win32 and GonioTool

[rds-itga]

Hi again,
sorry for disturbing but I am facing a new issue I cannot solve, I tried to use goniotool.py but I am stuck at the importing step

from pywinauto import Application

I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\RDS\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\__init__.py", line 59, in <module>
    import win32api  # noqa: E402
ImportError: DLL load failed while importing win32api: %1 n’est pas une application Win32 valide.

Here is the python version I am using:

Python 3.8.6 (tags/v3.8.6:db45529, Sep 23 2020, 15:52:53) [MSC v.1927 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Instamatic 1.6.0

If you could help me to solve this problem I would be very thankful!
Regards

[stefsmeets]

Hi, I don't recommend to use goniotool.py unless you know what you are doing. I did not intend for others to use it, as it is a very hacky way to manipulate the goniometer rotation speed on some JEOL microscopes.

The error you get is as far as I know a bug with win32api, the solution proposed here worked for me in the past:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58612306/how-to-fix-importerror-dll-load-failed-while-importing-win32api

[rds-itga]

Hi,
thank you for your answer, I will try your link.
I was interested in using GonioTool because we use JEOL microscope and we already use GonioTool manually.
You claim that it is faster using GonioTool

# faster stage readout using gonio2
# self.gonio2.GetPosition() -> get stage position, 78 ms
# self.stage3.GetPos() -> 277 ms

So it could be interesting for performances optimization.
Regards

[stefsmeets]

Ah yes, that's the api to retrieve the stage position. On our microscope (JEOL 2100), using gonio2 gave slightly faster readout of the stage position only. But from my experience it did not work well on newer microscopes, and stage3 is more reliable, so better to use that one. Note that gonio2 and stage3 are just the names of the modules of the COM api.

goniotool.py is unrelated to that. It hacks into the gui of goniotool.exe to be able to control it externally. We used it to automatically adjust the rotation speed (via f1/rate->TX, maybe you do the same manually).

[rds-itga]

Ok I understand, I thought I needed goniotool.py to use gonio2, my mistake.
First I'll try gonio2 and see what happens (we are using JEOL 1400).
Maybe I will not need goniotool.py at the end.
Thank you very much for your help.
Regards

[stefsmeets]

No worries! I will then close this issue (feel free to re-open / open a new issue).