[DIYbio] Re: how many DIYpcr machines built by DIYbio folks so far?

Since we are developing a DIY rtPCR machine, I listed a few projects
on our blog a while ago: http://www.amplino.org/2012/01/point-of-need-pcr-machine-round-up/.

There are actually quite a lot diagnostics companies developing pcr
machines for a kinds of purposes. Although this might not be regarded
as DIY, still it indicates that PCR technology is still open to
innovation.

When building a PCR machine, just start out like Cathal indicated. A
heater, a fan, temperature sensor and some processing unit is all you
need to start out with to create your own thermocycler.

The simpliest and quickest approach would be to use three water baths
with thermostats, and just move the samples back en forth.

On 4 feb, 19:52, Cathal Garvey <cathalgar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Cyclercan was dead easy to build, the code was a fun learning
> experience, and it seems to perform beautifully on test-runs with the
> CSV-output graphing function. However, I have not yet run a reaction in
> it to confirm that the tubes reach the desired temperatures as quickly
> as the temperature sensor does. So, I dunno.
>
> The two biggest costs with Cyclercan were the Arduino and the Heatgun.
> You could get a cheaper heatgun than the artist's one I used, but
> probably not for less than 15, and Arduino clones could bring the costs
> as low as 10 if you have your own FTDI-USB cable.
>
> So I'd estimate the lowest you could go with a rig like mine (bearing in
> mind that Ireland is affectionately known to its citizens as the "Ripoff
> republic") would be:
> 10 Arduino
> 15 Heatgun
> 5 PC Case-cooling fan
> 2 for two solid-state relays
> 10 12V supply for case-fan
> 0.5 LM35 temperature sensor
> = 42.5
>
> I'm not counting the coffee can or any sealants used. Using a lightbulb
> as done by Russell is definitely the way to go for price reduction. You
> could also try mucking around with Nichrome in front of the cooler fan
> for hot/cold circulation by the same fan, which would drop costs
> significantly for a hot-air design.
>
> Nichrome sufficient for this need would probably be a euro, but you'd
> need to invest in a better power supply than the one figured above to
> give the required current, which might only reduce the overall costs by
> 5-10.
>
> On 04/02/12 15:45, Jeswin wrote:
>
> > So how many people have some type of DIYpcr machine?
>
> > What kind and how does it perform so far? How hard was it to build?
> > Any tips, problems encountered, and any ways to keep costs minimal
> > would be nice to hear about.
>
> --www.indiebiotech.com
> twitter.com/onetruecathal
> joindiaspora.com/u/cathalgarvey
> PGP Public Key:http://bit.ly/CathalGKey

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