Molecular Devices AquaMax 2000 User manual

www.moleculardevices.com
AquaMax®2000/4000
Microplate Washer
User Guide
0112-0151 K
June 2014

This document is provided to customers who have purchased Molecular Devices, LLC
(“Molecular Devices”) equipment, software, reagents, and consumables to use in the
operation of such Molecular Devices equipment, software, reagents, and
consumables. This document is copyright protected and any reproduction of this
document, in whole or any part, is strictly prohibited, except as Molecular Devices
may authorize in writing.
Software that may be described in this document is furnished under a license
agreement. It is against the law to copy, modify, or distribute the software on any
medium, except as specifically allowed in the license agreement. Furthermore, the
license agreement may prohibit the software from being disassembled, reverse
engineered, or decompiled for any purpose.
Portions of this document may make reference to other manufacturers and/or their
products, which may contain parts whose names are registered as trademarks and/or
function as trademarks of their respective owners. Any such usage is intended only to
designate those manufacturers’ products as supplied by Molecular Devices for
incorporation into its equipment and does not imply any right and/or license to use
or permit others to use such manufacturers’ and/or their product names as
trademarks.
Molecular Devices makes no warranties or representations as to the fitness of this
equipment for any particular purpose and assumes no responsibility or contingent
liability, including indirect or consequential damages, for any use to which the
purchaser may put the equipment described herein, or for any adverse circumstances
arising therefrom.
For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
Product manufactured by Molecular Devices, LLC.
1311 Orleans Drive, Sunnyvale, California, United States of America 94089.
Molecular Devices, LLC is ISO 9001 registered.
© 2014 Molecular Devices, LLC.
All rights reserved.
The trademarks mentioned herein are the property of Molecular Devices, LLC or their respective owners. These
trademarks may not be used in any type of promotion or advertising without the prior written permission of
Molecular Devices, LLC.

0112-0151 K 3
Contents
Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Who This User Guide Is For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Instrument Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Robot and Stacker Compatibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Touch Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Wash Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Microplate Carriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Reagent and Waste Bottle Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Back Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 2: Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Unpacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Setting Up the Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Connecting to a StakMax®Plate Stacker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 3: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Starting the Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Main Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Running Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Stopping Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Shutting Down the Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chapter 4: Operation: The Touch Screen Interface . . . . . . . . . . 37
Administrative Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Program Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Program Tab: Administrative Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Program Settings Dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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Program Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Program Stacker Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Adjust Dispense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Program Tab: Program Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
New Step Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Dispense Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Aspirate Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Wash Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
FastWash Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Shake Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Soak Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Repeat Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Purge Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Rinse Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Standby Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Prime Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Managing the Program Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Plates Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Plates Tab: Administrative Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Plate Definition Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Managing the Plate Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Options Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Advanced Options Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Options Tab: Administrative Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Shutdown Options Dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Managing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Automatic Shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Restricting Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Screen Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Chapter 5: Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Routine Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Purging the Instrument. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Decontaminating the Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Cleaning the Exterior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Removing and Storing Wash Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Cleaning Wash Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Contents
0112-0151 K 5
Moving an AquaMax®Microplate Washer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Preparing for Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter 6: Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Troubleshooting Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
General Instrument Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
System Fluidics Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
System Pressure Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
External Communication Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Dispense Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Aspiration Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Wash Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Cell Wash Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Instrument Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter 7: Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
AquaMax®Microplate Washer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Appendix A: Microplate Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Appendix B: Cleaning Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Appendix C: AquaMax Sterilant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Principle of Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Materials Required but Not Provided. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Preparing the Reagent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Preparing the Complete Sterilant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Using Reagent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Warnings, Precautions, and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Sterilant Solution A Concentrate (4X). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Sterilant Solution B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Appendix D: Tips and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Using the Washer for ELISA Based Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Using the Washer for Cell Based Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

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Appendix E: Robot Command Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Instrument Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Hardware Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Host Computer Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Command Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Document Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
No Error (OK) Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Error Responses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
General Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Device Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Motion Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Program Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
User Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Program Management Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Factory-defined Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Protocol (Program) Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Edit/view Opened Protocol Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Function-specific Step Arguments and Return Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Plate Library Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
StakMax®Robot Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Stacker Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Error Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Error Recovery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Instrument Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

0112-0151 K 7
Foreword
Who This User Guide Is For
This guide is intended for users of the AquaMax®2000 and AquaMax
4000 Microplate Washers. The user guide contains setup, operation, and
general maintenance information.
Conventions
Within the scope of this user guide, the following typographical
conventions are used:
CAUTION! Indicates an operation that might cause damage to the
instrument, device, or data, if the precautions are not followed.
WARNING! A warning indicates an operation that can cause personal
injury if precautions are not followed.
Note: Emphasizes significant information in a procedure or description.
Tip: Provides useful information or shortcuts, but is not essential to the
completion of a procedure.

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0112-0151 K 9
1
Introduction
The AquaMax®Microplate Washers from Molecular Devices can be easily
configured to meet your current application requirements. The modular
design provides affordable upgrade options when your lab requirements
change.
Instrument Features
AquaMax 2000 and AquaMax 4000 Microplate Washers can be
configured to process 96-well and 384-well microplates used in both
biochemical and cell-based assays.
•Wash heads are available in 96-well and 384-well configurations
for both plate wash and cell wash.
•All wash heads are interchangeable. The software automatically
detects which wash head is installed.
•The AquaMax Microplate Washer primes, cleans, and rinses the
wash heads with the touch of a single button.
•The AquaMax Microplate Washer processes all plate wells
simultaneously during dispense, aspirate, and wash operations.
•Whole-well dispensing and aspiration in 384-well plates result in
2 to 4 times faster plate processing than other commercially
available plate washers.
•The AquaMax Microplate Washer supports most microplate
formats through its user-definable plate library. Up to 32 plate
types can be stored in the plate library.
•The AquaMax Microplate Washer is equipped with two
(AquaMax 2000 washer) or four (AquaMax 4000 washer) reagent
ports to connect 2 or 4 different dispense bottles. Waste can be
drained into any waste bottle. Non-toxic waste can be drained
directly into a sink. The AquaMax Microplate Washer supports
4 L or 10 L bottles only.
•All washer operations are controlled through an on-board
touch-screen user interface.
•The program library can store up to 3 factory-defined and 100
user-defined programs. Each program can contain up to 50 steps.

AquaMax®2000/4000 Microplate Washer User Guide
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Robot and Stacker Compatibility
AquaMax Microplate Washers are compatible with Molecular Devices
StakMax®Microplate Handling System. Third party robots can be set up
to control the AquaMax Microplate Washers through a USB command
interface. The USB command interface is detailed in Robot Command
Interface on page 121.
Components
Table 1-1: AquaMax®4000 Components
Item Description
1 4L reagent reservoirs
2 Back panel with USB and StakMax connectors
3 384-well wash head installed
4 96-well wash head
5 Microplate carriage with microplate
6 Touch screen
2
3
4
6
1
5