I have been using Phoenix for more than two years and so far there were
no issues with maintenance. Wash the needles and nano-dispenser before
and after the runs and you are good to go.
Electrostatic effects have been seen in a way of drops being positioned
on the side of the flat bottom plate, but the drops do not climb too
high in my case probably because I'm using fairly "large" drops (200 +
200 nl).
No matter how robust the system is, there will be always a way to break
it.
Once in a while I get large crystal that can be used for data
collection, but in most of the cases optimization in hanging 1+1 uL
drops is required.
What I found quite difficult to do is to choose the appropriate protein
concentration when moving from 200+200nL to 1+1 uL. Sometimes protein
should be diluted 3-4 times, sometimes it shouldn't. How others are
approaching this issue?
Vaheh
-----Original Message-----
From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Anastassis Perrakis
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 8:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] crystallisation robot
> More recently, I've looked at all of the crystallization robot
> vendors.
> For single lab users, all of the systems work well. Systems like
> the Hydra
> or Mosquito are less automatic, but provide the basic functions for
> crystallization trial setup. For more of a user facility with a large
> number of users from several groups, you want more automation to avoid
> protocols that can damage the components, like alignment or
> breakage of
> the needles. You also want to consider the total annual cost of
> expendables and maintenance.
There are two major kinds of "a user facility with a large number of
users from several groups"
a. One with an operator: then buy what the operator likes ;-)
basically all machines do work
b. NO operator: buy something that is hard to break and needs minimal
maintenance
We are in b. and happy with our Mosquito for 4 years or more now,
although I am sure the
other choices mentioned are also clearly fine.
A.
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