OpenLab CDS

OpenLab CDS is a chromatography data system — software, not an instrument. That distinction shapes everything on this page: Revolution does not drive a chromatograph directly. It asks OpenLab to run a sequence, and OpenLab drives the instrument.

What OpenLab controls

Agilent describes OpenLab CDS as unifying Agilent LC, GC, GC/MSD, LC/MSD, LC/TOF and LC/Q-TOF, and instruments from other vendors, in a single environment — with instrument control and data acquisition for LC, GC, LC/MS and GC/MS systems, Agilent and non-Agilent alike.

So the chromatograph in your cell may be from any supported vendor. What Revolution talks to is OpenLab.

Instrument families	LC, GC, LC/MS, GC/MS, including LC/TOF and LC/Q-TOF
Vendors	Agilent and non-Agilent
Editions	ChemStation Edition and EZChrom Edition
Instruments per workstation	Up to 4 (ChemStation Edition workstation)
Instruments per AIC	Up to 10 (ChemStation Analytical Instrument Controller)
Networking	Standard TCP/IP
Revolution control	Run a sequence, run a CSV-driven batch, abort, home the multisampler

The 4 versus 10 instrument distinction matters when sizing a system: a workstation controls up to four instruments directly, while an AIC extends that to ten. Which you have is an OpenLab architecture decision, made before Revolution enters the picture.

Supported methods

• Run sequence — run an acquisition method by path, from a given injection source, writing to a results folder
• Run sequence (CSV method) — run a sequence defined by a CSV file, to a results folder, with a maximum batch size
• Abort OpenLab run — abort the run in progress
• Multisampler home all — home all axes of the multisampler

Two ways to define a run

The two sequence operations serve different shapes of work:

• Run sequence points at an acquisition method that already exists in OpenLab. Use it when the run is the same every time.
• Run sequence (CSV method) builds the sequence from a CSV file, so the samples, and how many of them, come from data rather than from a stored method. The maximum batch size bounds how much is submitted at once.

The CSV route is the one that makes a chromatography step schedulable per run — the plate that came off the liquid handler determines the sequence, rather than the sequence being fixed in advance.

Multisampler home all is a recovery operation. An autosampler in an unknown position after a fault is not safe to hand samples to; homing it is how a schedule gets back to a known state.

Integration

Revolution reaches OpenLab through Agilent’s SDK over WCF, authenticating as a user against a domain and working within a named project.

Prerequisites

• OpenLab CDS must be installed and configured, with the instruments already commissioned in it. Revolution does not configure OpenLab.
• The acquisition methods the schedule calls must exist at the paths passed.
• The authenticated user must have rights to the project the runs belong to.
• Results folders must exist and be writable.
• Where the CSV route is used, the CSV must be present and correctly formed before the run starts — a malformed sequence file fails the batch, not one injection.

A note on scope

Chromatography runs are long compared with most steps in a plate workflow, and the data belongs to OpenLab. Revolution starts and aborts runs and can home the sampler; it does not retrieve chromatograms, process peaks or report results. Those stay in OpenLab, which is where the reviewed, auditable record lives.

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