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Stopping a function based on a value

I am running a python script on a raspberry-pi.
Essentially, I would like a camera to take a picture every 5 seconds, but only if I have set a boolean to true, which gets toggled on a physical button.
initially I set it to true, and then in my while(true) loop, I want to check to see if the variable is set to true, and if so, start taking pictures every 5 seconds. The issue is if I use something like time time.sleep(5), it essentially freezes everything, including the check. Combine that with the fact that I am using debouncing for the button, it then becomes impossible for me to actually toggle the script since I would have to press it exactly after the 5s wait time, right for the value check... I've been searching around and I think the likely solution would have to include threading, but I can't wrap my head around it. One kind of workaround I thought of would be to look at the system time and if the seconds is a multiple of 5, then take picture (all within the main loop). This seems a bit sketchy.
Script below:
### Imports
from goprocam import GoProCamera, constants
import board
import digitalio
from adafruit_debouncer import Debouncer
import os
import shutil
import time
### GoPro settings
goproCamera = GoProCamera.GoPro()
### Button settings
pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D12)
pin.direction = digitalio.Direction.INPUT
pin.pull = digitalio.Pull.UP
switch = Debouncer(pin, interval=0.1)
save = False #this is the variable
while(True):
switch.update()
if switch.fell:
print("Pressed, toggling value")
save = not save
if save:
goproCamera.take_photo()
goproCamera.downloadLastMedia()
time.sleep(5)

Here's something to try:
while(True):
switch.update()
if switch.fell:
print("Pressed, toggling value")
save = not save
if save:
current_time = time.time()
if current_time - last_pic_time >= 5:
goproCamera.take_photo()
goproCamera.downloadLastMedia()
last_pic_time = current_time
Depending on exactly what sort of behavior you want, you may have to fiddle with when and how often time.time() is called.

Cheers!
Maybe something like this?
import threading
def set_interval(func, sec):
def func_wrapper():
set_interval(func, sec)
func()
t = threading.Timer(sec, func_wrapper)
t.start()
return t
We call the function above inside the main loop.
Wrap your while loop content on a function:
def take_photo:
goproCamera.take_photo()
goproCamera.downloadLastMedia()
Now we create a flag initially set to False to avoid creating multiple threads.
Notice that I did this before the while loop. We just need a starting value here.
active = False
while(True):
switch.update()
if switch.fell:
print("Pressed, toggling value")
save = not save
if save: # we need to start taking photos.
if not active: # it is not active... so it is the first time it is being called or it has been toggled to save as True again.
photo_thread = set_interval(take_photo, 5) # grabbing a handle to the thread - photo_thread - so we can cancel it later when save is set to False.
active = True # marking as active to be skipped from the loop until save is False
else:
try: # photo_thread may not exist yet so I wrapped it inside a try statement here.
photo_thread.cancel() # if we have a thread we kill it
active = False #setting to False so the next time the button is pressed we can create a new one.
Let me know if it works. =)

What I ended up doing:
### Imports
from goprocam import GoProCamera, constants
import board
import digitalio
from adafruit_debouncer import Debouncer
import os
import time
import threading
### GoPro settings
gopro = GoProCamera.GoPro()
### Button settings
pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D12)
pin.direction = digitalio.Direction.INPUT
pin.pull = digitalio.Pull.UP
switch = Debouncer(pin, interval=0.1)
### Picture save location
dir_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
new_path = dir_path+"/pictures/"
save = False
### Functions
def takePhoto(e):
while e.isSet():
gopro.take_photo()
gopro.downloadLastMedia()
fname = '100GOPRO-' + gopro.getMedia().split("/")[-1]
current_file = dir_path+'/'+fname
if os.path.isfile(current_file):
os.replace(current_file, new_path+fname) #move file, would be cleaner to download the file directly to the right folder, but the API doesn't work the way I thought it did
e.wait(5)
### Initial settings
e = threading.Event()
t1 = threading.Thread(target=takePhoto, args=([e]))
print("Starting script")
while(True):
switch.update()
if switch.fell:
#toggle value
save = not save
if save:
e.set() #should be taking pictures
else:
e.clear() #not taking pictures
if not t1.is_alive(): #start the thread if it hasn't been yet
if e.is_set():
t1.start()

