Just a laser pointer. Contains all the current limiting driver components you need, so just supply it 5V and start burning people's eyes out (note: please don't do that.)

Designed to take the brief high voltage spikes from impacts on piezo elements, to generate a smooth & regulated low voltage DC supply at 10-100mA. Designed to harvest power from vibration or any rapid changes of direction.

These are great bang for buck, up to 5A of adjustable voltage, adjustable current power supply, with built-in voltage and current meter. These are actually smaller than I initially expected, and although the trimpots are a little annoying to use, I cant fault this unit for features or price.

These use the 2G mobile network, which will be shutdown in coming years in most countries, which has dropped the price of these modules like a stone. In most areas you still have at least several years of working time, possibly more, so a great cheap way to add mobile communications to your projects.

Another of the ATTiny85 DigiSpark boards. These use *SOFTWARE* based USB, but do a surprisingly good job of that.

While the modules i've been linking lately are great for adding computer control over fans, small pumps, and other motors or simple loads, sometimes you don't want anything so complicated, just a knob you can turn something up and down with. Well here it is, nice & cheap.

Similar to the module I've linked previously, this is an ATTiny85 with a Micro-USB connector, ready to embed into your smaller projects to add usb and/or microcontroller features, for under 2 bucks!

Last week I linked a nice cheap soldering iron for hobby electronics use, this one is not that. It will be rather hopeless at any real soldering work, and will be useful only in emergencies for such purposes. However I have my eyes set on it as a cheap 3D print finishing tool, which I can run directly from my printer. Professional versions of such tools are $50-200 each, so this would be a much cheaper alternative for what is essentially identical. Melt & sculpt PLA, ABS and most other 3D printable materials, to touch up fine detail or repair failed prints.

If you still haven't built yourself a bench supply yet, or perhaps want something to play around with high power LEDs or such, this supply can be invaluable. Not only can it boost 6-40V up to 8-80V, at up to 10A, it also includes a digital controller with push button interface, and most important of all, a serial interface. Yes, that's right, you can control this power supply remotely from a microcontroller or PC. I'll leaving finding the use to you, but it seems quite a handy kit.

If you want to test the capacity of batteries or power supplies, you need a good variable load. As the output of batteries and most power supplies will vary based on the current output, verifying a design over a range of loads is very important. With this unit you can dial up the current you'd like it to draw, in 10mA increments, at up to 3A. It has just about every USB connector known to man available to test USB chargers and power banks, which also supports 9/12/20V Qualcomm fast charging, along with a set of screw terminals for non-usb supplies 3-21V. It will monitor the voltage & current output, the total power drained, and can go further to eg test the ESR of your supply.

The first of the 3D printer items, this is a simple bracket that will allow you to bolt a second extruder motor & hot end, directly beside an existing MK8. No other changes to the mounts are required, just add the wiring for the new motor, heater & thermal probe, and a 5th stepper motor driver module to your controller for the extra motor. (see below)

This is a new extruder assembly, complete with motor & hot end, just like the one bundled with the 3D printer I linked last week. It makes for a perfect companion with the above mount to convert your printer into a dual extruder.

This is a set of 5x DRV8825 modules, which are Stepper motor drivers that connect to the Ramps 1.4 board included with the 3D printer. The printer comes with 4x A4988 drivers, which while adequeate, support at best 1/8th microstepping, and the lack of a 5th driver means you cannot add a second extruder. These DRV8825 modules support up to 1/32 microstepping, effectively quadrupling your printer's resolution. They can also handle higher currents, at lower temperatures, and there's a full set here for your X/Y/Z axes and two extruders. A wise early upgrade to any 3D printer.

Cheap and simple, this is a set of 5 replacement nozzles for your 3D printer. Don't spend $20 per nozzle or $50 for a hardened one, grab a few spares, put one aside for using damaging filaments like glow in the dark or carbon fibre, and open your options for quality vs speed by having a range of nozzles at hand.

We all have to start somewhere, often a cheap and nasty soldering iron from your local store. You plug it in and it gets hot. No temperature control, no fancy earthing strap, and it takes a good 10 minutes to get ready to solder. If this sounds like you, STOP! For 6 bucks this is a temperature adjustable, 60W iron. It heats up in under a minute, and the temperature control will feel like cheating in improving your consistency and reducing damage to boards/components. While it's still not as good as a Hakko/Aoyue/etc soldering station, it's what I consider to be the bare minimum anyone should use. Anything less is just making life hard on yourself.

With a shiny new soldering iron, how about some shiny new solder. This the good stuff - lower melting point, plenty of lead, very easy to work with and hard wearing. For those concerned about lead-free solder and the health issues from using lead, the simple truth is that's not a concern. There are no documented health issues from lead based soldering, the problem comes in when you discard the device and it ends up in landfill, and the lead leeches into the environment. This is why it is not generally used in mass production. In terms of using the solder for small scale hobby work, the fumes from lead-free solder are far more carcinogenic and unhealthy. For rework/repair purposes, which essentially amounts to recycling, it's well worth making life easy on yourself by using the good stuff, decreasing the chance of you damaging the device and improving your odds of repairing it.

