Freedom Evo Tecan Troubleshooting - HELP!

[Ana Santos]

Hi diybio community!

I was wondering if anyone out there has experience with the Freedom Evo Tecan Robot. 

We have ours for a few years (>5) and no one has good memories of working with it. And basically, we're just trying to use it to read 96 well plates (between 8 and 12) for 24h.

Everything starts out OK, it runs for about 6h and afterward it just stops working showing messages like "Your run has been stopped" or "Your run was aborted". No red light blinking. No alarm. 

However, if we hit the recover bottom, it re-starts working, as if nothing had happened. If we're really lucky, the run then proceeds until the end, but normally it keeps crashing systematically afterwards.

The only pattern we've been able to detect is that the robot normally stops working when the plate is inside the plate reader.

The technicians from Tecan are now almost part of the lab, because of all the problems we have with the Robot, but they never manage to tell us exactly is the problem. Whatever they do (switch a cable, tweak the software, plug/unplug all machinery) works for a couple of hours but we then go back to the same original problem.

We're just desperate to know if someone else has faced the same problem or if it is a problem with our machine.

I look forward to your feedback.

Best regards and DO GREAT SCIENCE!

Ana

[Rikke Rasmussen]

Hi Ana,

I work quite a lot with a pair of Tecan EVOs on a daily basis. I assume you've already reached out to Tecans helpdesk / tech support with this issue?

You don't mention how/where you storing the plate reader data - obviously, make sure you've got plenty of storage space on whatever drive you're writing to.

Assuming the hardware is fine (and it sounds like it is, since you're getting the correct behavior initially), the first thing I would check if I had this error would probably be the firmware for the plate reader. In general, go through and make sure you've got the latest version on all components. If you need help doing that, call 1-800-832-2687 and have them walk you through this, and have them help you update your firmware if you need to.

If that does not fix your problem, the next thing you could try - if you have access to a second reader - is hook up another reader and try again. That way, at least you can narrow it down to either plate reader or Tecan. If it turns out to be the plate reader, that also points to a potential solution (replace it).

Feel free to email me directly for more troubleshooting advice.

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[Daniel Leach]

Hi Ana,

I think I know what the problem is,

Email me and I can work with you to resolve the situation

Thanks,

Daniel

[Nathan McCorkle]

On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Daniel Leach <137...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Ana,
>
> I think I know what the problem is,
>
> Email me and I can work with you to resolve the situation

Why not post the solutions here, to benefit all of humanity that knows
how to search Google for keywords?

[Ugur Sahin]

HI Ana, did you get a solution for your problem. It seems that we are encountering a similar problem with our device and I was curious whether you find a solution. best regards, Ugur 

[Richard Conroy]

Hi everyone - I was recently given two surplus Tecan Miniprep systems, a 60 and 75, of unknown condition and without software. The both power on but I've no way of testing. They both have their software dongles. Is anyone familiar with these systems and how to determine if they are functioning?

Thanks

Richard

[Thomas Meany]

Where are you based? This is pretty cool.. 

[Richard Conroy]

Washington DC. I'm happy to trade one or both of the systems if they will be of more value to anyone else. They are not light and don't come with all the accessories needed to operate them, so might only be of interest to those looking to adapt to work with other accessories or have an existing supply.

Thanks

Richard

[flamingnerd]

I work with Tecans. (I'm also looking for a good online community to troubleshoot with them but I am having a hard time finding it. Perhaps I should try Stack Overflow?)

My first thought about your problem was perhaps it's something with power settings. Windows sometimes turns of idle devices to conserve power. Hope you managed to fix it.

Mary

[Dakota Hamill]

Can you get old software for them easily?

I have a 75 Freedom Evo and the PC it originally came with.  However, the computer is locked via windows and I tried rainbow tables but wasn't able to crack the password.

It's an older Tecan,but a shame to have a decent robot sitting on a shelf because I can't find software to run it.

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[Daniel Leach]

For the initial post where the problem relates to a software timeout, EVOware has a default "timeout" of ~ 6 minutes.

this means that if a command is sent to a device and no confirmation/message is returned within 6 minutes - the software stops the script with an error

it is possible to extend the timeout for specific applications - refer to the help menu and search for "AnswerTimeout" parameter defined in EVOware.inf file

i have had similar problems and defined an AnswerTimeout=3600000 to give the software 1 hour to wait for a command response

hope this helps

[Joe Kreitz]

Hi Ana, 

I think I may be having a similar problem as you were last year. Did you ever figure out what was going on?? Did changing the AnswerTimeout parameter fix the problem? 

Thanks!! 

Joe 

On Monday, June 5, 2017 at 1:30:19 PM UTC-4, Ana Santos wrote:

[Kelcy Newell]

A detailed set of directions for fixing timeouts can be found here:

https://raverobot.com/fix-some-unexplained-tecan-freedom-evo-system-stops/