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I recently bought an adjustable bed base which has USB ports on both sides. Each port has a bright blue light that illuminates the whole bedroom at night. I don

I recently bought an adjustable bed base which has USB ports on both sides. Each port has a bright blue light that illuminates the whole bedroom at night. I don't use them so covered both with black electrical tape. Problem solved. I've had the same problem with several desk lamps that lit up the world with that blue light even when turned off. I returned a couple of those immediately. But I looked through the reviews for all of the above and the issue wasn't even mentioned. I thought I was one of the few weirdos that care. It's nice to read here that I'm not alone in this. But we have to complain enough to make the manufacturers care.

saargrin 3y ago
ive done this for all the phone chargers in the house
mcv 3y ago
Please do add your own review. It's bizarre that manufacturers think unnecessary lights, and especially bright blue ones, are a good idea. Manufacturers have fallen a bit too much in love with blue leds. I've got to admit, the desktop cases I got from Fractal Design also use bright blue leds. I didn't think about it until I had guests sleep in that room.
hollerith 3y ago
You are definitely not the only one.
bdavbdav 3y ago
I often wonder that when I use certain products. “How can this obviously terrible design choice not be reflected in reviews?”
- dqv 3y ago
  I think it comes up in at least some product reviews, but where it's glaringly obvious, it doesn't show up in the reviews because people purposely look for products that aren't like that. Buying a TV for my bedroom, one aspect of the search would include looking in the manual and seeing if has a suppressible standby light or checking for a non-aggressive standby light color. An unrelated example is that, at Target stores in the US, there are these (paper) notebooks/journals/diaries that have writing on the front that label them as such. The designs are really nice, but the labels make it ugly - as many people who chose not to buy the product will say "why do I need it to say journal on the front? I know it's a journal" and "I don't want to use it as a journal... I want to use it as a cookbook!" In this way, the reviews self-select only for people who don't care about the labels. They should really have antireviews where people can write why they didn't buy the product. It would give sellers some kind of signal that there's an issue with their product or its documentation causing people to avoid it.
  - aulin 3y ago
    > one aspect of the search would include looking in the manual and seeing if has a suppressible standby light or checking for a non-aggressive standby light color as if modern TVs had manuals or that was an information listed on any modern appliance manual
  - xapata 3y ago
    > some kind of signal Low sales is a signal. Also, they can hire a UX researcher.
    - dqv 3y ago
      I realize I wasn't clear about that - these notebooks are well-liked and have tons of positive reviews. There is no low sales signal, because people who don't care about the labels still buy the notebooks. It's that they're missing more sales from the people who don't buy them because of the ugly labels on the front. That would be the same with TVs, the only way a TV maker would really know is if they sold a "bedroom TV" and saw no one was buying it or it was getting a lot of returns for the LED indicators being too bright. Even then, if you have consumers who are cognizant of bright LEDs and can't find any information about it, it might still not be indicated in the sales that certain consumers don't want it. Will they even know to hire a UX researcher? But even then, as just a consumer, antireviews would be super helpful.
      - Fluorescence 3y ago
        I imagine the signal they measure is AB test / throw crap at a wall type scale i.e. they trial lots of lines of product and scale-up and restock those doing great margin/numbers and drop those that don't. They don't care too much about subjective product picker's design opinions or user reviews - if it sells, it's stocked. I also expect the demographic they are selling to are impulse buyer notebook neophytes. The lettered purpose on the front triggers those buyers. They buy the product and put it to one side, never to use it. Repeat buyers that care about the notebook design probably turn to specialist brands they multi-buy online.
      - 3y ago
- ryandrake 3y ago
  I'd love to hear from someone in the consumer electronics business to weigh in on how this happens. Who in the design chain wants LED lights on everything? Probably not engineering--it's more work for them. Probably not the business managers--it adds unnecessary cost to the product. Is it the industrial designers? Do they simply have to have LEDs all over everything? Is it just dogma that everyone follows/accepts: "You have to have an LED light!" How does it happen?
  - Eisenstein 3y ago
    I don't think you need someone in the industry. It is added because without a light people don't think it is working, and the bright blue lights are tiny any cheap, and adding a way o dim them or turn them off is more expensive.
