this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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The lights would be OK if they simply made them diffuse, low-intensity bulbs like they used to be in the 90's. Bonus points for being behind a transparent textured plastic lens.
But no, they simply put open holes in casings that expose the most powerful SMD LED chip they could source.
It is the most powerful until you specifically want to buy led torch light then they put the cheapest possible light in it.
Of course. The bright one all got bought up by Philips so you get a red LED when your smart light bulb is off or some shit.
The problem isn't the LED itself. The problem is engineers that read the datasheets where it shows which forward current they need. What they forget to think about is that the recommended forward current is for max brightness, so they slap whichever resistor they need, and never give it another thought.
Whenever I design a LED circuit that is only used as an indicator, I always make it 10% or less than recommended, because I do not need to burn away my retina when I test the boards.
Of course that's smart design. You'd think that would be something that becomes immediately obvious when the very first prototype PCB is put out and none of the engineers can look at the damn thing directly...