Invoking multiple instances of SoftwareSerial in an array

Projects Programming
1

I am trying to use an Arduino Mega as a multiplexer for serial communication between PC and multiple 'slave' Arduinos.

For this I need 12 instances of SoftwareSerial running. I can create them in the normal fashion:

SoftwareSerial Serial01 (10, 8);
SoftwareSerial Serial02 (11, 9);
.....

But it would be very helpful if i could address them as an array. Something like

SoftwareSerial MySerial[0] (10, 8);
SoftwareSerial MySerial[1] (11, 9);

But that doesn't seem to want to work. I'm not a C++ programmer and things that go beyond what can be found in the examples are a beyond my current grasp. Any hints would be appreciated.

2

You can create an array of SoftwareSerial instances, but, before getting into how, are you aware that you can only have one instance listening at a time? Whatever comes in on the other 11 pins will be lost.

3

I'm aware of the problem with just one instance listening at a time. The project is using a simple challenge-response protocol, so I won't have any problems with slaves just starting to talk.

4 
#include "SoftwareSerial.h"

SoftwareSerial Stuff[4] = {SoftwareSerial(2,3),
                           SoftwareSerial(4,5),
                           SoftwareSerial(6,7),
                           SoftwareSerial(7,8)};
                          
void setup() {}
void loop() {}

Don't forget that only some pins can be used. I don't think that there are 24 of them that can be used.

5

Great - that seems to work.
And the pin limitation is on the RX pin only and there's 16 available for that, so we should be OK.

Thanks!

6

PaulS:

#include "SoftwareSerial.h"

SoftwareSerial Stuff[4] = {SoftwareSerial(2,3),
                          SoftwareSerial(4,5),
                          SoftwareSerial(6,7),
                          SoftwareSerial(7,8)};
                         
void setup() {}
void loop() {}




Don't forget that only some pins can be used. I don't think that there are 24 of them that can be used.

Sorry mate, I know it has passed time from this post, but do you think is it possible to do the same for example in SevSeg.h library?
here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwrp4uluZCpNdE9oWTY0M3BncTA/edit

My purpose is to switch between 8 long placed displays (no simultaneous displays, only once at time), and should be great to handle this with a loop like:

#include <SevSeg.h>
SevSeg sevseg[8]={sevseg1, sevseg2, sevseg3......sevseg8};
void setup(){
for(byte i=0;i<8;i++){
sevseg[i].begin(1,d4[i],d3[i],d2[i],d1[i],seg[1],seg[2],seg[3],seg[3],seg[4],seg[5],seg[6],seg[7],seg[8]); //in case of d4 d3 d2 d1 and seg arrays declared
sevseg[i].Brightness(80);
}
}
void loop (){

//incase of some multiple incoming bytes
for(byte i=0;i<8;i++){
seveg[i].NewNum(int(incomingByte[i]),0);
sevseg[i].PrintOut();
}
}

That would be easy to handle, no?
Thanks in advance

7

I am not sure,
I have been reading other libraries like LED, and I am going to try this:

SevSeg sevseg[8]={SevSeg(),SevSeg(),SevSeg(),SevSeg(),SevSeg(),SevSeg(),SevSeg(),SevSeg()};

hope there won't be collision...
At least compilator doesn't complain......at the moment XD