    - s1mon 3y ago
      Blue LEDs were a lot more expensive when they were first introduced than red, green, amber, etc. Putting blue LEDs on products was seen as premium or trendy, but by this point, they’re not as special, but they are still more expensive than other colors. White LEDs are typically blue LEDs with phosphor that is excited by the blue light so it emits white(-ish) light. White LEDs are often similarly priced to the blue LEDs they’re based on. [product designer who’s designed in countless indicator LEDs on products based on the product requirements and also often ends up adding tape or funtack over the LEDs on products to avoid blinking in the bedroom]
  - theamk 3y ago
    If I have to guess, support & engineering would be the main force behind LEDs. For example, you have USB port in the bed base, and it does not charge the cellphone, so you call tech support. With LED, it's simple. LED on -> "verify the USB port is not bent or damaged, check your cable, check your cellphone"; LED off -> "verify bed is plugged in, verify outlet has power". Without it? Much harder, especially if you are talking over the phone to non-technical person who does not follow the instructions. (I made a number of one-off home devices for my own use and there is almost always an indicator LED of some sort. Combined activity/power if I can make one, or at least a power one if it's impossible. Some of them are blue, because blue is a nice color and needs really low current to be visible)
disillusioned 3y ago
There's a brand on Amazon called LIGHT DIMS that sells differently sized stickers, in both ultra-dim and full-blackout forms, which do _exactly_ what they say on the tin, and it's amazing. I used the ultra-dim for the (white) temp display on my Dyson fan in my bedroom, and the blackout for the brighter-than-the-sun blue LED on my charger brick. Also used the dim one on a smoke detector because my 5-year-old thought it was watching her or something. They're absolutely great, and you can even keep a couple in your suitcase and fix horrible lights in hotel rooms or AirBNBs if you're so inclined.
- Mountain_Skies 3y ago
  Thanks for the information. I have a set of stickers for blocking camera lenses on tablets and phones but never thought to look for LED dimming stickers. Seems a bit obvious now but guess I'm so accustomed to using electrical tape that I never gave thought to another solution.
- disillusioned 3y ago
  Not sure if you can post AMZN links here, but it's this product and its cousin the blackout version: https://amzn.to/3RGV3My https://amzn.to/3RGV3My
  - OJFord 3y ago
    Within reason I think you can basically share any link, but there's probably a much higher than normal concentration of people that would prefer a tracking-less amazon.tld link here than elsewhere.
    - disillusioned 3y ago
      Ah, sorry about that, forgot my extension did that
  - theamk 3y ago
    I am wondering, why would you share affiliate link (;tag=robstah78-20;) instead of the direct link to the item ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLVEQCO https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLVEQCO )? The direct link is just barely longer and probably even faster to make (at least on the desktop) Are you hoping to just make some money from strangers? You cannot get much commission from the $1.50 item, so I am imagining you hope someone clicks on your link and then buys unrelated expensive item.. This feels really sleazy, does this bring you any actual money?
qwertox 3y ago
I hate electrical tape. It becomes sticky after some time, when it starts to smear because it got moved or stopped sticking to the surface. I bought a set of nail polish and use the black one to paint over the LEDs, it even allows you to control how much you want to cover it, in case you still want to have a bit of light to see if it's on or off. Other colors can be used to mark pins on breakout boards or cables. It's really useful to have around.
- bboygravity 3y ago
  Copper foil tape works well too.
- photonbeam 3y ago
  I use blu-tack putty, it’s opaque, easy to apply/remove. Its not flat though
- Eisenstein 3y ago
  Oil based paint sharpies are an alternative and useful for writing things with as well.
- MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
  > I hate electrical tape. Same. I’ve used aluminum tape to block LEDs, works great.
  - dtgriscom 3y ago
    Oh, yeah. Aluminum foil tape is an all-purpose wonder. It's often used for air ducts, although it isn't what you think of when you say "duct tape."
    - atahanacar 3y ago
      Duct tape is/was actually duck tape. Duck is the name of a fabric.
- yugioh3 3y ago
globular-toast 3y ago
Something similar: I recently bought a white noise machine for sleeping (a short term fix for noise at night). It has a bright blue LED that also lights up the whole room at night. You're literally for sleeping and you're going to illuminate the whole room with blue light?! One of the Amazon reviews did mention this. But I always see stupid bright LEDs that people haven't covered with tape so there are probably people sleeping with these on at night.

