Those Blue LEDs Are Keeping Me Awake And Suppressing My Immune System

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,67574,00.html">http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,67574,00.html</a><br /><br /><i>"When Australian applications consultant Martin Pot bought an LCD monitor last December, he got an unwanted extra: a dazzlingly bright blue LED, or light-emitting diode, just below the screen. Pot found the LED "distracting" and "annoying," and finally resorted to covering it up just to get some work done. A rare sight only five years ago, blue LEDs now seem to be everywhere: on laptops, DVD players, air ionizers and even toothbrushes. And they have some consumers seeing red."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2002/20020830-blueled.gif" /> :soapbox: <br /><br />I <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3207">wrote about this</a> almost 3 years ago and the situation has gotten much worse. My current Pocket PC has several green, red and blue blinking abominations. Our rec room looks like Mission Control in Houston with the blinking and solid lights from a 802.11g USB adapter on a TiVo, the cable modem, mouse, printers, power supplies, routers, etc. And the blue lights are the most annoying in the extreme. My old Media Center PC had a huge blue ring on it that looked like a blasted spotlight when you had all the lights out and were trying to enjoy a movie. It is ridiculous to have to disable my bluetooth stack on my XDAIII just to go to sleep, but I do because in a dark room, that LED looks like a flash of lightening. Manufacturers, they were cool several years ago (slightly), but enough already!

[SofaTater]

Funny you should mention this...

I just got a new Iomega 250Gb external hard drive for my Dell laptop. It has a bright blue LED that stays on ALL THE TIME! I actually thought this morning about taping a piece of black tape over it...

[OSUKid7]

My HP laptop and accessories have a lot of blue LEDs. I agree with you that blinking blue LEDs are annoying, but I don't mind the ones that are always on. It really gives my laptop (desktop replacement, for college) setup a nice look.

[EscapePod]

My wife's PC, at the far end of the house, is connected via Netgear USB Super G Wireless NIC, and has that damn flashing blue LED. What the heck were they thinking??? The Netgear USB G wireless NIC it replaced was on-solid blue LED -- I could at least "tolerate" that. Idiots!

[Ed Hansberry]

Funny you should mention this...

I just got a new Iomega 250Gb external hard drive for my Dell laptop. It has a bright blue LED that stays on ALL THE TIME! I actually thought this morning about taping a piece of black tape over it...
Yeah, my 300GB Segate OneTouch external drive has a big blue LED (two actually) on the button. Solid on if the drive is on, and they alternate flashing if it is working. Now that I think about it, my new Maxell external DVD burner has one too. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[F_B_i]

Thats's nothing guys... i got a webcam which has blue status LED, and it just so happens that it's so bright that it's not possible to stare in the cam at night... i had to open the dang thing and 'disable' it.

(btw. it had no other purpose just to flash eyes...)

[sponge]

My iJuice charger has a blue LED. TO SHOW THAT IT IS RECEIVING POWER AND PLUGGED IN. I actually use it in order to navigate around my room during the night.

[OSUKid7]

My iJuice charger has a blue LED. TO SHOW THAT IT IS RECEIVING POWER AND PLUGGED IN. I actually use it in order to navigate around my room during the night.
Haha, does anyone else see Ed posting an "alternate uses for blinking blue LEDs" news item in the near future? ;)

[PDANEWBIE]

I don't get this I mean there should be the functionality in all devices to turn off these LED's. I know that they are GREAT because they work off such small amounts of electricty but that is still a power draw!

I hope in the future they make a way to turn them on or off via software or hardware switches. In PPC's and TV's a simple menu item to Turn off LED notifications. In things like removeable HDD's and things like that a small switch.

[Phillip Dyson]

Funny you should mention this...

I just got a new Iomega 250Gb external hard drive for my Dell laptop. It has a bright blue LED that stays on ALL THE TIME! I actually thought this morning about taping a piece of black tape over it...

I did just that on the base of my e830 cradle. There's a thin strip of electrical tape that goes all the way around.

[bkerrins]

I agree, let me have a way to turn it off. I can't bring my phone into the bedroom at night because the blinking light keeps me awake. I have taped over the red light on the computer in the study because it was very bright and useless.

[Darius Wey]

Well, let's see now... &lt;Wanders over to the office room>

I spot red, orange, green, and blue coming from about 7-8 devices. You really should take a look at this room at night. :|

[T-Will]

My HP desktop PC (which is on the floor of my bedroom) emits the perfect amount of blue light and acts a bit like a night light.

[buckyg]

Whew! It's not just me that's driven crazy by all the LEDs. Especially the one on my nice new LCD monitor. Yeah, the one that makes it hard to watch videos with the lights out. The same one that has a disco strobe effect when the screen's blacked out in power save mode or has no signal.