Just a cheap and simple stand for your soldering iron - If you don't have one, they just generally make life easier, help prevent accidents, etc. For many people its really the main difference between a cheap mains iron and a bench soldering station, just having a nice `home` for the iron.
You don't need an $80 controller unit on your bench for that, These do fine :)

With solder going on, there's always the chance you'll want to take some off. This desoldering braid just loves solder, when you heat it with your iron and press it into the joint, the solder will wick away and you'll be left with a near perfectly clean surface to start again with. Also comes in handy for some surface mount parts with long rows of pins - you can connect them all to the board with a huge solder blob, then wick away all the un-needed solder with the braid, leaving just the bit under each pin to keep them connected and all the joints looking perfect.

Last item for the soldering, flux is another one of those tools you don't really `need`, since the solder already contains flux inside, but oh boy can it help. A bit of flux smeared onto the joint you're about to solder, will help clean the surfaces and allow the solder to stick properly. It also helps to use some on the desoldering braid to make it even more effective.

While I generally have fairly little time for the Arduino hardware these days, with its poor value/performance compared to competitors, which still support the Arduino software chain, the platform does still have one huge advantage, the huge ecosystem of Arduino shields that are available. We'll now we've ported those too! :D This is the latest ESP-12F with enhanced WiFi range, in an Arduino form factor, compatible with any 3.3V safe Arduino shields.

3D printing is becoming increasingly popular, and i'll soon be starting to post printer related deals. Unfortunately there is quite a bit of variation between models of printer, so this is the one I use, and what most of the parts I suggest will be designed to work with. I can recommend it as a cheap, reliable, and impressively performing unit - It made for a great start for me to get into printing.

210x210x210mm build area, Aluminium heated build plate with Kapton tape to use as an adhesive surface for printing on to, and contains everything you need to plug it into a USB port and start printing. Requires 1.75mm plastic filament, i'd recommend PLA for those starting out.

Many years ago I spent a lot of time & effort designing my own Car-PC power supply. It worked, but with small issues like poor standby consumption, high heat output, and poor output while the car was off. This thing could've been the answer to my prayers. A small, cheap, highly efficient power supply to regulate 12V, 5V and 3.3V rails to power a computer motherboard, and hard drive(s). These are also becoming increasingly popular for solar enthusiasts, so you can run a pc directly from a simple 12V solar panel + charger + battery system.

These are a neat little trick. While they're designed for LEDs, they'll really handle any resistive loads up to 72W, or inductive loads up to about 30W, and provide you a cheap, small, and efficent dimmer/speed control with on/off switch, for most 12V systems. Great for fans, lights (of any kind), and more.

Plug in screw terminals. remove the jack, screw your wires into the block with ease, then just plug them in. Probably my favourate way to attach random wires to projects i've built into enclosures. Well worth having on hand for when you need em.

A 6 pin version of the earlier connectors, for when you just need moar. Of course a variety of sizes are available, but I can't give you everything now can I ? :P

I haven't used these things at all, but they seem like a great cheap alternative to the newer LoRa radios. 433MHz is an unlicenced band in most countries, so these are one of the safer random china long range radio transmitter units to try, although you should always check your local laws.

I've helped several people lately working on capacitive touch projects. It's surprisingly popular for people to attempt to build these using a bare arduino or such, with no specific capacitive touch related hardware. While this can work, oh boy you guys are making things hard on yourselves. A module like this gives a very clean response, for a large number of keys, with next to no effort from the microcontroller using it. For under 2 bucks, save yourself the headaches and grab one.

Passive infrared sensors are old & simple technology these days, but they can still be amazingly useful sensors. This is an easy to use, arduino-friendly module to play with your own alarm or monitoring systems.

A bench power supply is a huge advantage to any hobbyist, both for testing parts in an easy, controlled way, charging random batteries, and in preventing short circuits from doing serious harm to their projects while playing around with designs on a breadboard or such. This unit could be a great cheap solution for those on a budget. It requires a DC voltage input, anything above 5V will do but preferably 24VDC, and it will give you a current & voltage limited supply with a neat display and funky clear enclosure. The only real downsides are the trimpots for adjusting the voltage & current require a screwdriver, and the regulation isnt as clean as a linear bench supply (but still perfectly adequate for most hobby tasks)

This unit is a step up from the previous. With the same current rating, it prefers a 48VDC supply (although will still operate fine from 5V if needed), and has a much cleaner display, controls, and better monitoring capabilities. The regulation is also marginally better, although still not up to linear quality. A very clean solution if you can build it into your work area.