I’m looking to implement a small scale human cell culture workcell, basically automating growing primary cell lines like huvecs. Already have most of the equipment needed (liquid handler, arm, centrifuge, etc…), but still need an automated incubator. I’m on a budget, so new equipment is out of the question
There seems to be plenty of old liconic and kendro/heraeus cytomat automated incubators floating around. Are both easy to send serial commands to? Liconic seems to be supported in the galago scheduling software from Science. Is it easy to send commands to an old cytomat 2c from kendro for example, or is vendor software needed? Someone somewhere online posted about cytomats needing $30k software, yet there seems to be some old documentation describing serial commands: https://www.artisantg.com/info/Cytomat_Software_Information.pdf
In the documentation above, it says it is cytomat documentation, but mentions using liconic utility software cyt.exe, so I’m a bit confused as to whether or not I can send commands to say an old cytomat 2c.
Is there anyone with experience here that can shed light on this matter?
Also, bit of an aside, i noticed some old liconic stx incubators don’t have the co2 option installed. Has anyone upgraded one to a co2 version? If so, how much did it cost? Is there an upgrade option from the manufacturer that can be purchased? (I will contact them, but it’s the weekend right now)