Cytomat 2

The Cytomat 2 is Thermo’s most compact incubated plate store: random-access storage with a controlled atmosphere inside. Of the four Cytomat devices Revolution drives, it is the only one with atmosphere and shaking control exposed to a schedule — the Cytomat 10C, Cytomat 24 (PH) and Cytomat 6000 are larger ambient stores without those operations.

At a glance

Capacity	56 × 1536-well plates, 42 × 96-/384-well, 20 × deep-well plates
Temperature	Ambient +10 °C to 50 °C
Humidity	Up to 95% r.H.
Shaking	Two independently driven stacks, 50–1200 rpm
Revolution control	Read/write temperature, humidity, CO₂ and O₂; per-stack shaking; the store’s transfer mechanism; self-scan inventory

Specifications

Thermo Fisher publishes the following for the Cytomat 2 C-LiN, the incubated variant this driver targets.

Temperature range	Ambient +10 °C to 50 °C
Humidity	Controlled, up to 95% r.H.
CO₂ range	0–20 Vol. %

Capacity depends on plate type, not just the model: the same unit holds 56 1536-well plates but only 20 of some deeper types, because plate height is what governs how many shelves fit.

Supported methods

Environment

• Get / set temperature
• Get / set CO₂
• Get / set oxygen
• Get / set humidity

Read as well as write, on all four. That matters for an unattended run: a schedule can verify the atmosphere is what it should be before committing cells to it, rather than assuming the set point was reached.

Shaking

• Set shake mode — record the desired state (Enabled, Disabled, or NotSupported if no shaker is fitted) without touching the hardware
• Turn shake on / turn shake off — set the same state and actuate it immediately
• Get / set stack 1 frequency, get / set stack 2 frequency — 50–1200 rpm, default 500 rpm

The two stacks have independently settable frequencies, so different plates in the same store can be agitated differently. Thermo notes that frequencies above 800 rpm may cause resonance — back off if you encounter it.

Shaking is paused automatically whenever a plate is stored or retrieved, then restarted afterward if it was enabled and plates remain to shake. If the shaker fails to start, the driver retries with a re-initialise up to three times before raising a warning — no separate “initialise shaker” operation exists to call by hand.

Plate movement and transfer mechanism

Storing and retrieving a plate is driven by the scheduler’s normal pick/place mechanism, the same as any other random-access store — there is no separate “load” or “unload” command to call. The underlying transfer mechanism is also exposed step by step, for commissioning, teaching and fault recovery:

• Extend shovel / retract shovel
• Move height motor to above / below store location
• Move to wait position
• Move transfer station to basic position / to position 2 — only meaningful where a transfer station is fitted (HasTransferStation device property)
• Open / close automatic lift door
• Initialise hardware

The Cytomat 2 has no turntable and no carousel — it is a small, two-column store, so it doesn’t carry the turntable/carousel rotation operations that the larger rotary Cytomat models expose.

Inventory and status

• Start self scan / Start self scan (full)
• Show status / Show extended status
• Show extended options settings

A self-scan rebuilds the inventory from what is physically present. Run one after any manual loading, or Revolution’s view of the contents is only as good as its bookkeeping.

Integration

Prerequisites

• The store must be reachable from the Revolution host.
• Atmosphere set points must be reached before cells go in — set, then read back to confirm, rather than assuming.
• Plate type must suit the store’s shelf pitch; capacity depends on plate height.
• Where the unit has no shaker fitted, set the shake mode to NotSupported so plate transfers don’t attempt to actuate it.
• Run a self-scan after manual loading.

Other Cytomat variants exist in the driver but are not currently enabled — including the Cytomat 48 and the Cytomat 2C LiN Under Bench. If you need one of those, or another model in Thermo’s range, get in touch: it is a matter of enabling and commissioning rather than writing a driver.

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