How to configure Liconic plate transfer nests

Integrated Devices (Centrifuge, Washer, etc)
1

Does anyone know what firmware commands or .exe I can use to upgrade my static plate transfer nest to a linear nest with motor?

My specific Liconic is an STR240 from 2016, which I acquired used. Liconic does not respond to any emails from customers with used equipment, so I am hoping this information can be useful to other users with second-hand Liconic instruments.

Liconic firmware is nicely documented and there are several .exe’s available for public download, but none of the documentation includes configuration commands to stop my STR240 from erroring on successful transfer to this station:

IMG_1645
IMG_16451920×1068 215 KB

I pulled this linear transfer station from an STX44, where it was working without error.

Any ideas on how to get my STR240 configured for this X-fer nest?

2

The plan is to use this linear plate nest to shuttle the 80mm between these two green zones accessible to the STR240 plate handler and STAR iSWAP:

Screenshot 2026-02-05 030151
Screenshot 2026-02-05 0301511920×1689 136 KB

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3

If you can’t get support from Liconic themselves, I would recommend reaching out to Scipods as they service and refurbish Liconic incubators (amongst other things).

4

It is possible for users to configure this directly on Cytomats using .exe service software provided by freely Thermo, so i’m hoping Liconics are also user serviceable.

Instruments that aren’t user-serviceable hurt startup timelines because a 2-minute software fix can take weeks to discover

5

Depending on the age of the Cytomat you have, you will struggle to service them yourselves. You can certainly use their service software to do some things, but if you actually have a hardware issue, ThermoFisher will not sell you parts for you to fix on your own for at least Cytomats purchased after ~2021, and all 3rd party service companies I talked to (such as Scipods) could not service them because of this.This means you are locked into having ThermoFisher come out for repairs, and they were often not timely.

You can see the Topic I posted about this a few years ago.

Not to suggest that Liconics are perfect, but wanted to provide context for people considering using newer Cytomats.

6

We need a new automated incubator competitor fr

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7

It’s a shame because these parts are so simple. If I am enabled to configure my instrument, I can also just build the plate nest from scratch.

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8

Any chance you could figure out what the “plate on” signal is and emulate it? I am going off my knowledge of the cytomat transfer station which works similarly I think but I’d imagine theres just a single high/low bit that it pulls from a data cable. Would probably be pretty hard though

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9

I recently wrote an python interface for two liconic STX incubators, but I didn’t get to the level of sending RS232 commands.

Both of my incubators have a linear transfer station, as in your picture. I noticed that there are some associated lines in the “device” config file:

...
<ParameterGroup>
  <Name>Sensors</Name>
  <Parameter>
    <Name>ShovelPlateSensor</Name>
    <Value>true</Value>
  </Parameter>

  <Parameter>
    <Name>PlatePresenceSensor</Name>
    <Value>true</Value>
  </Parameter>

  <Parameter>
    <Name>1TransferStationPlateSensor</Name>
    <Value>true</Value>
  </Parameter>

  <Parameter>
    <Name>2TransferStationPlateSensor</Name>
    <Value>true</Value>
  </Parameter>

</ParameterGroup>
...

Maybe this is what you’re missing?

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