Communication between multiple threads that run at different frequencies

EvheMary

Thanks for all the replies, i created a dummy demo of what my application is (I combine some codes from stacks). Unfortunately, there are some errors such as:

'QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread

This happens when i tried to start a new worker after stopping the previous one, o when i closed the app
Here is the code:

import sys
from PySide2.QtCore import *
from PySide2.QtWidgets import *

class Inlet_Worker(QObject):

    data = Signal(int)

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self._stopped = False
        self._registered = False
        self.timer = QTimer(self)
        self.timer.timeout.connect(self.routine)
        self.c = 0

    def starter(self):
        self.timer.start(1000)

    '''
    def run(self):
        count = 0
        self._stopped = False
        while not self._stopped:
            #if client.read_coils(address = 0x0802).bits[0]:
            count += 1
            if count % 20 == 0 and not self._registered:
                self.updateBarcodeRegistration(True)
                self.timer.start(2000)
            QCoreApplication.processEvents()
            QThread.msleep(100)
        self.updateBarcodeRegistration(False)
        self.timer.stop()
        print('Stopped')
    '''

    def routine(self):
        print(self.c)
        self.data.emit(self.c)
        self.c += 1

    def stop(self):
        self.timer.stop()
        print('stopped')


class Window(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.dlg = Dialog()
        self.thread = QThread()
        self.button = QPushButton('Start')
        self.button2 = QPushButton('Stop')
        self.button3 = QPushButton('Window')
        layout = QHBoxLayout(self)
        layout.addWidget(self.button)
        layout.addWidget(self.button2)
        layout.addWidget(self.button3)
        self.button.clicked.connect(self.startThr)
        self.button2.clicked.connect(self.stopThr)
        self.button3.clicked.connect(self.showDlg)

    def showDlg(self):
        if not self.dlg.isVisible():
            self.dlg.show()
    
    def startThr(self):
        self.worker = Inlet_Worker()
        self.worker.moveToThread(self.thread)
        self.worker.data.connect(self.dlg.update)
        self.thread.started.connect(self.worker.starter)
        self.thread.start()

    def stopThr(self):
        self.worker.stop()
        self.thread.terminate()
        self.thread.wait()

    def closeEvent(self, event):
        self.worker.stop()
        self.thread.quit()
        self.thread.wait()

class Dialog(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.text1 = QLabel("Label 1 : ")
        self.text2 = QLabel("Text2")
        layout = QHBoxLayout(self)
        layout.addWidget(self.text1)
        layout.addWidget(self.text2)
        self.setGeometry(400, 100, 100, 50)

    def update(self, sig):
        self.text2.setText(str(sig))

    def closeEvent(self, event):
        pass

if __name__ == '__main__':

    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    window = Window()
    window.setGeometry(750, 100, 200, 50)
    window.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Can you explain why is this happening? Thanks in advance.

Axel Spoerl

The timer is living in one thread and its stop() slot is called directly from another thread.
Don't want the neighbor entering my flat without ringing the door bell, just to turn the music louder (or lower) - right?

I am not a python guru, but something like
QMetaObject.invokeMethod(self.timer, 'stop', Qt.QueuedConnection)
should do what self.timer.stop()doesn't when the timer lives elswhere.
QueuedConnectiondoesn't wait for the timer to be stopped. You can use other connection types if required.

EvheMary

Thanks a lot for the solution. It fixed the error. It seems I misunderstood what a Qtimer is. QTimer might also be a threading interface, hence why I can't just call its start and stop methods. I'm just still confused about why I need this method to stop the timer, but I can do it directly for the start method?
And is QMetaObject works similarly with what a signal is?

jsulm

@EvheMary said in Communication between multiple threads that run at different frequencies:

QTimer might also be a threading interface

What does this mean? QTimer is just a timer and has nothing to do with threads.
"why I can't just call its start and stop" - because QTimer is not thread safe (only reentrant as documentation states), so you should not call its methods from other threads than the thread where the QTimer instance is living.

JonB

@EvheMary
@Axel-Spoerl may well know more than I, but I have never had to use QMetaObject.invokeMethod(). Fine if that's good/safe/the right to do this/works for you. But my first thought would have been to send a signal from wherever to the thread which the thread has a slot on and does its own self.timer.stop() when received, if that is what you are trying to achieve. Am I wrong?

Axel Spoerl

my first thought would have been to send a signal

As usual, @JonB , your (first) thoughts are excellent!
QMetaObject.invokeMethod() spares the definition of a signal, especially when you call a void slot without arguments, like QTimer::stop(). It can also be quite handy if you call it with the BlockingConnection argument, in which case you can block'n'wait for a return value :-)

JonB

@Axel-Spoerl
Totally respect your answer. I have seen mentions of QMetaObject.invokeMethod() on the web, but I know it's used in "advanced" situations (including a lot from Python/PyQt/PySide, probably understandably) so haven't touched it! I can tell that from the 'stop' argument being a literal string it's going to look up the method to call by name ("reflection"), like the old SIGNAL/SLOT() macros approach did; so being more a C++ purist I would tend to avoid that, preferring compile-time safety/argument checking etc.

Axel Spoerl

@JonB
Totally fair point! A kitten dies, each time you resolve a symbol with a string search at run time....in Python.
There are more invokeMethod() overloads for the C++ lovers from 6.4 onward.

