Anybody own an EpMotion 5075 liquid handler?

[jlove]

We're looking into liquid handlers and we checked out the Eppendorf EpMotion 5075 recently. We're doing our due diligence - does anybody have any reviews or experience to share? We'd be looking for it to set up reactions and do bead purifications for Illumina TruSeq libary preps.

[KLRA]

[QUOTE=jlove;59829]We're looking into liquid handlers and we checked out the Eppendorf EpMotion 5075 recently. We're doing our due diligence - does anybody have any reviews or experience to share? We'd be looking for it to set up reactions and do bead purifications for Illumina TruSeq libary preps.[/QUOTE

The best thing you can do is push for them to bring an instrument in the lab and make them run some preps for you. They will do this for you. I would keep an eye on the purifications. There tends to be beads left behind. This can be a problem. If you don't mind manually getting rid of the beads between runs on the instrument, then you should be OK. It is key to make sure they prove the instrument works. They don't own any chemistry to tie to the instrument. This is always a huge risk. Who will you call when there is a failure? Illumina? Eppendorf? You may get ignored and get stuck with an instrument that doesn't work.

[firedancer]

Hi,
We ran the EP exclusively for our Illumina Lib preps as well as qPCR set up. Some tweeks were needed regarding labware definitions and aspiration speeds/depths but once we worked out the kinks we fell in love.

[ECO]

For canned protocols, it's pretty nice. For things requiring lots of flexibility, there are better instruments/interfaces.

I also recall it being pretty expensive....but their sales/tech support guys were very helpful throughout (pre- and post- sale).

[jlove]

Hi,
We ran the EP exclusively for our Illumina Lib preps as well as qPCR set up. Some tweeks were needed regarding labware definitions and aspiration speeds/depths but once we worked out the kinks we fell in love.

Hi firedancer - thanks for the feedback. I'd be interested to hear about any specific tweaks. (if you can easily recall any details).

[firedancer]

Hi firedancer - thanks for the feedback. I'd be interested to hear about any specific tweaks. (if you can easily recall any details).

Well we initially got it as a platform to do some development on. As we had almost every automation platform under the sun, we liked this for the lab because of the single and multichannel pipette options and the small footprint.

We used it for multiple apps but mainly for Next gen lib preps and such. The main hurdle with the instrument was getting the depths just right to perform spri cleanups. Liquid was getting left in the wells or beads were getting pulled off the magnets. After asking the eppendorf crew to define the labware (magnet) and messing around with pipette heights and speeds we got this step to work pretty well.

[behavin]

The main hurdle with the instrument was getting the depths just right to perform spri cleanups. Liquid was getting left in the wells or beads were getting pulled off the magnets. After asking the eppendorf crew to define the labware (magnet) and messing around with pipette heights and speeds we got this step to work pretty well.

We've used ours mainly for dilutions, cherry picking, etc. Simple stuff for the most part, but I just developed a protocol for ours to do ampure bead washes and am expanding into the rest of illumina Library prep. As mentioned above, it is kind of a painful process to learn/adapt it to your needs, but pretty stable and reliable overall. Support has been so-so for me; I had a few custom definitions made that ended up not matching what I'd asked for, so I figured out how to make/adapt my own (not supported by eppendorf I'm sure, but you can figure out how to do it pretty easily). And those work perfectly for my needs.

One thing to consider is that there is no 96 well head, so you do full plate processing 8 wells at a time. And I find it rather slow, not exactly sure how it compares to other platforms in that department, however.

[docbio]

I know this thread is old, but curious if anyone has any updates on their experience with the 5075, in particular the 5075 TMX platform, or any competitor automation platforms (SciClone, etc) for NGS library prep?

[rosatoc]

Any protocols you are willing to share, firedancer and behavin? We've just installed a 5075 with the desire to set up KAPA qPCR validation plates in addition to library preps. I know we can develop them ourselves, but why not stand on the shoulders of giants?

Thanks in advance

[rosatoc]

Hi Skamp. I would be very interested in your DNA extraction protocols (and thanks for the message about the tips!). I have not heard anything else about protocols in place for library preps (e.g. TruSeq).

Thanks again

[SDGenomics]

EpiMotion 5075

We have a 5075 at our core that we are utilizing for NG Library preps. There is a bit of a learning curve and the writing protocols/ troubleshooting is a bit cumbersome, but the Eppendorf sales and tech team are amazing and very helpful. They are always ready and willing to come out to help troubleshoot. We have almost worked out all the kinks for automating TruSeq RNA lib preps and even though there is still quiet a lot of user intervention, I think that the robot was a good buy.

[TimLar]

For canned protocols, it's pretty nice. For things requiring lots of flexibility, there are better instruments/interfaces.

I also recall it being pretty expensive....but their sales/tech support guys were very helpful throughout (pre- and post- sale).

it's been a while since this reply but I was wondering if anyone could comment on liquid handlers that are more flexible than the EpM5075? what is the best instrument considering price/specs/flexibility?

how do you address the issue with beads carry over? does it make sense to try different magnetic stands or are they all the same?

[docbio]

Can't help you with the first part of the question, but in terms of bead carryover I've found it can often be addressed by slowing down the speed of the pipetting either in automated or manual applications. Also, I think the stand matters - I've tried both the "O-ring magnet" style and the "post" magnet style (24? posts arrayed such that they're on the side wall of the individual tubes in the 96 well plate) and I find the post magnet style to give superior results in our hands.

Best of luck
docbio

[cbird]

We have an epMotion 5075, and it is awful. You have very little control over the machine, the software is sophmoric. It wastes tips, can't be customized, ependorf won't let you make your own labware definitions so you're hostage to their 1 employee that does it, you have no access to the coding language to fix their poor software routines, customer support sucks. Don't buy

[cbird]

On a related note, now that I'm stuck with this thing, I want to hack the machine so we can make it do what we want. Anybody ever hacked an epmotion? Or better yet, does anybody know what company eppendorf bought this robot from? Typcally, the older robots came with programming guides etc