Hamilton Microlab Prep

The Hamilton Microlab Prep is a benchtop automated liquid handler intended as a step up from manual pipetting. It is a different instrument from the Hamilton Microlab Star, Starlet and Vantage ICC family and from the Hamilton Microlab NIMBUS — it has its own deck, its own capacity, and its own software with a touchscreen graphical interface rather than VENUS.

Hamilton states it is compact enough to fit on a lab bench or in many biological safety cabinets.

At a glance

Deck capacity	8 ANSI/SLAS positions
Pipetting range	1 µL – 1000 µL (depending on configuration)
Channels	Up to two 1 mL channels; 8-channel multi-probe head option
Weight	41.6 kg
Operating temperature	15 °C to 35 °C
Instrument software	Microlab Prep software, touchscreen GUI (required — Revolution runs its protocols)
Revolution control	Initialise, start a protocol by ID, pause, resume, abort, query running state

Specifications

Hamilton publishes the following further specification detail for the Microlab Prep, beyond what’s already in “At a glance” above.

Height	60.4 cm to 71.63 cm
Width	53.1 cm to 57.2 cm
Depth	61.7 cm to 66.55 cm
Multi-probe head option	8
Transport tools	CO-RE Gripper, standard
Device integration	Hamilton Heater Shaker, Hamilton Heater Cooler
Sample loading	Manual
Barcode scanner	Manual

Note that Hamilton lists sample loading and barcode scanning as manual on this platform. In an automated cell, plate presentation is normally the robot’s job.

Instrument features

• CO-RE II tip/tool attachment — tip alignment and faster tip coupling, with a range of Hamilton tools also attachable
• CO-RE Gripper — supplied as standard, turning pipette channels into on-deck labware transport
• Touchscreen graphical interface — Hamilton describes protocol development, editing and running without automation or coding expertise
• Camera-based labware detection and verification — a camera mounted on top of the workstation detects and identifies labware on the deck, both to speed up protocol programming and to verify labware during execution

Hamilton lists genomics, nucleic acid extraction, PCR set-up, protein sciences and protein purification as common applications.

Supported methods

Protocols are authored on the instrument. Revolution starts them by ID and manages their lifecycle from the schedule.

• Initialize instrument — bring the instrument to a known state before use
• Start — run a stored protocol by its numeric protocol ID, with a timeout (default five minutes)
• Pause — pause the protocol in progress
• Resume — resume a paused protocol
• Abort — abandon the protocol in progress
• Is running — report whether a protocol is currently executing, so a schedule can wait on it rather than poll blindly

Integration

Revolution talks to the Microlab Prep over the instrument’s Microlab API across the network. There is no vendor SDK hosted in the Revolution process for this device.

Prerequisites

• The protocols the schedule will call must already exist on the instrument, and you need their numeric IDs. Revolution starts a protocol by ID; it does not author or upload protocols.
• The instrument’s Microlab API must be reachable from the Revolution host.

Device configuration

Property	Purpose
Microlab API IP Address	Address of the instrument’s Microlab API endpoint

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