Disabling the wardrobe mirror light

[Epigram]

Does anyone know a simple way the disable the mirror light in the wardrobe door ?
When sleeping in the lower bed I would prefer to be able to store items in the cupboard and leave the door open.
This is not possible because opening the door switches the mirror light on.
Also, if the cupboard door is accidentally left open during the day, the light remains on and may not be noticed. Although the LEDs don’t draw much current, if this happens after unpacking it could be some time it could be some time before the next trip.
Overall the mirror light is a nice touch (and gimmicks for salesmen ?! ) it is becoming an irritation.
Pulling fuses may be an answer, I haven’t checked but I doubt it will be on an individual fuse.
Any suggestions?
Wife’s non technical approach is black insulating tape which has its merits!

 

[Epigram]

Whilst away this week I remembered that I had overcome the problem of not being able to turn off the mirror light in “wardrobe” cupboard when the door is open.

I hope this helps anyone who wants to leave the door open without the light on or to avoid the (minimal) drain from the battery if the door is accidentally left open.

The light is operated by a magnetic switch in the top right hand side of the mirror door. The switch opens the circuit to the light when a magnet on the sliding door comes close.

A fridge magnet is too weak to operate the switch but a small rare earth neodymiun magnet purchased on EBay does the trick. The smallest I could find was 2x25x8 mm (several cost a few pounds) and wrapped it in Frog Tape to protect it. Its taped on the to the door so that it can be taken off and stored in the tray if I want the light to operate normally.

Rare earth magnets are powerful and brittle. They break easily if dropped or allowed to jump when attracted to ferrous material or another magnet. Hence wrapping in Frog Tape.

Keep out of the cutlery drawer or you might be eating with one attached to your knife or fork. Also away from audio cassette tapes........just in case anyone remembers.what they are!

 

[Steve B]

cassette tape...we have kept an old portable stereo to play tapes that have sentimental value (my mates band when we were young etc). I'm surprised Mercedes didn't offer a cassette option in lieu of DAB, to go along with the CD drive

 

[Epigram]

cassette tape...we have kept an old portable stereo to play tapes that have sentimental value (my mates band when we were young etc). I'm surprised Mercedes didn't offer a cassette option in lieu of DAB, to go along with the CD drive

I have a reel to reel for the same reason, although many treasured tracks have been transferred onto CD before they deteriorate. Now, wrestling with a reel to reel while driving could be something, in car entertainment has moved on in some respects albeit slowly!

 

[Method7]

Ah... how is the ghosting on your old tapes... I have a box full of my old cassettes in the roof I would imagine if any are playable they would just be so imprinted by the tape it’s wrapped over that everything sounds like a early buddy holly track.

 

[Epigram]

Ah... how is the ghosting on your old tapes... I have a box full of my old cassettes in the roof I would imagine if any are playable they would just be so imprinted by the tape it’s wrapped over that everything sounds like a early buddy holly track.

Getting a bit off theme but I’ve taken the bait.....!

My early cassettes are pretty hopeless but later ones with chromium dioxide tape have fared better.

The playback quality of some of my older reel to reel tapes isn’t bad. Much depends on the quality of the original tape and recorder used. Thinner (longer playing) tapes suffer more from ghosting/print through but all have degraded treble and increased noise. A big enemy has been breakage due to brittle tape or stretching through recorders with poor tape transport mechanisms.

My recommendation is if you have anything stashed away that you are fond of transfer it onto a hard drive or CD ASAP.

For information the recording I uploaded on the thread “Derbyshire Dales Spontaneous Travels” was from a tape over 40 years old that had more than a dozen joins in it before I rescued it and copied it onto hard drive/CD. (I purposely degraded the quality for the youtube upload version but even that version is not too bad played through a decent sound system.)

The human ear / brain is very good at compensating for bad quality and it seems to choose to with eclectic music.

In the case of Buddy Holly I guess it would be almost impossible to distinguish print through from what was on the original recording especially if your last memory of hearing it was on a Dansette autochanger when virtually every click and pop from the scratched and dirty record was known and anticipated.

Digital music, iPods and memory cards have a lot going for them technically but there is some music that Spotify and ITunes just can’t access!

 

[Steve B]

In the case of Buddy Holly I guess it would be almost impossible to distinguish print through from what was on the original recording especially if your last memory of hearing it was on a Dansette autochanger when virtually every click and pop from the scratched and dirty record was known and anticipated.

I think the original topics properly hijacked.....and Ive still got an inherited blue dansette in the garage somewhere, its lid detached as the speaker. I didn't come across reel to reel but cassette tapes and vinyl were big for me. The quality bit is exactly the same for me as well because on a couple of LP's I had scratches and I now have the songs on apple music - but my mind still remembers where the scratch is and expects it.