Multiprocessing function not writing to file or printing

I'm working on a Raspberry Pi (3 B+) making a data collection device and I'm
trying to spawn a process to record the data coming in and write it to a file. I have a function for the writing that works fine when I call it directly.
When I call it using the multiprocess approach however, nothing seems to happen. I can see in task monitors in Linux that the process does in fact get spawned but no file gets written, and when I try to pass a flag to it to shut down it doesn't work, meaning I end up terminating the process and nothing seems to have happened.
I've been over this every which way and can't see what I'm doing wrong; does anyone else? In case it's relevant, these are functions inside a parent class, and one of the functions is meant to spawn another as a thread.
Code I'm using:
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import csv
from drivers.IMU_SEN0 import IMU_SEN0
import multiprocessing, os
class IMU_data_logger:
_output_filename = ''
_csv_headers = []
_accelerometer_headers = ['Accelerometer X','Accelerometer Y','Accelerometer Z']
_gyroscope_headers = ['Gyroscope X','Gyroscope Y','Gyroscope Z']
_magnetometer_headers = ['Bearing']
_log_accelerometer = False
_log_gyroscope= False
_log_magnetometer = False
IMU = None
_writer=[]
_run_underway = False
_process=[]
_stop_value = 0
def __init__(self,output_filename='/home/pi/blah.csv',log_accelerometer = True,log_gyroscope= True,log_magnetometer = True):
"""data logging device
NOTE! Multiple instances of this class should not use the same IMU devices simultaneously!"""
self._output_filename = output_filename
self._log_accelerometer = log_accelerometer
self._log_gyroscope = log_gyroscope
self._log_magnetometer = log_magnetometer
def __del__(self):
# TODO Update this
if self._run_underway: # If there's still a run underway, end it first
self.end_recording()
def _set_up(self):
self.IMU = IMU_SEN0(self._log_accelerometer,self._log_gyroscope,self._log_magnetometer)
self._set_up_headers()
def _set_up_headers(self):
"""Set up the headers of the CSV file based on the header substrings at top and the input flags on what will be measured"""
self._csv_headers = []
if self._log_accelerometer is not None:
self._csv_headers+= self._accelerometer_headers
if self._log_gyroscope is not None:
self._csv_headers+= self._gyroscope_headers
if self._log_magnetometer is not None:
self._csv_headers+= self._magnetometer_headers
def _record_data(self,frequency,stop_value):
self._set_up() #Run setup in thread
"""Record data function, which takes a recording frequency, in herz, as an input"""
previous_read_time=datetime.now()-timedelta(1,0,0)
self._run_underway = True # Note that a run is now going
Period = 1/frequency # Period, in seconds, of a recording based on the input frequency
print("Writing output data to",self._output_filename)
with open(self._output_filename,'w',newline='') as outcsv:
self._writer = csv.writer(outcsv)
self._writer.writerow(self._csv_headers) # Write headers to file
while stop_value.value==0: # While a run continues
if datetime.now()-previous_read_time>=timedelta(0,1,0): # If we've waited a period, collect the data; otherwise keep looping
print("run underway value",self._run_underway)
if datetime.now()-previous_read_time>=timedelta(0,Period,0): # If we've waited a period, collect the data; otherwise keep looping
previous_read_time = datetime.now() # Update previous readtime
next_row = []
if self._log_accelerometer:
# Get values in m/s^2
axes = self.IMU.read_accelerometer_values()
next_row += [axes['x'],axes['y'],axes['z']]
if self._log_gyroscope:
# Read gyro values
gyro = self.IMU.read_gyroscope_values()
next_row += [gyro['x'],gyro['y'],gyro['z']]
if self._log_magnetometer:
# Read magnetometer value
b= self.IMU.read_magnetometer_bearing()
next_row += b
self._writer.writerow(next_row)
# Close the csv when done
outcsv.close()
def start_recording(self,frequency_in_hz):
# Create recording process
self._stop_value = multiprocessing.Value('i',0)
self._process = multiprocessing.Process(target=self._record_data,args=(frequency_in_hz,self._stop_value))
# Start recording process
self._process.start()
print(datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f"),"Data logging process spawned")
print("Logging Accelerometer:",self._log_accelerometer)
print("Logging Gyroscope:",self._log_gyroscope)
print("Logging Magnetometer:",self._log_magnetometer)
print("ID of data logging process: {}".format(self._process.pid))
def end_recording(self,terminate_wait = 2):
"""Function to end the recording multithread that's been spawned.
Args: terminate_wait: This is the time, in seconds, to wait after attempting to shut down the process before terminating it."""
# Get process id
id = self._process.pid
# Set stop event for process
self._stop_value.value = 1
self._process.join(terminate_wait) # Wait two seconds for the process to terminate
if self._process.is_alive(): # If it's still alive after waiting
self._process.terminate()
print(datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f"),"Process",id,"needed to be terminated.")
else:
print(datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f"),"Process",id,"successfully ended itself.")
====================================================================
ANSWER: For anyone following up here, it turns out the problem was my use of the VS Code debugger which apparently doesn't work with multiprocessing and was somehow preventing the success of the spawned process. Many thanks to Tomasz Swider below for helping me work through issues and, eventually, find my idiocy. The help was very deeply appreciated!!

