Reads data from a thread, plots it in another Process, with main process being free all the time ! Using PyQtGraph, python standard multiprocessing and multiprocessing.Queue

Plot.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from pyqtgraph.Qt import QtGui, QtCore
import numpy as np
import pyqtgraph as pg
from multiprocessing import Process, Manager, Queue
import sched, time, threading

# This function is responsible for displaying the data
# it is run in its own process to liberate main process
def display(name,q):
    app2 = QtGui.QApplication([])

    win2 = pg.GraphicsWindow(title="Basic plotting examples")
    win2.resize(1000,600)
    win2.setWindowTitle('pyqtgraph example: Plotting')
    p2 = win2.addPlot(title="Updating plot")
    curve = p2.plot(pen='y')

    x_np = []
    y_np = []

    def updateInProc(curve,q,x,y):
        item = q.get()
        x.append(item[0])
        y.append(item[1])
        curve.setData(x,y)

    timer = QtCore.QTimer()
    timer.timeout.connect(lambda: updateInProc(curve,q,x_np,y_np))
    timer.start(50)

    QtGui.QApplication.instance().exec_()

# This is function is responsible for reading some data (IO, serial port, etc)
# and forwarding it to the display
# it is run in a thread
def io(running,q):
    t = 0
    while running.is_set():
        s = np.sin(2 * np.pi * t)
        t += 0.01
        q.put([t,s])
        time.sleep(0.01)
    print("Done")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    q = Queue()
    # Event for stopping the IO thread
    run = threading.Event()
    run.set()

    # Run io function in a thread
    t = threading.Thread(target=io, args=(run,q))
    t.start()

    # Start display process
    p = Process(target=display, args=('bob',q))
    p.start()
    input("See ? Main process immediately free ! Type any key to quit.")
    run.clear()
    print("Waiting for scheduler thread to join...")
    t.join()
    print("Waiting for graph window process to join...")
    p.join()
    print("Process joined successfully. C YA !")

This works.!!! But I want to embed pyqtgraph in application and turn on and off the plotting. I wonder how will I be able to do this. Do you have any code to resemble the idea?

I was also having some issues getting this example to work, but managed to in the end by changing GraphicsWindow to GraphicsLayoutWidget, and app2 = QtGui.QApplication([]) to app2 = pg.mkQApp("Multiprocess plotter").

Nevertheless, when I tried adding a second process that was making data for a second curve, using the Queue got quite laggy.
Using an example I found that made a numpy array with shared memory, I was able to make a plotter which plots two curves, but the data it plots gets updated by two external processes.

Hope someone finds this useful.

import time
from multiprocessing import Process
from multiprocessing.managers import SharedMemoryManager
from multiprocessing.shared_memory import SharedMemory
from typing import Tuple

import numpy as np
from pyqtgraph.Qt import QtCore
import pyqtgraph as pg


def create_np_array_from_shared_mem(
    shared_mem: SharedMemory,
    shared_data_dtype: np.dtype,
    shared_data_shape: Tuple[int, ...],
) -> np.ndarray:
    arr = np.frombuffer(shared_mem.buf, dtype=shared_data_dtype)
    arr = arr.reshape(shared_data_shape)
    return arr


# This function is responsible for displaying the data
# it is run in its own process to liberate main process
def display(
    shared_mem: SharedMemory,
    shared_data_dtype: np.dtype,
    shared_data_shape: Tuple[int, ...],
):
    app = pg.mkQApp("Multiprocess plotter")

    arr = create_np_array_from_shared_mem(
        shared_mem, shared_data_dtype, shared_data_shape
    )

    win2 = pg.GraphicsLayoutWidget(title="Basic plotting examples")
    win2.resize(1000, 600)
    win2.setWindowTitle('pyqtgraph example: Plotting')
    p2 = win2.addPlot(title="Updating plot")
    curve1 = p2.plot(pen='y')
    curve2 = p2.plot(pen='b')

    def updateInProc():
        curve1.setData(arr[:, 0, 0], arr[:, 1, 0])
        curve2.setData(arr[:, 0, 1], arr[:, 1, 1])

    win2.show()
    timer = QtCore.QTimer()
    timer.timeout.connect(updateInProc)
    timer.start(50)
    pg.exec()


def make_data1(
    shared_mem: SharedMemory,
    shared_data_dtype: np.dtype,
    shared_data_shape: Tuple[int, ...],
):
    arr = create_np_array_from_shared_mem(
        shared_mem, shared_data_dtype, shared_data_shape
    )
    for i in range(1000):
        t = i / 100
        s = np.sin(2 * np.pi * t)
        arr[i, 0, 0] = t
        arr[i, 1, 0] = s
        time.sleep(0.01)
    print("Done")


def make_data2(
    shared_mem: SharedMemory,
    shared_data_dtype: np.dtype,
    shared_data_shape: Tuple[int, ...],
):
    arr = create_np_array_from_shared_mem(
        shared_mem, shared_data_dtype, shared_data_shape
    )
    for i in range(1000):
        t = i / 100
        s = np.sin(2 * np.pi * t + np.pi)
        arr[i, 0, 1] = t
        arr[i, 1, 1] = s
        time.sleep(0.01)
    print("Done")


if __name__ == '__main__':
    data_to_share = np.zeros((1000, 2, 2))

    SHARED_DATA_DTYPE = data_to_share.dtype
    SHARED_DATA_SHAPE = data_to_share.shape
    SHARED_DATA_NBYTES = data_to_share.nbytes

    with SharedMemoryManager() as smm:
        shared_mem = smm.SharedMemory(size=SHARED_DATA_NBYTES)

        writer1 = Process(
            target=make_data1, args=(shared_mem, SHARED_DATA_DTYPE, SHARED_DATA_SHAPE)
        )
        writer2 = Process(
            target=make_data2, args=(shared_mem, SHARED_DATA_DTYPE, SHARED_DATA_SHAPE)
        )
        reader = Process(
            target=display, args=(shared_mem, SHARED_DATA_DTYPE, SHARED_DATA_SHAPE)
        )
        writer1.start()
        writer2.start()
        reader.start()
        writer1.join()
        writer2.join()
        reader.join()