What to give to the geek?

On the eve of February 23, seasonally (and sometimes unexpectedly), the question of choosing a gift arises.

In this publication, I want to provide a possible list - not just gifts, but educational and useful, related to electronics or robotics.

Electronics

Capacitor tester

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If the gift recipient likes to work with a soldering iron, he knows what a condenser and solder are. So you can give him an ECR-meter on Chip-and-Dip. This is a capacitor tester. In electronic equipment, an electrolytic capacitor is a common cause of a malfunction. This device is used to search for this “bug”.

Gift : Capacitor Tester
Price : 5600 rub
Age : holding a soldering iron

Svetokub

For people who sleep and see what they drink - we can recommend as a gift - assembling an 8x8 light cube with SMD LEDs. The kit can be viewed here in MasterKita.

Gift : Light Cube
Price : 6959 rub
Age : solder with eyes closed

Micro Electronics Education Kit


Arduino - this is probably the best gift for those who want to learn microcontrollers, and program the "flashing LED" 10 minutes after unpacking. There is a good starting kit from the company Amperka, Matryoshka X.

It contains the Arduino microcontroller, a basic set of components, a breadboard, a book with lessons (programs, installation diagram). A soldering iron is not required - to install the elements, the provided prototype board is sufficient.

Gift : Arduino's educational set “Matryoshka X”
Price : 3000 rub
Age : interested in programming and electronics

Robotics

If a candidate for gifts shows a love for robotics, and always wanted to assemble a robot, then you can see the Spanish set of robotics - KIT De Robotica, from the company WitBox. About him recently there was a good post on Habré . Official Russian-language set page .

Gift : KIT De Robotica robo-kit
Price : 8500 rub
Age : wants to collect robots

Enrollment in robotics

An interesting gift for the young geek - would be entry to the school of robotics. Where he would be trained in the design and programming of robots (and the older groups - in working with microelectronics). For example, in Yekaterinburg, this could be the RobotClub robotics club - whose students recently won prizes at the Robofest All-Russian Robotics Festival.

Gift : enrollment in the school of robotics
Price : from 300 rubles / lesson
Age : thirst for knowledge

3D printing

3D printing is certainly one of the most “geeky” topics - but it’s not affordable for everyone to buy a 3D printer. But there are portable 3D printers - namely, 3D pens.

The principle of its operation is identical to the "big brother" - it contains plastic in the form of a thread, and at the tip - an extruder that heats the plastic, and while cooling - a figure is created. In the 3d pen, everything is done safely and the heating elements are protected from direct contact.

You can see this pen in Moscow Hackspace, in the 3d printing lab - the Funtastique One 3D pen with an OLED display . This pen is able to work with PLA plastic - which is odorless and environmentally friendly.

Gift : Funtastique One 3D Pen
Price : 6900 rub
Age : can hold a pen

Book

There was a time when the book was considered the best gift.

People who want to do something with their own hands, and to understand how electronics and microelectronics work will be useful for the books “Entertaining electronics. 3rd ed. (Revich U.)
A page of a book

Content can be found here.

Quote from there:

As you know, everyone goes crazy in his own way. There are people who are shifted to the collection of match labels or coins, there are those who jump with a parachute, climb the city sewers or go down on rafts along the mountain rivers of the Northern Urals and Siberia. One of the most common varieties of such mental changes is amateur radio.

More formally about the book:

Present : the book "Entertaining electronics" (Revich U.)
Price : 459 rub.
Age : wants to do something from electronics

Board games

Sometimes it is useful to play something offline, get together at the table, and board games from the Mosigra company will be very useful.


For example the game Nefarius

Nefarius is a game about crazy scientists who have bet on who will be the most famous in the world sooner

Gift : Board game "Nefarius"
Price : 1490 rub
Age : any

Summary table of gifts for geeks

Present	Price	Age
Capacitor Tester	5600 rub	holding a soldering iron
Light cube	6959 rub	solder with eyes closed
Arduino Education Kit "Matryoshka X"	3000 rub	interested in programming and electronics
Robot KIT De Robotica	8500 rub	wants to collect robots
Enrollment in the school of robotics	from 300 rub / class	hunger for knowledge
Funtastique One 3D Pen	6900 rub	can hold a pen
The book "Entertaining electronics" Revich U.	459 rubles	wants to do something from electronics
Board game "Nefarius"	1490 rub	any

findings

Of course, this is not a complete set of interesting gifts. If you know what gift will be in demand with geeks (especially with you) and did not make it to this list - we will be happy to see it in the comments.