Instrument connectivity on the Uncountable platform
Scientists should not have to retype instrument results into another system. Manual transcription consumes time, introduces errors, and separates the result from the sample, method, and run conditions that make it useful.
Instrument data often arrives through different paths: direct APIs, serial or USB connections, and exported files. Without a controlled way to capture it, laboratories rely on manual uploads, disconnected folders, and workarounds that weaken traceability.
Uncountable connects instruments to the platform through API, serial or USB, and file-based pathways. Results and associated metadata can flow into the correct structured record and remain tied to the sample that produced them.
This solution brief is for R&D and QC laboratory leaders who want to reduce manual data handling while strengthening the connection between instruments, samples, and results.
Inside this solution brief:
- Instrument-connection options for APIs, serial or USB, and files
- How automated capture reduces re-entry and transcription risk
- Ways to retain result metadata with the originating sample
- Why instrument connectivity improves laboratory traceability
- What connected instrument data enables for downstream workflows
Let instrument data enter the scientific record once, at the source, with its context intact. For more depth, read the guide Creating the proper data infrastructure for AI-driven formulation & measurement in R&D.
FAQs
It's how lab instruments, such as balances, spectrophotometers, chromatography systems, and battery cyclers, connect directly to the Uncountable platform so their results and metadata are captured automatically instead of typed in by hand.
There are three ways: a direct API (REST or SOAP), a local agent that reads serial or USB output, or a file-based connection that watches a folder for exports. Connections can run directly or through a proxy behind a DMZ, and each result comes in tied to results, metadata, and a sample ID as one structured record.
Unidirectional connections only read data out of an instrument, whether that's a basic reading with no metadata (like a scale) or an advanced capture with metadata and sample info (like a spectrophotometer). Bidirectional connections go further and send protocols to instruments, such as chromatography systems, not just read their results.
Yes. System administrators pick exactly what to extract from each instrument's standard export, choose which metadata gets mapped, tie every result to its sample ID, and set capture to run in real time or on a schedule.
Uncountable is integrated with 400+ instruments, including Agilent, Mettler Toledo, Shimadzu, Thermo Fisher, TA Instruments, Malvern, Instron, and ZwickRoell, with new instruments added every week.
