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.
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.
Blue LEDs are the worst offenders. No need to return it as long as you keep a bit of black tape ready. If you still need it as an indicator, you can use layers of yellowish tape. The one used while painting your walls works great. Masking tape it’s called in English.
I am also a hater of unnecessarily bright lights. In your shoes, presuming I’m happy with the product otherwise, I would paint over it with a bit of nail polish.
You can get polish in any color you want these days, and it’s very cheap. It dries fast and it comes with a very small brush. You can apply one coat, see if the led still shines through too much, apply another coat 15mins later once the first layer is dry. Repeat.
Edit: seeing the photo I realize the shape it has. Be careful with the polish if you use it, one coat or two probably will be okay on the inner surface but don’t add more or the button may get stuck. Also wait extra before even daring to test button functionality, you don’t want the button scraping off semi dry polish.
I might just open the thing and paint over the actual LED.
That’s a good idea if it’s an option
I opened it up and coated it with a sharpie. It’s good enough.
Likely not, it seems wasteful if the product is otherwise good in all other important regards. I’d just cover up the LED with tape or paint.
lol, I know this pain. about 20 yrs ago i bought a shiny new pc case and expected the red leds, it had 2 super bright blue leds that were either solid on(power) or flashing(drive activity), this pc was next to my bed pointing across my bed. the entire room was lit by these and hard blue circles were projected on the wall. ended up taping a cardboard strip over them.
You could dab it with a little paint or glue or something.
I either tape the things with Isolation in dark to see nothing or the Painters-Tape which is yellow and partly lets light through.
But colored isolation band lets the light through a bit too.
I suggest getting something like LightDims: https://www.lightdims.com/index.php
Yes
I’ve not returned an item over it, but I’ve often wondered if there was a market for a company which de-LEDs items.
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.
I’ve had good success with small pieces of electrical tape cut so that a very small part of the LED is still exposed.
