Turn off the power, activity and Ethernet LEDs

[BobW55]

I am getting a red reflection from the power LED.
I tried adding the following to the boot/config.txt file.

# Turn off PWR LED
dtparam=pwr_led_trigger=default-on
dtparam=pwr_led_activelow=off
# Turn off ACT LED
dtparam=act_led_trigger=none
dtparam=act_led_activelow=off
# Turn off Ethernet ACT LED
dtparam=eth_led0=4
# Turn off Ethernet LNK LED
dtparam=eth_led1=4

It has not turned them off.
I am using a Pi 4B 8Gig.
I have veryfied my changes were saved.
Any other ideas?

[EricClaeys]

@BobW55 did this just start happening? If so, you sure there isn't a red outside light, like a Christmas light?
Since this a Pi-specific question you could try asking on a Pi user group.

[BobW55]

Been haapening since day 1. I had put some black tape inside to block the reflection in the dome.
But since the snow last night it is very noticable in the melted snow drops. I have tries both command line and boot file changes.
There are NO lights anywhere near the camera. I even shut down my security camera just incase.
I would not think there is enough ambient light to cause reflection off the red body of the camera.

[Dentonknifeworks]

Here is a list of LED options
https://github.com/aaronwmorris/indi-allsky/wiki/Disable-LEDs

[BobW55]

Thank you. this is where I got some of the things to try from.

[BobW55]

Just to follow up. I have found no options to shut off the LEDS. I have added suggested lines to the boot/config.txt file.
I have rebooted, done a hard shutdown and power up and the power LED remains on.
Brought the box inside, soon as it gets up to ambient, I'll paint over the LEDs.

[Ruediger3]

Hi,
I suffer from the same issue. Red LED from camera module. I could not solve it. I have put tape on it.
Ruediger

[BobW55]

I stand corrected.
The LEDs on the Pi DID TURN OFF.
The LED on the POE hat did not. I put black paint on it.

[morrowwm]

This seems to have worked for me, on RPi 3 running /etc/debian_version == 12.4:

sudo sh -c 'echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/PWR/brightness'
sudo sh -c 'echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/ACT/brightness'
sudo sh -c 'echo none > /sys/class/leds/ACT/trigger'
sudo sh -c 'echo none > /sys/class/leds/ACT/trigger'

I am not sure if it survives a reboot.

[troublestarter]

Can you test again ?
Have you tried to reboot ?
It interest me...

A little read here : https://raspberrytips.com/disable-leds-on-raspberry-pi/

[morrowwm]

Have you tried to reboot ?

But, but, data continuity!

In the interests of science, and because there's solid cloud here now, I did reboot. The LEDs are now on and flashing, which is to be expected.

I added these four lines to the bottom of /boot/config.txt

dtparam=pwr_led_trigger=none
dtparam=pwr_led_activelow=off
dtparam=act_led_trigger=none
dtparam=act_led_activelow=off

and rebooted again. The LEDs stay off.

[morrowwm]

Also, from that excellent guide @troublestarter links to above, you might want to add:

#Disable LAN LEDs
dtparam=eth_led0=14
dtparam=eth_led1=14

if you are using a wired network connection. These should disable the LAN activity LEDs.

Mine is wireless right now, so I don't want to add these. I might go to a power-over-ethernet connection and wired ethernet later. So want to have the LAN activity LEDs active at first. I'll forget this configuration if I do it now.

[troublestarter]

ok great for feedback !

[stevedee]

I'm running Bookworm/release 12 on a Pi 4 and fresh install of Allsky.

To permanently turn off the red power LED and green activity LED, I've added 4 new lines in: /boot/firmware/config.txt

#Put that light Out!!!
dtparam=pwr_led_trigger=default-on
dtparam=pwr_led_activelow=off
dtparam=act_led_trigger=none
dtparam=act_led_activelow=off

This seems to work!

See also: raspberrypi/firmware#1742

[NiteRide]

I know this is an old thread, but could it become a feature request to add an option to toggle on and off the Pi LEDs as part of the allsky configuration?

It's not complicated for a user with some computer savvy to follow a guide like this one. But perhaps it is useful enough that having a simple toggle "somewhere" in the Settings or System pages?

Maybe not worth it?...and I don't know where it would go in the WebUI either... just an idea to add to the long list of ideas.

For what it's worth and for fun I think I am going to give a try at following instructions to make my own "system page addition" to display the LED status and buttons to toggle the Pi LEDs on and off, but that's not quite the same as a system setting where a user can configure to have them always off when Allsky starts up (or not).

