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:
(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)
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
@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
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)
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