Dim Too-Bright Standby LEDs with Lithographer's tape

We're not fans of standby lights. Sure, they're electricity vampires, but the worst thing is how annoyingly bright they can be when you're trying to get to sleep in pure darkness. Here's a way to drown them out...

For just a few bucks, grab yourself a roll of translucent red Lithographer's tape and start to dim down the standby lights on your super-bright gadgets.

Unlike covering the LED with opaque black electrical tape, the Lithographer's tape will still let light get through. Only now it will be about half as bright as before and shine a "pleasant deep red."

We bet you crafty people out there could even do a super-professional job at this simple DIY by popping buttons and faceplates on and off to apply the litho tape where it won't even be detected.

Via Lifehacker

(Standby Light Image: Flickr user PhotoGraham under license from Creative Commons.)

Comments (3)

Cool post, one note though...the LEDs are not the power vampire, those standby LEDs probably generate only about 60 milliwatts of power. It's the circuit that is running in the background, power supply/network connectivity/etc that is really the reason for the energy drain when in 'standby'.

Another cool trick, if you are brave, is to open up the enclosure and put a higher value resistor in front of the LED, or if you want completely remove it.

posted by ebinal on October 15th 2009 at 4:56pm
view ebinal's profile

or use window tint. not all leds are red, so litho tape would be changing the led colors, unless you are into that

posted by jmorey on October 16th 2009 at 8:54am
view jmorey's profile

I just colored the LEDs on my PC with a black marker. Light still gets through, but it's much dimmer.

posted by jumpyfroggy on October 16th 2009 at 9:15am
view jumpyfroggy's profile