What kind of physical tools do you use most often to build robots?

Everyone will give you different advice on this subject, so here’s what it boils down to: You need the tools you need. Acquire them as they become necessary. If, however, you want to save a few trips to the store here are the top 7 tools I would get if I had to start from scratch.

• wire stripper None of that pre-gauged hole business. You can strip wire by feel after very little practice.
• soldering iron Don’t skimp here, and take care of it! It doesn’t take much to learn to use a soldering iron.
• multimeter These things are awesome. I have a $100 VICTOR VC890C+ that has saved me money. It’s great for checking voltage, amperage, resistance, or just touching two ends of a wire to see if there’s a break in the middle. It can even tell you the temperature.
• screwdrivers I have a small screwdriver and big screwdriver, both with interchangeble bits.
• needle nosed pliers I have two, but only because I tend to leave each one on a different desk. Sloppy!
• imperial and metric hex keys Every time I think I have all the hex keys I need, someone puts out a set screw in a size I don’t have.
• helping hands I use the metal kind that hold my soldering wires and the girlfriend kind that can reach where my fat fingers can’t.

I also find it handy to have two really big breadboards, a few meter long pieces of heat shrink, and some spools of red, blue, green, and black solid-core wire.

You don’t need smaller or better boards until you have reached the limits of the Arduino, and then it will probably be project specific – you’ll come back to Arduino.

The most useful tool is between your ears. Be very specific about your goals and be brutally efficient getting to them. Having said that, playing is a great way to familiarize yourself with the tools at hand. Make an LED blink, make it fade with PWM, make a servo move, get a stepper going. Read a potentiometer, build your own encoder, and now you’re starting to cook because your Arduino can sense itself and move itself. Throw in some more sensors and it can start to react to the world and SHAZAM! You are now building intelligent, responsive robots.

The single best place to get great advice and access to all these tools and more is your local Hackspace. Find your local spaces @ http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/