This interesting question is asked every now and then –
- How does SyringePumpPro report rates and volumes for the multi-channel pumps? or
- Why does SyringePumpPro only report rates and volumes for a single channel?
There are a number of multi-channel or multi-syringe pumps available from the manufacturers that SyringePumpPro supports. Currently SyringePumpPro treats them as a single syringe pump and relies on the operator to make calculations about rates and volumes. This is easy if all the same syringe sizes are used.
For example in the 6 channel pump pictured here, SyringePumpPro doesn’t know
- how many channels are available
- how many channels are loaded with syringes
- if there are multiple syringes loaded -are they the same size and capacity (especially internal diameter)
- are the syringes ganged to the same destination or are they feeding several destinations – resulting in several volumes to be tracked.
The pumps themselves also are not aware of how many syringes are loaded, and treat the situation as a single syringe with the entered diameter. The pump uses that internal diameter to calculate the piston movements to give the requested rates and volumes.
Because of this, SyringePumpPro currently mimics the pump and only reports the single syringe rates and volumes, in fact these rates are volumes are the ones reported by the pump.
Customers are using these pumps in every combination suggested above, and I do get requests for the software to report on the different combinations. I am planning to provide this feature in later versions of SyringePumpPro, but I have quite a number of other improvements I would like to make first – all of which would help serve every pump owner.
The most challenging scenario I need to design a solution for, is the 12 channel pump. This will require quite extensive user input to capture the most complex case of 12 differing syringe diameters, being fed to several destinations, some ganged and some not.