JonB

@Axel-Spoerl said in Communication between multiple threads that run at different frequencies:

A kitten dies, each time you resolve a symbol with a string search at run time....in Python.

:)

EvheMary

Thanks for all these comments. I might not fully understand since I'm still a beginner in qt, so sorry if I mentioned something wrong. I thought that since I use a signal to communicate with the Qtimer thread it should be safe. And I should be calling the stop method from the thread that it was created. Is my implementation of the signals and slot not correct?
my understanding of using the signal and slot is :
UI Thread --> send signal --> stop method (slot) at another thread --> QTimer stop

JonB

@EvheMary
You call self.worker.stop() (which calls self.timer.stop()) directly from the UI thread.

EvheMary

@JonB But if i call self.worker.stop() that calls self.timer.stop() from the UI Thread, the error QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread appears and that's what I want to know what causes it and how to remove it. If i change self.timer.stop() with QMetaObject.invokeMethod(self.timer, 'stop', Qt.AutoConnection) the error don't appear.

jsulm

@EvheMary said in Communication between multiple threads that run at different frequencies:

that's what I want to know what causes it

Your worker object lives in another thread. So, if you call self.worker.stop() in UI thread stop() will be executed in UI thread and it will also call self.timer.stop() in UI thread. But self.timer also lives in the worker thread, so you get that warning (QTimer is not thread safe).
To avoid this you should NOT call self.worker.stop() directly from the UI thread but instead either use invokeMethod() or connect self.worker.stop() to a signal in your UI and emit this signal to stop the worker.

EvheMary

@jsulm Yes. Thanks for the answer. Now I know that calling method in another thread from the UI thread is not good. But I don't know why when I connect a signal from UI Thread to the self.worker.stop(), the error persists. It will only be gone when I use invokeMethod() instead of self.timer.stop(), which leads to why I suspect QTimer to be another threading interface (because I need to send another signal to the timer itself).

jsulm

@EvheMary said in Communication between multiple threads that run at different frequencies:

But I don't know why when I connect a signal from UI Thread to the self.worker.stop()

Can you show how you did the connection?

Axel Spoerl

Adding to @jsulm :

what causes it

Theoretically, two different threads could call the QTimer's stop()method at the same time. Or, even worse, one of them calls start().
The warning is triggered, if a slot is called from a thread different from the timer's living environment.
Emitting a signal or calling invokeMethod() makes sure that concurrent calls are properly serialized, posted into the timer's event loop and executed within the timer's thread. Such behaviour is not QTimerspecific. It applies to most Qt classes, check this for more information.

JonB

@EvheMary said in Communication between multiple threads that run at different frequencies:

@JonB But if i call self.worker.stop() that calls self.timer.stop() from the UI Thread, the error QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread appears and that's what I want to know what causes it and how to remove it.

That is precisely what I explained: you call self.timer.stop() from the UI Thread, that is not the thread where the timer lives, hence the explicit error message telling you what is wrong.

But I don't know why when I connect a signal from UI Thread to the self.worker.stop(), the error persists.

As @jsulm said, show your connect() statement for this.

EvheMary

I actually updated my code since i also asks similar question in stacks overflow (though still without solution). I'll show the important parts only:

class Window(QWidget):

    startSig = Signal()
    stopSig = Signal()

    def __init__(self):
                self.button.clicked.connect(self.startThr)
                self.button2.clicked.connect(self.stopThr)    # I called the stop method (for the UI Thread) here
                self.button3.clicked.connect(self.showDlg)

    def startThr(self):
                if self.thread is None or not self.thread.isRunning():
                self.thread = QThread()
                self.worker = Inlet_Worker()
                self.worker.moveToThread(self.thread)
                self.worker.data.connect(self.dlg.update)
                self.worker.tabs.connect(self.switch_tab)
                self.stopSig.connect(self.worker.stop)    # I connect the signal here
                self.worker.finish.connect(self.finished)
                self.thread.started.connect(self.worker.starter)
                self.thread.start()

    def stopThr(self):
            self.stopSig.emit()    # Emit stop signal

And here is the thread

class Inlet_Worker(QObject):

    data = Signal(int)
    tabs = Signal(int)
    finish = Signal()

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self._stopped = False
        self._registered = False
        self.init_timers()
        self.c = 0
        self.d = 0

    def init_timers(self):
        self.timer1 = QTimer(self)
        self.timer1.timeout.connect(self.routine)
        self.timer2 = QTimer(self)
        self.timer2.timeout.connect(self.routine2)

    def starter(self):
        self.timer1.start(1000)
        self.timer2.start(2000)

    def routine(self):
        self.data.emit(self.c)
        self.c += 1
        
    def routine2(self):
        self.tabs.emit(self.d)
        self.d += 1

    @Slot()
    def stop(self):
        self.timer1.stop()
        self.timer2.stop()
        print('stopped')
        self.finish.emit()

The stop method in UI Thread emit signal
I connect the signal to the self.timer.stop() in the thread
I can upload the full code if necessary.

jsulm

@EvheMary said in Communication between multiple threads that run at different frequencies:

self.stopSig.connect(self.worker.stop)

Maybe you need explicetly define Qt::QueuedConnection (in C++ it is default for connections across threads).

EvheMary

@jsulm Oh wow, this also works. Unfortunately, I have already marked the previous answer as the solution but this works too. It seems that the default type for connect in pyqt is Qt.AutoConnection. Do you mind explaining why this happens when using AutoConnection while it works with queuedConnection?