I can see few thing wrong in your code:
First thing
stop_value == 0 will not work as the multiprocess.Value('i', 0) != 0, change that line to
while stop_value.value == 0
Second, you never update previous_read_time so it will write the readings as fast as it can, you will run out of disk quick
Third, try use time.sleep() the thing you are doing is called busy looping and it is bad, it is wasting CPU cycles needlessly.
Four, terminating with self._stop_value = 1 probably will not work there must be other way to set that value maybe self._stop_value.value = 1.
Well here is a pice of example code based on the code that you have provided that is working just fine:
import csv
import multiprocessing
import time
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from random import randint
class IMU(object):
#staticmethod
def read_accelerometer_values():
return dict(x=randint(0, 100), y=randint(0, 100), z=randint(0, 10))
class Foo(object):
def __init__(self, output_filename):
self._output_filename = output_filename
self._csv_headers = ['xxxx','y','z']
self._log_accelerometer = True
self.IMU = IMU()
def _record_data(self, frequency, stop_value):
#self._set_up() # Run setup functions for the data collection device and store it in the self.IMU variable
"""Record data function, which takes a recording frequency, in herz, as an input"""
previous_read_time = datetime.now() - timedelta(1, 0, 0)
self._run_underway = True # Note that a run is now going
Period = 1 / frequency # Period, in seconds, of a recording based on the input frequency
print("Writing output data to", self._output_filename)
with open(self._output_filename, 'w', newline='') as outcsv:
self._writer = csv.writer(outcsv)
self._writer.writerow(self._csv_headers) # Write headers to file
while stop_value.value == 0: # While a run continues
if datetime.now() - previous_read_time >= timedelta(0, 1,
0): # If we've waited a period, collect the data; otherwise keep looping
print("run underway value", self._run_underway)
if datetime.now() - previous_read_time >= timedelta(0, Period,
0): # If we've waited a period, collect the data; otherwise keep looping
next_row = []
if self._log_accelerometer:
# Get values in m/s^2
axes = self.IMU.read_accelerometer_values()
next_row += [axes['x'], axes['y'], axes['z']]
previous_read_time = datetime.now()
self._writer.writerow(next_row)
# Close the csv when done
outcsv.close()
def start_recording(self, frequency_in_hz):
# Create recording process
self._stop_value = multiprocessing.Value('i', 0)
self._process = multiprocessing.Process(target=self._record_data, args=(frequency_in_hz, self._stop_value))
# Start recording process
self._process.start()
print(datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f"), "Data logging process spawned")
print("ID of data logging process: {}".format(self._process.pid))
def end_recording(self, terminate_wait=2):
"""Function to end the recording multithread that's been spawned.
Args: terminate_wait: This is the time, in seconds, to wait after attempting to shut down the process before terminating it."""
# Get process id
id = self._process.pid
# Set stop event for process
self._stop_value.value = 1
self._process.join(terminate_wait) # Wait two seconds for the process to terminate
if self._process.is_alive(): # If it's still alive after waiting
self._process.terminate()
print(datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f"), "Process", id, "needed to be terminated.")
else:
print(datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f"), "Process", id, "successfully ended itself.")
if __name__ == '__main__':
foo = Foo('/tmp/foometer.csv')
foo.start_recording(20)
time.sleep(5)
print('Ending recording')
foo.end_recording()

