Today’s guest post comes from Lutz Stratmann, Senior Electrochemist, and Richard Newell, Marketing Specialist and Technical Writer, of ECS Institutional Partner PalmSens BV, who share their perspective on advancing research, collaboration, and innovation in our scientific community.
In developing the EmStat4T—our latest battery-powered potentiostat with a touchscreen and QR code reader—we wanted users to be able to make it truly their own. Customization often means writing scripts, but coding can be a major hurdle for many researchers. Our goal was clear: make scripting easier without sacrificing flexibility.
Traditionally, labs have relied on tools like LabVIEW or SDKs for instrument control. While powerful, these options can feel complex and intimidating. For the EmStat4T, we envisioned something more intuitive. Inspired by Scratch, a non-profit programming teaching platform for beginners, we built the Visual MethodSCRIPT Editor.
This tool adds a drag-and-drop interface to our MethodSCRIPT language, letting you create structured, ASCII-based scripts without writing a single line of code. It’s simple, visual, and designed for electrochemists—not programmers. And we’re just getting started: plans are underway to bring this editor to all PalmSens devices.
We believe this reflects a broader trend—visual and AI-driven tools that empower researchers to customize their instruments with ease.
Explore the Visual MethodSCRIPT Editor.
For more information about the ECS Institutional Partners Program, contact Sponsorship@electrochem.org.