Instrument programmes & methods
Growth plan and upThe settings your machines run, written down and versioned.
A cycling programme lives in three places: the machine's screen, a USB stick in a drawer, and the head of whoever set it up. When that person leaves, so does the method. Instrument Programmes records the run conditions step by step against the instrument, versions them the way a controlled document is versioned, and keeps the machine's own file beside them.
- Stages, cycles and steps — the way a cycler describes itself
- A published version is never edited in place
- The instrument's own programme file, attached
- Printable at the bench, searchable from a desk
- Cross-linked to the SOP that carries the signatures
- Growth plan and above
Equipment · Programmes
New programmeProgrammes
27
Across 9 instruments
Published
23
Safe to run
Draft
4
Not yet released
With machine file
18
Ready for a USB stick
Stages, cycles, steps
A programme is stages; a stage repeats a number of cycles and holds steps. That is exactly how a thermal cycler describes itself — and it degrades gracefully to one stage, one step for a spin or an incubation.
Versioned, not overwritten
Publishing a version freezes it. A change starts a new draft and supersedes the old one, so a result from March can still be traced to the conditions that produced it.
The machine's own file, kept
Upload the file the instrument exports and it stays with the programme, ready to copy onto a USB stick. We store it exactly as it came — we never parse it.
An honest run time
Steps that are timed add up to an estimated run length. If any step has no duration — the infinite 4 °C hold every run ends on — it is shown as a minimum, never as the answer.
One line you can search
Every programme carries a one-line summary — 95 °C 2:00 → 40× (95 °C 0:15 → 60 °C 1:00) → 4 °C hold — so you can find the right method, and check it against the machine's screen without opening anything.
Printable at the bench
A programme prints as a clean table of stages and steps, which is what actually gets carried to the instrument.
Linked to its SOP
A programme is a setting, not a procedure — so it links to the SOP that describes the work, and that SOP is what carries the read-and-sign records.
Same permissions as equipment
Programmes sit under Equipment and use the equipment permission you already grant. No new role to configure, no separate access list to keep in step.
What this deliberately doesn’t do
We store the instrument’s file. We never read it.
Vendor programme formats are closed and undocumented. We could guess at them — and a green “matches the machine” tick would be trusted the moment it appeared, including the times it was wrong. So the file is kept byte-for-byte as an attachment, and the steps you type are your own record of what the machine is set to. Two things, side by side, neither pretending to validate the other.
The same rule applies to the run-time estimate: ramp time between steps is real and we do not model it, so a partly-timed programme reports a minimum rather than a figure that looks like a measurement.
Instrument programmes — common questions
How is this different from an SOP?+
An SOP is the procedure — what you do, in what order, with what precautions. A programme is a setting: the conditions the machine executes. They are versioned the same way, but only the SOP carries read-and-sign records, and a programme links to the SOP rather than duplicating it.
Can it read a .eds, .lc480 or vendor protocol file?+
No, and that's deliberate. Those formats are closed, so anything we told you about a file's contents would be a guess presented as a fact. We store the file unchanged so it's there when someone needs it on a USB stick, and the steps you enter are the searchable, printable record.
What happens when someone changes a protocol?+
A published version is never edited in place. You start a new draft, publish it, and the previous version is marked superseded but stays readable — so a result recorded six months ago can still be tied to the conditions that produced it.
Does it work for things that aren't PCR?+
Yes. A centrifuge spin is one stage, one cycle, one step, with speed and rotor recorded as run settings. Plate-reader protocols, incubations, washes and chromatography runs all fit the same shape. Every field on a step is optional, so a machine with no temperature still gets a usable record.
Who can create and publish one?+
Anyone with equipment create or edit permission, which is the permission you already grant for the equipment register. There is no separate programmes role to set up.
Which plan includes this?+
Instrument Programmes are on the Growth plan and above, alongside the SOP library, parts and consumables, bookings, training and the risk assessment builder.
Stop losing methods when people leave
Write the run conditions down once.
Free trial with full access. Record a cycling programme against the instrument, publish it, and print it for the bench.