It is directly linked to electricity so only way to stop it working is cutting the wire. It is located on top of the hood aspirator. Something like microphone is also attached. I dont want to cut the wire if it is something useful.
It is directly linked to electricity so only way to stop it working is cutting the wire. It is located on top of the hood aspirator. Something like microphone is also attached. I dont want to cut the wire if it is something useful.
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The microphone looking thing is a gas sensor. Many look exactly like this, so we have to try to surmise what it is sensing based on location. If it is in your range hood, I would suspect it is a CO sensor. FWIW, here is a similar looking sensor (without the support components):
https://a.co/d/8ILmJ0J
Also, this is assuming your stove is gas or propane.
Of course, it could also be a natural gas or propane detector.
Also - don’t cut this out. If the LED annoys you, wrap black tape around the LED (and just the LED).
Black nail polish is another easy way to dim too bright LEDs. One single layer of nail polish usually muffles them from alien abduction beams to normal indicator use, but of course you can always add more layers.
Sometimes a permanent marker will do the trick
Edit; use multiple layers! I walked around my apartment hitting all the various LEDs once. By the time I was done, the ink was dry, so I went around a second and third time.
Oooh this is such a good idea! I usually use masking tape over stupidly bright LEDs but it always looks kind of janky and is very obvious. Now I need to try a Sharpie and see if that's less noticeable!!
Edit: Sharpie doesn't write on plastic very well. Black permanent marker didn't really work, but opaque red nail polish over a blinding green LED seems promising.
If you just want to not see the LED just use black electrical tape. I have a laptop that's a couple years old that
hadhas an obnoxiously bright LED above the keyboard. I remember about every 6 months it's there cause of posts/comments talking about annoying LEDs. :D.If you just want to dim it, white out (like for correcting text on paper) an work too as it's dense and meant to cover up, but obviously not meant for that so it still lets some light through. On electronic where it could seep in if liquid use the roll on type and gently remove the excess so it only covers the LED cover (obviously situational, but worth a mention). Side note I also used the white out on the toaster cause it has an almost invisible bit (same color, barely raised) to show where the indicator is at for how toasted you want things.
I would suggest an LED diffuser like what Light Artists use at Raves. It'll keep the brightness to make it easy to see if it's functional but it'll stop the light from concentrating and being annoying.
https://glofx.com/product/diffusers/?srsltid=AfmBOoq7NnYmJnfQA65ZBe1dc4I-jS21CeTEyG5DMDCEaxE3ndE1Oeli6Pw
Or mcguyver a diffusor by hollowing out a piece of hot glue stick. Pingpong balls work great for when you really want to enlarge the light (and have the space around the LED).
Looks good, but I'd suggest it to the people looking for a solution!
I was just suggesting a couple homemade solutions I've used that worked for me, so don't really need or have a use for them.
Scotch tape also works great as a LED diffuser.
If you have direct access to the LED, lightly sanding it with fine sandpaper does exactly the same job.
For me, the ultimate goal would be to be able to see whether the light is on or off when looking directly at it, but which does not actually emit enough light beyond itself to in any way illuminate its surroundings. I *only* want to see it if I look directly at it, you know? 1-2 layers of masking tape is usually decent for this, since it lets me see the light as a colored spot on the tape without letting it cast much light beyond the tape.
But I have one power strip with two green LEDs on it that are so eyeball-blastingly bright that even with 6 layers(!!) of masking tape covering them, they still make the floor under my bed glow green and my slippers next to the bed cast a shadow on the wall. I hate it so much. So now I'm hoping the red nail polish I painted on it will dim it enough that the tape will actually be effective. If not I'll move up to White-out. We'll see tonight!
Yikes.
Maybe black electric tape with just a pin point poked in it at the best angle so you can see it when you want? Dunno, just throwing it out there.
Do you live in Times Square?
...no? I just have various electronics that have totally unnecessary LEDs on them that are far too bright. Like a phone charger on my nightstand that casts shadows on the ceiling of my bedroom at night if I don't tape over it.
Sorry, I don't know if this is a reference I'm missing.
Just for anyone else who sees it, they also sell little packs of black dot stickers you can buy specifically for covering lights. Just look for “blackout stickers”. They are like $5 for a bunch of shapes and more than you’ll ever use
You can also buy translucent ones that will dim the lights to something reasonably.
marker doesn’t write on itself though? the solvent keeping the ink “wet” is the same solvent that can make the dry ink liquid again. you just end up with a worse coating of a single layer
I’ve been using both sharpie and nail polish (and dykem) to mark finished metal surfaces while machining recently, and, in my experience, sharpie only helps for very temporary marks or making a scribe line more visible. the second you try to sharpie over it again, it just ruins the previous layer and leaves clear lines all long it
to pile on to the ANNOYING LED blocking tips.
I buy Black Glue sticks for my specifically black glue stick gun. It works great for completely blobbing them out with no real time or material investment.
I've also used heat shrink.
The light is there for a reason, to let you know the thing is working and not detecting anything bad. It's not a decoration.
Designing a CO alarm that solely depends on LED indicators does not sound like a safe idea to me. I would not completely black the LEDs out, but dimming them should be fine.
