HOW TO: LED “Light Dims” stickers for those irritating bright lights

[John E Davies]

My new propane leak detector has a seriously intense green spot that lit up the front half of the cabin at night, plus it created a bunch of green dot reflections. There is no reason for it to be so much like a miniature sun!

I applied a single 1/4” square dim dot on top:

Much better, but there is nothing that can be done about the disbursed green glow inside the unit. I added two round dots to my inside-the-window Furion radio antenna to cover that miniature red sun.

https://lightdims.com/index.php

Highly recommended to dim your interior! I have to use a sharp knife to pry them up, mine don’t simply peel off. My small pack came with a larger full sheet of material that can be cut to whatever shape you want.

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

 

 

 

[SeaDawg]

12 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

new propane leak detector has a seriously intense green spot that lit up the front half of the cabin at night, plus it created a bunch of green dot reflections. There is no reason for it to be so much like a miniature sun!

I agree. Why? Wish they'd all auto dim at night, but the stickers look to be a good help.

My husband is never bothered, but I  am. He says my eyelids must be thin, lol. I hated even the lights on the panel of the previous dometic fridge. I don't know if they woke me up, but they sure kept me awake. I sometimes resorted to a towel over them.

Thanks for the link.

[topgun2]

Shortly after picking up my Ollie, I took it back and asked Service to install an electronic dimmer switch.  It works great but it does nothing to all those LED lights scatter about - the fridge, the radio, the fan (when on), etc.

I did place a small piece of electrical tape over that LED on the TV!

Certainly this "Light Dims" product can help.

Bill

[Jim and Chris Neuman]

Topgun2

Would love to hear more about this dimmer switch!  DIY'able?

[Corvus]

This is good news for this lifelong insomniac. Using bits of masking tape is getting old and tacky. Studies may support this desire to sleep in the total dark.

In my forays into astronomy I read that research suggest that the human eye can detect as less than ten photos. What the brain does with that is another matter.

I've also explored dimmer switches for the lights, with no conclusion. A new topic on this would be welcomed.

[John E Davies]

One slightly off topic comment….. for five camping seasons I have been hating the back lighting on my Furrion radio head. The normal mode is very bright, when I switched it OFF by pressing the POWER button It dimmed a little and showed the time. I have been pulling the circuit breaker for it sometimes….. until I finally read the @#$&* operating manual, a week ago.

Does a long press sound like a logical design? Not to me. But now the display goes completely black when I turn it off.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Hokieman]

9 hours ago, John E Davies said:

But now the display goes completely black when I turn it off.

Wow!  That is Tip of the Month in my opinion.  I was laying in my bunk last night looking at the glowing red power button on that audio system and decided I hated it too.   I just long pressed the power button and….blackness.   Lesson learned,  read the manual.   Thank you JD! 

[ShallowGal]

Great idea! A few years ago, while waiting for the Aurora to appear, I covered all those annoying little lights with band aides. It was all we had in the middle of nowhere Canada. 😁

More recently, after a Blue Ghost Firefly tour where you were required to cover your flashlight with red cellophane, I had an aha moment & decided to tone down my LED reading lights with red tail light repair tape. You can still read by them, bugs aren't as attracted to them, & they are less jarring in the middle of the night.

Full confession, I also put the tail light repair tape on the curbside porch lights & LOVED the results. Some may not care for the pinkish glow ... (I'm going to try a different brand of tape next time.)

Chris 

[topgun2]

13 hours ago, Jim and Chris Neuman said:

Would love to hear more about this dimmer switch!  DIY'able?

There are a number of these marine 12 volt dimmer switches available (like THESE on Amazon).

In my 2017 Elite II I had the switch mounted just aft of the secondary set of cabin switches on the curb side above the bed.  My dimmer has a "on/off" button, a "+" and a "-" button (for increasing light or decreasing light).  It has worked great except that it is wired such that ALL lights - both interior and exterior - are dimmed or brightened by this switch.  This means that if I want to have the interior lights dimmed I also get the exterior lights dimmed - such as the courtesy lights outside.  There are times when this is desirable but it would be nice to be able to control these separately.  I'm certain that this means that the dimmer was placed on the main "positive supply" line that runs to the main switch panel near the front door.

Since I had Service do the install I'm not certain as to the way the wiring was done.  However, I doubt very seriously that this was difficult and I do know that there is a main bundle of wires that run under the black mat inside the cubbies that extends from the attic all the way up to the front door.  I would guess that the most difficult part of this install would be to cut the hole for the dimmer - that fiberglass is tough!

