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.
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.
Yes
A sharpie also works.
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.
No, one of my mesh WiFi routers is in my room and too bright at night, I just put tape on it. Problem solved.
Every modern router that I’ve worked with has an option to turn the lights off at night. Does the control panel of your router have that too?
The xbox Button on my Elite Controller is too damn bright when i play in darkness. Ive put black electric tape over it and i‘m happy.
I think I remember finding an option to dim that.
Yes but also I’ve just put electrical tape over many an item.
The RGB craze is the worst.
Amen. I do love LEDs since their dawn and have a big-ass collection. But on every single stupid computer thing? I don’t wanna pay extra just because my mouse can have stupid rgb-lights. Or my damn RAM. It adds absolutely nothing, costs more and has another part that will go broke.
I hate the rgb-craze…
One my Xbox controller’s light is so bright it could power our solar-panels. I had to put multiple Band-Aids on it 🫤
Yeah it sucks that I sleep in the same room as my computer. It’s damn near impossible to find a case without RGB.
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.
Press on the tape?
The problem is it’s a weird recessed button.
I would find this very annoying.
Nail polish might work.
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
Mask off the dock one spray of spray paint in just the LED resses
Yes. Return rate influences future product design.
I’ve use a black sharpie to “tint” LEDs before. Your mileage may vary though, depending on the kind and shape of LED.
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.
You could dab it with a little paint or glue or something.
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.
Returning it seems extreme to me… But I’m happy modding things like that.
Stick a piece of paper or card over the button/LED such that you can still depress it… Iterate/repeat until you’re satisfied.
I have never heard anyone claim returning something is “extreme” before. It’s so mild it should be one of the first options you consider, especially when you ordered online and didn’t get the chance to see the item before purchase. You shouldn’t get saddled with shit just because there’s some “feature” you hate which you weren’t aware of when you bought it. For that reason where I am you’d have a legal right to return almost any order within 14 days of receipt no questions asked, or longer if there’s a defect.
I meant extreme for this very specific case. If every other features of the product is satisfactory for OP then dumping the whole product is extreme.
No product is perfect in every way for every customer. Modifying a product that you’ve already bought is an entirely reasonable thing to do.
Tell me you are not in New Zealand, without telling me you are not in New Zealand.
I suggest getting something like LightDims: https://www.lightdims.com/index.php
Nail polish. Couple layers of black and you can tune in how dark you want it
