Plate reader that can be operated without proprietary software?

1

I’m new to the forum.

I’m starting a lab based on open principles and would love to find a fluorescence plate reader that can be operated without proprietary software. I found the pyTecan project.

I’m reasonably tech-savvy. I’m comfortable on the command line, am a Linux user and can program an opentrons robot.

But I am NO tech wizard. I need it to basically work out of the box. Has anyone tried this or have any other suggestions?

Brad

1 Like
2

BTW, I’m aware that the Tecan 100 is a robot, not a plate reader. But pyTecan has a Gemini interface module, which I assume is for a plate reader?

Brad

3

Depends how open you mean. You’ll probably want to stick with the vendor’s interface in any case, so the question is whether they’ve attached a restrictive license to it. The only situation where that would really matter is if you bought a used plate reader that didn’t come with the software license. Most plate reader companies will not give that away for free sadly, so what you’re looking for might not exist.

1 Like
4

PyLabRobot supports fluorescence reading on ClarioSTAR. pylabrobot/pylabrobot/plate_reading/clario_star.py at main · PyLabRobot/pylabrobot · GitHub (soon we will also support biotek cytation)

2 Likes
5

Yeah. It seems a shame that there is inexpensive functional hardware to be found but it’s useless without a very expensive software license.

6

Very cool! For some reason I thought ClarioSTAR was only absorbance.

Thanks for your work on this!

1 Like
7

doesn’t have to be if you create your own!

1 Like
8

Haha! Yeah, it’s amazing. I just don’t have that skill set.

I assume the answer is no, but pyLabrobot can’t control the older FLUOstar models from BMG?

9

On a personal level, I’m starting a new lab. I don’t have a lot of money, so I have to be very strategic with how I spend.

But I am also a huge believer in the democratization of science. The best ideas often come from outsiders and if you have to drop $10k for a used plate reader and then have to disable the windows software update so you don’t lose access to your license to SoftMax 6.3….

Meanwhile you can pick up the hardware any moment for $1k on eBay. It seems like there should be a better way.

My hat is off to you.

1 Like
10

no, i haven’t worked with a fluostar and it’s not supported in plr (yet?)

1 Like
11

that’s exciting! and yeah, definitely a lot of money to be saved by doing ebay+plr. it’s working quite well for us at MIT/Retro!

1 Like
12

OK. I’ll send you one.

In all seriousness, having an older but functional fluorescent plate reader that could be picked up cheap and controlled with PLR would be a game changer for lab startup price point.

1 Like
13

Can I come see your setup?

Maybe we should take this offline.

I’m Brad at Cellular Redox Labs dot com

2 Likes
14

sent you an email!