Maker · exploring

A lab robot with a new job

An Opentrons OT-2 liquid handler, now at home, being turned into a pen plotter (and maybe a bartender).

I spend my working life around liquid-handling robots, so naturally I now have one at home. The Opentrons OT-2 is a pipetting robot: an X/Y/Z gantry, a Raspberry Pi 4 running the show and a Smoothieboard motion controller. That makes it very hackable.

The plan

The goal is creative, non-lab uses. Ideas on the list:

  1. Pen plotter with a webcam mount — the first build.
  2. Pick-and-place for small parts.
  3. Solder-paste dispensing for PCBs.
  4. Computer-vision-guided sorting.
  5. Terrarium automation.
  6. Cocktail mixing, eventually.

Custom tool holders and mounts will come off the 3D printer.

Build log coming soon.

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