Working with files

As of version 5 of the PalmSens SDK and PSTrace measurements, and their corresponding methods are stored in .pssession files. Methods can be stored separately in .psmethod files.

The PalmSens SDK is backward compatible with following filetypes:

pypalmsens contains the functions needed to load and save methods and session files. The session file contains the measurement data, whereas the method file contains method information.

Loading and saving a method file (.psmethod)

pypalmsens.load_method_file can be used to load method files. This returns a 'Method' dataclass with all the method parameters.

>>> import pypalmsens as ps

>>> method = ps.load_method_file('PSDummyCell_LSV.psmethod')
>>> method
LinearSweepVoltammetry(
    'conditioning_time': 0.0,
    'begin_potential': -5.0,
    'end_potential': 5.0,
    'step_potential': 0.01,
    'scanrate': 1.0,
    ...
)

Save the method using pypalmsens.save_method_file.

>>> ps.save_method_file(method, 'PSDummyCell_LSV.psmethod')

Loading and saving data

Data from measurements can be loaded from and stored to .pssession files. This contains a session with one or more measurements containing its respective method and curves.

pypalmsens.load_session_file can be used to load session files. It returns a list of measurements, which contains the dataset and curves. The dataset is a list of raw data in array form, whereas the curves resemble the plots. In PSTrace or PSTrace Express these would be the 'Data' and the 'Plot' tab, respectively.

The exceptions are (galvanostatic) electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements, which contain additional plots.

The measurement and curve classes are defined in the .curves attribute, the raw data by the .dataset attribute, and the EIS data by the .eis_data attribute.

The following example loads a collection of measurements from a session file and saves the first measurement to a different file.

>>> from pypalmsens import load_session_file

>>> measurements = load_session_file('my_measurement.pssession')

>>> ps.save_session_file(
...     'my_measurement_copy.pssession',
...     [measurements[0]]
... )