We have installed our Gen2 Rachio in our bathroom which unfortunately has no door between the bathroom and our master bedroom. The blue Rachio logo LED indicator is very bright and lights up the whole bathroom at night.
At first I tried covering it with black electrical tape, which completely blocks out all light from the LED indictor. This was good first solution, but I wanted to sometimes be able to see the status of the Rachio system.
Then I decided to try using white electrical so that some of the light from the LED would pass through but also appear more dimly. I applied multiple layers of tape which certainly dimmed the LED and made it darker in our bathroom/bedroom. It was possible to view the LED read out through the tape, but we decided it was still too bright at night even after adding 3 or 4 layers of white tape.
Finally, I tried 3D modeling a sliding plastic cover that slips across the whole face of the Rachio Gen 2 unit vertically. It covered the LED logo circle area and a little bit more. It can be slid back and forth across the front and expose or cover the LED on demand. I am still making improvements to the design and would love feedback from other users. I will post the Solidworks native file as well as an .STL file for anyone who wants to print it out as is. If you make improvement on your own or have suggested changes, please post them here. or contact me at @jellenbogen on Twitter.
Glad you like the idea, Franz. I teach a class called Inventing with Technology to Middle and High School students. If you are looking for additional accessory ideas for the Rachio Controller, perhaps some of my students (and I) could work on some designs.
Why not get a small piece of car window tinting material, comes in different shading and I’m sure you could find a shade that cuts down the brightness yet still allows you to make out the Rachio dial. I had purchased a small piece that they sold to tint automobile lights and covered a super bright bedroom clock radio display, worked GREAT
I’m hoping that a firmware update can fix this. For a $200 box this is a simple function to have. If not Rachio should make a tinted round cover to fit over the LED area and give them free upon request.
Hello everyone! I just wanted to respond to this thread because rachio despite getting complaints about the excessively “bright” LED over 2 years ago they still haven’t addressed and resolved this design issue/flaw. I purchased a “rachio 2” over the weekend and love the functionality. A couple of nights later I went into my garage and literally blinded by the bright blue LED from across my garage on the wall. Of course after experiencing this two nights in a row I decided to write rachio about this design flaw. Below is the response I received a day ago.
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Thank you for contacting Rachio Customer Support. My name is Matthew and I would be happy to assist you. The lights are not something we are able to adjust (as their functionality is implemented in hardware), and would only be able to be adjusted in future iterations of the product.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have other questions, comments, or concerns as well.
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My thing is that for such a great product they should researched addressing this issue with their 2nd generation controllers and certainly addressed it 3rd only to find out that they experience the issue also. I think I’m going to respond to them that they need to investigate it further as simply saying its a hardware issue isn’t cool.
I just purchased the Rachio 3 and installed yesterday. Reached out to support because my garage remains lighted by the Rachio after I turn the lights off. Support / Matthew pointed me to this community thread.
I find the hardware answer BS, at least for the 3. When I installed it, the bar was sectioned into 4 partitions to act as a progress bar. The current step would be light blue and then turn bright blue when complete - 1. It was controlled by software 2. The bar could be light blue instead of blindingly bright blue 24x7
I personally want the light off, unless the unit is running or I press a button (1 minute timeout)
I’m sad that support has pointed me to an old thread where folks are discussing tape and covers to fix such an easy software correctable problem. If tape is the only fix, I’ll be using for the box to send it back to Amazon.
Thank you for the feedback! I have relayed your feedback on the intensity of the lightbar to our product team. That being said, I want to be transparent and make you aware that we currently do not have a timeline for this feature. We hear you loud and clear, but we have a few other priorities that take precedent at this time.
In the meantime, we do have a couple interim solutions for you:
Light Dimming Sheets - Get them on Amazon for only $6
LED Tape - Get it in a variety of colors from Amazon for only $6
Thanks a ton for the continued support Happy Watering!
Happy Watering!