Author Archives: ryan
DropBot v3.0 rendering
We’ve just placed orders for the PCBs and cases for the first batch of DropBot v3.0 systems and wanted to share a sneak peak of the rendered cases. Let us know what you think in the comments.
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DropBot updates and EMC testing
We’ve been silent on the blog for the past few months, but fear not, DropBot development has not stalled. In fact, we’re going full steam ahead and getting ready to release the next (v3) DropBot system. There are a lot of updates (too many for a single blog post!) so I’ll stick to some highlights […]
Posted in Announcements, Diagnotics, EMC, Fabrication
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MicroDrop v2.0 release
We’ve just released MicroDrop v2.0. You can get it here. We’ve been using this version internally for a few months now, and we think you’re going to love it! It has a lot of new features, including: droplet path routing improved video registration a new profile manager which enables switching between multiple MicroDrop profile directories […]
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Measles and Rubella field trial in Kenya
Last week, four members of the Wheeler Lab departed for Kenya to perform a field-validation study for measles and rubella using a new version of the DropBot. The new system (which we refer to as the Measles/Rubella-BOX or MR-BOX) is capable of performing four simultaneous sandwich ELISAs in about 40 minutes using a chemiluminescent readout. […]
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DropBot, meet OpenDrop
Earlier this Spring, we were contacted by Urs Gaudenz from GaudiLabs and he told us about a low-cost, DIY-friendly DMF platform he was developing along with collaborators from the Bioflux project, called the OpenDrop. The OpenDrop is a fully integrated device that is not much bigger than an Arduino Uno. It does not require any […]
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IPython notebook integration
We just published an update for Microdrop (v1.0.18) that adds an exciting new feature: IPython notebook integration. This provides a quick and easy way to dive in and explore data logged during the course of your experiments. This could be useful for custom analysis of one-off experiments, or you can save notebook templates so that […]
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Microdrop v1.0
We’re happy to announce the release of Microdrop v1.0 (Windows installer). A list of changes can be found here. Note that if you have previously installed a pre 1.0 version, you should uninstall it before installing the latest version. This release is also available as a self-extracting portable version which you can run from a […]
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Always make sure that the amplifier is off when you launch Microdrop!
We’ve recently noticed strange things happening when connecting/re-connecting to the control board during an experiment (e.g., drops randomly moving on the device, electrolysis, etc.), and while testing out the new hardware calibration routines (e.g., several fried op-amps in the feedback circuit). We hooked up an oscilloscope to the system and ran some tests to figure […]
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Preview of the Microdrop 1.0 release
Update 2015/03/18/: link to the portable v1.0rc0 instead of the earlier developer preview. This release candidate is considered stable for routine use; the only major change expected prior to v1.0 is the addition of a Windows installer. We are getting set to release version 1.0 of the Micrdrop software as well as a couple of […]
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Panelizing PCBs with gerbmerge
When you’re ordering small batches of PCBs, it is often cheaper to merged the gerber files for several board designs onto a single panel. We do this using a tool called gerbmerge. If you download the electronics zip file from the wiki, it contains a sub-directory called merged gerbers which contains gerber files for a […]
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