Debugging problems in an electronics project can be frustrating. When things don't work, they often just sit there and do nothing. Or sometimes, they will billow smoke. When writing firmware, you can sometimes find yourself creating elaborate debugging scaffolding to track down buggy code. Sometimes blinking LEDs and a serial connection are not the best tools for debugging.

Okay, I know that good debuggers exist for microcontrollers. But wouldn't it sometimes be easier to write your code in a familiar environment, debug on screen, then cut and paste into your Arduino code? That's where Processing -- a close relative of Arduino -- comes to the rescue!

The Arduino Integrated Development Environment and language forked from the Wiring project, which was the hardware-oriented twin of the Processing language and IDE. The similarities and compatabilities of the two projects are a Big Win for sketch developers.

The Drawbot is in the front window of a huge group show of work from the AS220 Print Shop. Over the course of the month it will draw an edition of "prints" of Erik Satie.

Download the Drawbot Arduino code here.

Arley took some photos of what the drawbot has been working on for the past month (random overlapping swishy cones):