Unlocking the OT-2

Welcome to Part 2 of the From Box to Protocol series, a step-by-step guide on getting started with your new OT-2. This second video will teach you how to unlock the OT-2's locking mechanisms, getting it ready to connect to your computer.

[@donnellysequencingcentre4075]

Not the best for Canadian or any non-US market.
We are a sequencing core facility and would like to do a constructive critical review:
Opentrons is a fully remote company with HQ in New York, NY. All support is remotely done via email ONLY. So just in case you have an issue in the middle of a run, the turnaround time is from 2-3 weeks (could go more to months)
Opentrons does not offer onsite protocol development services outside of the 50 states of the U.S. So if you are outside of the US and if you request for support, no matter how dire the situation is no one will come physically nor on a zoom call to resolve the issue. Your automated handler will be in dust for weeks or months till you can set it up again. Not best for a busy lab. One issue leads to another and it never gets fixed.
Opentrons claim to “get the OT setup running in 10min” is questionable, it has been almost 2 years and so far we haven’t done a single run, the tip crashes, the offset is off, the protocols provided to calibrate your OT2 are given wrongly without knowing what consumables you have. Moreover, even when troubleshooting, despite giving all information, the redundancy in their queries is high that it is questionable if it is in their best interests to support Opentrons user, mostly superficially looking into issues.
Opentrons do not check what consumables or protocols were paid for, you may have to repeatedly clarify what you have bought.
Your territory manager, application specialist etc. are not Cc’ed in most emails, so you kind of don’t know who you are dealing with and this adds on the “complexity” that no one is assigned to your case. You will end repeating your issues over and over again to different people, due to their department being re-organized several times.
To summarize, if you are outside of US, I would strongly suggest not to go for this, but go for a company that supports you locally, who can actually fix issues and who are transparent in emails. Automation should make life easier. If you really need things to move fast with a quick turnaround time for support, then Opentrons is not your best bet.
You can reach out to the centre on more information and see it also, before you make a decision to buy Opentrons.

[@kcorreia86]

They do seem to have high turnover in staff.
On the other hand I have been happy to run OT2 with my own protocols running on a Python terminal. Including tip offset.