How to create a background threaded on interval function call in python?

I am trying to implement a heartbeat call that works in the background. How do I create a threaded on interval call of say every 30 seconds, which calls the following function:

self.mqConn.heartbeat_tick()

Also how would I stop this thread?

Many thanks.

Use a thread containing a loop

from threading import Thread
import time

def background_task():
    while not background_task.cancelled:
        self.mqConn.heartbeat_tick()
        time.sleep(30)
background_task.cancelled = False

t = Thread(target=background_task)
t.start()

background_task.cancelled = True

Alternatively, you could subclass timer, to make cancelling easy:

from threading import Timer

class RepeatingTimer(Timer):
    def run(self):
        while not self.finished.is_set():
            self.function(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
            self.finished.wait(self.interval)


t = RepeatingTimer(30.0, self.mqConn.heartbeat_tick)
t.start() # every 30 seconds, call heartbeat_tick

# later
t.cancel() # cancels execution