PiZero W connected to two peripherals (GPIO and USB): how to continuously read from both at same time?

Question

I have a raspberry pizero W that is connected via GPIO pins to a flowmeter and USB to a barcode scanner. I have python script that uses a callback function to be alerted wh

Answer 1

Updated Answer

I have added some code for the barcode reader. I made it so that the barcode reader takes a variable amount of time, up to 5 seconds to take a reading and the flowmeter takes a constant 0.5 seconds so you can see that different threads are progressing at different rates independently of one another.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from threading import Lock
import threading
import time
from random import seed
from random import random

# Dummy function to read SPI as I don't have anything attached
def readSPI():
    # Take 0.5s to read
    time.sleep(0.5)
    readSPI.static += 1
    return readSPI.static
readSPI.static=0

class FlowMeter(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self):
        super(FlowMeter, self).__init__()
        # Create a mutex
        self.mutex = Lock()
        self.currentReading = 0

    def run(self):
        # Continuously read flowmeter and safely update self.currentReading
        while True:
            value = readSPI()
            self.mutex.acquire()
            self.currentReading = value
            self.mutex.release()

    def read(self):
        # Main calls this to get latest reading, we just grab it from internal variable
        self.mutex.acquire()
        value = self.currentReading
        self.mutex.release()
        return value

# Dummy function to read Barcode as I don't have anything attached
def readBarcode():
    # Take variable time, 0..5 seconds, to read
    time.sleep(random()*5)
    result = "BC" + str(int(random()*1000))
    return result

class BarcodeReader(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self):
        super(BarcodeReader, self).__init__()
        # Create a mutex
        self.mutex = Lock()
        self.currentReading = 0

    def run(self):
        # Continuously read barcode and safely update self.currentReading
        while True:
            value = readBarcode()
            self.mutex.acquire()
            self.currentReading = value
            self.mutex.release()

    def read(self):
        # Main calls this to get latest reading, we just grab it from internal variable
        self.mutex.acquire()
        value = self.currentReading
        self.mutex.release()
        return value

if __name__ == '__main__':

    # Generate repeatable random numbers
    seed(42)

    # Instantiate and start flow meter manager thread
    fmThread = FlowMeter()
    fmThread.daemon = True
    fmThread.start()

    # Instantiate and start barcode reader thread
    bcThread = BarcodeReader()
    bcThread.daemon = True
    bcThread.start()

    # Now you can do other things in main, but always get access to latest readings
    for i in range(20):
        fmReading = fmThread.read()
        bcReading = bcThread.read()
        print(f"Main: i = {i} FlowMeter reading = {fmReading}, Barcode={bcReading}")
        time.sleep(1)

Sample Output

Main: i = 0 FlowMeter reading = 0, Barcode=0
Main: i = 1 FlowMeter reading = 1, Barcode=0
Main: i = 2 FlowMeter reading = 3, Barcode=0
Main: i = 3 FlowMeter reading = 5, Barcode=0
Main: i = 4 FlowMeter reading = 7, Barcode=BC25
Main: i = 5 FlowMeter reading = 9, Barcode=BC223
Main: i = 6 FlowMeter reading = 11, Barcode=BC223
Main: i = 7 FlowMeter reading = 13, Barcode=BC223
Main: i = 8 FlowMeter reading = 15, Barcode=BC223
Main: i = 9 FlowMeter reading = 17, Barcode=BC676
Main: i = 10 FlowMeter reading = 19, Barcode=BC676
Main: i = 11 FlowMeter reading = 21, Barcode=BC676
Main: i = 12 FlowMeter reading = 23, Barcode=BC676
Main: i = 13 FlowMeter reading = 25, Barcode=BC86
Main: i = 14 FlowMeter reading = 27, Barcode=BC86
Main: i = 15 FlowMeter reading = 29, Barcode=BC29
Main: i = 16 FlowMeter reading = 31, Barcode=BC505
Main: i = 17 FlowMeter reading = 33, Barcode=BC198
Main: i = 18 FlowMeter reading = 35, Barcode=BC198
Main: i = 19 FlowMeter reading = 37, Barcode=BC198

Original Answer

I would suggest you look at systemd and systemctl to get your application started at every system startup - example here.

As regards monitoring two things at once, I would suggest you use Python's threading module. Here is a quick example, I create an object subclassed from threading that manages your flow meter by constantly reading it and holding the current value in a variable that the main program can read at any time. You could start another similar one that manages your bar code reader and run them I parallel. I didn't want to do that and confuse you with double the code.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from threading import Lock
import threading
import time

# Dummy function to read SPI as I don't have anything attached
def readSPI():
    readSPI.static += 1
    return readSPI.static
readSPI.static=0

class FlowMeter(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self):
        super(FlowMeter, self).__init__()
        # Create a mutex
        self.mutex = Lock()
        self.currentReading = 0

    def run(self):
        # Continuously read flowmeter and safely update self.currentReading
        while True:
            value = readSPI()
            self.mutex.acquire()
            self.currentReading = value
            self.mutex.release()
            time.sleep(0.01)

    def read(self):
        # Main calls this to get latest reading, we just grab it from internal variable
        self.mutex.acquire()
        value = self.currentReading
        self.mutex.release()
        return value

if __name__ == '__main__':

    # Instantiate and start flow meter manager thread
    fmThread = FlowMeter()
    fmThread.start()

    # Now you can do other things in main, but always get access to latest reading
    for i in range(100000):
        fmReading = fmThread.read()
        print(f"Main: i = {i} FlowMeter reading = {fmReading}")
        time.sleep(1)

You could look at using logging to coordinate and unify your debugging and logging messages - see here.

You could look at events to let other threads know something needs doing when something reaches a critical level - example here.