96MPH Single column tip pickup - possible to aspirate from a trough?

Hamilton (Venus)
1

Hi all,

On our Starlet we have a 96MPH and 2 independent 1000ul channels. I’m also very tight for space due to a vacuum manifold that is bolted to the middle of the deck.

I have a script that picks up a single column of 8 tips using the 96MPH and I would love to be able to aspirate out of a 50ml reagent trough that takes up one rail rather than a rectangular reservoir.

Unfortunately the system software does not allow the 96MPH to aspirate from a trough. Is there any way around this?

Thanks!

2

Teach a ghost labware plate at that position and aspirate/dispense from there haha. (Be careful though)

3

HA, it’s a great idea but risky if someone comes along and decides to change my script in the future.

If there is no way around it I guess this is my only option (or virtually shifting the labware).

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4

You can also add labware and change position + set sequence at runtime if you want a safer alternative. Check out DevLib and SeqLib

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5

Adding a dummy plate is the only way. An MPH always needs 96 sequence positions available. Your liquid following will also have to be adapted with the tip tracking speed command, since the calculation is different for a trough and a plate. Also, not sure with which column you want to pick the tips, but keep in mind that the MPH can only do liquid level detection with either A1 and B1 or G12 and H12.

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6

+1 for dummy plate. I’d probably start with something like a 300-mL reservoir as a template so you could expand on the “reservoir” aspect of that labware and just work on expanding the container size vertically.

For practicality sake - comments go a long way, even in the labware name. “I did X because Y : Don’t touch”, or “60 mL reservoir : 96-format for MPH access USE FIRST COLUMN ONLY”.

Hell, I commented pretty much any wonky solution I implemented and I worked in a department of 1 so literally ALL of my comments were just talking to myself - and they were still useful. Usually its best to get the thing working and then worry about making it pretty.

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7

Thanks for your reply, sounds like this is pretty standard then. I’ll throw in a few warning comments to ensure anyone looking at it in the future doesn’t make a fatal and expensive mistake!

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8

Thanks for your reply. The MPH will only pick up columns starting from column 12 so G12/H12 should be fine. Very good comment about liquid following, I wouldn’t have thought about that initially. Thanks again!

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9

cleaner way (layout wise) would be to copy a sequence of your 96 well plate, grab the coordinates 50 mL reagent trough, virtually move your 96 well plate (VirtualLabware) to that coordinate.

edit: or you can just create a labware in the script for that coordinate using the HSLDev library to add that labware (DevAddLabware).

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