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.

  • Doombot1@lemmy.one
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    4 days ago

    I usually use a little tiny piece of electrical tape, which should work unless the power button is absolutely minuscule. Desoldering it also works, but is more permanent.

  • Wahots@pawb.social
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    4 days ago

    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.

    • hactar42@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      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.

  • monovergent 🛠️@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    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.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    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.

  • lemonuri@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    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.

  • thezeesystem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 days ago

    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

  • ReakDuck@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    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.

  • lost_faith@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    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.