Milovana.com

Has anyone tried to travel on an airplane with their DIY estim device? Did it pose issues for you?

I had one in checked baggage in EU. No one asked anything.

Had it in my checked baggage when travelling from the US to the EU once, no issues at all.

Even took it with me in my carry-on baggage when travelling between the EU and Russia once, no issues here either. I managed to catch a glimpse of the X-ray too, on which it did look quite interesting. It would sure have been funny had the security personnel started asking questions. I suppose I would've started spinning a tongue-in-cheek tale about it being some amateur radio equipment (look, this is the antenna...), but as I was travelling alone, I really wouldn't have minded telling them what it really is.

Can't imagine it being an issue beyond that. At least not in my case, since mine is USB powered and just plugs into my laptop. If your design involves batteries, regulations like "no Li-ions in checked baggage" may apply.

Just be prepared to explain yourself and maybe incur an according time delay if you do take it with you. It certainly is a bit out of the ordinary and some stickler or rookie may get curious about it. How you pack it will make a difference too. Maybe split it up a bit, don't make it look like an IED and don't get paranoid and put it all into a big metal box that they can't scan with the X-ray machine so they have to pull it out. The times I did get pulled aside were always something stupid like a bottle of pills inside a mug mildly resembling a frag bomb or some metal enclosure blocking the X-rays.