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I dislike blue LEDs.

The Lurker

The Lurker

Aug 16, 2002
2,284
224
Ankh-Morpork
lurkerspace.blogspot.com
#1
Yeah, I went there.

I dislike blue LEDs.

I've gone so far as to ask specifically for something ELSE when ordering some things.

How hard can it be to read a red or green one, anyways?

You can criticize me all you want, but that sort of glow both bugs my eyes and makes me worry that a flying saucer has just locked a tractor beam onto me for a night of "what's this part of a human do?"
 
#3
electrical_tape.jpg
 
#4
Maybe just me, but I'm a little red-green colorblind. I think blue LEDs are the friggin' bomb. And if there's any decent level of stage lighting, red LEDs or red LCDs (along with most other colors) pretty much disappear for me. I can see why someone without my problem might find blue ones too bright...
 
#6
The obnoxiousness of lighted indicators depends on:
- the frequency of the light
- its intensity
- the degree to which it is a point source

Panel space being limited, large diffuse indicators are unlikely. Hence we're stuck with glare inducing point sources.

As the frequency of the light goes up, red -> amber -> yellow -> green -> blue, it becomes more annoying, and its intensity should be reduced. Often designers do not.

While I agree that blue LEDs (and car headlights) can be very distracting, if you can increase the value of the series-wired current limiting resistor, they can become tolerable. Unfortunately if those resistors are surface mounted to a printed circuit board, changing them requires skills that many lack.
 
#7
BgTckt said:
Maybe just me, but I'm a little red-green colorblind. I think blue LEDs are the friggin' bomb. And if there's any decent level of stage lighting, red LEDs or red LCDs (along with most other colors) pretty much disappear for me. I can see why someone without my problem might find blue ones too bright...
Click to expand...

You know, I hadn't thought of that. Does the brightness disappear as well as the color?
 
#8
The Lurker said:
You know, I hadn't thought of that. Does the brightness disappear as well as the color?
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand the question. In my world, red lights are inherently dim. I often have to cup my hands over them to see if they're lit--obviously not practical if your bass is in hand. That's why I like the blue ones--to me they are visible rather than bright; red ones are invisible rather than comfortably visible. Plus the blue just looks cool. :)

See PhiDeck's post about perceived intensity vs wavelength. He's right on... only for those of us with deficient red receptors, unless it's pitch dark the stuff at the longer-wavelength end might as well be off. (Makes me wonder if I could decrease the value of the current-limiting resistor and increase the output of a red LED without blowing it...)
 
#11
BgTckt said:
Not sure I understand the question. In my world, red lights are inherently dim. I often have to cup my hands over them to see if they're lit--obviously not practical if your bass is in hand. That's why I like the blue ones--to me they are visible rather than bright; red ones are invisible rather than comfortably visible. Plus the blue just looks cool. :)

See PhiDeck's post about perceived intensity vs wavelength. He's right on... only for those of us with deficient red receptors, unless it's pitch dark the stuff at the longer-wavelength end might as well be off. (Makes me wonder if I could decrease the value of the current-limiting resistor and increase the output of a red LED without blowing it...)
Click to expand...

What I was trying to ask is whether the light appears less bright, or appears as a bright enough light that has no color to it. Thanks for the answer, though... that's something I always wondered about.

I've been doing the scotch tape thing myself. Mostly I was really wondering whether they're really that much more useful, or just a fad. I mean, yeah they're brighter than red or green, but it's to the point where if the lights are out, I can't read where the knobs are on my Carbon Copy because of how bright the LED is. It just seems like overkill-- I only need to find the switch on my pedalboard, not a North Sea fog.

PS-- this thread was started for humor value. No blue LEDs were harmed in the making of this thread.
 
#12
BgTckt said:
See PhiDeck's post about perceived intensity vs wavelength. He's right on... only for those of us with deficient red receptors, unless it's pitch dark the stuff at the longer-wavelength end might as well be off. (Makes me wonder if I could decrease the value of the current-limiting resistor and increase the output of a red LED without blowing it...)
Click to expand...
Your best bet would be to replace both the LED and its current limiting resistor (*). That way you can use a more expensive high-intensity and high-efficiency LED, and you will know its maximum current specification.

Note, however, that making a red LED bright enough for you to see it may make it unbearably bright for others who may also have to view it.

(*) This assumes that the LED is being driven from a constant voltage source, as is often the case. However, if it is driven by a constant current (CC) source, the mechanism for changing that current is different, and depends on the CC circuit.
 
#13
The Lurker said:
What I was trying to ask is whether the light appears less bright, or appears as a bright enough light that has no color to it. Thanks for the answer, though... that's something I always wondered about...

...PS-- this thread was started for humor value. No blue LEDs were harmed in the making of this thread.
Click to expand...

LOL...

The color-vision thing is hard to explain. I do see colors--I just can't give them names that are meaningful to a person with normal color vision, and vice versa. "Blue" is obviously different than "red"... but is it the same as what you see? Is it as bright? Neither of us will ever know. Since I've always been this way, I have nothing to compare it to.

A friend once made a great analogy to a color TV... (Think old-tech tube TV.) If the red gun is on the fritz, then a color with any red component--say, purple--will show on the screen as purple, minus the red. In other words, blue. We say that red 'maps' to blue. In this way I end up being unable to distinguish between a lot of colors. Sometimes greens can be hard to tell from brown; other shades of green are hard to tell from yellow.

Guess I'm glad my ability to perceive pitch isn't similarly hosed (although if it was, I probably wouldn't be anymore interested in music than I am in visual art).

One last disturbing thought, then I'm off to bed... About 10% of males have my kind of color blindness (Daltonism, red/green colorblindness, red-deficient dichromacy, whatever). That's about one in every twenty drivers on the road. And they never tested me for it or even asked me when I got my license (over 35 years ago now). So, that whole red stop light, red brake light, red stop sign, red fire truck thing? Not really such a great idea... :) PS, never hit anyone or anything--I govern by motion. You're as safe as you were yesterday.
 
#15
BgTckt said:
About 10% of males have my kind of color blindness (Daltonism, red/green colorblindness, red-deficient dichromacy, whatever). That's about one in every twenty drivers on the road. And they never tested me for it or even asked me when I got my license (over 35 years ago now). So, that whole red stop light, red brake light, red stop sign, red fire truck thing? Not really such a great idea... :) PS, never hit anyone or anything--I govern by motion. You're as safe as you were yesterday.
Click to expand...
You say that, but what would happen if a traffic light were installed upside down?
 
#17
PhiDeck said:
You say that, but what would happen if a traffic light were installed upside down?
Click to expand...

Red lights look obviously different than green ones. I personally wouldn't call them green--they look white to me--but I can tell which is which. I've driven in states like New Mexico where the semaphores are mounted horzontally. I can easily tell the red from the green. Where it gets interesting is at night, when some lights switch from the green-yellow-red cycle to flashing red--or flashing yellow. Those are harder to tell apart. I do two things; one, base my guess on the fact that the yellow lights are annoyingly bright from a lot farther away than the red ones, and two, never trust my guess. Slow down and look for cars before crossing.

What bugs me about the situation is that they could solve the whole problem with a bit of blue; a blue border around stop signs, a single blue LED in the center of a red LED stop light. Ever seen a blue dot taillight on, say, a '55 Chevy? Last time I saw one, his brake lights were attention-grabbing a good half-mile farther than the plain red brake lights around him. Seems like an easy fix; but in my state, blue lights are reserved for emergency vehicles only.

Hey, it's illegal for me to drive with headphones on... but deaf people drive. Guess they figure that your other senses compensate.
 

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