Portable Electrochemical Analyzer

This project set out to turn a benchtop class measurement into something you can carry into the field. The client wanted a portable instrument capable of running electrochemical analysis on materials and sensors, sending results wirelessly, and running on battery without a laboratory bench in sight.

At the core sits the PalmSens EmStat Pico, a complete potentiostat and galvanostat module that performs the actual electrochemical measurements. The design wraps it in everything needed to make it portable and wireless. A two channel electrode interface brings out the counter, working, reference, and working sense connections for each channel, along with probe identification lines so the device recognises which sensor is attached and a temperature input for compensated readings. A BT840X Bluetooth LE module streams data and accepts commands wirelessly, while a BMI085 inertial sensor adds motion and orientation awareness over SPI.

Power is built for real world portable use. A USB C input feeds a battery charger with charge status reporting, and the regulated rails are generated by a 3V3 LDO for the low noise analog and digital domains and a 5V boost for the sections that need it. A dedicated power button controller handles clean power up and shutdown, and an RGB LED gives the user clear status feedback. The work covered the full hardware cycle in Altium Designer: system architecture, schematic capture, multilayer PCB layout, component selection, and the complete fabrication and assembly documentation.