Best Tech Under £10/$10 (Christmas Gift Guide / Black Friday) – You Didn’t Know You Needed This…

As someone who is pretty aware of the over-consumption that’s rather prevalent, especially when it comes to videos like this one, I decided if I’m going to make a guide like this, I’m only going to include stuff I find genuinely useful, and in this case, that’s super affordable too. So no, this video isn’t sponsored by Temu – as hard as they’ve been trying, nor AliExpress – again, they’ve been offering too. In fact, this video isn’t sponsored by anyone – if you want to support me not needing to take Temu-bucks, please do check out the affiliate links in the description when buying, especially from Amazon, or check out the YouTube memberships or Patreon. Right, let’s get into it!

The first thing is something I bought for myself – in fact they are so useful I bought a handful of them. This is an HDMI EDID emulator – EDID being the extended display identification data, basically the info the monitor tells your PC so it knows what resolutions and refresh rates are supported. Why would you need to emulate that though? Well, if like me you have home servers – especially custom built ones out of old PCs – and in particular you run virtual machines, you’ll know that if you try and remote desktop into a headless machine like that, you’ll end up having a pretty terrible time. It doesn’t like creating a display output when there’s no display, and hooking up a monitor is often more hassle than it’s worth. That’s where these little things come in. Plug on in, and as if by magic, the system thinks there’s a monitor connected. You can get a bunch of different resolution versions, this one is a 4:3 one as that’s plenty, but some claim 1080p, or even 4K which seems like a stretch, but still. These are really cheap – I found a six pack for just over a tenner, but individual ones can be close to a fiver. That’s linked in the description if you want one.

Next up is another port, this time USB. This little thing is a really useful USB voltage and current meter. This one in particular can take power in from the USB A port, a Type C port, or even microUSB, and output either to the USB A port on the back, or to the Type C port at the bottom, and basically it can measure the voltage and current the USB port is outputting, and the device is accepting. The really cool bit though is that it can also log that information, which means you can use this to capacity test battery powered devices. If you run your phone down to 0%, then plug it in via this, then you can measure how much charge goes in. Of course it isn’t perfect, as if the phone is on it’ll use some of that power, and there will be charging losses too, but it should give you an idea. It also works for things like rechargeable lights like these, to know how the batteries in there are doing. This has helped me quite a few times, so again if you want one, there’s a link in the description. 

And actually, speaking of rechargeable lights, my next pick is just that, an inspection light. These things have magnets at least on the base, if not on the back too, have an adjustable angle for the main beam, and almost always have a spotlight on the top too, so if like me you find yourself neck deep in an engine bay, this thing is absolutely invaluable. The fact it’s so small, rechargeable and magnetic too makes it a really useful tool, not just for cars, but when building PCs, or trying to look behind appliances, and plenty more. While the Unilight one I have is definitely more than a tenner, you certainly can get ones for right around that price, like this Draper one for example, although this Unilight one is amazing so if you do want to splash out, you’ve got that option. 

On the more techie side, actually the more electronics side of things, picking up one (or in my case a bag) of these NodeMCU boards is really handy. These are ESP boards, either the older ESP8266, or the newer ESP32, and these are basically WiFi connected micro controllers. Having a microcontroller on hand to automate something ‘dumb’ is always good, but since this is an internet connected one, if you want to make something truly smart and be able to remote control it, these are perfect. Together with ESPHome – which integrates with Home Assistant really well – you can make dumb things smart, while still being self hosted too. My DIY bed cooler is run from an ESP32, and I’ve reanimated my Pimoroni Enviro weather station with an ESP8266 board, so I find these things invaluable to have around for when a project idea pops into my head. I’d like to make this little keyswitch tester a smart switch at some point, so maybe one of these boards will find its way inside here! These NodeMCU boards in particular are around £6 each, or less if you buy a pack. Again, links in the description.

Sticking with making, one of the most useful tools I needed to make the response time tools are these, a set of digital vernier calipers. These give you a really accurate way to measure stuff, which if you happen to need to 3D print cases like me, being able to measure how big a USB C port is to cut a hole for it, or measure the diameter of your home plumbing so you can buy the right size to replace it, or check how big a bolt is, these things are perfect. I find myself grabbing for these an awful lot, and considering the cheapest ones are literally a fiver, that’s a great deal. My metal ones were more like £20, but that’s still a great deal. 

Something I bet you’ve not seen before though is this – these are NFC stickers. YouTube sent me these years ago, but you can pick up a pack of 50 for a tenner, and it turns out NFC isn’t just for payments and hotel key cards! With just one of these stickers you can have a text record, open a URL, link to a search, link to a video or file, open an app, send an email, start navigation on maps, or even save your WiFi network details – although by far the coolest thing you can do with these also needs Home Assistant running, because HASS lets you create custom tags and attach automations to them, so you can scan one of these stickers, and have it do.. Well.. anything! Turn the lights off and shut your blinds because you are going away, for example. It’s basically a smart button you activate by just having your phone near it. These are really cool, and for such little money it’s a really cool thing to have about.

And last, but not least, we have these… This is my household’s fidget toy box, because both my and my wife have autism and ADHD, and these help an awful lot with focusing. It sounds counterintuitive, I know, but trust me, it helps – and there’s a pretty good chance that if you like watching my videos, you’re on the spectrum too, which is why I can wholeheartedly recommend you get your own fidget toys box. There’s quiet ones, clicky ones, and the DIY M10 bolt with a nylock nut on the end and a captive bolt in the middle that is just so damn satisfying. Each of these, individually anyway, are well under a fiver, and come highly recommended from me. 

So, that’s my list of interesting and useful tech under a tenner, but if you have anything else you think we should know about, please do leave it in the comments below!