I'll post pictures when I get my home computer repaired - hopefully tomorrow.

Bill

note: This dimmer switch does nothing for those LED's that are on the radio, fridge, TV, etc. that JD originally posted about.

Here are those pics:

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by topgun2
added detail

[topgun2]

16 minutes ago, ShallowGal said:

I had an aha moment & decided to tone down my LED reading lights with red tail light repair tape. You can still read by them, bugs aren't as attracted to them, & they are less jarring in the middle of the night.

Have you ever tried the amber/yellow film?

[ShallowGal]

35 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

Have you ever tried the amber/yellow film?

Not yet but will, perhaps on the streetside for comparison. Duke will be thrilled. 

[mossemi]

18 hours ago, John E Davies said:

Does a long press sound like a logical design? Not to me. But now the display goes completely black when I turn it off.

 

That does make sense to me because of the remote control, which I use quite a bit.  Much like turning a tv on and off by the remote, the tv is always on in the standby mode.  So now I have to ask this question, when you turn the stereo off by a long press of the button on the face plate can you still use the remote to turn it on?

Mossey

[Corvus]

I replaced our three interior courtesy lights with red ones. There is no white light leaking around the cover like with the colored films. They're almost a drop in replacement, the smaller screws that come with the red lights work better because there is a small difference in the spacing. It helps a lot to preserve night vision and navigating without waking others.

When I went to replace the exterior courtesy lights I found they are riveted so I used this red film for astronomy events.  I've also used this amber film on the upper exterior lights to reduce the brightness and attract fewer insects. The Lamin-X film is thicker and darker and more durable then others I've tried.

I'll post photos when I find them.

[Hokieman]

10 hours ago, mossemi said:

I have to ask this question, when you turn the stereo off by a long press of the button on the face plate can you still use the remote to turn it on?

Yes, I just tried it.  And, if you long press the remote power button, the display goes dark!

[Liana]

On 5/28/2022 at 7:55 AM, ShallowGal said:

I also put the tail light repair tape on the curbside porch lights

Great idea. I'll Look for a different color, tho. 🙂

[Roger]

On 5/28/2022 at 9:08 AM, topgun2 said:

There are a number of these marine 12 volt dimmer switches available (like THESE on Amazon).

In my 2017 Elite II I had the switch mounted just aft of the secondary set of cabin switches on the curb side above the bed.  My dimmer has a "on/off" button, a "+" and a "-" button (for increasing light or decreasing light).  It has worked great except that it is wired such that ALL lights - both interior and exterior - are dimmed or brightened by this switch.  This means that if I want to have the interior lights dimmed I also get the exterior lights dimmed - such as the courtesy lights outside.  There are times when this is desirable but it would be nice to be able to control these separately.  I'm certain that this means that the dimmer was placed on the main "positive supply" line that runs to the main switch panel near the front door.

Since I had Service do the install I'm not certain as to the way the wiring was done.  However, I doubt very seriously that this was difficult and I do know that there is a main bundle of wires that run under the black mat inside the cubbies that extends from the attic all the way up to the front door.  I would guess that the most difficult part of this install would be to cut the hole for the dimmer - that fiberglass is tough!

I'll post pictures when I get my home computer repaired - hopefully tomorrow.

Bill

note: This dimmer switch does nothing for those LED's that are on the radio, fridge, TV, etc. that JD originally posted about.

Here are those pics:

 

I bought two of the dimmers you linked to and swapped them for the Porch Light and the Outside Courtesy Light switches.  The dimmer switch requires a ground wire. When I pulled the panel out I found that each switch had its own ground wire.  For the time being I am using a couple of brass washers on the front panel for the switch nut to tighten against.
 

The dimmers do a great job dimming the outside lights.

[ScubaRx]

On 5/28/2022 at 7:55 AM, ShallowGal said:

It kinda gives a N’awlins red light district vibe to it.

[John E Davies]

My wife’s new Acura RDX has a crazy bright hi beam indicator, it is simply blinding at night on a deserted road. One would think that the dash programming would dim it when it is really dark outside 😳 I added a single dot over part of the symbol, it should be less bothersome now. If it still is too bright I will remove that and put a bigger dot over the entire symbol.

I really like these dots, highly recommended!

John Davies

Spokane WA