Super-bright 5mm IR LED - 940nm

Infrared LEDs are used for remote controls (they're the little LED in the part you point at your TV) and 'night-vision' cameras, and these little blue guys are high powered ones! They are 940nm wavelength, which is what nearly all devices listen to. They're 20 degree beamwidth, and work great for any kind of remote control application.

Adafruit used one of these to make a camera control footswitch/intervalometer. These are the same LEDs used in their super TV-B-Gone kit. You can drive them continuously (for 'night vision' illumination) with 100mA and for IR remote application they can take up to 1 Amp pulses (!).

If you want to make a sender/receiver pair, you'll want to get an IR remote receiver sensor as well.

Adafruit has a tutorial that covers everything you'll need to know about IR remote control sensing as well as how to 'clone' a remote control in both Arduino & CircuitPython

Technical Details

• 5mm LED
• 940nm wavelength (most common)
• 20 degree beam width
• 100 mA continuous, 1000 mA pulse
• Approx 1.6V forward voltage (check datasheet for range)