Pretty happy with the OT Flex so far: what I'm using it for

[Shinedalgarno]

Posted a new topic since I messed up my gif uploading (shame)

This is just a positive review of the Flex. I got one early this year and at this point my team is running things regularly on it for compound library screenings (cell seeding to media prep to media exchange). We’ve managed to triple out throughput (we were previously using 2x OT2s with p300 / p20 multichannel pipettes) and we’re pretty happy with the system now.

I just personally like seeing videos / gifs of systems that are in use, and I figured there are other nerds here that would appreciate the same
Cell Seeding:

Plate Movement gif

Media Prep:

Media Exchange:

(My stupid solution to ensuring the monster 9 stack 384 MP tower is aligned so that plates actually hit the bevel when they’re moved to a pipetting spot)

Media Exchange gif

Combined well plates and deep well plates gif

[YahyaB]

That’s really cool! is the flex within a Biosafety enclosure or is the HEPA module sufficient for your cell culture?

Also, did you define the plate stacks with the Protocol Designer or did you have to generate the gripper commands/positions yourself?

[Shinedalgarno]

The protocol designer (as far as I’m aware) does not support plate or lid stacking, nor does the opentrons API itself annoyingly, so what I do is I trick the software into thinking it’s moving a labware, but it’s actually moving the lid / plate and then deleting it so I can stack another on top of that location

Example:

• Load Plate into slot A1
• Pick up Plate with a higher offset and move it into slot A2
• Programmatically Delete slot A2
• Programmatically Reload Plate into slot A1 for pipetting

If you need to stack lids on top of each other:

• Delete labware on slot A2
• Repeat step 1 but with a drop offset corresponding to the lid height

As for the enclosure, we just use a laminar flow spetec hood, which believe it or not is sterile when running. We never get contamination from these guys and they’re also cheap to boot (5-10kish euro). We modified one we previously had an OT2 in to fit the flex since the big bastard didn’t quite fit

[luisvillaautomata]

That’s interesting, it seems like an opportunity to build a digital twin.

Any other features on the wishlist?

[luisvillaautomata]

This is awesome, thanks for sharing the pictures and GIFS.

[bb.arcadia]

I’ve been wanting to implement something like this for our flex! Would you mind posting the code for the stacking ability so I can reference it?

[Shinedalgarno]

@bb.arcadia I uploaded my files here, you need the .json files on your flex and then it should work. Feel free to use the basic principles, I doubt the code itself is going to be what you need exactly (plus the code is a bit messy I know )

Let me know if you want any other information

GitHub - jjmc0000/Flex-Movement-and-Exchange

In this protocol I move lidded stacked deepwell plates and MPs around and do stuff with them.

3 deepwell plates stacked is a tiiighhhttt fit, so I have to move around my pipetting locations carefully so it doesn’t crash into the already built towers, a bit of a puzzle

(there’s a seperate protocol for filling the deepwells, but you get the gist of it)

[chips-a-hoai]

That lid stacking is pretty impressive!

[bb.arcadia]

Thank you so much for sharing, really clever way to do the stacking! I’ll try adapting it for my protocols and let you know how it goes!

[Shinedalgarno]

Let me know @bb.arcadia! Be sure to change the z_heights in the code to however high your labware is, you often have to play with the values a few times to get it to work