Hi all,
Is there a way to develop a protocol (VENUS method and deck layout) that can run seamlessly on both the Hamilton STAR and STARlet platforms? Thank you for your insight!
Charlie
Yes it’s very possible. Been a while since I’ve done this, but I think you’ll have to include a step to get the instrument type (the ML_STAR global var), and change your deck layout file based off the output of that step. You can look into dynamically generating your labware for the deck, or just make sure labware is named identically across both deck layouts.
Hopefully one of the other experts here chimes in on anything I’m forgetting or wrong about 
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Hi @charliezhang,
Yes there are quite a few things you can do to accomplish this. Below you will find one of the simplest examples of working with a dynamic deck layout. You’ll have to make sure that the deck layout you need exists but you can also just attach to the maintenance layout of your respective system and then dynamically add labware to it as @Evolucian suggested. While this can be done pretty easily, that’s only half of the process. After attaching to the deck layout you will then need to create all of the deck sequences you are going to use - since the method itself isn’t bound to a deck layout in the method editor and at the start of a run you wont have access to the deck/global sequences.
When the method is executed the first thing I do is query the system type (second image) where that submethod outputs a string variable of the instrument type. Then in the first image that output variable is implemented with if/else statements in the hsl line to add a device and a deck layout to the submethod called “QCGVerification”. Then the very first line of the QCGVerification submethod is the initialize command.
If you stop at the above and test it you will find that both your STAR and STARlet successfully initialize. The next step is to get and create all of your sequences which can be done with any number of library combinations: dev library, labware access, hslsequence, labware property query to name a few. And then with your new sequences created on-the-fly you can go about your method processes.
Matt
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Thank you so much @Evolucian and @MatthewSmith_Hamilton . This is very helpful!
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I think you need to re-wire the way to think about this. How I usually see it from a Venus side is to treat Method Scripts, Deck-Layout, and Hardware/System Config separately.
If the Labware/Sequence inside the Method matches the Deck-Layout, and the system has the same hardware (96 Head, Quad Core Gripper, iSwap, Channels) and if there are enough space for all the Labware and the Hardware can reach all those position, then it should be transferrable.