Android – loop part of the code every 5 seconds

Using a CountDownTimer as in one of the other answers is one way to do it. Another would be to use a Handler and the postDelayed method:

private boolean started = false;
private Handler handler = new Handler();

private Runnable runnable = new Runnable() {        
    @Override
    public void run() {
        final Random random = new Random();
        int i = random.nextInt(2 - 0 + 1) + 0;
        random_note.setImageResource(image[i]);
        if(started) {
            start();
        }
    }
};

public void stop() {
    started = false;
    handler.removeCallbacks(runnable);
}

public void start() {
    started = true;
    handler.postDelayed(runnable, 2000);        
}

Here’s an example using a Timer and a TimerTask:

private Timer timer;
private TimerTask timerTask = new TimerTask() {

    @Override
    public void run() {
        final Random random = new Random();
        int i = random.nextInt(2 - 0 + 1) + 0;
        random_note.setImageResource(image[i]);
    }
};

public void start() {
    if(timer != null) {
        return;
    }
    timer = new Timer();
    timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(timerTask, 0, 2000);
}

public void stop() {
    timer.cancel();
    timer = null;
}