# Crontab - fire every 5 seconds?
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/crontab-fire-every-5-seconds/99157
**Category:** General
**Created:** [25 September 2025 02:05 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/crontab-fire-every-5-seconds/99157 "2025-09-25T02:05:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@craigcurtin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/craigcurtin)
#### Post date: [25 September 2025 02:05 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/crontab-fire-every-5-seconds/99157/1 "2025-09-25T02:05:47Z")
Guys,
I want to fire a job every 5 seconds on the minute - i.e. 1:01 am + 5 Sec etc - not just 5 seconds after it first starts (get data from my Inverter) - i figured this would be easy with crontab but alas can not seem to find it.
Any ideas or alternate trigger nodes
I only want this to fire after sunrise and finish at sunset - but i figure i will use the within-time node to direct that
Craig
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### Author:  [@bakman2](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/bakman2)
#### Post date: [25 September 2025 05:21 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/crontab-fire-every-5-seconds/99157/2 "2025-09-25T05:21:49Z")
You could use the cron-plus node + a time-range-switch node.
Cron expression: `*/5 * * * * *` (does not work in 'normal' linux cron, but should work with the cron-plus node)
This will fire every 5 seconds on the minute and you could pass it on a time-range-switch that can check if it is between sunrise/set.
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### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [25 September 2025 07:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/crontab-fire-every-5-seconds/99157/3 "2025-09-25T07:11:12Z")
Or fire on every minute then a 5 second delay node
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### Author:  [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [25 September 2025 08:44 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/crontab-fire-every-5-seconds/99157/4 "2025-09-25T08:44:51Z")
> [@craigcurtin](#):
>
> I want to fire a job every 5 seconds on the minute - i.e. 1:01 am + 5 Sec etc - not just 5 seconds after it first starts (get data from my Inverter) - i figured this would be easy with crontab but alas can not seem to find it.
Do you mean every 5 secs past a minute (e.g. `00:00:05`, `00:01:05`, `00:02:05`, ...)
Or do you mean every 5s every minute (on the 5s mark) (e.g. `00:00:00`, `00:00:05`, `00:00:10`, ...)
Or do you mean 5s past the minute and every 5 of that minute (e.g. `00:00:05`, `00:00:10` --\> `00:00:55`, `00:01:05`, `00:01:10`, ...)
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### Author:  [@craigcurtin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/craigcurtin)
#### Post date: [25 September 2025 21:36 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/crontab-fire-every-5-seconds/99157/5 "2025-09-25T21:36:22Z")
> [@Steve-Mcl](#):
>
> Or do you mean 5s past the minute and every 5 of that minute (e.g. `00:00:05`, `00:00:10` --\> `00:00:55`, `00:01:05`, `00:01:10`, ...)
Yep so we hit 5 seconds past midnight and i want it to start and then keep firing every 5 seconds (forever)
I can then use other nodes to filter that as to between what hours (Sunrise and Sunset) i want it to actually make the modbus call
Thanks for the examples looks like it will do exactly what i want.
regards
Craig
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [9 October 2025 21:36 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/crontab-fire-every-5-seconds/99157/6 "2025-10-09T21:36:27Z")
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