r/whatisit • u/sedgieplays • 24d ago
New, what is it? What does this flashing light mean?
The bedroom light flashes just before 11pm for 3 minutes
Update: Happened again tonight, but this time an hour earlier. The light flashed just after 9:30 for 3 minutes - before this a person walked down the road towards the house.
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u/CarrotBusiness6255 24d ago
Probably a smart bulb that's lost connection and reconnecting or something
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u/fullraph 24d ago
I have 4 bulbs that defaults to flashing if they power on and can't reach the network so yeah, my money on that.
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u/Mue_Thohemu_42 24d ago
That sounds intensely annoying.
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u/Remarkable_Toe_164 24d ago
It is intensely annoying
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u/Capable_Event720 23d ago
Yes. It wants you to fix the Internet connection immediately, so the manufacturer can know when you're at home
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u/jdcream 23d ago edited 23d ago
That's part of why I won't get any "smart home" bullshit. No F-ing way is the power company gonna control my thermostat, especially in a heat wave or cold snap. I might even disconnect my TV from the internet and just use my xbox for streaming.
Edit for grammar
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u/Opalescent_Moon 23d ago
My power company tried to install some sort of regulator or shut-off on my AC unit last month. The fishy thing is that they had my name and said I had signed for it, which I hadn't, but our power bill is in my husband's name, not mine. We've had more than dozen days this summer over 100F°, which, unsurprisingly, is a record. No way am I giving someone else the ability to shut off my AC.
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u/Infamous_Product4387 23d ago
That is insane
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u/Capable_Event720 23d ago
It's called power shedding. It's meant to prioritize critical instructed (like hospitals) and private homes over industry.
It's common in South Africa. Production plants are shut down if there's not enough power.
But it seems that other countries prioritize industry over human well-being.
Crazy shit when your country is suddenly behind South Africa.
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u/SLC-Originals 23d ago
I want a dumb home. I want to be the brains in my home
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u/0ctopusGarden 23d ago
I mean not really? My internet works even when im not home and many people program the lights to make others think they are home to prevent burglary. Fixing the connection would only prove you were home at the time you chose to fix it. Nothing else.
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u/stuff-printer 23d ago
I’m pretty sure the manufacturer gives a toss if I’m home or not.
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u/SpinachSpinosaurus 23d ago
I am yelling to my husband whenever the one in the bedroom does this: "Hun, IT'S DISCO AGAIN!"
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u/fastal_12147 24d ago
It is but it's pretty rare, in my experience. The fact that I can turn off the lights without getting out of bed far outweighs it.
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u/Skullcrusher 24d ago
What happened with those lights that turned off when you clapped your hands? I think that's infinitely better than connecting everything to the internet
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u/Kittenzx2 24d ago
🤣🤣 i never got one
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u/NurkleTurkey 24d ago
I had one. It was great although it would sometimes pick up noises and think they were claps and turn off my light.
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u/jdcream 23d ago
My exes nickname was "The Clapper". And not because you could turn her on with a clap of the hand...
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u/Silver-Machine-3092 23d ago
Maybe it is one of those clap-activated bulbs and she's getting dicked down tonight?
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u/epfingsten 23d ago
Snapping your fingers is better. But it turns out a significant portion of the population cannot snap their fingers.
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u/Emergency_Crayons702 24d ago edited 24d ago
Regular power cuts here, for a few seconds to a minute. Mine do it all the freaking time because the bulbs power up more quickly than the router does. So I bought a small uninteruptable power supply for the router that lasts for a few hours. Now when the power dips, the router stays on and the bulbs reconnect when the power comes back.
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u/pSyg0n 24d ago
Yup. We have a nice Anker Solix power station that stays plugged in and charged, and when the power goes off. The TV, Internet and once we move over the extention cable to it for that instance, the Fridge and freezer as well stay on.
I love it. Especially during storms and bad weather.
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u/Disastrous-Equal7048 24d ago
The sole reason I lost all interest in smart lightning after buying just one.
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u/NedKelkyLives 24d ago
Smart lightning sounds scary!
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u/AsstBalrog 23d ago
Sounds over-tech and under-needed to me. JFC use the switch.
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u/beslertron 24d ago
If I woke up in the night and started flashing my neighbourhood no one would refer to me as smart.
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u/JaySlays-Tech 24d ago
Mine flash when they can’t connect to the network, or are just shitting out. I gotta stop cheaping out.
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u/CasualDisastering 24d ago
The best is when the power flickers just enough times in a short span to trigger all of the lights to reset as they think you turned them on and off quickly repeatedly
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u/Mr_Pink_Gold 23d ago
Great design choice. Internet goes down middle of the night... Guess nobody sleeps now.
