What is your preferred power indicator colour?

[Pattern]

Red for on, off for off.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I literally don't care, as long as they work. But if my subjective preferences are in play, in a fictional universe where it mattered to me....

Based purely on science, I would love a color that is "like a slightly bluish purple". So, in other words, "as a mauve".

/ducks

Like an old blue dot tail light lens. Those were a red round light. When you stepped on the brakes the center lit up on blue. The combo results in a pinkish mauvish color. This would be a good indicator yes.

 

[Blumlein 88]

LOL, there's two of them in the family here (although with mine the power LED came pre-destroyed for some reason and measures completely open, I guess a customer return), so I know exactly what you mean. I have resorted to placing random socks and whatnot on there.

Bright blue power LEDs are the absolute worst, especially when they aren't even diffused properly. They're halo city for me, must be my astigmatism or something. At one time my parents had a kitchen radio with an LCD backlit in blue - an absolute chore to read in the dark. My preferred choice for a clock radio display remains deep red. Otherwise, amber or green are good backlight choices. (I wrote a rant on this topic all the way back in 2008.)

I can see the point of using blue when it's something that has to be visible even in a bright (sunlit) environment.

Blue is the hardest color for our eyes to focus. Especially in low light. Green is the easiest.

 

[tomchris]

The utter hell of user interface design and standardization is well presented here. Thoughts and prayers to all.

Nicely put! I am going to use that as my signature

 

[Oddball]

That's how you you service modern cars isn't, just put tape over all the warning lights on the dash.

Good for another 20,000 miles.

You got it man. Best advice served on ASR in a while .

 

[restorer-john]

Nice work !

Yes, it is beautiful work. I bet it's still going perfectly.

 

[tomchris]

Sansui AU-9900:

I cannot get the video to show up in the post

Sansui AU-20000:

The jury is out, at least in my case. Standby complicates things, and everything is standby nowadays.
My present audio system and flatscreen use RED as Standby and no lights for ON.

 

[restorer-john]

Sansui AU-9900:

I cannot get the video to show up in the post

Sansui AU-20000:

OK, if we are posting videos now, get ready...

 

[wwenze]

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)


View attachment 443381

Because it is recommend if not compulsory in many cases to indicate the presence of mains (or higher) voltage.

Funnily enough personal computers seem to be excluded from this, outside of the power adapters with LED (which not all of them have), tho you can argue that there is no AC voltage anyway inside the computer and the PSU is tucked behind 2 layers of metal. Many HP/Dell type PCs do come with an AC indicator LED but that's probably more for easier job for the office's techie.

 

[mhardy6647]

So - the outlets that power my hifi* ... there's this switch on the wall. By the door.
Off is off.


_______________
* Three quad outlets. One shown.

 

[jtwrace]

I could care less what color it is, as long as it can be turned off when on. I like my room dark without any stupid lights.

 

[Blumlein 88]

So - the outlets that power my hifi* ... there's this switch on the wall. By the door.
Off is off.


_______________
* Three quad outlets. One shown.

Are those hospital grade?

 

[Weeb Labs]

Diffused 2200K white.

This is of course not the original power indicator color of my 8030Cs. I replaced the green LEDs.

 

[mhardy6647]

Are those hospital grade?

Yeah, but for no particular reason.
Amusingly, the interior designer who helped us with lots of details when we had the house built (and we needed help -- I think it is fair to say that my wife & I are both profoundly aesthetically challenged* ) quite liked the orange when she saw them.

EDIT:
________________
* In fact, one might go as far as to say that we're anaesthetic.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Sansui AU-9900:

I cannot get the video to show up in the post

Sansui AU-20000:

The jury is out, at least in my case. Standby complicates things, and everything is standby nowadays.
My present audio system and flatscreen use RED as Standby and no lights for ON.

Satisfying!

 

[effj]

Red for on, no indicator for standby and off. I can differentiate between standby and off by remembering if the physical switch is off.

 

[DWPress]

A red indicator for on and nothing when off. Red won't ever blind you. Why do I need a light to tell me it's off when it can just go off?

 

[Karmacoma]

Purple leds are stunning
Blue are second

 

[Vacceo]

View attachment 443466

RGB LEDs have been around for a while now. They're almost compulsory on home PC hardware.

Go nuts and have all the colours all the time for the full, migraine inducing, unicorn puke light show!

View attachment 443465

It is an known fact that RGB increases your fps on the screen and improves resolution even beyond 4k.

 

[Multicore]

This thread demonstrates the Magical Powers of LEDs.

LEDs with Magical Powers

Archive post June 4, 2008

thefsb.substack.com

Something about the engineering mindset makes disagreeing about the encoding of meanings into LEDs rather like the arguments of code style in software.