In that case I would suggest scripting the update (enabling you to check things before updating, activate with a boolean toggle etc). Attached a minimal working example of this:
170531_GHPython_Timer_00.gh (3.2 KB)
Edit: Just tried “baking” something downstream from the counter/update component, this appears to work as expected, but I suspect this could cause concurrency issues depending on the specific case:
170531_GHPython_Timer_01.gh (4.0 KB)