Bought some nice small speakers that I wanted to put on either side of the monitor but they have to go behind the monitor because they have... I suppose it's time to go do something else and chill out now.

[Dave Beauvais]

First of all, I have to ask... LEDs on devices are sometimes bright, but how are they keeping you guys awake? Most humans sleep with their eyes closed, and unless your eyelids are much more translucent than mine, I don't completely understand how a blinking light shining on the ceiling or wall could bother you once you close your eyes. :) I will admit, however, that by the time I get to bed, I am asleep in about five minutes or less. If I couldn't get to sleep and was staring at said ceiling, I suppose I could get annoyed.

The BIOS in my Shuttle SB95P V2 has an option to control the brightness of the blue LED that illuminates the large power button. There are -- if I recall correctly -- about seven levels of brightness, ranging from 100% to completely off. I had another system with a blue power LED that was so bright that I could actually cast hand shadows on the wall opposite the PC, even with another (dim) light on in the room. I ended up modding the case to block the front of the LED while still allowing it to illuminate the acrylic face of the case around the edges.

I have wondered why all device manufacturers feel the need to put a freaking light on everything they create. From where I'm sitting, I can see 44 LEDs. That's just what's lit, too. Some devices have many more LEDs that just aren't lit at the moment for whatever reason. Some of them make sense because they are status indicators. The seven LEDs I see on the SmartUPS indicate current battery charge and load; the power LEDs on various devices show whether the power is on or off. Others are entirely pointless. Why is there an LED on a subwoofer that is so large, it's obviously designed to sit on the floor out of view? Why are there two LEDs on my DVD player when it's in standby mode? Why did Logitech design a mouse with an LED battery bar chart on the top facing the user that is always on? Why did Belkin design a 7-port USB 2.0 hub that has an LED indicator for each port that's lit even when no device is plugged into the corresponding port?

If you're going to add lights to your devices, at least put them there for a reason, and not just to add bling to your product. The blue LEDs especially are way overused.

[snayar]

Just throw a sock on top of the Bluetooth device while you get ready to get into bed!!!! :roll:

Or even better, TURN IT OFF! :lol:

[karlth]

This was one of the reasons why I gave up on Ericsson phones. A blinking annoying little s*it of a LED: "I'm on!!!" "Hello!!" "I'm still on!!!!" "Blink!!" "Yooohoooo!!!" "Blink!!!".

Sh*t up! Please.

I was on vacation once in the middle of Egypt and during the nights there, which were as black as anything I had ever witnessed, the blinking Ericsson phone lit the room up like a christmas tree.

[mr_Ray]

So nice to see I'm not the only one!

I tried counting all the various LEDs I had going a few weeks ago and lost count at about 30. Still, at least with all the LEDs going I don't have to bother with lighting.

[jlp]

All those LEDs flashing into your face, especially on our PPCs show that these guys don't EVEN usen their device. Instead of having the LEDs face users they should put them on top facing away!! and if you really want to know if BT, Wifi, etc. is on, just tilt your device to watch the top.

It's as simple as that but engineers are better at math than practical things.

That's why some industries need engineers specialized in ergonomics; unfortunately there must be none in the electronics &amp; computing businesses!!

:evil:

By the way I put my cell phone next to my bed but I have it sideways and facing down and on a special support to cover the LED as much as possible and with the flashing LED facing away 8).

[bjornkeizers]

I hate the blue leds as well - never knew so many of you did too!

I don't mind the reds of chargers or the pale greens on my laptop and other chargers... but blue is terrible on your vision. Especially at night. My ipaq has a blue led for WiFi &amp; BT, and I simply move it up in its case to block the light coming from it, or it'll drive me insane in about ten minutes.

[bobmay]

You guys are breaking my heart! I love LEDs. I have been into electronics all my life. I love pilot lights, meters, displays, and indicators of any kind on equipment. The blue LED is like the eight wonder of the world. The blue LED is how we are now able to have white LEDs. Red+Green+Blue=White.
I guess I am lucky because all my equipment is in a seperate room from my bedroom. At night I do not bring any electronics to bed. Even though I am on call 24x7 I shut off my cell, and Blackberry. Call me on my landline if you need me in the middle of the night. Remember the old days when you knew equipment was on from the soft orange glow of the vacum tube filaments? Remember nixie tubes? Showing my age aint I.

[gorkon280]

All those LEDs flashing into your face, especially on our PPCs show that these guys don't EVEN usen their device. Instead of having the LEDs face users they should put them on top facing away!! and if you really want to know if BT, Wifi, etc. is on, just tilt your device to watch the top.

It's as simple as that but engineers are better at math than practical things.

