I’m trying to write a script for running an ELISA assay on FluentControl. One of the most critical parts of the ELISA is aspirating away as much liquid from the each well of the 96-well plate as possible without touching the bottom of the wells.
Anyone have any tips on this? So far, I’ve been editing the Z-Max in the Positions/Teaching settings of the ELISA plate, but occasionally the fixed pipette tip will still scrape the bottom of the wells. Thanks in advance!
Do keep in mind that the FCA validation from Tecan allows “play” for Z-height differential across all 8 tips. I believe they must be within 0.3mm, but don’t quote me.
Are you using an 8-channel? If so I recommend perhaps a feedback loop of the following sort
Define an acceptable Residual volume (for example ~15uL is okay to leave behind in the well)
Define a Removal Volume variable ( would use an array tbh )
Define a Detected Volume Variable ( would use an array tbh )
Define a Detected Volume Variable
Setup logic so that the removal volume always leaves behind the residual volume
Pipette Action: FCA Liquid Level Detection
Assign detected volume
Calculate removal volume
Assign Removal volume
Pipette Action: Remove the Volume
I find that detection helps with your problem a lot.
Some major caveats, make sure your container definition is good. Second play around with the residual volume. User a Variable Pipetting Loop to control for variable sample numbers.
Thank you for the suggestions, everyone! I started with @Optimize 's idea, as it was the easiest to implement, and coupled with a little more tweaking of the Z-max, it worked!
Aspirating from the corner of the well has so far been successful in aspirating away most of the volume in the well without scraping the bottom of the wells. I brought this up to my manager, who mentioned that it’s highly possible that the bottom of the wells are convex, rather than flat, as I’d previously thought.