I got a HDD dock from startech.com. It works great and does everything I need. The problem is it has the brightest goddamn blue LED I have ever seen. It is so unnecessarily bright. My eyes hurt looking in the same direction as it. What the fuck should I do? Return it? De solder the stupid ass LED? It works great aside from this one issue.
Edit: I opened the thing and drew with sharpie on the LED. It’s bearable to look at now.
removed by mod
Translucent cellotape over the led? Or small translucent plastic piece taped over it?
Not sure if it would affect air circulation tho
some good ideas here already. i just wanted to suggest that if ur going to open it, the option of adding a small resistor in series is also there. thatll lower the current going thru the LED and make it darker.
When I opened it there was room for the LED and not much else. It was soldered directly to the board. I did consider it until I saw inside.
You can get LED film off Amazon for like, $7. It blocks those annoying LEDs on tech devices, monitors, wall outlets, kitchen appliances, and my nemesis, smoke detectors with stupidly bright LEDs.
Best $7 you’ll spend this year.
This is where black electric tape can be your best friend.
I bought a keyboard from ThinkGeek that had an LED that would hit me right in the eye. A little piece of tape and that keyboard served me well for years.
Depends on the product and how inexpensive it is but generally avoid touch devices or anything with led or lights on them that are not needed because I don’t need a fucking touch display for something a button can do.
I bought a air fryer a week ago and couldn’t find one that had simple dials and buttons. It’s fucking disgusting and it’s so bright too. But hey, I can use it as a night light when I’m getting water I guess
I’ve use a black sharpie to “tint” LEDs before. Your mileage may vary though, depending on the kind and shape of LED.
Nail polish. Couple layers of black and you can tune in how dark you want it
I suggest getting something like LightDims: https://www.lightdims.com/index.php
Tape
The problem with that is the LED also functions as the power button.
i had a monitor like that once. big bright af blue power light baked into the power button, bottom center of the bezel. blue led was the ‘new’ thing back then. the barton-era matching pc (which i didn’t have) had a larger matching button on its front. if you know your '00s pavilions, you know the ones.
it was horrible. that monitor lived its entire life with a black piece of paper taped over the whole switch and light. i was not saddened when it finally gave up and failed to turn on. i was more annoyed that it took 15 years for it to fail.
Carefully trimmed sticker?
EDIT: Ah, I see you’ve handled it. Carry on, then.
Press on the tape?
The problem is it’s a weird recessed button.
Mask off the dock one spray of spray paint in just the LED resses
Loose piece of tape … then press on the weird recessed piece of tape
Tape a dry bean into the recess.
LMAO, maybe next time
This is a hilarious solution
Nail polish might work.
I would find this very annoying.
No, but I did case mod a computer for this once. My Fractal Node 202 my last computer is in has a very bright white power button LED, too damn bright. Fortunately in this case it’s a standard 5mm through hole LED standing up off the board on its leads a bit, bent to point out the front. So I bent it to point upward. Dimmed it down significantly.
I have marker pens and led dims so…no
My monitor had a bright blue power LED smack in the middle of the lower bezel. I took it apart on day one and brutally ripped out the LED, only then did I ever connect it to my computer.
Yes. Return rate influences future product design.
Tape
