Bright, distracting blue LED on car stereo

[60six]

Just bought this www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-DSXA50BT-EUR-DSX-A-50-BT/dp/B0081NEQC6

Great stereo, cheap, very good bluetooth, BUT ..

It lights up bright BLUE. Too bright. I don't want to send the stereo back but I really don't know what to do apart from opening up the front panel and breaking the offending LED's

Apparently, my mate said you can see a glowing blue entity driving the car at night - I guess that's me.

Any ideas?

[EmDee]

Can you solder?

Replace the blue LEDs with red/green/less offensive ones?

Or just wear sunglasses?

[Battles]

Did you get a printed manual?
Google suggests that page 28 should help.

Link to PDF of manual: ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/manuals/consumer/4408056211.PDF

Link to page 28: www.manualslib.com/manual/429867/Sony-Dsx-A50bt-Instruction-Operation-Manual.html?page=28

[cobblers]

I have a similar sony stereo, if you can change it to red illumination in the settings its a lot less awful. IIRC if you wire the "dimmer" wire up on the back to the dash lights, the button illumination also dims a bit when you put the headlights on, but with it set to red it's not a problem, and I'm very easily annoyed by bright lights etc etc.

[boring]

bit of tape over the offending led's?!

[60six]

The brightest part are the buttons and I can't stick tape over them - The LED's are about 1mm across so I can't solder them - The DIMMER mode just dims the text display - Thanks for looking that one up - I like the sound of the dimmer wiring - Will solder in a small adjustable resistor on that one to positive and see if that tones it down a bit....

What is it with bright blue LED's? Hate the damn things and me being colour blind they appear to glow! I have a portable HDD for my computer with a tiny LED on it, that lights the entire room .....

[jaykay]

get some lamin-x or tint and tint the head unit.

[jaykay]

and perm marker for the buttons?

stupid as it sounds, would work.

[cobblers]

Dec 29, 2012 23:54:25 GMT 60six said:

What is it with bright blue LED's? Hate the damn things and me being colour blind they appear to glow! I have a portable HDD for my computer with a tiny LED on it, that lights the entire room .....

They catch the eye in a shop, hence why most stereos nowadays default to demo (flashing every light and scrolling through all the 99% useless festures) mode when they first turn on, or turn on after losing power, since they forget everything when disconnected from power.

It would cost stereo manufacturers about £0.40 per stereo to put an eprom in that would remember settings when the battery was removed, but there is no money to be made from it.

The dimmer wiring is a binary thing really, a variable resistor won't help. If there is nothing in settings to turn it red or dim it, the only way is to crack the thing open and physically dim the LEDs.
You "could" change the resistors to electrically dim them, but it's more effort than it's worth - just use electrical tape over the LEDs - you could try a few colours for varying "dimnesses", but if it's taking your face off just stick a few slices of cheapo poundland red tape over and it'll allow a tiny bit of blue through so you can work out where to poke.

[stevek]

Sorry not a lot to add but I understand your problem. Its annoying when good kit is let down with something as simple as a brightness level.

Of the suggestions presented, opening it up and tinting (scribbling on) the led with black marker pen/paint etc would be the easiest option. Still rubbish that you have to go to those lengths. Making it actually dimmable or changing the colour would be nice but in this case is it worth it?

-Steve-

[stevek]

PS. Cobblers wiring up to the lights dimmer option (if the stereo supports it) sounds like a good shout. Not come across that myself but sounds ideal.

[60six]

Thanks for the ideas - Going to try white electrical tape after taking the thing apart - Will take before and after photos, and gets me out of doing the washing up as my other half is annoyed by it too. Win!

[bortaf]

Just paint over the LEDs with a thin coat of black nail varnish, had to do it on many a "disco" head unit for the "older more deserning customers" I seem to get
Black marker pens even perminant ones will come off on your fingers or wear eventually as will the nail varnish but it lasts the longest and doen't stain finger tips

[pauly22]

take it apart and paint a blob of tipex or similar over the end of the led

[robinmasters]

Dec 29, 2012 22:30:22 GMT Battles said:

Did you get a printed manual?
Google suggests that page 28 should help.

Link to PDF of manual: ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/manuals/consumer/4408056211.PDF

Link to page 28: www.manualslib.com/manual/429867/Sony-Dsx-A50bt-Instruction-Operation-Manual.html?page=28

Thanks!

I've got an older Sony stereo (blue LCD, red led' s), and dimming the LCD has made a massive difference.