Skip to content

Assembly Guide

Assembly Guide

Information and links to fabricate a complete Pipettin Bot MK3 from scratch.

Required skills and resources

  • Patience.
  • Time:
  • About 10 days worth of afternoons (~40 hours).
  • A lot of waiting, for 3D-prints and delivery of parts.
  • Usage of workshop tools.
  • Unless your supplier cuts all parts to the required lengths, you will need a cutting tool for metal (aluminum and steel), for example: angle grinder, saw, etc.
  • General skills or intuition for crafting will be useful. Some parts require alignment, for which you might use a level tool, a carpenter's square, or custom jigs.
  • It is important to know how to use measuring tools (calipers, measure tape) for different purposes (alignment, cutting, etc.).
  • Superglue and a hot-glue gun can come in handy.
  • Wiring electronics:
  • Wire cutting, using heat-shrink, very basic soldering (for soldering headers on long wires), etc.
  • No custom PCBs are needed.
  • Overall, nothing fancy, only Arduino-level stuff (i.e. dupont wires and headers).
  • Basic 3D-printing:
  • Slicing, printing, post-processing.
  • Some parts may need minor sanding or lubrication. I use graphite powder.
  • A 3rd party may print stuff for you.
  • Suppliers:
  • Although we used very common parts, you will have to find suppliers and deal with them.
  • Manufacturing equipment or services.
  • 3D printing.
  • Laser cutting: required for making several parts, some of them can be 3D-printed or made on a CNC-router instead.
  • CNC mill: required for manufacturing the tip holders for the custom micropipette tool.
  • CNC router: may be used to replace the laser cutter on some cases, and is required to manufacture parts out of aluminum.
  • Note: except for the 3D-printed parts, these services are not critical to the project, and can be omitted or replaced. For example, the removable baseplate system can be omitted, and the electronics case can be made with cardboard and hot glue.

BOM

The full Bill of Materials is available online, and was prepared with GitBuilding.

Most 3D models needed to make this machine have been exported to STEP or STL format for convenience.

gitbuilding

Step 1: Support frame

Follow the steps at Structural Frame.

Briefly, throughout this stage you will:

  • Assemble a support structure for the XYZ parts, using 2020 aluminum profiles.

Expected result:

Note

Dimensions shown in screenshots may be illustrative.

struframexpectedresult.jpeg medstru.png

Step 2: Baseplate and Curbs

Follow the steps at Baseplate.

Briefly, throughout this section you will:

  • Fabricate the baseplate with a CNC laser cutter.
  • Print and test the platform aligners(a.k.a. "curbs" or "anchors").
  • Place the baseplate onto the structural frame.

Expected result:

baseplateexpectedresult.jpg 223344444.jpg

basecurb1.png curbs&baseplate&objects.png

curbs&baseplate&objects&stru.png

Step 3: Backpanel

Follow the steps at Backpanel.

Briefly, throughout this section you will:

  • Make Pipettin Bot's Backpanel
  • Attach it to the structural frame

Expected result:

backpanelfreecad.png

Step 4: Motion system

Follow the steps at Motion System.

Briefly, throughout this stage you will:

  • Build and assemble the motion system
  • Attach the motion system to the frame.
  • Add the GT2 transmission belts to the CNC frame.

Expected result:

motion model

Motion system mounted on the structural frame

Step 5: Tool-changer mechanism

Follow the steps at Tool-changer.

Briefly, throughout this stage you will:

  • Build the tool-changer mechanism
  • Attach a tool-changer interface to the main carriage.

Expected result:

head remote alt text

Step 6: Tools and tool-posts

Instructions to make fabricate tools and their accessories.

Pipettin Micropipette

In this step you will:

  • Build our multi-tip electronic pipette tool.
  • Build their tool posts.
  • Attach the tip-ejection post to the back-panel.

Follow the steps at:

Expected result:

micropipettereal.jpg freecadmicropip.jpg

Micropipette Adapter

Hand-held micropipettes can be used by Pipettin, if an adapter can be made for them.

In this stage you may:

  • Make two adapters for gilson micropipettes (p20 and p200).
  • Build their tool posts.

Follow the steps at:

alt text alt text

Step 7: Electronics

Follow the steps at Electronics.

Briefly, throughout this stage you will:

  • Assemble and attach the electronics case.
  • Attach limit switches and wire the motors.
  • Manage cables.
  • Wire the remaining connections (USB / GPIO).

Expected result:

Note

You have substantial freedom for laying out your cables, but it is important to have an idea of how other objects and cables will interact with the backpanel.

backpanel elec_backpa.jpg

Step 8: Setup

Congratulations! You've finished the build :) Now it's time to setup the stuff!

Briefly, throughout this stage you will:

  • Set up the Rapsberry Pi.
  • Setup the Arduino with CNC firmware.
  • Configure the CNC firmware.
  • Adjust Vref on the stepper drivers.
  • Run basic tests on the software and CNC firmware.

Follow the setup guide at Setup Guide.

Congrats!

You've built and setup a pipetting robot. Stay hydrated!

Now your robot needs to be told where pipettes and tubes are, how to place tips, discard them, and so on...

If you want to install the GUI and play it now, you may try going over the Installation Guide and the Usage Guide.

You can also proceed to the Maintenance Guide or the Calibration Guide.