LEDs.

[Dhalin]

Just as the title says, LEDs.

Okay, I suppose I should elaborate a bit more on that.

I just recently obtained a new piece of electronic hardware (computer-related).

Of course, for some reason unknown to me, those who manufacture such wonderful devices decided that they should have _the_ brightest lights one could imagine, and that said lights should flash on and off repeatedly.

The device in question just happened to be a router this time. Of course, there are no flaps or anything to hide the annoying blink blink lights, there's no way to shut those lights off when you don't need to see them, etc.

But Routers are far from the only annoying things:

Speakers. Seriously, do I need this _really freaking bright blue light_ to tell me that the speakers are on? I can _hear_ that they are on, thankyouverymuch.

Monitors. Again, if the Monitor isn't on, I think I would.. eh... notice that?

Modems. Okay, so sometimes you get DC'd from your DSL/Cable, etc... have a light that lights up only when a connection problem occurs and the rest of the lights, allow us to turn em off.

Motherboards.

Seriously, LEDs on _motherboards_? nice, anytime my computer is running, these bright mobo lights are shining out the computer's fan ports and lighting up the whole room... urrrrrgh.

These lights aren't normally annoying, unless.....




........Unless I'm trying to SLEEP at night! Seriously, some people need to place their computer hardware in their bedroom. I'm one such person, and for me, the only things I could find that could cover these stupid lights, are black cloth, IE, socks. So my desk (and anything electronic) is either turned off, or has socks laying ontop of it, infront of it, etc to cover up these stupidly bright blinding lights. Seriously, ONE of these LEDs alone lights up the room enough that you can clearly see in the room at night.

I've tried using thin cardboard, tape, etc... nothing else seems to work to block the lights.

I just don't get this love affair electronics manufacturers have with stupidly bright LEDs. My alarm clock is visible from where I'm laying, but yet, it doesn't light the whole room up. Why can't they use lights like those?

[Frith-Rae]

Whle I don't really have any LEDs that do this -

You said you tried tape - did you try duct tape?? No, really, I think they make black duct tape too maybe that would work better than socks (Or at least be smaller than socks heh).

[Solitaire]

Permanent ink Sharpie. Failing that, a bit of Testors black model paint and a fine brush to get into those small places or to trace words and symbols. I used that kind of paint to paint out the half inch long curved plastic that had a super bright light behind it to tell me that my laptop's wireless adapter was on.

[Steelclaw]

You can always de-solder (or cut off) the offending LEDs inside the equipment. Installing a current-limiting resistor to dim the LEDs to a bearable level is also possible.

Solitaire's suggestion with the permanent marker is probably easier though -- and easier to undo. Rubbing alcohol will remove most permanent marker.

[Dhalin]

The sharpie marker would work on some of the LEDs, but others...

The ones on my router, I _need_ to see sometimes, like if the net doesn't appear to be working. I don't want to permanently remove the LEDs (that and I'd be voiding my warranty if I opened the thing up and modified the LEDs lol).

Black Duct Tape? Never heard of it... I know there's electrical tape, but like I said, I need a solution I can easily undo in a pinch.

I will, however, definitely keep the other solutions in mind, for those lights I don't need to see. Still makes me wonder why they need to make them so dang bright/piercing though.. lol.

One thing I did find that does work... cigarette cartons come in this somewhat thin cardboard. If it is dark blue, or red, it will block out Most of the light. But since I'm not a smoker, and some cartons don't have the entire carton being that color, sometimes it is difficult to get ahold of a big enough piece. That's what I used to have on one of my routers and it worked decently. Been trying to get ahold of a piece big enough for this router, but haven't had any luck yet.

Once I find a suitable piece, all that remains is to put a little tape, and I could tape it to the front of the router. If I need to see the lights, I simply flip the cardboard away from the router. Since the cardboard would not be covering any vents (unlike a piece of cloth, which also traps heat), it shouldn't overheat like my router sometimes does if I forget to take the sock off it in the morning when I get up....

[Solitaire]

Get some window tint then. Though it might cost a bit more but if you can find some scraps of it somewhere you should be able to cut it up to fit nicely on the router's panel. If you ever need to remove, just peel and done.

[Steelclaw]

Hmm.. aluminum foil with small holes poked in it so you can *barely* see the LED?

[TheGolden Dragon]

Sharpie just the middle, leave the edges. LED is placed in middle so it will block out the most light emitting element while leaving the reflections on sides good enough. A thick dot in middle of LED plastic cover will do.

You would go mad in my room.
2x2 paired Cold cathodes 30cm, 40xLED belts, 3xLED laser lights, full sized shiny glowing keyboard and blue shiny strip under laptops cover makes a hell of a light show I got! Not mentioning router, AP, monitor's LED's and my colour-changing mouse.. yep.. you would go mad here

[Steelclaw]

WARNING: May cause seizures!

[Dhalin]

I don't have a problem with the LEDs by themselves -- it is only a problem when the lights are off and I'm trying to sleep, lol.

But I'll try this stuff sometime soon, when I get some time.

