Laboratory Automation Deck Intro#

This example notebook will introduce the laboratory automation deck!

Before Starting:#

  • Clear any existing items off the bed of your machine!

  • A lab automation deck should be installed on your machine.

The standard lab automation deck consists of 6 slots (indices 0-5) that accept an ANSI/SLAS standard microplate, or any piece of labware that adheres to the footprint dimensions of this standard. Optional garbage containers can be attached, though we do not have any attached for this workshop.

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The deck is oriented as follows:

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The deck requires up-front calibration know the precise location of each slot. This has already been done for you if there is a deck pre-installed on your machine! If you need to do this again for any reason, see the deck calibration notebook.

Safety Considerations#

The lab automation deck is raised above the aluminum Jubilee bed plate. However, the machine is zeroed to the aluminum bed plate. This is necessary to be able to dip down into wells. However, it also means you can crash the machine! When sending commands to the machine manually, be mindful of the z-height that you’re moving to.

Import modules and connect to the machine#

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# Import Machine and Deck modules
from science_jubilee.Machine import Machine
from science_jubilee.decks import Deck

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# Connect to your machine
m = Machine(address='192.168.1.2')

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# m.home_all() # if you need to, uncomment this line to home the machine

Load the Deck configuration#

There is a pre-calibrated file for you machine named POSE-calibrated-deck. Load it as follows:

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deck = m.load_deck('POSE-calibrated-deck') # loads a calibration file named 'lab_automation_deck'.
                                          # if you make a new calibration file, change this name accordingly

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# The lab automation deck has 6 slots:
deck.slots