Trying to control a GNUradio flow graph object

Good Day:
I am trying to write some python code to control a gnuradio block. To illustrate the issue I encountered, I have created a simple flowgraph consisting of an audio source connected to the sound card. There is a single gnuradio companion WX GUI element (a variable slider) to control the audio frequency. I tried to take the python code created by gnuradio companion and create an object within python, then create two threads. One thread starts the GNUradio object, the second thread queries the user to input a frequency, then queries the object's frequency and prints it to the terminal for confirmation.
When the code is run, the audio generator starts, the WX GUI slider is shown, and the terminal prompts the user to input a frequency. When the frequency is input via the terminal query, that number is echoed back as expected but the GNUradio block does not change its frequency. Changing the frequency via the WX GUI slider works as expected.
Obviously I'm not linking the variable to the GNUradio block correctly. The code is copied below, any assistance would be appreciated. Thank you.
-Ed
#!/usr/bin/env python2
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
##################################################
# GNU Radio Python Flow Graph
# Title: Top Block
# Generated: Wed Oct 4 06:04:54 2017
##################################################
if __name__ == '__main__':
import ctypes
import sys
if sys.platform.startswith('linux'):
try:
x11 = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary('libX11.so')
x11.XInitThreads()
except:
print "Warning: failed to XInitThreads()"
from gnuradio import analog
from gnuradio import audio
from gnuradio import eng_notation
from gnuradio import gr
from gnuradio.eng_option import eng_option
from gnuradio.filter import firdes
from gnuradio.wxgui import forms
from grc_gnuradio import wxgui as grc_wxgui
from optparse import OptionParser
import wx
import threading
from threading import Thread
class top_block(grc_wxgui.top_block_gui):
def __init__(self):
grc_wxgui.top_block_gui.__init__(self, title="Top Block")
_icon_path = "/usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/gnuradio-grc.png"
self.SetIcon(wx.Icon(_icon_path, wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ANY))
##################################################
# Variables
##################################################
self.samp_rate = samp_rate = 32000
self.freq = freq = 1000
##################################################
# Blocks
##################################################
_freq_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
self._freq_text_box = forms.text_box(
parent=self.GetWin(),
sizer=_freq_sizer,
value=self.freq,
callback=self.set_freq,
label="frequency",
converter=forms.float_converter(),
proportion=0,
)
self._freq_slider = forms.slider(
parent=self.GetWin(),
sizer=_freq_sizer,
value=self.freq,
callback=self.set_freq,
minimum=300,
maximum=5000,
num_steps=100,
style=wx.SL_HORIZONTAL,
cast=float,
proportion=1,
)
self.Add(_freq_sizer)
self.audio_sink_0 = audio.sink(samp_rate, "", True)
self.analog_sig_source_x_0 = analog.sig_source_f(samp_rate, analog.GR_COS_WAVE, freq, .25, 0)
##################################################
# Connections
##################################################
self.connect((self.analog_sig_source_x_0, 0), (self.audio_sink_0, 0))
def get_samp_rate(self):
return self.samp_rate
def set_samp_rate(self, samp_rate):
self.samp_rate = samp_rate
self.analog_sig_source_x_0.set_sampling_freq(self.samp_rate)
def get_freq(self):
return self.freq
def set_freq(self, freq):
self.freq = freq
self.analog_sig_source_x_0.set_frequency(self.freq)
self._freq_slider.set_value(self.freq)
self._freq_text_box.set_value(self.freq)
toneGen = top_block()
def runToneGen():
toneGen.Start(True)
toneGen.Wait()
def userInput():
while True:
freq = raw_input("Enter frequency: ")
toneGen.freq = freq
print "tone generator freq set to: ",toneGen.freq," Hz"
#initiate thread to query user for freq
uiThread = Thread(target=userInput, args=())
uiThread.start()
#initiate thread to run gnuradio block
gnuThread = Thread(target=runToneGen, args=())
gnuThread.start()

I believe I have found the answer to my own question. In the code sample above, in the 'userInput()' definition, I was trying to change the frequency of the tone generator block by directly setting the variable 'toneGen.freq'. This did not work. In order to correctly set the frequency the method 'set_freq' in the toneGen object must be used with this syntax:
toneGen.set_freq(int(freq))
this function call will correctly set the audio frequency of the generator and update the UI slider.

django time checker database

I am trying to create a thread function that allow me to check a database field in order to see if the time.now() is bigger than the one recorded in the database(postgresql); the problem is that the view.py where I am calling this, is blocked by this thread, this is my actual code:
PD: expire_pet is a text field, then I cast it to datetime.
import socket
import struct
from time import *
from datetime import datetime
from models import Zone
from multiprocessing import pool
import threading
class ControlHora(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self,zone_id):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.zone_id = zone_id
def run(self):
while(True):
zone_pet = Zone.objects.filter(id = self.zone_id)
for i in zone_pet:
if i.pet_state == True:
hour = datetime.datetime.strptime(i.expire_pet, '%I:%M')
if hour <= datetime.datetime.now():
Zone.objects.filter(id = self.zone_id).update(vitrasa_pet = False)
Zone.objects.filter(id = self.zone_id).update(esycsa_pet = False)
Zone.objects.filter(id = self.zone_id).update(pet_state = False)
Zone.objects.filter(id = self.zone_id).update(expire_pet='')
sleep(5)

