How to create a custom timer triggered iotedge function in python?

Question

My requirement is to gather data on my device every 5th minute. This resembles a function app which is triggered every 5th minute. My device has limited resources, and i wish to do this with Python.

I have tried something similar to this, which sleeps until clock is a multiple of 5.

from azure.iot.device.aio import IoTHubModuleClient
from azure.iot.device import Message
from six.moves import input
import asyncio
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
async def main():
    sample_interval = 5
    executionTime = datetime.utcnow()
    try:
        nextSample = executionTime + timedelta(minutes=5)
        secondsUntilSampleInterval = (nextSample - datetime.utcnow()).seconds

        while True:
            print("module is connected: " + str(module_client.connected))
            if not module_client.connected:
                await module_client.connect()
            
            await asyncio.gather(asyncio.sleep(secondsUntilSampleInterval), GatherData())
            secondsUntilSampleInterval = sample_interval*60
    except Exception as e:
        print("Unexpected error %s " % e)
        raise

However this does not meet my demands as it drifts over time.

I wish to have the GatherData function triggered when the clock is 10:00, 10:05, 10:10, ...

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the GatherData function is async.

Answer 1

We can use threading..

Import threading and use Timer function in executing our function for every 5 sec. Below is my test sample:

import threading

def runfor5sec():
  threading.Timer(5.0, runfor5sec).start() #5 is sec, convert 5 min into sec and replace.
  print("Completed 5 Sec")

runfor5sec()

In your case GatherData()

threading.Timer(5.0, GatherData).start() #5 is sec, convert 5 min into sec and 

Output: