KingFisher Presto

The KingFisher Presto performs magnetic bead-based purification of DNA, RNA and protein. Magnetic rods covered by a disposable tip comb move the beads between plates, rather than liquid moving between vessels — so there is no pipetting and nothing to carry over. A turntable with two nests lets one side be loaded or unloaded while the other runs.

At a glance

Type	Magnetic bead-based purification processor
Samples per run	96 or 24
Revolution control	Run a full protocol or a single step; present a nest, rotate, position by name, clear errors

Specifications

Thermo Fisher publishes the following.

Volume range	50–5000 µL
Heating	For applications requiring elevated temperatures
Automation	Minimised size for fitting to automation systems; connects to several liquid handling instruments
Width	14.2 in
Height	15.7 in
Depth	18.3 in
Weight	52.9 lb

Supported methods

• Run protocol — run a purification protocol end to end, from a protocol file. Unlike the Flex, the Presto’s controller has no run-report export, so no report file is produced.
• Run step — run a single step of a protocol, identified by a tip name and step name. Running steps individually lets a schedule interleave other work — or handle a plate change — between stages, instead of committing the instrument for the whole protocol.
• Move to position number — present turntable nest 1 or 2 at the load/unload position
• Move to position name — move to a named position (the trailing digit of the name gives the nest, 1 or 2)
• Rotate — rotate the turntable to the other nest (an unconditional 180° swap; there is no target position to choose)
• Clear error — acknowledge the instrument’s error state so a run can be retried. This does not fix the underlying cause — the operator must resolve that (e.g. load tips) before clearing the error, or the instrument will report the error again.

Positioning by name or number is both supported. Names survive a protocol being re-ordered; numbers do not. Prefer names where your protocols define them.

Integration

Prerequisites

• The instrument must be reachable from the Revolution host.
• The purification protocol the schedule runs must already be defined in Thermo Fisher’s software.
• Tip combs and plates must be loaded for the protocol — a bead-based run with no tip comb moves nothing.
• Locations picked from or placed to the instrument must be named with a trailing digit giving the turntable nest (1 or 2), e.g. KingFisher1_1, KingFisher1_2.
• If the instrument is in an error state, clear it before retrying — after fixing whatever caused it physically.

Device configuration

Property	Purpose
Url	Address of the controller service the Revolution host connects to
Instrument Name	Serial number identifying which physical instrument to connect to — several units can share one PC, each with its own controller host

If you need more of this instrument driven from a schedule, get in touch — the driver is extended on demand.

Operations

These are available from a Run Device Operation step.

Clear Error

Acknowledges the error state the instrument is reporting so that a failed operation can be retried. Acknowledging does not correct the physical cause, such as a missing tip comb, and this step fails if the instrument is still reporting an error afterwards.

Move To Position Name

Rotates the turntable to bring a nest to the load/unload position, taking the nest from the last digit of the position name instead of from a number. The name must end in 1 or 2; any other name is rejected and the turntable does not move.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
position Name	string	—

Move To Position Number

Rotates the turntable to bring the nest chosen by number to the load/unload position, where a transfer device or an operator can reach the plate. This step completes only once the turntable has come to rest, so a following pick or place cannot grip a moving nest.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
nest Number	int	—

Raise Error

Makes this device report a failure on demand: the step fails with an error naming the device, and the operator is offered the usual error recovery choices. No command reaches the instrument and nothing moves, and the failure is raised in simulation as well as on a real system, so this is the step to use when rehearsing how a schedule handles a device failure.

Rotate

Rotates the turntable through 180 degrees so the two nests swap places: the nest at the load/unload position moves under the processing head and the nest under the head moves out. The swap is unconditional, there is no target position to choose, and the turntable moves every time this step runs.

Run Protocol

Runs a purification protocol end to end from a protocol file, driving every step of it in order and rotating the turntable as the protocol moves from one plate to the next. This step waits until the instrument reports the run finished and fails if the timeout elapses first.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
protocol File Path	string	—
timeout	TimeSpan	—

Run Step

Runs a single step of a protocol, identified by its tip name and step name, rather than the whole protocol, so that other work or a plate change can be scheduled between stages. The turntable is not rotated first, so the plate already at the processing position is the one processed.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
protocol File Path	string	—
tip Name	string	—
step Name	string	—
timeout	TimeSpan	—