Problems camera/gatansocket3 GetImage() only receives b'' (no image data) on second handshake & causes GMS freeze

[Junschen1]

I'm encountering a critical issue when using the GetImage() function from camera/gatansocket3 to read image data from DigitalMicrograph (Camera type: clearview/stela):
The first ExchangeMessage (enum_gs['GS_GetAcquiredImage']) works perfectly and I can receive the corresponding message/response as expected;
After sending the second handshake protocol message (enum_gs['GS_ChunkHandshake']), the program fails to receive any valid image data — the only returned value (len_recv) is an empty bytes object b'';
Worse still, this failure occasionally causes DM to completely freeze/crash.
I have replaced and tested multiple different versions of the serialEMCCD plugin, but the above issue persists across all versions and no improvement has been observed.
Core affected function: camera/gatansocket3 -> GetImage()
Key abnormal behavior: Valid response for 1st ExchangeMessage, only b'' for 2nd handshake (no image data)
I would greatly appreciate any guidance or fixes for this issue! 🙏
Best regards, Junshu

[stefsmeets]

Hi @Junschen1 , did you follow the instructions from here: https://github.com/instamatic-dev/instamatic/blob/main/src/instamatic/camera/gatansocket3.md ?

I haven't used this in ages, nor has this code been maintained in Instamatic. Gatan cameras are somewhat difficult to work because you have to go through DM.

The gatansocket.py I copied from the Leginon code is the best thing I could find. The version in Instamatic is at least 6 years old so maybe something changed in a recent version of DM.

A potential fix could be to try and see if a recent version provided by Leginon works. I see that a python 3 version is available so potentially it would just be a drop-in replacement:
https://github.com/leginon-org/leginon/blob/myami-python3/pyscope/gatansocket.py

[Junschen1]

Hi @stefsmeets ,
Thanks for the guidance! I did follow the instructions in the gatansocket3.md. I'll try the Python 3 version of gatansocket.py from Leginon right away and update here if it works.
Appreciate your help!