André M. Chagas and Dr. Tom Baden explain in this interview with COMPAMED-tradefair.com how their labware system is organized. Furthermore, they point out the differences to regular lab systems and reflect on the question, what open labware systems could do for emerging countries.
Dr. Baden and Mr. Chagas, you designed a do-it-yourself lab system. How exactly is the FlyPi-system organized? Which components does it consist of?
Dr. Tom Baden: There is basically a 3D-printed frame holding everything in place. At its core, there is a Raspberry Pi, which is a single board computer, and a camera with an M12 lens. So basically, it is a webcam held in a 3D-printed frame that gives you a very high zoom.
André Chagas: On top of the basic unit, modules can be added independently. They are mainly built with off-the-shelf components and electronic parts used by hobbyists. So far, we have built an optogenetics module, based on strong LEDs, a thermogenetics module based on a peltier element, two other illumination modules, and a motor module. We use an Arduino microcontroller (an open-source platform for electronic prototypes) to control these. We then basically connect a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse to the Raspberry Pi and use the user interface we wrote in Python, an open source language, to control the physical components.
What is the difference to regular lab equipment?
Baden: The main thing is the price. If you wanted to buy a commercial solution, it would be substantially more expensive. In most cases people end up using commercial systems, but almost never use all options they offer. Individual experiments tend to use more or less individual options. Tailoring your design more specifically to what you actually need can help you save a lot of money.
Chagas: On one hand, our system cannot do everything that a lot of the modern systems can do, but on the other hand, it can do some things other systems cannot. For example, the “FlyPi“ has a very wide zoom range. The same lens can be used to image small animals and cells. You cannot do this with a regular microscope as they are finely tuned to magnify very small things. Furthermore, our device is portable. It fits on the palm of a hand and can be powered with a battery. It can be powered with 12 volts, which we either obtain from a battery or even from a car’s lighter output. We can control the device via the internet (wirelessly or via cable), using a laptop. So in principle, the system can be used anywhere, either in environmental studies to do sampling directly in the field, or in remote areas, or places with faulty infrastructure, such as regions in conflict.