[Discuss-gnuradio] Problems passing the control between blocks - message passing

[Jose Torres Diaz]

Hi All, 

I'm working with 2 blocks that I've created using "UHD_AMsg_Source" as a reference model. In these blocks, I am passing pmt_dict type as messages, ie:

 this->post_msg(0, AMSG_KEY, dictionary,_id);

Where, dictionary contains data/metadata that I can read in the next block downstream.

BLOCK 1  -- (pmt_dict included in the message) -->  BLOCK 2

The blocks are working ok, but the problem is that when I want to generate several packets and post them downstream, BLOCK 1 runs until finishes and then BLOCK 2 takes the control until finishes. The problem is the "return" sentence in my work function. I did 2 possible ways

Option 1: Using -1

work {
//work here
return -1
}
 
In this way BLOCK 1 stops working after one iteration and it does not run as many times as I want.

Option 1: Not using return

work {
//work here
}

In this way BLOCK 1 runs many times and posts messages downstream all those times, but it gives the control to BLOCK 2 when it finishes. Then, BLOCK 2 takes the messages from the message queue. However, this implementation is not useful for me. BLOCK 1 should post a message downstream and then, BLOCK 2 takes the message and work with the packet.

Any suggestion is welcome, thanks a lot for your time, 

Regards, 

Jose