annoying blue standby lights
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
The light on the end of a Dell laptop power adaptor is like that. I tried multiple layers of electrical tape, colouring it in with a sharpie and even painting over it and nope, that bastard light cannot be dimmed. My main complaint is when using the laptop in dark bed to read ebooks and it is utterly blinding. I end up folding a bit of duvet over the bloody thing.
i drop a towel over my laptop if i need to leave it charging overnight
That sounds.. not great, for li-ion batteries. Like you want to stress test the safety circuits which avoid thermal runaway.