Dimming extremely bright and annoying LEDs


Hi.

I have a line conditioner with awfully bright indicator LEDs. Any ideas, short of replacing them, on how to dim them some?

Thanks,

leo.
leoturetsky

Showing 2 responses by sean

You have to install a resistor in series with the LED ( Light Emitting Diode ). Nothing difficult, especially if the LED has wire leads going up to it. If the LED is board mounted, you may have to slice a trace and use the resistor to jump the broken connection.

As a side note, LED's and diode's are pretty horrid devices when it comes to generating broad-band electrical noise. You might be doing yourself a favor by disconnecting the LED's altogether, especially if there are a lot of them. If you do this in an orderly manner, you can always reconnect them should you choose to sell the unit. The benefit to this approach is that you don't have to worry about them burning out, having to replace them for cosmetic conditions prior to sale, depreciated value because some of the LED's work and some don't, etc.. Sean
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PS... Scotch tape with a layer of coloured nail polish will allow a small amount of light to leak through. If it's still too bright, apply another layer of nail polish. This lets you know the unit is functional by allowing you to see the LED and reduces the glare at the same time. So that you don't have to fight to take the tape off when you want to remove it, fold the outer edges of the tape over on itself on both sides. This will give you "wings" to grab hold of. This allows you to easily remove the tape without the need for long fingernails or scratching up the face by using some type of tool trying to scrape it off.
Arcam: You sound like my business partner. He keeps preaching the same "LED's last forever" or "LED's never burn out", yet i keep replacing them or seeing them burned out on units coming in on a daily basis. While i know that newer technology LED's are lasting a LONG time, some do fail. This is besides the fact that some engineers don't know what they are doing and the LED's aren't being fed power in the most optimum manner. Sometimes it's not the parts' fault that it failed, but that of the engineer that doesn't know how to design proper support circuitry. Sean
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