I have a Biomek FXp and not a lot of experience using it. We have had occasional issues that may be related to the teachpoints of the ALPs. Usually things like tip positioning in the wells or issues mounting tips. For those who have run Biomeks, can you comment on how often you re-taught the deck? Were there any best-practices you adopted around deck teaching and layout?
If you don’t have one already, the AccuFrame is very helpful for auto-teaching individual ALP positions: https://www.beckman.com/supplies/accessories/biomek-accessories/b22868
For the more sensitive pipetting steps, I’ll manually teach using the plate type I’m using for a particular method, though adjusting one way for one plate type can affect the pipetting of another plate. If I have a particularly weird/tricky plate type (e.g. pipetting off supernatant during a bead cleanup), you can add pipetting offsets on a per-labware basis. I’ll take the deltas from the manual teach, and apply them to the specific labware in the labware editor instead of to the entire ALP itself.
1 Like
I do have an AccuFrame and, you’re right that makes teaching individual positions very straightforward. I guess I am mostly wondering if it is normal for the pods to need teaching every 2-3 weeks. It is used often but not every day and as far as I know there have not been any big crashes.
Teaching critical positions frequently can definitely help. So much so that (in my experience) reframing is often my first troubleshooting step after almost any error. It’s quick and solves the problem 70% of the time.
I can’t vouch for what the software does with those offsets after I teach it - maybe it throws it away after a week or just looses track of steps - but it’s a quick and easy enough solution to the problem.
1 Like
@DCurrier Does the Biomek drift in one direction (X and/or Y) after a few weeks?