Hamilton STAR: Hardcoded "trash_core96" in PLR?

CamilloMoschner · June 5, 2025, 9:10pm

Hi everyone,

How does PLR currently handle the fact that Hamilton STAR machines can have multiple locations for the location of its 96-MPH (multi-probe head) trash based on the specific machine configuration?

Option 1: STAR with a “waste shute”

→ this means the “trash_core96” should be inside the STAR (see purple arrow)!

Option 2: STAR without a “waste shute”

→ simply moves the entire 96mph to the left, outside of the STAR chassis/frame and ejects the tips straight down.

→ this means the “trash_core96” should be outside the STAR (see cyan arrow)!

But at the moment, it seems like “trash_core96” is directly assigned to be outside of the STAR chassis, see:

Can someone please confirm that currently PLR hardcodes the “trash_core96” location or correct me if I have misunderstood?

I believe we should enable “trash_core96” origin modification during STARDeck()
/ STARletDeck() instantiation.

rickwierenga · June 5, 2025, 9:20pm

yes it is hardcoded, to the location that matches whatever venus would generate in the esvelt lab

i think the location as -58.2 is correct, since the origin is not exactly at the LFB of the STAR i think. so it is still roughly inside the star

see also this related thread Discard tip issues on STARlet and the linked thread on labautomation.io Having to teach waste on new chassis STARS (STAR23) - Hamilton (Venus) - Lab Automation Forums

yes ideally we have a flag for this

CamilloMoschner · June 5, 2025, 9:32pm

Thank you @rickwierenga!

In the labautomationforum post you shared a Hamilton employee has actually shared what I am describing here as option 2: STAR without a waste shute (inside the main STAR chassis):

→ apparently this outside `trash_core96" should be at…

VS the inside position is - according to PLR - at:

x=-58.2
y=106.0
z=229.0)

harley · June 5, 2025, 9:37pm

Thanks for bringing this up! I think this is the same problem I am seeing from Discard tip issues on STARlet as Rick said. Does this mean there needs to be a way to specify if you have the inside vs outside trash_core96?

CamilloMoschner · June 5, 2025, 9:39pm

…though it seems in this particular instance VENUS defines the trash not as usual with front-left-bottom, but with the position of the center-center-cavity_bottom of the “A1” tip position ???

rickwierenga · June 5, 2025, 9:40pm

have we established if there are actually 2 different locations?

rickwierenga · June 5, 2025, 9:40pm

yes it does!

CamilloMoschner · June 5, 2025, 9:42pm

Yes

mr.hyde · June 5, 2025, 9:43pm

that’s no way to talk about Erlich Hamilton!

rickwierenga · June 5, 2025, 9:45pm

why don’t we just go with the shute location that erlich posted above? (obv not location in the sense of coordinates, but the plr-corrected lfb location)

i think that is more general than the shute that slides from your option 1 picture

@harley what are you currently using?

CamilloMoschner · June 5, 2025, 9:48pm

Never met him

only been admiring his customer suppport on the forum from a distance

CamilloMoschner · June 5, 2025, 10:07pm

I don’t think that would be correct:

There are 2 issues I believe:

There are multiple possible locations for the “trash_core96”
The location of the “origin” of “trash_core96” is inconsistent with the PLR geometric definition scheme.

Let’s leave issue 2 on the side for now → can easily be fixed based on the knowledge that all tips are arranged in a 9x9 mm**2 grid

Focusing on issue 1:

I was incorrect about 2 things:

there can be a waste shute when discard is outside of the main chassis, just a straight one, while there has to be a waste shute (with a slide) when discard is inside the chassis/frame of the main STAR unit.
the waste shute at x=-58.2mm is indeed inside the main chassis as you mentioned @rickwierenga because the deck origin is at x=100, i.e. there is plenty of space to the left of the deck origin (including x=-58.2mm) which is still inside the main chassis