[EricClaeys]

@NiteRide,
I'm torn with something like this. On the one hand I prefer not to add Raspberry Pi-specific features because we'd like to get Allsky running on non-Raspberry hardware, and it's pretty close to being able to do that. On the other hand, you're not the only one that asked about how to turn the LEDs off, so I can see this being a useful feature.
I think I've seen different directions depending on the Pi model, which is another reason I'm hesitent to implement something like this. Will we need to update the instructions for every new Pi that comes out?

With the LEDs, my impression is that they are a "set and forget" thing and people don't typically turn them and and off often, so the need for a feature like this in Allsky is probably low. I could be wrong, but that's my impression.

I'm pretty sure other people have added buttons for the LEDs to the "system page additions", and the "System" WebUI page is the logical place for these buttons to be. You can try searching the GitHub Disussions (open and closed) and ask on the Allsky Facebook page. Of just follow the Documentation page and try it yourself (and ideally provide any feedback on the Documentation page...).

[NiteRide]

Makes sense @EricClaeys. I was thinking about this as well while out and about after my earlier post. Mostly about how complicated it would be to be able to support every variant of Pi etc as the commands / settings / parameters are slightly different based on boards and software versions. And how additionally based on individual enclosure setups it might not matter at all.

Also agree that probably very few people ever would be turning off and on and it would be pretty far down any sort of in demand feature set --- so "cost" to develop, support, and maintain would certainly outweigh the demand.

I will have a go at the "system page additions" though just for fun and see how that might inspire me to learn more about the App and the OS capabilities. I will also give thought to the documentation as I go and can certainly contribute to helping polish it up if needed.

[EricClaeys]

@NiteRide,
Playing around with Allsky like this is a great way to learn it and learn Linux. You may also find a better way to do things.
Go for it!

Eric

[BobW55]

As I stated in the begining, very easy to just mask them off with some liquid tape and be done with it. No coding to write. and it last for ever.

[astrobrothers]

Since not everyone needs to turn off their LEDs, maybe this doesn't need to be part of the install, but it would be nice to have this on the Documentation pages. I tried covering the LEDs up, but temp variations ultimately thwart this and this is a lot easier than getting on a ladder.
@EricClaeys please consider adding to Documentation:

For those wanting to turn OFF all of the RPi LEDs:

Debian Bookworm or Trixie, edit:

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

Debian Bullseye or older and/or RPi 3 or older:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Then paste the following on the last line of the file and reboot.
For Bookworm or newer OS:

# Disable the Power LED (Red) - Try 'on' if 'off' fails
dtparam=pwr_led_trigger=none
dtparam=pwr_led_activelow=on

# Disable the Activity LED (Green)
dtparam=act_led_trigger=none
dtparam=act_led_activelow=off

# Disable Ethernet Port LEDs
dtparam=eth_led0=4
dtparam=eth_led1=4

Exceptions:
For RPi 3 or older, change ethernet value to:
dtparam=eth_led1=14

For RPi 5:
Check that your bootloader is up to date:
sudo rpi-eeprom-update
and try omitting: dtparam=pwr_led_activelow=on or switching to off if you are unsuccessful.

[Alex-developer]

Since not everyone needs to turn off their LEDs, maybe this doesn't need to be part of the install, but it would be nice to have this on the Documentation pages. I tried covering the LEDs up, but temp variations ultimately thwart this and this is a lot easier than getting on a ladder. @EricClaeys please consider adding to Documentation:

For those wanting to turn OFF all of the RPi LEDs:

Debian Bookworm or Trixie, edit:

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

Debian Bullseye or older and/or RPi 3 or older:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Then paste the following on the last line of the file and reboot. For Bookworm or newer OS:

# Disable the Power LED (Red) - Try 'on' if 'off' fails
dtparam=pwr_led_trigger=none
dtparam=pwr_led_activelow=on

# Disable the Activity LED (Green)
dtparam=act_led_trigger=none
dtparam=act_led_activelow=off

# Disable Ethernet Port LEDs
dtparam=eth_led0=4
dtparam=eth_led1=4

Exceptions: For RPi 3 or older, change ethernet value to: dtparam=eth_led1=14

For RPi 5: Check that your bootloader is up to date: sudo rpi-eeprom-update and try omitting: dtparam=pwr_led_activelow=on or switching to off if you are unsuccessful.

Thanks for the info

I have added this to the new documentation (preview is here

Github is being slow so its not updated yet but hopefully will do soon.

This is the documentation for the next release which we are testing at the moment