How to make Non-blocking timer in Python

Question

i need your help.

I need a non-bloking timer, that allows me, in the period it's still counting, doing other tasks. I need this function for my bot and obviously I don't want to block it all times I call this type of function which requires these timers.

So, in the past i used to use in Arduino (c++) the function millis() that in the same configuration seems not working well like

int t0 =0
int t1

void loop(){
t1= millis()
while (t1-t0 < 6000){
Serial.print(Timer!);
t0 = millis();}}

Do you have any advice for me? A code where I can start from? Thanks!

Yeah i've been looking at this "time module" for a while but time.sleep is a blocking function — Giuseppe
– Giuseppe, Commented Jul 19, 2021 at 16:50
You can use time.time() or any of its variants for non-blocking, just like millis() in your example... — StardustGogeta
– StardustGogeta, Commented Jul 19, 2021 at 16:57

Mordechai · Accepted Answer · 2024-06-06 21:43:35Z

1

The accepted answer is fine for a single loop. The following will make a timer that can be used in a function call.

import time

class PassiveTimer:

    def start(self, duration):
        self.end_time = time.monotonic() + duration

    @property
    def end(self):
        return time.monotonic() > self.end_time

pt = PassiveTimer()

def func():
    if pt.end:
        print("timer")
        pt.start(5)

x = 0
pt.start(5)
while True:
    func()
    # do other things
    x += 1
    if x % 100_000 == 0:
        print('x', end='')

edited Jun 6, 2024 at 21:43

answered Jun 6, 2024 at 21:31

Mordechai

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Adam Minas · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-19 17:04:39Z

0

The following will print "Timer" for 6 seconds:

import time

start_time = time.time() # returns number of seconds passed since epoch
current_time = time.time()

max_loop_time = 6 # 6 seconds

while (current_time - start_time) <= max_loop_time:
    # do stuff
    print("Timer")
    current_time = time.time()

answered Jul 19, 2021 at 17:04

Adam Minas

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1 Comment

Giuseppe Over a year ago

Okay, it works but this is not what I managed to do. I needed a timer that does a task only once at expected timings. Just like. "5seconds. In 5 seconds i will print("Timer") then after other 5 seconds print(t"imer")

Giuseppe · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-20 08:32:07Z

0

Okay, i found the solution by myself, trying to remember what i previously did on Arduino.

I based this answer from Adam Minas's one, but mine is quite different

So the expected behavior had to be: print(something) every 5 seconds so:

import time

start_time = time.time() # returns number of seconds passed since epoch
#current_time = time.time()
print(start_time)
max_loop_time = 20 # 6 seconds

while True:

    while (time.time() - start_time) > max_loop_time:
    
            print("Timer")
            start_time = time.time()

Then you can stop your while loop with break and other functions like

if == smth : 
    break

answered Jul 20, 2021 at 8:32

Giuseppe

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