PalmSoft is the automation software from PalmChrom that allows instrument control, data acquisition and data treatment. More intuitive than the legacy CocoSoft, and running either as embedded firmware on PalmChrom devices, or as a standalone desktop application. Find here a short history of CocoSoft.
Several of you ask about improvements, adding further instruments or solve some bugs. I appreciate very much your feedback. I was solving several problems, always firefighting. When I was tired of the lab, coding a couple of minutes or hours relaxed me a lot. As a drawback, the code became less structured, and the performance decreased too. Several instruments were remotely coded, and are buggy. Now I have time to focus on all your suggestions and to implement additional features that will enhance the user experience. Currently I am working on the development of PalmChrom, the portable chromatograph with integrated sample preparation, so both the hardware and the software will benefit from the co-development. My actual plan, which I further elaborate every day, is to offer the next version as a licensed software. Coinciding with the founding of PalmChrom and the significant development of the software, I will rename it as PalmSoft.
PalmSoft will be freely downloadable from this website. That version will control the instruments from PalmChrom, acquire and treat data. For its use with addtional hardware, a license will be necesary. This will help me to maintain the performance of the additional hardware extensions, so that we all can do science in optimal conditions. What exactly will be different?
Faster execution, less bugs
PalmPlots: New interactive way of presenting the chromatographic information, where all the hardware variables as well as analytical signals are in the same plot. They will be logged automatically without user interaction. General functions will require less code
The method will accept full python code and have automatic indent; in last version of CocoSoft it was only one-liners and indent was not relevant. We aim for better readability!
Exports the method, configuration, data and log in a single file. Loading the previous data updates automatically the configuration, so the system will be ready to execute
Classifies and opens the previous executions. You can overlap and compare previous data, or find the nicest chromatogram for your presentation
Tamper-resistant and audit logging. Both researchers and regulatory agencies will benefit from it