What is your preferred power indicator colour?

[restorer-john]

Just a fun thread and poll. Too much hand wringing in the world at the moment...

I have a lot of indicators for power. On test gear (most LEDs are green for ON), power boards, HiFi, power supplies, TVs etc. I like Green for ON and Red for OFF/Standby. Makes sense- like traffic lights. I don't care for White, Blue or Yellow. That said, a good Orange neon on a power board or extension lead is OK and kinda old-skool. Orange for mains power is OK.

I cannot stand Blue power LEDs lighting up my room for anything- they get banished or most often, replaced. I recently dismantled a new desktop power board with USB just to replace the LED and dropper resistor to make a nice, dim, orange neon-like glow. Nothing better than all your power indicators looking the same.

Tell us your favourite power ON, OFF and standby colour.

PS: fault is always something flashing OK?

 

[Sokel]

Red for On, blue for stand by, off for off. White for emergencies and green for clipping (haven't seen it yet)

I'm so fixed to that, that I change them myself if they are other colors, now their all matching (for brightness too, I don't need another sun in the room, the one outside is enough )

 

[DS23MAN]

Mauve...

 

[Mart68]

Blue and white LEDs are my pet hates.

My preferred options not listed which is orange, yellow or red for 'power on' for an amplifier. Green for 'power on' is acceptable for a pre-amp or CD player/transport/DAC.

Never seen the point of 'standby' feature.

My pre-amp is red for standby and green for 'on' but being a Sony it lights up all over like a Christmas tree when switched to 'on' with green, red and orange LEDs.

Power amp is blue for 'on' which in 1994 was probably an expensive LED. But I'd change it to orange if I could since it's dazzling in low light and I like low light for listening. It doesn't have standby feature, it's either on or off.

CD transport has standby but no light is on when in standby. 'On' is orange.

 

[JeremyFife]

I rather like blue for on, but I prefer the boxes to be mostly out of sight so it's not a massive issue one way or another.

There are so many pieces of electronics littered around the house: phones, games, chargers - I've given up on any of it making sense

 

[JayGilb]

Blue for on, Red for off, Orange for standby.

As long as they're not too bright, especially blue.

 

[KSTR]

Green for On.
Orange for Standby (orange is the color of glowing camp fire which is the only light humans have evolved to sleep with without problems)
Off for Off, obviously ;-)

That said, I have designed devices with Orange for On for aesthetic reasons, and sparsely flashing Orange for Standby (== power present), to reduce power consumption. Flashing is not tolerable, of course, for consumer devices were a front-mounted indicator is always directly visible, let alone in bedrooms.

 

[Rednaxela]

Stand by: no light. Or at least the option to configure this.

 

[eddantes]

Red = On | Nothing = Off/Standby

 

[mhardy6647]

Why can't OFF just be... OFF?

(yeah, I know -- that ship has sailed. In 2025 CE, "OFF" is... kinda off... sort of... in a manner of speaking, if one doesn't look too closely)

 

[mhardy6647]

Mauve...

One is reminded* of Red Dwarf.

Oh. And could I just add that I am one of those knuckle-draggers who still thinks that blue LEDs are nice looking.
Ideally not too bright*, though.

____________
* gleefully.
** just like me!

 

[nerdstrike]

Worst possible option: brilliant flashing blue light for the Fractal Design R5 computer case when in sleep mode. Destroys the possibility of falling asleep yourself without powering it down first.

 

[mhardy6647]

Worst possible option: brilliant flashing blue light for the Fractal Design R5 computer case when in sleep mode. Destroys the possibility of falling asleep yourself without powering it down first.

Especially if it flashes quickly!

you know: the Fractal Design R5, Epilepsy Edition.

 

[Owl]

My Sony TV has a red light for off and a green light for on, while the Panasonic Blu-Ray player connected to it has no light for off and a red light for on. Everything I have is different, I may need a score card.

 

[Count Arthur]

None of the above.

Green for on, off for off.

Red for standby, but I generally turn most things off at the mains, rather than leaving them on standby anyway.

 

[pjug]

Warm white on, orange standby, dark off if I could have whatever I wanted.

 

[Gary_G]

Parasound P6: Blue on, Faint Blue off, Red mute

 

[JayGilb]

Worst possible option: brilliant flashing blue light for the Fractal Design R5 computer case when in sleep mode. Destroys the possibility of falling asleep yourself without powering it down first.

Several devices in our house have a small piece of black electrical tape over the led.

 

[nerdstrike]

small piece of black electrical tape

Fractal Design thought of this! The LED sits behind a lens that is the surround for the power button. Fortunately I can unplug the power LED from the mobo, just thought it a real winner in this category.

 

[Timcognito]

As dyslexic and color blind person, the whole red green thing is a nightmare so I am partial to some white or blue. I'm on our third ATT Internet Air hub after spending hours on the phone trying to answer the question is the light red or green. Back in day punching those IBM punch cards in Computer Science and reading resisters in Electric Shop in HS were a nightmare. My Bluesound stuff has the blue is good to go to and all kinds of red/yellow/green static or blinking situations that have no idea what the fuck it's doing without my wife. So I take the Bill Laimbeer approach "when the whistle blows I know I fouled" if it ain't blue and it requires outside intervention.