A low-cost, open-source digital stripchart recorder for chromatographic detectors using a Raspberry Pi

One of the most critical aspects of chromatographic analysis is effective data acquisition and processing. Typical approaches include software platforms designed for specific instruments or commercial data acquisition hardware boards, both of which require expensive licenses to use and operate. To increase the access and affordability of chromatographic data acquisition, especially for systems in which software control has become obsolete or must be written in-house, an open-source digital stripchart recorder has been developed. This system is built upon a Raspberry Pi single-board computer and a plug-in printed circuit board with the necessary integrated circuits for data acquisition. Using an open-source software called Processing, a complete user interface to control the system was developed that enables the acquisition, filtering, and processing of chromatographic data. The system performs comparably to more expensive platforms, with calculated values for peak area, retention time, and plate count all within 3% of the values calculated by a widely used commercial chromatography data software package.