Are IR diodes hard to get? Gunshow BS

[usakicksass]

I was at the Portland expo center gunshow last weekend and a guy there ,who sells lasers for guns, said it is next to impossible to buy IR diodes because of the FEDS paranoia or something. Is this true?

 

[robjdixon]

In a Word: No

 

[Meduza]

Well... every CD drive ever produced have a (near)-IR laser inside...

 

[billg519]

There's always plenty of IR laser diodes on ebay ...

 

[rocketparrotlet]

Check out heruursciences' thread...you can get a bag of 25 (mostly IR) diodes for $50. Powerful ones, like 1W in there, too.

808nm diodes are actually the easiest and cheapest kind of diodes to find and obtain. They're dirt cheap compared to all other kinds of diodes.

-Mark