Skip to content

PyPalmSens Documentation


Image title Image title


PyPalmSens is a Python library for automating electrochemistry experiments with your PalmSens instruments. It provides an intuitive Python API, making it straightforward to integrate into your Python workflows.

With PyPalmSens, you can:

  • Connect to one or more instruments/channels
  • Automate electrochemistry measurements
  • Access and process measured data
  • Analyze and manipulate data
  • Perform peak detection
  • Do Equivalent Circuit Fitting on impedance data
  • Take manual control of the cell
  • Read and write method and data files

To install:

pip install pypalmsens

PyPalmSens is built on top of the PalmSens .NET libraries, and therefore requires the .NET runtime to be installed. See the installation instructions for your platform for more information.

Getting started

The following example shows how to set up and measure a simple chronoamperometry experiment:

>>> import pypalmsens as ps

>>> method = ps.ChronoAmperometry(
...     interval_time=0.01,
...     potential=1.0,
...     run_time=10.0,
... )

>>> ps.measure(method) # (1)!
Measurement(title=Chronoamperometry, timestamp=17-Nov-25 13:42:16, device=EmStat4HR)
  1. measure discovers any plugged-in device to start the measurement. An error is raised when more than 1 instruments are connected.

Tip

Shorten the imported name from pypalmsens to ps. This widely adopted convention helps with better readability of code.

The following example shows how to discover devices and manually read out the current.

>>> import pypalmsens as ps

>>> instruments = ps.discover()
>>> emstat4 = [inst for inst in instruments if inst.name.startswith('EmStat4')][0]

>>> with ps.connect(instrument=emstat4) as manager: # (1)!
...     manager.set_cell(True)
...     manager.set_potential(1)
...     manager.set_current_range('1mA')
...
...     current = manager.read_current()
...     print(f'{current=} µA')
...
...     manager.set_cell(False)
current=92.8065 µA
  1. The context manager opens and closes the connection

Analyze a previous measurement with pandas:

>>> import pandas as pd
>>> import pypalmsens as ps

>>> measurements = ps.load_session_file('Demo CV DPV EIS IS-C electrode.pssession')

>>> frames = []
>>> frame_names = []

>>> for measurement in measurements:
...     frames.append(measurement.dataset.to_dataframe()) # (1)!
...     frame_names.append(measurement.title)

>>> df = pd.concat(frames, keys=frame_names)
>>> print(df)
  1. Extract all arrays from the dataset into a pandas dataframe.