saargrin 3y ago

ive done this for all the phone chargers in the house

mcv 3y ago

Please do add your own review. It's bizarre that manufacturers think unnecessary lights, and especially bright blue ones, are a good idea. Manufacturers have fallen a bit too much in love with blue leds. I've got to admit, the desktop cases I got from Fractal Design also use bright blue leds. I didn't think about it until I had guests sleep in that room.

hollerith 3y ago

You are definitely not the only one.

bdavbdav 3y ago

I often wonder that when I use certain products. “How can this obviously terrible design choice not be reflected in reviews?”

dqv 3y ago
I think it comes up in at least some product reviews, but where it's glaringly obvious, it doesn't show up in the reviews because people purposely look for products that aren't like that. Buying a TV for my bedroom, one aspect of the search would include looking in the manual and seeing if has a suppressible standby light or checking for a non-aggressive standby light color. An unrelated example is that, at Target stores in the US, there are these (paper) notebooks/journals/diaries that have writing on the front that label them as such. The designs are really nice, but the labels make it ugly - as many people who chose not to buy the product will say "why do I need it to say journal on the front? I know it's a journal" and "I don't want to use it as a journal... I want to use it as a cookbook!" In this way, the reviews self-select only for people who don't care about the labels. They should really have antireviews where people can write why they didn't buy the product. It would give sellers some kind of signal that there's an issue with their product or its documentation causing people to avoid it.
- aulin 3y ago
  > one aspect of the search would include looking in the manual and seeing if has a suppressible standby light or checking for a non-aggressive standby light color as if modern TVs had manuals or that was an information listed on any modern appliance manual
- xapata 3y ago
  > some kind of signal Low sales is a signal. Also, they can hire a UX researcher.
  - dqv 3y ago
    I realize I wasn't clear about that - these notebooks are well-liked and have tons of positive reviews. There is no low sales signal, because people who don't care about the labels still buy the notebooks. It's that they're missing more sales from the people who don't buy them because of the ugly labels on the front. That would be the same with TVs, the only way a TV maker would really know is if they sold a "bedroom TV" and saw no one was buying it or it was getting a lot of returns for the LED indicators being too bright. Even then, if you have consumers who are cognizant of bright LEDs and can't find any information about it, it might still not be indicated in the sales that certain consumers don't want it. Will they even know to hire a UX researcher? But even then, as just a consumer, antireviews would be super helpful.
    - Fluorescence 3y ago
      I imagine the signal they measure is AB test / throw crap at a wall type scale i.e. they trial lots of lines of product and scale-up and restock those doing great margin/numbers and drop those that don't. They don't care too much about subjective product picker's design opinions or user reviews - if it sells, it's stocked. I also expect the demographic they are selling to are impulse buyer notebook neophytes. The lettered purpose on the front triggers those buyers. They buy the product and put it to one side, never to use it. Repeat buyers that care about the notebook design probably turn to specialist brands they multi-buy online.
    - 3y ago
ryandrake 3y ago
I'd love to hear from someone in the consumer electronics business to weigh in on how this happens. Who in the design chain wants LED lights on everything? Probably not engineering--it's more work for them. Probably not the business managers--it adds unnecessary cost to the product. Is it the industrial designers? Do they simply have to have LEDs all over everything? Is it just dogma that everyone follows/accepts: "You have to have an LED light!" How does it happen?
- Eisenstein 3y ago
  I don't think you need someone in the industry. It is added because without a light people don't think it is working, and the bright blue lights are tiny any cheap, and adding a way o dim them or turn them off is more expensive.
  - s1mon 3y ago
    Blue LEDs were a lot more expensive when they were first introduced than red, green, amber, etc. Putting blue LEDs on products was seen as premium or trendy, but by this point, they’re not as special, but they are still more expensive than other colors. White LEDs are typically blue LEDs with phosphor that is excited by the blue light so it emits white(-ish) light. White LEDs are often similarly priced to the blue LEDs they’re based on. [product designer who’s designed in countless indicator LEDs on products based on the product requirements and also often ends up adding tape or funtack over the LEDs on products to avoid blinking in the bedroom]
- theamk 3y ago
  If I have to guess, support & engineering would be the main force behind LEDs. For example, you have USB port in the bed base, and it does not charge the cellphone, so you call tech support. With LED, it's simple. LED on -> "verify the USB port is not bent or damaged, check your cable, check your cellphone"; LED off -> "verify bed is plugged in, verify outlet has power". Without it? Much harder, especially if you are talking over the phone to non-technical person who does not follow the instructions. (I made a number of one-off home devices for my own use and there is almost always an indicator LED of some sort. Combined activity/power if I can make one, or at least a power one if it's impossible. Some of them are blue, because blue is a nice color and needs really low current to be visible)

