It's that time of year when my family ask me for ideas of presents for Christmas and my Birthday. (both December)
With electronics bits being a bit specific/esoteric I stopped trusting that if I said what I wanted they would get me the right thing after I gave my wife a link without a description for a new CPU.
By the time she clicked it the link redirected to a few screws. Luckily she checked before buying and I was able to get her the alternative link.
So, these day I provide a wish list email with more items than I expect to get so I still have the surprise when I open the packaging as to what they give me.
This year I've decided to share the list. This list may be added to as I think of more things.
Before you ask things like Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, Circuit Playground boards are not on this list as these are things I have usually already got a stash of. This list is for the other bits that make those things useful. The kind of things it would be useful to have before starting a project but may not have already or may have run out of.
I try to keep the items to less than £20 so for many these are good stocking fillers.
USB Current Tester - £4.50
I buy random items off the Internet and for batteries and USB PSUs I want a way to see if they meet their stated ratings.
I have a regular A3 cutting mat but like this because of the different compartments to keep bits as I regularly drop screws and tools and hope this will help me be more organised when working on something.
Crimping Tool with 450Pcs Connector - £23.99
I sometimes use buttons with spade connectors and at the moment I solder the wires on which is not ideal. Want to start using the correct connectors for the correct job and not just bodge something that later causes a headache that I have to fix.
Sometimes for the Raspberry Pi I need to burn multiple SD cards. The great Etcher will burn multiple images at the same time so with this I can add 3 more to be burned in parallel (it's not 4 as I lose a port to connect it)
Starting to try and be more organised so like the idea of this set of wires. I have loose spools of wire around the place so the plan is to replenish the spools when they run out.
Saying that I still do breadboard stuff so it's always good to replenish the stock of Dupont jumper wires.
Having recently committed a project to an actual prototyping board rather than using a breadboard I want to do more of that for my Raspberry Pi projects so need a bunch of 2x20 female connectors to hand. Last one I used I 'borrowed' form a Kickstarter I backed, so that's now an incomplete kit.
I'm always looking for microSD cards, so every year I add them to the stocking filler list.
They're small and I'm clumsy so replenishing stock is an ongoing activity.