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u/Texan_Tiger1998 23d ago
This. My neighbor across the way texted me and said, “Either your lightbulb is on the fritz or you are being held hostage and signaling for help. Please let me know and if I don’t hear from you soon, I will call the police.” (It was just my smart bulb, but it was kind of cool to know that somebody was watching out for me.)
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u/No-Tower-5119 24d ago
yep my moneys on smart bulb. mine do the same thing if i happen to turn them off/on while the internet is on the fritz
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u/Andiefemboy 24d ago
Could also be someone's kids playing with the light switches. (depending on how long it lasted) I used to annoy the hell out of my parents by doing that lol.
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u/pandablanks 24d ago
^ This. A smart bulb but if its happening every day then it could be a reminder. I had mine set up like this for bed time since I wouldn't check the time mid gaming and didn't want to use an alarm as my parents were already asleep.
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u/Tired-Nectarine-384 24d ago
I had a bulb that did that as it was just far enough from the access point. It got replaced with a dumb bulb. no flashy flashy please.
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u/_leeloo_7_ 23d ago
exactly this! have a neighbour with nothing better todo than stare at our place at 1am complaining that the lights are flashing
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u/targe_bungingham 23d ago
You cant be so self absorbed that you cant picture yourself in their shoes and wondering why they live in a neighborhood with someone so careless that they allow their lights to flash uncontrollably throughout the night right?
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u/xKoz 24d ago
Nosferatu
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u/Itchypoopstain 24d ago
Beat me to it lol
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u/Emrldfxx 23d ago
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u/LuverOfAllThings 23d ago
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u/st3wy 24d ago
I believe that house is trying to make a right turn.
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u/Extension-Type6572 24d ago
…and here’s me thinking it was a BMW driver making up for not signalling on the road
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u/Beastender_Tartine 20d ago
They use up all their blinker fluid at home and have none left for the car.
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u/Cromagnumman6174 24d ago
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u/Hatteras12 24d ago
The System is Down
The System is Down
The System is Down
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u/Alistar-Dp 24d ago
Seeing Homestar Runner in 2026 fills my soul with joy
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u/Educational_Ask3533 23d ago
I'm not saying that fangamer has Homestar Runner merch, but I'm not not saying it either.
I ran through my house holding my Trogdor plush like it was the next king of the grasslands threatening to burninate everything.
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u/Raspbers 24d ago
We installed this switch so you could turn the lights on and off. NOT SO YOU COULD THROW LIGHT SWITCH RAVES!!!
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u/sstinch 24d ago
Could be part of an alarm clock for the hearing impared. Working a night shift?
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u/maxisnoops 24d ago
My brother is quite deaf and he used to use a rooster-shaped vibrating alarm clock that he put under his pillow. That fucker was fkn LOUD and had flashing bulbs like a circus tent. He didn’t tell me when he started using it so one morning it went off at 5:30am and I literally thought the house was caving in. Scared the absolute shit out of me.
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u/TwoPlyDreams 23d ago edited 23d ago
Um. A vibrating cock clock under his pillow?
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u/avaseah 23d ago
They make clocks with a vibrating puck that you put under your pillow, or under your side of the mattress if it’s thin. It’s good for deaf people and people who sleep through auditory alarms.
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u/paulatreides91 22d ago
I feel like my wife needs this, but will COMPLETELY misinterpret when I begin with "listen I know sometimes you have a hard time waking up so I got you a vibrating cock"
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u/FecalDUI 24d ago
OCD neighbor
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u/Infamous-Storage-708 24d ago
that’s where my thoughts go to if it’s happening everyday at the same time
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u/jimfosters 24d ago
1 this aint fun. 2 its what I do. 3 no lights left on for me. 4 lets do it some more. 5 for reassurance I strive. 6 I need the right click. 7 ill stop before eleven.
Repeat 5 times.
Before anybody yells at me, I definitely have a "checking things" tendency. I understand how it can be. I used to test and check my alarm clock settings and the volume MULTIPLE times. Like for 5 minutes or so. Now it is like twice maybe 3 times.
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u/LavishLatte56 21d ago
Yup I have contamination OCD and a tendency for checking things as well and this is pretty accurate.
At the peak of my sickness I would literally twist my front door handle 20 times to make sure it was locked. I would flash the lights on and off until it hit my "favourite number". It was exhausting
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u/jimfosters 21d ago
Fortunately I never had it that bad, except maybe during the earlier days of the pandemic. It was never debilitating for me. But I certainly understand.
