Common issues & fixes
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Low RNA yield | Incomplete lysis or bead loss | Extend lysis mixing; check bead resuspension; confirm reservoir volumes. |
| RNA degradation | RNase contamination or warm deck | Use nuclease-free consumables; keep samples cold; run promptly. |
| Carryover between wells | Tip reuse | Confirm fresh-tip settings (default); inspect tip pickup on camera. |
| Run paused mid-protocol | Vision flagged a plate/tip exception | Re-seat the flagged item as prompted; the robot resumes from that step. |
When not to automate this
If you extract only a handful of samples occasionally, manual columns may be faster than the setup overhead. For very low-input or single-cell RNA, validate yields against your manual baseline first.
Verification: this protocol is vision-verified on RoR hardware. Still validate against your own controls on first run.