That's why some industries need engineers specialized in ergonomics; unfortunately there must be none in the electronics &amp; computing businesses!!

:evil:

By the way I put my cell phone next to my bed but I have it sideways and facing down and on a special support to cover the LED as much as possible and with the flashing LED facing away 8).


No I have a better idea.....if you have a 4-5 inch LCD....USE THAT TO TELL THE STATUS OF THE FRICKIN BLUETOOTH! Only need ONE LED and that's a SOLID charge indicator. Light it up YELLOW (NOT FLASHING YELLOW) for charging and when charge is complete, light up solid green. No need for flashy flashy. Only reason I say this is if you have a PPC turned off, you need something visual to tell if it's charged without having to turn it on then you can just snag it out of the cradle with out having to turn it on to see if it's charged.

As for cells, the same thing. I don't need a bilnky LED to tell me your connected to the cell as I have a screen for that.

[cslaughtermd]

Besides the ones in the home, the PDA/personal gadget LEDs can really cramp your style in public. It's hard to pull off the slighly-geeky-yet-somewhat-cool thing on a date when there's a flashing red/green/blue thing flashing on your hip and a blue flashing light blinking through your shirt pocket, or worse yet, your pants! 8O Those Jabra LEDs are bright!

[volwrath]

I have a bluetooth headset, the moto 820 which I use to listen to audio books from my PPC at nite. That blue LED was SOOOO bright that my wife complained. I taped a piece of dark paper over it. A way to disable it would have been great, cause now I really look like a geek talking on that thing.

[snayar]

I have a bluetooth headset, the moto 820 which I use to listen to audio books from my PPC at nite. That blue LED was SOOOO bright that my wife complained. I taped a piece of dark paper over it. A way to disable it would have been great, cause now I really look like a geek talking on that thing.

I have the same headset than you... I remember reading somewhere (manual or web) that you can turn off the led while on a conversation. It was designed like that to let the others know that you are in the middle of a conversation.... :roll:

However, I LOVE leds and all kinds of fancy displays too.

I just don't get it! ... If blinking leds at night bother you, SHUT THE DEVICE OR THE Bluetooth Service OFF !!!! IS THAT SIMPLE!!!! Or at the very least, as I said, throw a socket or you used underpants over it!!!! :?

[Jon Westfall]

It's just sad how much electronics gurus were psyched about Blue LED's when they finally came out. Heck, they had research for years that said the most pleasing color to the eye was blue! Now we're all annoyed with it. The laptop I'm typing this on has blue over its Bluetooth indicator (That's always on, but to dang bright). I'm looking at a Blue Direcway modem that has 5 blinking blue lights to indicate status). Almost every PPC I've ever owned has had blue annoying lights as well. Argh!

[Mick]

Fortunately, one of the first hacks that became available for the PPC-6601 was how to change the registry to turn off either or both flashing LED's. It should be possible to do the same for any PPC.
Mick

[Radimus]

I have one of the first MS intellemouse with the red light in the mouse body. It is so bright I can use it for a night light

My external USB bluetooth dongle is flashy flashy all night long, behind my PC on the floor, where it lights up the wall and must be very impressive to my power strip, with its red and green LEDs.

I don't mind the little glowing LEDs, like on my vcr... just bright enough to see that it is on... not to send morse code to the shuttle

[RobertCF]

Bunch of whiney babies. Get rid of your toys if you don't like the lights. I can't believe all the crying and wimpering over a flashing light. This world has developed into the technological equivalent of the 98 lbs weakling.

[alschott]

I had a few cars where some designer used a "blue" light instead of a red light for indicating the high beams were on, I used filters, tape, etc. Then, I read where the Air F orce had changed the warning lights to blue, instead of red. It turns out that the eye responds faster to blue light.
In the army basic training, night classes are performed using red light because the eye doesn't get "burned" out by it, maybe some designer will get the hint!

[Steve Jordan]

OK, let's see... I got 2 reds and an orange, one blinking yellow, and everything else (10) is green. Of course, that doesn't count my power strips, chargers attached to them, or the PC itself... but they are all under the desk, out of sight.

I had a blue-LED USB hub, and when that thing lit up, it scared me to death! It could be used as an aircraft beacon!! As it turned out, it didn't work with 2 of the devices I tried to connect it through, so I slammed it into a drawer (just in case I need it someday to provide disco lighting at a party).

Personally, I think it's kinda cool that my desk looks like a set from Star Trek with all those little lights. But my desk is in my office, so I couldn't care less about those lights when I'm in bed.

(Dudes... what the heck are you bringing switched-on cell phones to bed for? Awaiting that 1AM call from Britney to run away with her to Vegas?)