disillusioned 3y ago

There's a brand on Amazon called LIGHT DIMS that sells differently sized stickers, in both ultra-dim and full-blackout forms, which do _exactly_ what they say on the tin, and it's amazing. I used the ultra-dim for the (white) temp display on my Dyson fan in my bedroom, and the blackout for the brighter-than-the-sun blue LED on my charger brick. Also used the dim one on a smoke detector because my 5-year-old thought it was watching her or something. They're absolutely great, and you can even keep a couple in your suitcase and fix horrible lights in hotel rooms or AirBNBs if you're so inclined.

Mountain_Skies 3y ago
Thanks for the information. I have a set of stickers for blocking camera lenses on tablets and phones but never thought to look for LED dimming stickers. Seems a bit obvious now but guess I'm so accustomed to using electrical tape that I never gave thought to another solution.
disillusioned 3y ago
Not sure if you can post AMZN links here, but it's this product and its cousin the blackout version: https://amzn.to/3RGV3My https://amzn.to/3RGV3My
- OJFord 3y ago
  Within reason I think you can basically share any link, but there's probably a much higher than normal concentration of people that would prefer a tracking-less amazon.tld link here than elsewhere.
  - disillusioned 3y ago
    Ah, sorry about that, forgot my extension did that
- theamk 3y ago
  I am wondering, why would you share affiliate link (;tag=robstah78-20;) instead of the direct link to the item ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLVEQCO https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLVEQCO )? The direct link is just barely longer and probably even faster to make (at least on the desktop) Are you hoping to just make some money from strangers? You cannot get much commission from the $1.50 item, so I am imagining you hope someone clicks on your link and then buys unrelated expensive item.. This feels really sleazy, does this bring you any actual money?

qwertox 3y ago

I hate electrical tape. It becomes sticky after some time, when it starts to smear because it got moved or stopped sticking to the surface. I bought a set of nail polish and use the black one to paint over the LEDs, it even allows you to control how much you want to cover it, in case you still want to have a bit of light to see if it's on or off. Other colors can be used to mark pins on breakout boards or cables. It's really useful to have around.

bboygravity 3y ago
Copper foil tape works well too.
photonbeam 3y ago
I use blu-tack putty, it’s opaque, easy to apply/remove. Its not flat though
Eisenstein 3y ago
Oil based paint sharpies are an alternative and useful for writing things with as well.
MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
> I hate electrical tape. Same. I’ve used aluminum tape to block LEDs, works great.
- dtgriscom 3y ago
  Oh, yeah. Aluminum foil tape is an all-purpose wonder. It's often used for air ducts, although it isn't what you think of when you say "duct tape."
  - atahanacar 3y ago
    Duct tape is/was actually duck tape. Duck is the name of a fabric.
yugioh3 3y ago

globular-toast 3y ago

Something similar: I recently bought a white noise machine for sleeping (a short term fix for noise at night). It has a bright blue LED that also lights up the whole room at night. You're literally for sleeping and you're going to illuminate the whole room with blue light?! One of the Amazon reviews did mention this. But I always see stupid bright LEDs that people haven't covered with tape so there are probably people sleeping with these on at night.