Thermal Cycler: Difference between revisions
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We have a Perkin Elmer Thermal Cycler 480. It's a bit of a monster, but it works :). | |||
It has a heating block set up for up to 64 microcentrifuge tubes, each sized for a 0.5ml microcentrifuge tube. It doesn't have a heated lid (but building one shouldn't be too hard) but until then we can just go old skool and use mineral oil. | |||
Just above the screws, there's a big sticker saying "Do Not Open". Hence, [[http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/File:P1000019_small.JPG here's a picture of the machine's internals]]. At the top of the image, the black square is the underside of the heating/cooling block. Most of the volume is a compressor for the cooling, with the insulated cooling piped clearly visible (Most modern machines are based on Peltier systems, and hence a fraction of the size of this one). At the back of the machine there's a serial port, but this seems to just be a printer port rather than allowing any external control. | |||
The UI is, er, interesting. After spending some time with the manual I think I have it figured out, but it's definitely something that's going to need training and / or practice to learn to use. Over time, we should try to build up a cheat sheet on this page. | |||
Upgrades: If someone can build a heated lid, it could save us a degree of faff later on. Basically, it would be a metal block heated to approx 95 degrees (+/- 5 degrees should be fine) that rests on the lids of the tubes while the machine is running. | |||
Revision as of 21:31, 24 January 2011
We have a Perkin Elmer Thermal Cycler 480. It's a bit of a monster, but it works :).
It has a heating block set up for up to 64 microcentrifuge tubes, each sized for a 0.5ml microcentrifuge tube. It doesn't have a heated lid (but building one shouldn't be too hard) but until then we can just go old skool and use mineral oil.
Just above the screws, there's a big sticker saying "Do Not Open". Hence, [here's a picture of the machine's internals]. At the top of the image, the black square is the underside of the heating/cooling block. Most of the volume is a compressor for the cooling, with the insulated cooling piped clearly visible (Most modern machines are based on Peltier systems, and hence a fraction of the size of this one). At the back of the machine there's a serial port, but this seems to just be a printer port rather than allowing any external control.
The UI is, er, interesting. After spending some time with the manual I think I have it figured out, but it's definitely something that's going to need training and / or practice to learn to use. Over time, we should try to build up a cheat sheet on this page.
Upgrades: If someone can build a heated lid, it could save us a degree of faff later on. Basically, it would be a metal block heated to approx 95 degrees (+/- 5 degrees should be fine) that rests on the lids of the tubes while the machine is running.
