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Festo Fluid Control

festo-dev-fluid-control is a Python library for programmatic control of Festo's modular pressure-over-liquid dispensing and pipetting instruments. It provides high-level abstractions over the Festo PGVA pressure generator and VAEM valve electronics module, translating volume-based commands into calibrated valve-timing pulses.

How It Works

A pressure-over-liquid instrument pressurises a liquid reservoir with the PGVA and opens a solenoid valve via the VAEM for a precisely calibrated duration. The duration is determined by a per-channel, per-liquid-class calibration curve that maps target volume (µL) to valve opening time (ms).

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┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              festo-dev-fluid-control             │
│                                                  │
│   Dispenser / Pipettor                           │
│       │                                          │
│       ├── PressureOverLiquidControl              │
│       │       ├── PGVA  (pressure generator)     │
│       │       └── VAEM  (valve controller)       │
│       │                                          │
│       └── Calibration curves per liquid class    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The Dispenser class is the primary entry point for fixed-volume, non-aspirating applications (e.g. reagent dispensing). The Pipettor class extends this with aspirate, mix, and tip-handling operations.

Quick Start

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import json
from fluid_control import Dispenser

# Load your instrument configuration
with open("micro-dispenser-config.json") as fh:
    config = json.load(fh)

# Instantiate the dispenser — hardware connection is established here
dispenser = Dispenser(config=config, component_id="micro-dispenser")

# Dispense 25 µL of water on channel 1
dispenser.dispense({
    1: {"volume": 25.0, "liquid_class": "water"}
})

See the Examples section for detailed walkthroughs.

Installation

uv is the recommended package manager for this project.

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# Add to an existing project
uv add festo-dev-fluid-control

# Or install directly into the active environment
uv pip install festo-dev-fluid-control

With pip

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pip install festo-dev-fluid-control

From Source (Editable Install)

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git clone https://github.com/Festo-se/festo-dev-fluid-control.git
cd festo-dev-fluid-control
pip install -e .

Within a Virtual Environment

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# Create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate        # Windows
source .venv/bin/activate     # Linux / macOS

# Then install
pip install festo-dev-fluid-control

Dependencies

Package Role
festo-pgva Driver for the PGVA pressure generator (TCP/Modbus)
festo-vaem Driver for the VAEM valve electronics module (TCP/Modbus)
festo-dev-applied-motion Optional motion-axis support for mounted pipettors

The PGVA and VAEM communicate over TCP/IP using Modbus. Network addresses are specified in the configuration file.