Tkinter: multiprocessing on events that happen per

Question

I have made a Tkinter program that reads from a modbus slave device. Every second it reads the device and displays the output onto labels. However, I have multiple tabs that run the same code for each device connected. While a device is being read, the whole GUI freezes so you can't move the program or press buttons until it is done reading. Would multiprocessing help with freezing? If so, how could I implement it?

Here is my code:

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk
from time import time
import minimalmodbus
import serial
minimalmodbus.CLOSE_PORT_AFTER_EACH_CALL = True

class Page(tk.Frame):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        tk.Frame.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
    def show(self):
        self.lift()

class Page1(Page):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
       Page.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)

       self.gas = minimalmodbus.Instrument('COM3', 1)
       self.gas.serial.baudrate = 9600
       self.gas.serial.bytesize = 8
       self.gas.serial.parity = serial.PARITY_NONE
       self.gas.serial.stopbits = 1
       self.gas.serial.timeout = 0.25
       self.gas.mode = minimalmodbus.MODE_RTU

       self.value_display = tk.Label(self, text='value', width=10)
       self.value_display.pack(side="top")

       self.unit_display = tk.Label(self, text='unit', width=10)
       self.unit_display.pack(side="top")

       self.gas_display = tk.Label(self, text='temp', width=10)
       self.gas_display.pack(side="top")

       self.status_display = tk.Label(self, text='status', width=10)
       self.status_display.pack(side="top")

       self.command_display = tk.Label(self, text='command', width=10)
       self.command_display.pack(side="top")

       self.pressure_display = tk.Label(self, text='pressure', width=10)
       self.pressure_display.pack(side="top")

       self.timer_button = tk.Button(self, text='Start', command=self.toggle)
       self.timer_display = tk.Label(self, text='00:00', width=10)
       self.timer_button.pack(side="top")
       self.timer_display.pack(side="top")
       self.paused = True

    def gas_meth(self):
        try:
            gas_value = self.gas.read_registers(0,42)

            self.value_display.config(text=gas_value[0])
            self.unit_display.config(text=gas_value[1])
            self.gas_display.config(text=gas_value[2])
            self.status_display.config(text=gas_value[3])
            self.command_display.config(text=gas_value[4])
            self.pressure_display.config(text=gas_value[5])

        except IOError:
            self.gas_display.config(text="Lost con.")
        except ValueError:
            self.gas_display.config(text="RTU error")
        self.gas_display.after(1000, self.gas_meth)

    def toggle(self):
        if self.paused:
            self.paused = False
            self.timer_button.config(text='Stop')
            self.oldtime = time()
            self.run_timer()
            self.gas_meth()
        else:
            self.paused = True
            self.oldtime = time()
            self.timer_button.config(text='Start')

    def run_timer(self):
        if self.paused:
            return
        delta = int(time() - self.oldtime)
        timestr = '{:02}:{:02}'.format(*divmod(delta, 60))
        self.timer_display.config(text=timestr)
        self.timer_display.after(500, self.run_timer)

class MainView(tk.Frame):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        tk.Frame.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
        p1 = Page1(self)

        buttonframe = tk.Frame(self)
        container = tk.Frame(self)
        buttonframe.pack(side="top", fill="x", expand=False)
        container.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)

        p1.place(in_=container, x=0, y=0, relwidth=1, relheight=1)
        b1 = tk.Button(buttonframe, text="Page 1", command=p1.lift)
        b1.pack(side="left")
        p1.show()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = tk.Tk()
    main = MainView(root)
    main.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
    root.wm_geometry("1000x600")
    root.mainloop()

Answer 1

The general idea is to put the code that reads from the sensors in a thread, and have that code communicate with the GUI thread via a queue.

Here's a real quick hack to demonstrate the technique:

import tkinter as tk
import threading
import queue
import random
import time

class Example(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.root = tk.Tk()
        self.sensor_vars = []

        self.root.grid_columnconfigure(1, weight=1)
        for row, i in enumerate(range(3)):
            var = tk.StringVar()
            self.sensor_vars.append(var)
            label = tk.Label(self.root, text="Sensor %d:" % i)
            value = tk.Label(self.root, textvariable=var, width=4)
            label.grid(row=row, column=0, sticky="e")
            value.grid(row=row, column=1, sticky="w")

        # create a queue for communication
        self.queue = queue.Queue()

        # create some sensors
        self.sensors = []
        for i in range(3):
            sensor = Sensor(self.queue, i)
            self.sensors.append(sensor)
            sensor.setName("Sensor %d" % i)

        # start polling the queue
        self.poll_queue()

    def start(self):
        # start the sensors
        for sensor in self.sensors:
            sensor.start()

        # start the GUI loop
        self.root.mainloop()

        # wait for the threads to finish
        for sensor in self.sensors:
            sensor.stop()
            sensor.join()

    def poll_queue(self):
        if not self.queue.empty():
            message = self.queue.get()
            index = message["index"]
            self.sensor_vars[index].set(message["value"])

        self.root.after(100, self.poll_queue)

class Sensor(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self, queue, index):
        threading.Thread.__init__(self)
        self.queue = queue
        self.index = index
        self.stop_requested = False

    def stop(self):
        self.stop_requested = True

    def run(self):
        for i in range(10):
            if self.stop_requested:
                break
            value = random.randint(10, 100)
            self.queue.put({"index": self.index, "value": value})
            time.sleep(1)



if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = Example()
    app.start()