CyBio Well Vario

The CyBio Well vario is a simultaneous pipettor: one base unit, and interchangeable 96-, 384- and 1536-channel pipetting heads that transfer every well of a plate in a single step. Analytik Jena’s software detects a head exchange and recognises the new head without reconfiguration, and calibration is retained across the swap. Revolution runs the instrument through its own CyBio software — the protocol stays the vendor’s, and the schedule decides when it runs and how the plate gets there.

At a glance

Channels	96, 384 or 1536 simultaneous, by interchangeable head
Volume range	Wet pipetting 200 nl – 250 µL; dry pipetting 50 nl – 250 µL
Heads	96/25, 384/25, 96/60, 384/60 and 96/250 µL pipetting heads; 1536/8 µL head; 96- and 384-capillary magazines
Labware	Shallow-well and deep-well microplates in 96, 384 and 1536; ANSI/SLAS format
Deck	3, 4, 5 or 10 plate positions depending on base unit
Instrument software	CyBio Composer and CyBio Scheduler (required — Revolution executes CyBio methods, it does not replace them)
Revolution control	Run a protocol, move to a location’s load position, revive from standby

Specifications

That wet/dry split spans four orders of magnitude on one platform; the current product page instead gives a single range of 0.050–250 µL, so for an exact figure take it from whichever Analytik Jena source matches the pipetting mode you’re scheduling. Volume is freely selectable in 0.01 µL increments on the 96/25, 384/25, 96/60, 384/60 and 1536 heads, and in 0.1 µL increments on the 96/250 head.

Precision is published per head:

Head	Precision
96/250 µL	≤ 2 % over 10–25 µL; ≤ 1 % above 25 µL to 250 µL
96/60 and 384/60 µL	≤ 2 % over 3–5 µL; ≤ 1 % above 5 µL to 60 µL
96/25 and 384/25 µL	≤ 2 % over 2–5 µL; ≤ 1 % above 5 µL to 25 µL
1536/8 µL	≤ 3 % over 1–5 µL; ≤ 2 % above 5 µL

Two points bear on schedule design. First, the head decides the labware: the 384/25 and 384/60 heads address 384- and 1536-well plates, the 96/250 head addresses shallow- and deep-well 96 and 384, and only the 1536 head fills all 1536 wells in a single step rather than quadrant by quadrant. Because heads are exchanged by hand at the front or back of the base unit, a schedule that needs two channel counts needs an operator intervention between the two phases — it is not something Revolution can switch mid-run. Second, tips are not all disposable: non-disposable 1 µL ceramic and stainless-steel tips, 8 µL glass tips and ceramic capillary magazines (50, 100, 250 and 500 nl) all appear in the published tip list, and a non-disposable configuration implies a wash step in the protocol rather than a tip change.

The base unit is given as approximately 31 kg with a 13.6 kg head, and operating conditions as 15 to 35 °C at ≤ 75 % humidity at 35 °C. The brochure gives the dimensions as 284 x 795 x 370 mm (W x H x D) without the plate moving assembly, and the product page gives 284 x 370 x 772.5 mm; the two do not agree on the middle figure, so take the footprint from Analytik Jena for the exact base unit being installed.

Supported methods

The pipetting itself is defined in CyBio Composer. Revolution executes a protocol and manages the plate handover.

• Run protocol — execute a CyBio protocol, given as protocolFile, with a timeout that bounds the run. The driver checks the file exists before starting, and records the run against the schedule’s run ID together with the barcode and entity ID of every plate on the instrument at the time, so a transfer can be traced back to the labware afterwards. A protocol that fails is recorded with its error rather than silently dropped
• Go to load position — move to the load position for locationName, with a timeout. Each location is mapped to its own CyBio script in the device configuration, so what “load position” means is per-location and set up once
• Revive if in standby — bring the instrument out of standby. Useful as a step ahead of a long-idle branch of a schedule, where the instrument may have gone to standby between runs

A variant of this driver is used where the instrument handles MALDI targets. It adds two maintenance operations, both taking a protocolFile and a timeout:

• Run background maintenance protocol — run something like a wash without recording plate relationships to the database. It claims every location on the device first, so a maintenance run cannot collide with a plate being placed, while still honouring schedule pause, resume and abort
• Run background maintenance protocol, waiting for an empty target location — the same, but waits for a target-capable location to become free before starting

Integration

Revolution drives the instrument through the CyBio software’s own automation interface, loading a named configuration and logging in with a configured user, then opening a protocol by path and executing it through the CyBio processor while the driver waits for the processor to return to ready. Because the vendor software is the thing executing the method, it stays visible and enabled on the instrument PC while Revolution is using it.

Plate handover is automatic. Before a robot picks from or places onto the instrument, the driver sends it to the load position for that location, using the per-location script from the device configuration — so no explicit “go to load position” step is needed in a schedule around a normal transfer. The instrument takes a single device location.

Prerequisites

• The CyBio software must be installed on the instrument PC, with the configuration directory and configuration that Revolution should load, and a user account Revolution can log in as. The driver cannot initialise without them.
• Every device location that a robot will transfer to must have a load-position script named in the device configuration. A location without one fails when a transfer to it is attempted.
• Protocols referenced by a schedule must exist as files on the instrument PC.
• A database connection for the transfer records must be configured.

Device configuration

Property	Purpose
ConfigDir	Directory the CyBio configuration is loaded from
Config	Name of the CyBio configuration to load
Username	User the driver logs in to the CyBio software as
Password	Password for that user
DB Connection	Database the protocol runs and plate barcodes are recorded to

Load-position scripts are configured per location alongside these properties, one script name per device location.

If you need more of this instrument driven from a schedule, get in touch — the driver is extended on demand.