Thank you for your time, everyone.
Hemlock Mike: How many mW's does that 833nM one offer? Because I'm thinking that if it has 150-200mW, then it might still be useful.
The use of this is health related. I have a disease that involves reduced cellular activity in the spinal column. While there are some medications that help, I ended up (by stumbling on to some information about LLLT) trying an 880 nm, 170 mW LED on it, and I was surprised that my condition improved a lot. I have brought this up with my doctor and he understands as long as there are no side effects, and to this day (after 4 years), there haven't been any.
While I have been happy with the LED, I recently read that laser light has distinct properties in tissue while people selling LEDs have tried to deny this.
The reason I'm looking for 850-880 nm LED (or maybe a bit above) is that 660 nm LED didn't do nearly as much good.
I would need a lens or something like that to widen the beam sufficiently, to get a surface area of around 16cm^2. I think it would be best if the beam would be straight, like this:
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That way less powerful laser would suffice than here:
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With these parameters, how powerful should the laser be to arrive at about the same power levels
as my LED?
One problem I have is that I think I would need someone to order at least the laser module for me and then forward it. Because here it is illegal to import >5mW lasers (without expensive testing) and I'm sure companies can't be persuated (sp) to forge the specifications. Would someone here be willing to do this for me? Because there might be issues of having to send it a couple of times before getting through customs, I would gladly send you $50 for your troubles.
When I said reasonable prices, I'm wishing a budget of $300 for everything would be enough.
