Having difficulties with your experiment?

We are dedicated to your success. Get back on track. View our expert recommendations for commonly encountered problem scenarios with your animal health sample preparation experiments.

View the relevant questions below:

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General

I am getting an error message with the MagMAX Express/KingFisher Flex instrument. What should I do?

Turn the instrument on and off to see whether the error message disappears. Alternatively, do a dry run without any samples. If the issue could be consumable dependent try a new set/lot of tip combs. If the error message repeatedly occurs, please contact Technical Support (techsupport@thermofisher.com). 

My KingFisher Flex instrument run was stopped due to an error message. Can I start the protocol from where it stopped?

No, once a protocol was stopped, it will start from the beginning again. The extraction procedure can either be finished manually by using a magnetic stand or a modified version of the original KingFisher Flex script would have to be created that starts off at the point where the run was stopped.

What should I do if the KingFisher Flex magnets are dirty?

Wipe the magnetic rods with a soft cloth or tissue paper soaked in a mild detergent solution, soap solution, or alcohol.

I am processing fecal samples with the MagMAX Total Nucleic Acid Kit (Cat. No. AM1840) and get very low A260/A230 ratios. Do you have any recommendations for removing some of these contaminants?

It is quite common to get low A260/A230 ratios because of the salt carryover from the sample prep. For this reason, the nucleic acid concentration from NanoDrop measurements is probably an overestimate. We recommend using the Quant-iT RNA Assay kits (Cat. No. Q10213 or Q32884) or Quant-iT PicoGreen dsDNA Reagent (Cat. No. P11495) instead. Since these kits are not enzyme-based, there is no effect of inhibitors/non-nucleotide contaminants. If you are okay with getting a lower nucleic acid yield, you can try diluting the starting sample to reduce inhibition. You can also try adding another Wash 2 step, but that would require creating a new custom script with the BindIT software. 

I cannot transfer files to the KingFisher Flex instrument using the BindIT software. What should I do?

The KingFisher Flex instrument needs to be connected to the computer/laptop and recognized by it. The lower bottom screen should say which instrument it is connected to. If it says anything about “simulator”, it is not connected to a real instrument.

You need to add a new instrument to the database in order to recognize the instrument: Settings → Instrument Setup → New → select what kind of instrument it is from the drop-down menu (i.e. KingFisher 96/MagMAX Express 96), give the instrument a name, and enter the serial number (make sure to keep the “-” in the middle). Once the instrument is connected and recognized, you should be able to transfer files over. 

I cannot transfer files to the MagMAX Express-96 instrument. Can you help?

Please make sure that the MagMAX Express-96 instrument is connected with the correct cable: the instrument has a USB port, but it’s not functional, so the RS232 port has to be used. Few computers can connect to the RS232 port, so a USB-to-serial adaptor has to be used. Not all adaptors will work, so we recommend Model UC-232A from ATEN since we have specifically tested this one. Also, please make sure you are using the correct version of the software (v 3.3.1.7) and that the specific instrument has been added to the database and is connected.

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