BioTek Epoch (original, FW 1.12) – reader stuck at boot + read commands

dev discussion
1

Hi all!

I’m David, an engineer working in lab instrumentation. I rescued an old BioTek Epoch from a lab that closed down, and I’d like to give it a second life for enzymatic assays on wine (malic acid, sugars…), driven from Python. PyLabRobot looks like the perfect fit, so thank you for building it!

Following the Synergy HTX thread: my reader is an original Epoch (not Epoch 2, firmware v1.12), without Gen5. Like the Synergy HT, it connects fine and the basic commands (version, serial number, door) behave like BioTekPlateReaderBackend, but the read commands don’t work as-is.

Two questions:

  1. Recovery: the reader went into its diagnostic mode and reported MC Config Memory Cleared and UI Config Memory Cleared. Since then, at power-up the LED keeps blinking green and the lamp flashes continuously; it never reaches the ready state. Has anyone seen this on a BioTek reader and found a way to restore the configuration or exit this mode?

  2. Read commands: @rickwierenga @Nat, since the protocol seems to vary by firmware, would a serial capture of a Gen5 absorbance read on an older reader help? Does anyone have Gen5 + an Epoch, or a log from a pre-2.x reader? @jordan, it looks like we hit similar issues, happy to compare notes.

I’d be glad to contribute an Epoch backend once the reader is back up.

Thanks!
David

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