Midi Library instance as member variable

[ndsizeif]

I have created a class for hardware devices and I would like to be able to assign
a specific Midi interface for each. Before setup in the main sketch I create 4 instances of the Midi library
to be used with 4 different device objects.

MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE(SoftwareSerial, softSerial1, MIDIA);  // device A
MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE(SoftwareSerial, softSerial2, MIDIB);  // device B
MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE(SoftwareSerial, softSerial3, MIDIC);  // device C
MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE(SoftwareSerial, softSerial4, MIDID);  // device D

In my class document I don't know the correct syntax to use in order to create a constructor than allows me to assign
one of the MIDI instances to the device object.

#include <MIDI.h>
#include "Arduino.h"
 
class HardwareDevice
{  
  public:
 
    String Name;
    int Channel;
    ???? Interface;
  
  HardwareDevice(String name, int channel, ???? interface) {
    this->Name = name;
    this->Channel = channel;
    this->Interface = interface;
 }

I did see a similar question in this issue thread, but the use case was
different enough to lead me off course. If anyone could point me in the right direction again,
I would appreciate it.

[lathoub]

Why create a wrapper class HardwareDevice?

MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE(SoftwareSerial, softSerial1, MIDIA);  // device A
MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE(SoftwareSerial, softSerial2, MIDIB);  // device B
MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE(SoftwareSerial, softSerial3, MIDIC);  // device C
MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE(SoftwareSerial, softSerial4, MIDID);  // device D

void setup() {
  ...
  MIDIA.begin(MIDI_CHANNEL_OMNI); // read from all channels
  MIDIB.begin(1); // read from channel 1
  MIDIC.begin(2); // read from channel 2
  MIDID.begin(3); // read from channel 3
  ...
}

void loop() {
  ...
  MIDIA.read()
  MIDIB.read()
  MIDIC.read()
  MIDID.read()

  MIDIA.sendNoteOff(42, 0, 1);
}

[ndsizeif]

Why create a wrapper class HardwareDevice?

Thank you for the reply.

My HardwareDevice class has a lot of functions which aren't midi-related at all, so I didn't include them in the example code.
Each HardwareDevice object can have other objects like leds/storage/displays assigned to it. In the way I can initialize those objects and then assign them to the device of my choosing, I was hoping to do the same with the Midi library. I just don't know the syntax for this.

My class doesn't use read() or sendNote() functions. I mainly use it for program change and system exclusive messages.

A rudimentary example using LED objects:

class hardwareDevice 
{
  String Name
  char Letter
  int LED
  int Channel
  String Description
  ???? MidiInterface

  hardwareDevice(String name, char letter, int led, int channel, String description, ???? interface) {
  
    this->Name = name;
    this->Letter = letter;
    this->LED = led;
    this->Channel = channel;
    this->Description = description;
    this->MidiInterface = interface;
  }

  void genericBlink() {
    digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
    delay(500);
    digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
  }
  void funkyBlink() {
     digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
     delay(100);
     digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
     delay(1500);
   }
  void changeChannel() {
    if (LED == HIGH) {
      Channel = 16:
    }
   else
      Channel = 1;  
   }
};

#define RLED 2
#define GLED 3
#define BLED 4

hardwareDevice Red = hardwareDevice("Red Machine, 'A', RLED, 2,  "This one is red and uses midi channel 2");
hardwareDevice Green = hardwareDevice("Green Box", "B", GLED, 4, "This one is green and uses midi channel 4");
hardwareDevice Blue = hardwareDevice("Blue Bureau", "C", BLED, 16, "This one is blue and uses midi channel 16");

setup() { 

  pinMode(RLED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(GLED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(BLED, OUTPUT);

}

loop() {

  Green.genericBlink();
  Blue.funkyBlink();
  Blue.changeChannel();
}

Thanks again for your help.

[lathoub]

you can create an instance in the hardwareDevice class and initialise in the constructor.

arduino_midi_library/src/serialMIDI.h

Lines 129 to 130 in d501f4b

	MIDI_NAMESPACE::SerialMIDI<Type> serial##Name(SerialPort);\
	MIDI_NAMESPACE::MidiInterface<MIDI_NAMESPACE::SerialMIDI<Type>, Settings> Name((MIDI_NAMESPACE::SerialMIDI<Type>&)serial##Name);

[ndsizeif]

Can you provide an example of the syntax for this?

I've tried many different ways to get the results i want. Using the way outlined in this thread,
currently I have a member function that calls MIDI_CREATE_INSTANCE()
but it requires 3 arguments and I only know the syntax to provide 2.