Installation

To install:

pip install pypalmsens

Requirements (Windows)

• Python version 3.10, 3.11, 3.12 or 3.13.
• .NET Framework 4.7.2
• Drivers included with PSTrace 5, MultiTrace 4, PSTrace Xpress or the driver installer.

Requirements (Linux and MacOS)

• Python version 3.10, 3.11, 3.12 or 3.13.. Use your system’s package manager to install Python.
• .NET Runtime 9.0 or newer. This is called something like dotnet-runtime-9.0 in your package manager.
  • Ubuntu
  • Debian
  • Fedora
  • Redhat
  • Raspberry Pi and other single-board ARM computers
  • MacOS
• Optional: FTDI d2xx drivers.
  • For a list of devices with an FTDI chip, see the Compatibility table.
  • For Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 you need the ARMv8 driver.
  • See below for how to set up your system for FTDI devices.

In addition, make sure your user is added to the 'dialout' group:

$ groups
pi adm dialout ...

If your username is not among the list, add it using:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

And log out and in again to make sure the changes have take effect. This avoids errors like can’t open device "/dev/ttyACM0": Permission denied when trying to connect to a device.

FTDI devices

To set up your system to work with devices using the FTDI chip, you need to follow a few additional steps. To see if your device needs the FTDI drivers, see the Compatibility table.

First, install the D2XX drivers.

Set up udev rules. udev manages permissions of the device to be accessible to non-root users and groups. Add the following lines to /etc/udev/rules.d/50-ftdi.rules:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6015", RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'rmmod ftdi_sio && rmmod usbserial'", MODE="0666"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6011", RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'rmmod ftdi_sio && rmmod usbserial'", MODE="0666"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="d180", RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'rmmod ftdi_sio && rmmod usbserial'", MODE="0666"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="d181", RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'rmmod ftdi_sio && rmmod usbserial'", MODE="0666"

And restart udevadm:

sudo udevadm control --reload
sudo udevadm trigger

RuntimeError: Failed to create a .NET runtime (coreclr)

This error is raised if you did not install the dotnet runtime correctly. See installation instructions above.

The error will say somethin along the likes of:

RuntimeError: Can not determine dotnet root
...
RuntimeError: Failed to create a .NET runtime (coreclr) using the
                parameters {'runtime_config': '/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/src/pypalmsens/_pssdk/mono/runtimeconfig.json'}.

(.venv) pi@raspberrypi:~/palmsenssdk/python $ python
Python 3.13.5 (main, Jun 25 2025, 18:55:22) [GCC 14.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pypalmsens as ps
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pythonnet/__init__.py", line 77, in _create_runtime_from_spec
    return clr_loader.get_coreclr(**params)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/clr_loader/__init__.py", line 121, in get_coreclr
    dotnet_root = find_dotnet_root()
  File "/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/clr_loader/util/find.py", line 57, in find_dotnet_root
    raise RuntimeError("Can not determine dotnet root")
RuntimeError: Can not determine dotnet root

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<&lt;>python-input-0>", line 1, in <&lt;>module>
    import pypalmsens as ps
  File "/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/src/pypalmsens/__init__.py", line 9, in <&lt;>module>
    from ._lib.mono import sdk_version
  File "/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/src/pypalmsens/_lib/mono.py", line 13, in <&lt;>module>
    load('coreclr', runtime_config=str(PSSDK_DIR / 'runtimeconfig.json'))
    ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pythonnet/__init__.py", line 135, in load
    set_runtime(runtime, **params)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pythonnet/__init__.py", line 29, in set_runtime
    runtime = _create_runtime_from_spec(runtime, params)
  File "/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pythonnet/__init__.py", line 90, in _create_runtime_from_spec
    raise RuntimeError(
    ...<&lt;>2 lines>...
    ) from exc
RuntimeError: Failed to create a .NET runtime (coreclr) using the
                parameters {'runtime_config': '/home/pi/palmsenssdk/python/src/pypalmsens/_pssdk/mono/runtimeconfig.json'}.

Virtual environments

Virtual enviroments are used to create isolated Python installations. Tools like venv or conda help you create and update environment that have different versions of Python and/or packages installed in them. This makes them useful for software development.

This section shows how to set up and activate an environment.

Setting up a virtual environment using Python, pip and venv:

python -m venv .venv
.venv/Scripts/activate.ps1
python -m pip install -e .[develop]

Alternatively, setting up a virtual environment using Conda:

conda create -n pypalmsens python=3.13
conda activate pypalmsens
pip install pypalmsens

Visual Studio Code

VS Code supports virtual environments. In combination with the Python, Python Debugger and Pylance extensions, VS code makes it easy to create virtual environments and load the python dependencies.

See the VSCode documentation for how to set this up.

Compatible devices and firmware

The PalmSens SDK is based on PalmSens core version 5.12.

The table below lists the minimum supported firmwares versions and required drivers.

You can update the firmware using a recent version of PSTrace on a Windows PC See the chapter 'Updating firmware' in the PSTrace user manual for more information.