Also, a lot of LEDs in various other gadgets are just too bright and annoying, often without any real purpose.
Probably why the gizmo below the detector appears to be a piezo-electric buzzer.
So the light is pointless or just a secondary indicator?
You're gonna want some way to know that it's got power that ISN'T it beeping once an hour or whatever. So yeah, a light works well.
Sure. A light. Every so often. Not multiple LEDs on full blast all the time.
Probably nice to have for folks who can't hear or cannot hear well. Same way the noise is nice for folks who can't see well.
If you're deaf it will probably flash if there's CO2 and help you decide to leave
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Bad idea. The light communicates status.
What you truly care about is bad status- not “do I have power” status. The other LED is what you really want to see, and the piezo will let you know if this thing goes off. The green LED is basically letting you know 3 things - power input is present, the green LED still works, and the transformer still works.
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And if OP were blind, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. So that’s a completely pointless statement.
You might as well say, “if you were dead, the LED would convey no information to you.”
Well the brightness of the LED wouldn't be much of an issue then, no?
He doesn’t even know what it is… what good is knowing the status?
I've had black tape burn out in the spot where the light bulb is. Not like a fire, but as in rapid deterioration.
Yeah, you dont want to block it out entirely. Just enough so it's not annoying/distracting. You still want to know it's functioning... IMO
I got some sticker LED light covers for some of our devices. They come in varying opacities and colors. I bought them in white and black so they match the device. No more obnoxiously bright lights on our mini split or fan in our room at night. I can still see that they’re on or read the display but the light is drastically reduced.
I’d avoid using anything too solvent-y to block it out (glue, lacquers etc) as depending on type you risk “poisoning” the sensor and reducing its effectiveness or triggering a false positive.
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Propane is heavier than air, so it would be located under the stove, not up in the range hood.
Looks like it has some kind of gas sensor, a relay, and a piezo buzzer. My guess would be a fire alarm, or possibly a detector for carbon monoxide or some other hazardous gas.
I suspected it's a natural gas leak detector. I did a little digging around and found this sensor https://www.sparkfun.com/methane-cng-gas-sensor-mq-4.html which looks very similar to yours.
The round black thing is a piezo speaker.
For context, there is a whole series of gas detectors that look like that. So without knowing the code on the sensor it could be for any number of gasses including CO. It makes sense that it might detect natural gas, but you can't tell that based on the outward appearance and carbon monoxide would also be reasonable.
If it's attached to the hood I would expect it might be a carbon monoxide detector but the lack of a box or anything seems a bit off
Given that it has a relay, it’s doing more than just detecting. Where does the cable lead out the other side? It may turn the hood on and off automatically in the presence of gas, smoke or VOCs from cooking. Or, it may activate a make-up air system if CO is detected.
CAUTION: That device is energized with 120 volts and does not have a case. There’s a decent likelihood of getting shocked if you touch it. Cut power to the device before doing any more investigation. The light is actually a helpful warning that it’s energized. If you keep it, I’d think about wrapping the high voltage section (transformer) in electrical tape just for some added protection.
Could it be a FireAvert system or something similar? There is one attached to my stove—any time the smoke detector goes off it cuts the power to the stove and you have to play a specific audio clip near the device to get it to restore power.
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Please don’t cut the wire! If it’s hooked “directly to electricity” it could actually kill you if you cut it. You probably already know to turn the breaker off if you’re gunna attempt something like that, but in case you didn’t know….. 🥶 that is a job for a professional.
Might be used to control make up air for the range hood.
If it goes from green to red, RUN!
Call the fire department from the neighbors porch.
Mains powered gas detector, has a buzzer too, not sure what it would be testing for without seeing what's wrote on the silver gas sensor. Be careful with it not being in an enclosure.
Note: it looks like it is supplied directly with electricity (at least 110 V?) so be careful not to touch it (especially the back) while it is powered. You could get an electric shock.
Oh good, you found it. Now it’s your responsibility, best of luck if you ever let the light go out. :D
I have a couple of LED lights one is on my garage freezer as a quick visual that it has power. In this case if the light is overly bright I would find a diffuser so that it is visible but muted.
My title describes the thing Is it a fire alarm or recording device? The green light drives me crazy but i dont want to cut the cable because my landlord might get angry.
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There is a speaker as well.
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Logic would dictate that an alarm would sound when the gas level limit was exceeded.
Do smoke alarms come in visually impaired models that tell you audibly there is no smoke?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vIjBtdEQRE
So, we shouldn't use it for 98 people that it -could- help, because of 2 that it -can't-?
(Perhaps those two are what the buzzer is for?)
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Are you just looking to argue with people? It has a light and a speaker. If you're deaf and blind you're going to need specialized equipment or some other support to let you know there's a danger.
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So yes, you are just looking to argue with people.
How exactly are they "screwed" by having a buzzer?
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Thanks for all of the specs on the relay. I’ll be sure to check back here for the copy/pasted detail the next time I need one to see if this exact one is a perfect match for my needs. Pin spacing and layout would also be useful.
But the relay is just there to switch power to the piezo when the sensor detects gas.
Sir, this is /r/whatisthisthing
Led lights power source probably?