PyPalmSens Documentation

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. For specific installation instructions for your platform, see Installation

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.

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(ps.settings.CURRENT_RANGE.cr_1_mA)
...
...     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.