Interested in buying but wondering how long will it last? And what can be done if there are any “dead pixels”? Thanks
From the Kickstarter comments page
The LED matrix panels we use are rated for 100K hours of life, which comes out to about 11 years.
But to add to that, the LED’s themselves spend almost all of their time turned off. Each row of LED’s turns on for just a few milliseconds at a time, but much faster than your eye can see. This extends the life even further.
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I’m thinking about plugging the Tidbyt into a smart wall socket, which turns off at specified periods. Because my Tidbyt is in the living room so I don’t need it turned on at night. I imagine this will improve the life expectancy ever further. However, the Tidbyt will experience a ‘hard’ shutdown in those periods. Can that harm the Tidbyt over time?
No, assuming it’s a UL-certified smart plug, there’s no problem at all. Especially if it’s a quality, name-brand product.
If it’s a no-name Amazon thing with unknown internals, it could definitely cause problems. But in that case I’d be more worried about your home wiring than the Tidbyt: Cheap smart plugs could expose you to hackers, or even cause a fire - Which? News
The Hictkon Smart Plug with Dual USB Ports, available on Amazon Marketplace, has been poorly designed, with the live connection far too close to an energy-monitoring chip. This could cause an arc – a luminous electrical discharge between two electrodes – which poses a fire risk, particularly to older homes with older wiring.
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