DIY Pipetting Machine Cuts Lab Costs Dramatically

You probably heard about the infamous $600 hammer that the Pentagon supposedly paid for back in the ‘80s. That was a myth based on a misunderstanding, but large institutions — including hospital and research labs — often pay a lot more than you might expect for their equipment. Liquid handlers, for example, can cost several tens of thousands of dollars. But Tristan Fogt (AKA Triggy) was able to reproduce that functionality with his pipetting machine that costs just a couple hundred dollars to build.

The high costs of laboratory equipment aren’t just a result of bureaucratic waste and institutional price gouging. That equipment needs to meet regulations, carry certifications, maintain calibration, and be serviceable, which all adds up. But when those factors aren’t so important, it is possible to do the same job at a much, much lower cost.

That’s what Triggy did here. He built a 96-channel electronic pipette machine that can aspirate and then dispense precise volumes of liquid. That’s a handy machine to have if you’re doing tests across a large number of samples, which is a very common task in thousands of labs around the world.

Triggy’s machine works by using four stepper motors to move a plate that pushes or pulls 96 syringe plungers simultaneously. The syringes mount onto a grid plate that keeps them arranged in orderly and consistent rows. A manually operated linkage system lets the user lift the syringes out of a tray quickly for efficient workflows.

This is an open source project, but it isn’t yet fully documented and Triggy doesn’t provide any details in the video about the electronic hardware. However, the machine appears to use an Arduino UNO Rev3 board and a CNC shield to control the steppers. The user can set parameters and activate the functions using a simple control knob paired with an LCD screen.

Professional labs will continue to use professional machines for this kind of work. But Triggy’s design is perfect for citizen scientists and anyone else that needs to do a lot of pipetting on a budget.