As Sennheiser said, the diode inside of a DVD reader is a low-powered red diode. Not very useful for the average hobbyist. The most I would expect to get out of it would be about 5mW at around 50mA. If you wish to get an infrared diode, then you would need to look inside of a CD reader or burner.Hi,
I am just wondering besides powering them is there anyway of finding out if a laser diode is red or infrared? i just salvaged one froman old car stereo that would read dvds,
Any help is appreciated,
Dave