J-E-J-S/pyhamilton

Python for Hamilton liquid handling robots

pyhamilton

Python for Hamilton liquid handling robots

Hamilton software only works on Windows, so the same goes for pyhamilton.

Developed for Hamilton STAR and STARlet on Windows XP and Windows 7. VANTAGE series supported with plugin. Other robot models and operating systems not supported yet.

Example usage

from pyhamilton import HamiltonInterface, INITIALIZE
with HamiltonInterface() as ham_int:
    ham_int.wait_on_response(ham_int.send_command(INITIALIZE))

Documentation

Available online.

Installation

1. Install and test the standard Hamilton software suite for your system.
2. Install 32-bit python 3.6.3, preferably using the executable installer at https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-363/. Python 3.7+ is known to cause an installation issue with some required pythonnet/pywin32 modules.
3. Make sure git is installed. https://git-scm.com/download/win
4. Make sure you have .NET framework 4.0 or higher installed. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17851
5. Update your pip and setuptools.

   > python -m pip install --upgrade pip
   > pip install --upgrade setuptools
   

6. Install pyhamilton.

   > pip install git+https://github.com/dgretton/pyhamilton.git#egg=pyhamilton
   

7. Run. If you have other Python versions installed, always run pyhamilton with py yourmethod.py (the bundled Python launcher, which interprets shebangs) or python3 yourmethod.py

Applications

• A high-throughput platform for feedback-controlled directed evolution, preprint

• Flexible open-source automation for robotic bioengineering, preprint

Contact: dgretton@mit.edu

Developed for the Sculpting Evolution Group at the MIT Media Lab