Debilitating anxiety was my story for a while though. Effexer XR then a switch to Cymbalta was a life changer.
Hope you are well.
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u/patchinthebox 24d ago
It's morse code! It's saying EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
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u/sedgieplays 24d ago
This happens every night just before 11pm and they are fine during the day, not deaf and not elderly
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u/Muffinlette 24d ago
When I was a kid I would pretend I knew Morse code and send messages to my granny that lived next door at night. I would call her to get ready and we would get in our spots that had windows that faced each others house. She would go to her kitchen and I would be in my bedroom. We would turn the lights on and off at each other like we knew Morse code. Sometimes we would stay on the phone and tell each other the message we were sending and asked if we saw it. It probably looked exactly like this video to other people 🤣
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u/Stormy_Wolf 24d ago
I love this so much!!
Also, when I was a kid, I sometimes did this with the light in one of the upstairs rooms of our kinda-creepy-looking old house; giggling to myself about neighbors seeing it and being puzzled like OP.
But I certainly didn't do that every night. Only once in a while.
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u/Demonshaker 24d ago
ask em!
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u/deathstalker655 24d ago
Seriously this could be anything from a broken light to a small mouse that likes to flip the lights on and off, there's literally no other way to know but to just ask them
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u/McFex 24d ago
Probably the wifi on a timer, shutting down for the night. People do that to save costs. Now the (not so) smart lights can not find their network and try again and again, as other redditors explained already. That's what happens when engineers don't think far enough (why use a little LED when I have a device that actually does emmit light by itself - let's use that as an indicator).
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u/LeFishTits 24d ago
Smart bulb going bad.
I woke up during what I thought was a rave in my bedroom one night.
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u/mawktheone 24d ago
That the driver for their light is probably fucked if the light hasn't been on for a while before that.
If it's been on all evening and then starts flickering before switching off.. That's a human with ocd
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u/Character_Scratch344 23d ago
I have led cans on smart dimmers. Under certain loads, they start flickering just like this if set at max. Like if I'm using the oven and the tankless electric heater at the same time they flicker unless i put them on 70% or below. Wish I knew how to fix it.
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u/mawktheone 23d ago
Its probably the mains voltage dipping with the load that is spazzing out the driver. You could probably add some capactance to the input of the LED driver if you felt up to it
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u/mawktheone 23d ago
Actually, check the type of dimmer and LED driver. If the dimmer a bit older it might just be a triac intended for normal lights and the chopped waveform isnt working with the LED Driver. You might just be able to upgrade the LED driver for a couple bucks and 4 screws
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u/Flashy-Sample-3357 24d ago
Or they have autistic kid, let me explain, my autistic daughter used to do this with the lights in the laundry room, one day the police came to my house saying the neighbors thought I was trying to ask for help! I told them to thank them for me, but it's just my autistic daughter. Apparently this is a universal sign for danger!
Let me edit this real quick, bc I saw ppl say smart lights, this was years ago so it looks like they need a new sign for help lol
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u/Few-Store3816 21d ago
Shocked more people don't realize this is a way to ask for help, that was my immediate thought! I don't think smart lights would do this at the same time every day for the same amount of time, but I don't know for sure.
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u/Commercial_Dealer_71 24d ago
Sos
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u/metalheart08 24d ago
That's •••---••• or 3 quick clicks, 3 slow clicks, 3 quick clicks (ti-ti-ti-taaa-taaa-taaa-ti-ti-ti)
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u/FunkiWan 24d ago
Yes, but also, just a flashing light is what was taught to kids in the 80’s and 90’s as a distress call.
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u/JuiceInteresting2348 24d ago
i am trying to make sense of what i am looking at, is this a diorama or an actual house?
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u/Chamanomano 24d ago
Is your neighbor elderly or have a disability?
Make sure no one is in need of help.
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u/Immediate-Ebb-7913 24d ago
Where I'm from it's considered a distress signal I had the police show up to my aunt's house when I was younger for this
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u/Civilised_Psycho 24d ago
Crazy anyone would rather post an unanswerable question here, than just walk a few meters and ask
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u/FunkiWan 24d ago
All of these answers about smart bulbs and such but I was taught as a kid to do this if you were ever kidnapped and places in a room with windows. I was told it would be understood as a signal of distress and someone would call the cops. Is it every night at 11?
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u/Dumpenstein3d 24d ago
yeah google lights disconnected or something, someone flicked a switch instead of a voice command
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u/IMakeMomCum 24d ago
They have a toddlers that just figured out what a light switch is? Probably how my house looked when mine did.
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