[Whyspir]

Sounds Like my Dlink dir 655 router,
My Living room is like a pink floyd lazer light show at night!!!
Those have to be the Brightest Blue LED's in history!!
My Neighbor accross the street even commented one day "Man you all have some funky lighting in there at night lol.
I wound up cutting a strip of Black limo tint and sticking it over the front of the router..Worked well..Toned them down to satisfactory Luminesence

[Blue Hasia]

all electronics should come with an led on/off toggle switch

you spoke of pcs..most new pcs now come with an option to control the led lights on them like my hp sever has led lights on it and i can control the colors and brightness lvl of them via a control panel

now fans are really annoying...I bought a 16 port gig switch for my place but in the info for it it never spoke of an internal fan. when i got it and plugged it in it sounded like a house hold floor fan unit at full speed...stupid thing can be heard from across the house even with the door shut to my media closet. i have to unplug it every night or I will not fall asleep

[velveeta]

ah, fans - don't get me started...
my vid card fan started to go about a year ago (on my desktop) and the grinding sound can be heard on all floors of the house. if i have to leave it on overnight for scans and updates, etc., it makes it noisy to sleep thru....
not worried about damage, i gots 3 working fans in the thing, but the noise can make you crazy while gaming if you don't tune it out with something else...

[Dracana]

Call me old fashioned but when I was building my current system it took effort to find a case that didn't have overly bright LED's. It's good enough that I have a powerful system I don't need it to land planes thank you. The case I chose still has LED's but they are minimal enough that I can sleep with them (the power strip I use has a brighter LED). Most of the time I sleep with most of my computer stuff off still because my optimal conditions for sleeping is dark and cool.

As for fans my computer is actually pretty loud because of the three 120mm fans and the fact that I still use the stock CPU fan (there is also a power supply fan and a video card fan but you can't really hear them). Fortunately the case fans aren't too bad because they produce white noise which actually sometimes helps me to sleep.

[Dhalin]

Call me old fashioned but when I was building my current system it took effort to find a case that didn't have overly bright LED's. It's good enough that I have a powerful system I don't need it to land planes thank you. The case I chose still has LED's but they are minimal enough that I can sleep with them (the power strip I use has a brighter LED). Most of the time I sleep with most of my computer stuff off still because my optimal conditions for sleeping is dark and cool.

As for fans my computer is actually pretty loud because of the three 120mm fans and the fact that I still use the stock CPU fan (there is also a power supply fan and a video card fan but you can't really hear them). Fortunately the case fans aren't too bad because they produce white noise which actually sometimes helps me to sleep.

The problem with my current setup, is that it has a *giant* fan on the computer's left side (if the front is facing you) and through that fan, you can see the three LEDs on the motherboard (something I can't control).

More and more motherboards are coming out with LEDs on them (though I couldn't tell you why -- I've never once needed to look at those LEDs for anything in the entire 2 years I've owned this mobo). I have the thing turned sideways because of desk room issues, so the lights shine straight out into the rest of my room. blargh. And yes, Cool and Dark are the best sleeping conditions, and sadly to achieve that in the summertime, I need an AC and I have to cover up all of the stinkin' LEDs everywhere.

Like I said in my original post -- electronics companies are going nuts with LEDs. The 'landing the plane' analogy is a pretty good one -- these dang things shine brighter than a nightlight. And with them blinking on and off constantly (router/modem LEDs), they get quite annoying.

If I wanted a Christmas Tree in my room, I'd put one up.

[Charys Stormchild]

We have our computers in the dining room so wouldn't be a problem for sleeping anyway...but are we the only people that turn our systems off at night??

[Veruliyam]

Nope.

[Dhalin]

We have our computers in the dining room so wouldn't be a problem for sleeping anyway...but are we the only people that turn our systems off at night??

There are multiple computers and people living at my household.

Given I'm the only one with any tech knowledge, the router is in my room (as I was the first to actually *use* the internet). Given that the router supplies the rest of the house with DSL access, all of the computers have to be connected to it, and I need it to be running 24/7 (also why I have it hooked up to an APC unit), hence my annoyance with its bright, flashing lights.

My computers, I always turn them off when I'm not using them unless I am downloading large files. They'd be way too noisy and produce way too much heat for me to leave them running full-time.

[Spirit]

I can totally relate to you Dhalin. The last pc I built was a noisy little (well pc sized anyway) blighter, but it had the most insane blue leds on it that I wasn't aware of at purchase. However I was prepared to forgive it for being such an awesome aluminium case otherwise. It had a 12cm fan that had to be used to keep my system cool anyway, and that wasn't quiet.

As for led's generally... urgh... yeah totally over-used these days, especially when Blue led's became cheap to make. My router is covered in bright green ones, my present (and silent) dell sensibly has pretty dim blue ones, my land line phone has a super-bright yellow one when it's in its dock. I used to have an HP ZD series laptop that was covered in blue led's... my present asus one has sensible lights on it, and as such I use it to download stuff overnight as neither the lights or the noise (there is none) causes any sleeping problems.

May I suggest black coloured insulating tape to tape over the offending led's? Just remember to change the tape every month or so, as the adhesive goes all weird after a prolonged time and may prove hard to remove. The same applies to tape generally, but especially so for duct tape and insulating tape.

Rakku