echo - tools for making echo pick list csvs

For designing custom picklists (csv) for a Labcyte Echo acoustic liquid handler - to be imported into Labcyte Echo Plate Reformat as a region definitions in custom mode.

Designing weird picklists can be tricky so echo aims to make it a bit easier.

picklists

The Echo accepts a csv as a picklist for fluid transfer with the format:

Source Well	Dest Well	Transfer Volume
A1	B4	2.5
A2	C4	1500
A2	B5	40.5

Where the transfer volume is in nl and must be a multiple of 2.5. Additional columns can include Source Plate Name and Destination Plate Name for using multiple plates.

Different source plate types are available and have different minimum and maximum volumes, outside of which the Echo will return an error and not dispense from that well.

Source Plate Type	N Wells	Min vol	Max vol
ldv 384	384	2.5	12.5
384 pp	384	15?	65?
DMSO tray	6	?	?

This causes some constraints and can mean that one compound might need to be aliquot into multiple wells to serve the destination plate, which I found tricky to script.

echo keeps track of plate objects and the contents of their wells to generate picklists. It relies on the user specifying which compounds and how much are in the source plate (echo.Src) wells. Individual wells in the plate can be addressed to transfer a specified volume to a destination well, but an a compound and all wells containing it can also be addressed, where after one well runs down to the minimum volume, the next well is then used and so on. Handy.

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Examples

import echo

src = echo.SrcPlate(name='src1',ldv=True)
dest = echo.DestPlate(name='dest1')

for i,j,k in zip(echo.vwells, 
                 ['cpd1','cpd2','cpd3'],
                 src):
    cpd = echo.Cpd(name=j, vol=100)
    k.fill(cpd.sample(5))

for i,j in zip(src[:3],dest):
    i.xfer(j,1.5)

xfer_record = pd.DataFrame(src.xfer_record)
xfer_record

	SrcPlate	Cpd	SrcWell	Destination Plate Name	DestWell	Transfer Volume /nl
0	src1	['cpd1']	A1	dest1	A1	1500
1	src1	['cpd2']	A2	dest1	A2	1500
2	src1	['cpd3']	A3	dest1	A3	1500