[Dhananjay Gadre] happened across a useful little trick the other day. Take any old 1N4148 or 1N914 glass-package signal diode and wire it up right, and you’ve got yourself a nifty little IR detector.

Although they are a simple device, diodes do have a number of traits to consider. These traits are often application dependent. Some applications include: rectifiers, signal ORing, transistor turn off ...