have you tried somthing like

$minuits_to_wait = '5';
$last = my $last2 = 0;

while (1) {
    if ((time - $last) > 60 * $minuits_to_wait ) {
        $ret = sometypeof-ping-routine();
        if ($ret eq '1') {
            get_somthing();
        } elsif ($ret eq '0') {
            print "Not connected\n";
        }
    }
    
    sleep(60 * $minuits_to_wait);
}
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