VWorks loops

Agilent
1

I’m running VWorks 13.0 with an Agilent Bravo NGS B. I’m resuspending magnetic beads that are in a ring after sitting on a magnet. To make sure I recover them all, I’m pipetting buffer around the ring in 12 steps moving clockwise after each dispensing step.

The easiest way to program this is with one dispense task inside a loop with a counter to increment the pipetting technique:
[loop start] – dispense – [loop end, counter++] x 12

This works but but the head rises out of the well after each cycle. That’s fine but with 12 consecutive dispensing tasks the tip stays at the dispensing height and works its way around the bead ring quickly. I like this more but having 12 tasks makes it harder to update settings later.

A couple questions:

  1. Does anyone know why the head changes Z-axis position between loops but not consecutive dispensing steps? Can it be prevented?

  2. Is it possible to implement a dispensing loop with a single dispense task plus javascript in the advanced settings pane? I think the answer is no because javascript in the advanced settings pane executes before the actual task and therefore cannot loop instrument motion but I thought someone here might know a clever trick.

thanks,

2

Just seeing this thread a year later, we should move it to the Agilent Section.

you can simulate the behavior of a loop using task.repeat() but i am not sure if this will keep the head in the wells.

// declare a counter in some other task
var dispCounter = 0;
// In the dispense task, set the volume paramter in the task to to the total volume
// in the aspiration task (this will eliminate any compilier volume errors)


// in the advanced setting of the dispense task use this script and change the values as neeeded
if(dispCounter < 5)
{
  task.Volume = 2;
  task.repeat();
  dispCounter++;
}