Datastream buffers when the message request rate is faster than message receive rate

MAVLink
1

I’m trying to capture the live barometer data using pymavlink. To do this I have requested a message stream at 25hz from both the barometric sensor and cube system time.

def request_message_interval(self,message_id: int, frequency_hz: float):
     # This is done via command_long_send (sends a command with up to 7 paramaters (floats))
     self.conn.mav.command_long_send(self.conn.target_system, self.conn.target_component, mavutil.mavlink.MAV_CMD_SET_MESSAGE_INTERVAL, 0, message_id, 1e6 / frequency_hz, 0,0,0,0,0)

 # Retrieve BAROMETRIC data  (MESSAGE ID: #29)
 self.request_message_interval(mavutil.mavlink.MAVLINK_MSG_ID_SCALED_PRESSURE, 25)
 # Retrieve SYSTEM_TIME data  (MESSAGE ID: #2)
 self.request_message_interval(mavutil.mavlink.MAVLINK_MSG_ID_SYSTEM_TIME, 25)

I have noticed that if I set my loop to receive these messages at a rate slower than 25hz, my sensor readings lag behind.

 while(1):

     time_UX = self.conn.recv_match(type='SYSTEM_TIME', blocking=True, timeout=1)
     if time_UX is not None:
          time_UX = time_UX.to_dict()
          self.cubeTime = time_UX["time_boot_ms"]*1e-3 # divide by 1000, milliseconds to seconds

      else:
           pass


      baroData = self.conn.recv_match(type='SCALED_PRESSURE', blocking=True, timeout=1)
      if baroData is not None:
           baroData = baroData.to_dict()
           self.baro = baroData["press_abs"]*100.0
      else:
           pass
               
      print(f"telemetry data \t {iter_number} \t {self.threadTime - self.threadTime0:.2f} \t {self.cubeTime - self.cubeTime0:.2f} \t {self.baro:.2f}")

      time.sleep(5)

Output:

telemetry data   iter_number     thread_time     cube_time       barometer
telemetry data   0       0.42    0.00    102206.43
telemetry data   1       5.45    0.04    102206.73
telemetry data   2       10.46   0.08    102206.73
telemetry data   3       15.49   0.12    102206.73
telemetry data   4       20.50   0.16    102205.76

My understanding is that rather than returning the most recent barometric value, it is instead returning each message in the order that it was sent. How can I set it so that every 5 seconds, the most recent message is received instead.

I know I can fix this by matching the message interval with the receiving interval, but for my project, I don’t have a consistent receiving rate so I can’t rely on that.

Thanks.