Hi Steve,
For solution 1, I can’t think of a way to tell when the APC would be ready to accept more MIDI messages. Are you thinking of using a timer (as shown below)? Else how would I know when it’s safe to send data to the APC?
(ga=0 when MT is launched)
In Translator 1) Start a timer in response to the a fader movement.
In Translator 2) If ga=0 Send an LED message back to APC, but block output if ga=1.
In Translator 2) Set ga=1 if ga=0 on entering translator.
When timer elapses reset the global (ga=0)
When the timer expires, reset the global to 0 – at which point, Translator 2 allows output.
I think the above would work, but I have a concern. As the fader moves through its entire range, it starts the timer for each increment of the fader… so 127 times. To be effective, the timer probably needs to have a period of at least 100ms. Wouldn’t that cause a major bottleneck?… 127 timers all running at the same time – or maybe many hundreds of timers when I move several faders at the same time. Or does the same timer merely get reset each time it is started if it’s already running?
As for using the bit mapping to represent more than one LED, I’ve looked into that, and, in fact I began to do that a while back, but it would have required a lot of re-writing, and I’m loathe to do it. Instead of doing it, I chose to use a 2nd instance of MT to take on some of the load, (and provide extra variables). Using the 2nd MT seems not to be a problem, since I encounter the problem eve when running only one instance.
Disabling and reenabling presets whose function is to send MIDI to the APC is an interesting twist on the previous strategy. I’ll see if I can test it successfully, but wouldn’t it pose the same problem as strategy 1? How would I know when it’s safe to receive MIDI again so I can start transmitting data to the APC?
As for Sysex, AKAI is notorious for not being helpful to people seeking more esoteric info, and there’s nothing in the tiny manual that defines sysex for the Mini.
Thanks,
Gabriel