I desperately need to make a molten media dispenser gadget today, so come along with me on a single-day build thread, live-tweeted as progress is made. 🧵 - ThreadSky

atinygreencell.bsky.social • 79 days ago

I desperately need to make a molten media dispenser gadget today, so come along with me on a single-day build thread, live-tweeted as progress is made. 🧵

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atinygreencell.bsky.social•79 days ago

Starting off by importing some various design bits from other projects and reducing to the bare essentials.
1/n

atinygreencell.bsky.social•79 days ago

I made room for a 12v barrel jack, rocker switch, space to tape down a 12v to 3.3v regulator, peristaltic pump motor, DC motor controller, and Xiao ESP32-S3 board

2/n

atinygreencell.bsky.social•79 days ago

Here's the layout for the prototype. I'll add a screen later since I need to do some custom fitting. Printing now.

3/n

atinygreencell.bsky.social•79 days ago

These are pretty much all the components needed:

5mm Barrel Jack
Rocker Switch
Peristaltic Pump Motor
I2C Screen
4 pushbottons
12x6x3 magnets
14ga 4" blunt needle
Luer lock fittings
1/8" ID silicone tubing
12v to 3.3v regulator
12v wall wart (1A max)
Xiao ESP32-S3 Microctrlr
4/n

atinygreencell.bsky.social•79 days ago

While the dispenser base prints, let's design the wand. I have large hands and am a lefty so initial design'll bias towards that but will include more universal sizing. I want it to be like a long pen or chopsticks in terms of ergonomics, shielding hand from hot toob
5/n

atinygreencell.bsky.social•79 days ago

Using a paraboloid shape as the handle body, embedding some magnets, the Luer lock fitting, and some silicone tubing. This part I'll likely iterate over several times to get the right fit, density, infill to prevent heat transfer to hands, etc.
6/n

paganforge.bsky.social•79 days ago

📌Nice. This will be cool.

maxfus.bsky.social•78 days ago

Amazing what u pulled off there 😻 Quick question, as I know u always know the cheapest supplier for labware, what was the cheapest multi dispense pipette u saw & what was ur rough material cost here?

atinygreencell.bsky.social•78 days ago

Ive had good results with this brand of OEM chinese generics:

https://a.co/d/2UdR2We

Or do you mean repeater pipettes?

maxfus.bsky.social•78 days ago

Repeater! We call them multi dispense 😅 (as opposed to multi channel from the link)
That's essentially what you're replacing with your device, no?

atinygreencell.bsky.social•78 days ago

Ah yes, same OEM. What im trying to replace is the molten agar media versions that are extremely expensive and clunky. They sip from a freshly autoclaved and pipping hot bottle and dispenses macro amounts 1mL+ into culture vessels or wells.

https://a.co/d/0yD7vx1

alexkeeley.chemonstrating.com•79 days ago

This is a cool idea! Unless I’m missing something though don’t you run the risk of media solidifying inside the piping?

atinygreencell.bsky.social•79 days ago

Like with all molten media dispensers, you work piping hot and work quickly, then backflow the media when done. Flush with equally hot water to rid of solids. This is a common apparatus in plant micropropagation outfits but often very expensive.

paganforge.bsky.social•79 days ago

So basically a powered version of this:

https://socorex.com/en/laboratory/syringe-pipettes/dosys/premium-174-syringe-pipette

atinygreencell.bsky.social•79 days ago

Ya!

alexkeeley.chemonstrating.com•79 days ago

Fantastic!

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