It works, the problem was that I have been calling the run in the wrong place, thanks

Tkinter window not playing well with threads

I've got a program that will eventually receive data from an external source over serial, but I'm trying to develop the display-side first.
I've got this "main" module that has the simulated data send and receive. It updates a global that is used by a Matplotlib stripchart. All of this works.
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Name: BBQData
# Purpose: Gets the data from the Arduino, and runs the threads.
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
import time
import math
import random
from threading import Thread
import my_globals as bbq
import sys
import BBQStripChart as sc
import serial
import BBQControl as control
ser = serial.serial_for_url('loop://', timeout=10)
def simData():
newTime = time.time()
if not hasattr(simData, "lastUpdate"):
simData.lastUpdate = newTime # it doesn't exist yet, so initialize it
simData.firstTime = newTime # it doesn't exist yet, so initialize it
if newTime > simData.lastUpdate:
simData.lastUpdate = newTime
return (140 + 0.05*(simData.lastUpdate - simData.firstTime), \
145 + 0.022*(simData.lastUpdate - simData.firstTime), \
210 + random.randrange(-10, 10))
else:
return None
def serialDataPump():
testCtr = 0;
while not bbq.closing and testCtr<100:
newData = simData()
if newData != None:
reportStr = "D " + "".join(['{:3.0f} ' for x in newData]) + '\n'
reportStr = reportStr.format(*newData)
ser.write(bytes(reportStr, 'ascii'))
testCtr+=1
time.sleep(1)
bbq.closing = True
def serialDataRcv():
while not bbq.closing:
line = ser.readline()
rcvdTime = time.time()
temps = str(line, 'ascii').split(" ")
temps = temps[1:-1]
for j, x in enumerate(temps):
bbq.temps[j].append(float(x))
bbq.plotTimes.append(rcvdTime)
def main():
sendThread = Thread(target = serialDataPump)
receiveThread = Thread(target = serialDataRcv)
sendThread.start()
receiveThread.start()
# sc.runUI()
control.runControl() #blocks until user closes window
bbq.closing = True
time.sleep(2)
exit()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
## testSerMain()
However, I'd like to add a SEPARATE tkinter window that just has the most recent data on it, a close button, etc. I can get that window to come up, and show data initially, but none of the other threads run. (and nothing works when I try to run the window and the plot at the same time.)
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Name: BBQ Display/Control
# Purpose: displays current temp data, and control options
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
import tkinter as tk
import tkinter.font
import my_globals as bbq
import threading
fontSize = 78
class BBQControl(tk.Tk):
def __init__(self,parent):
tk.Tk.__init__(self,parent)
self.parent = parent
self.labelFont = tkinter.font.Font(family='Helvetica', size=int(fontSize*0.8))
self.dataFont = tkinter.font.Font(family='Helvetica', size=fontSize, weight = 'bold')
self.makeWindow()
def makeWindow(self):
self.grid()
btnClose = tk.Button(self,text=u"Close")
btnClose.grid(column=1,row=5)
lblFood = tk.Label(self,anchor=tk.CENTER, text="Food Temps", \
font = self.labelFont)
lblFood.grid(column=0,row=0)
lblPit = tk.Label(self,anchor=tk.CENTER, text="Pit Temps", \
font = self.labelFont)
lblPit.grid(column=1,row=0)
self.food1Temp = tk.StringVar()
lblFoodTemp1 = tk.Label(self,anchor=tk.E, \
textvariable=self.food1Temp, font = self.dataFont)
lblFoodTemp1.grid(column=0,row=1)
#spawn thread to update temps
updateThread = threading.Thread(target = self.updateLoop)
updateThread.start()
def updateLoop(self):
self.food1Temp.set(str(bbq.temps[1][-1]))
def runControl():
app = BBQControl(None)
app.title('BBQ Display')
app.after(0, app.updateLoop)
app.mainloop()
bbq.closing = True
if __name__ == '__main__':
runControl()

Your title sums up the problem nicely: Tkinter doesn't play well with threads. That's not a question, that's the answer.
You can only access tkinter widgets from the same thread that created the widgets. If you want to use threads, you'll need your non-gui threads to put data on a queue and have the gui thread poll the queue periodically.

One way of getting tkinter to play well with threads is to modify the library so all method calls run on a single thread. Two other questions deal with this same problem: Updating a TKinter GUI from a multiprocessing calculation and Python GUI is not responding while thread is executing. In turn, the given answers point to several modules that help to solve the problem you are facing. Whenever I work with tkinter, I always use the safetkinter module in case threads appear to be helpful in the program.