F.A.S.T. Version 1.52.0 introduces new features and refinements designed to make day-to-day operation smoother, especially when it comes to troubleshooting, system maintenance, and run reliability.
Introducing Backup and Restore Data: Safeguard Critical User Data Before Service or Updates
For easier troubleshooting, field support engineers and administrators can now download and restore User Data, including account profiles, labware, protocols, history, configs, and calibration data. Before performing a software update or service, it’s recommended to back up your data to help protect against potential system failure.
To do this, click F.A.S.T. Help in the side menu and select Backup and Restore Data.
Live Logs Improvements: More Control and Better Visibility During Protocol Runs
The Live Logs feature now includes options to PAUSE, RESUME, and ABORT, giving you more control while a protocol is running. Live Logs also show additional details such as the name of the running protocol, and logs are now sorted by date instead of file size.
You’ll also see improvements that make troubleshooting faster, including a recovery button and clearer logging as the protocol progresses.
Reduce Evaporation and Mitigate Electrostatic Issues with Humidifier Chamber
The F.A.S.T. now includes humidifier chamber compatibility. A humidity chamber can be used to control humidity, helping to reduce sample evaporation and mitigate electrostatic issues during sensitive workflows.
This update also improves humidifier performance and adds a connection status indicator to make system readiness easier to confirm.
Protect Low-Volume Transfer with Humidity Control
Track Tip and Plunger Collet Usage for Maintenance Planning with Tip Clamp Cycle Count
To support routine maintenance and part replacement planning, the system now adds Tip and Plunger Collet Usage Count in System Information, making it easier to track total usage over time.
Introducing Plate Recognition: Confirm the Right Plate, Every Time
The new Plate Recognition feature helps ensure you’re using the correct plate in both the protocol designer and the real protocol. This reduces avoidable errors and helps maintain experiment consistency.
Tip Caddy Detection: Prevent Setup Mistakes Before They Disrupt a Run
F.A.S.T. now detects tip caddies and notifies you when a caddy is placed in the wrong location—or when the wrong type of caddy is used. This prevents potential issues during a protocol run.
Additional Usability and Reliability Improvements
Version 1.52.0 also includes several refinements to improve overall system behavior and workflow reliability:
- Added a new "low volume transfer" warning for High Volume tips, indicating that dispensing less than 3 µL may result in higher CV values.
- Enhanced the Mixing feature to support task abortion, allowing users to return liquid to the source plate or discard it with the tip.
- Improved the rollback mechanism to fully revert system changes if a software update fails.
- Improved startup error handling to help ensure the software UI remains accessible.
- Improved tray barcode scan behavior to automatically adjust position if the initial scan fails and remember the corrected position for future scans.
- Updated tool tip messaging for minimum aspirate volume when using high caddy tips in protocol authoring.
- Adjusted tray movement behavior for SPEAR Bio plates to align with standard plate operation.
This release also resolves issues related to CSV upload behavior, movement limits, heavy plate definitions, humidity configuration handling, GUI launch conditions, manual reteach behavior, plate detection accuracy, backup data completeness, and protocol execution delays.
Many of the best F.A.S.T. software updates have been suggested by our awesome user community!
Have a great idea on how to make F.A.S.T. better?
Let us know by contacting us at support@formulatrix.com