stoo

The main downside for bass use compared with the Stomp is that there's no parallel paths... so if you want to use any effects that don't have a wet/dry mix parameter then there doesn't seem to be any obvious way to get any uneffected signal mixed back in. There's a few other limitations compared to the Helix range, but not much in the way of showstoppers... https://line6.com/support/topic/53806-pod-go-faq/

It's all the current helix models with three effects omitted.... Tone Sovereign (King of Tone - although the Heir Apparent/Prince of Tone is still in), Clawthorn Drive (Wounded Paw Battering Ram), and Cosmos Echo (Roland Space Echo)

If it's a capacitative touchscreen then your feet shouldn't be picked up as a press unless you're barefoot. If it's a resistive touchscreen then it'll likely feel decidedly less than premium to use, and I presume they'll be aiming at a price point where that could be a bad call...

You can do it either way - you can go : <effects + amp blocks> ---> <FX Send block> ---> <Cab block> ---> <Main L/R> which will send your pre-cab sim sound out of the FX loop send, and your cab sim tone out of the Main Output Or if you are low on spare blocks you can drag the cab block down to the second path, and then drag the merge block down below the Main L/R output, and a Send L/R output will appear. This will flip things compared to the previous example though - now your cab sim tone will be going out of the FX Send, and the pre-cab sim tone will be going out the Main L/R Both achieve the same thing, but which you'll need will depend on if you are already using split path elsewhere, or if you don't have enough spare blocks to waste one on a Send block

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/helix-2-9.2053030/page-34 https://www.facebook.com/groups/145604946038429/?ref=group_browse https://line6.com/support/topic/53831-helix-29/ https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?posts/29853091/

Apparently the effects loop not taking up a block part was wrong.... 8 blocks is still on though (spare DSP permitting, obvs)

Got this via PM, but may as well reply here in case it's of use to anyone else Hiya, The way I did it has data going both ways between Nextion and Arduino... I wanted to setup the Nextion so that I didn't need to upload a new HMI file whenever I wanted to change the footswitch functions - I have the USB from the Arduino accessible from the back of my controller, but to reflash the Nextion, I would need to remove it from the unit. So... the Arduino looks up which page it's currently set to, and then updates the labels on the Nextion to match. Each of the footswitch labels is 2x NexText covered by 1x NexHotspot so I could have 2 lines of text acting as one button. If you only need one line of text, then a NexButton is simpler... and I used those for the Page Up / Page Down buttons. The functions (on the Arduino) attached to each of these buttons look up which action they need to trigger depending on -footswitch# -current menu page# -press type (short/long/double) and then sends that action to the MIDI port. It's probably a bit of a clumsy implementation but it seems to work pretty well. If you want to look through my code and see what I've done, it's all up at https://github.com/stoonoon/hxsMidiSwitchTouch - I haven't commented it as thoroughly as I did for the earlier version, but hopefully it'll be of use... happy to answer questions if I can. Cheers, Stoo

Have also heard that the Stomp is going up to 8 blocks, with effects loop no longer taking a block, but that won't be until 3.0 Haven't seen anything official confirming that yet, but it's been mentioned in a few places.... hopefully the vid of the presentation will be up at some point and we'll know for sure...

Just seen this on Jon willis' facebook page.... will be interesting to see how the metering side of things is implemented... tis deffo something I've been keen to see in it for a while....

The bridge on that is sometimes referred to as a 'trans' bridge, so maybe that's where the confusion comes from - but yeah it'd point to early 90's http://www.musicmanbass.global/bridges-pre-eb-eb/

I tend to use http://dshowmusic.com/line-6-helix-amp-models/ and http://dshowmusic.com/line-6-helix-effect-models/ as my go to reference - they seem to keep them updated and a bookmark in my browser is usually easier to find than trying to remember where I've saved a spreadsheet https://helixhelp.com/models/ is another useful one too

Nice one!

Yeah pretty much... there's a 500mA polyfuse on the USB input, and the Nextion recommends a 500mA supply. I've not measured what it actually draws from the Mega, but my USB ammeter shows 90mA draw with just the Mega, going up to 200mA draw with the Nextion hanging off it as well..... so I'm not particularly worried. The AMS1117 reg is supposed to be good for 1A out, so even more to play with when running via 9V... although I suppose as I'm using the barrel jack instead of Vin then the diode will steal some of that....

You had me worried for a minute there.... It looks like it works.... What am I missing!?! Is it about to blow up?! Hehe...

I'm extending the Mega's USB and barrel jacks to the rear panel so it can either run from a USB charger or power bank, or a pedal power supply into the barrel jack... Mega can cope with 7-12V input so I'm expecting it to be OK.... although I haven't actually tested it yet.... Maybe I should..... Okay - now I've tested it... Brief moment of panic when nothing fired up using the PSU from one of my Zoom pedals... tried another one.... nothing.... then checked the polarity. D'oh! Bodged up a polarity crossover cable to test and it works just fine. Luckily I wasn't planning on having the Megas own USB port + power jack exposed anyway, so will be easy to sort when I make the cable between the Mega and the enclosure back panel.

For my first go at it, I followed through his tutorial - https://nextion.ca/portfolio-items/nextion-iteadlib-and-mega-step-by-step/ which covered enough of the basics to adapt into whatever I needed. I tend to prefer text guides over videos for the step-by-step stuff though. https://github.com/itead/ITEADLIB_Arduino_Nextion/tree/master/examples was handy too.. If you're using a Nano rather than a Mega you'll have to bear in mind that the Serial situation will be different - presumably you'd need to set up a softwareserial instance, or have a quick way of disconnecting the nextion screen serial from the TX/RX pins while you're uploading sketches. Also not sure if a nano can power the screen directly... the Mega has enough spare juice that it's OK to hook it to the 5v pin, but I suspect the power circuitry in a nano is a bit different...

Yeah - It's a big improvement over the 0.96"OLED, that's for sure... thanks again for the tipoff! Although with the tiny OLED at least there was no danger I'd put my foot through it! Slowly getting there......

Another thing I'm thinking of using the expression pedal for on mine is for dialling in settings.... for any parameter(s) I want to tweak, I can just assign it/them to the pedal, move it as I play until I like what I hear and then apply those values permanently....

You could get away with very little soldering, but I don't think you could avoid it totally... For what you're describing, you wouldn't need to make a circuit board - you could just get a screw terminal IO shield for the Arduino - something like this one - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LOMZCSW That said, the footswitches and MIDI socket are very unlikely to come with wires already attached, and you'll also need to find a way to get the resistor connected between your Arduino 5V output and the MIDI socket 5V input... Soldering wires to the tags on the footswitches and MIDI socket is about as easy as it gets for soldering - poke the wire through the hole, bend the wire at the tag so it holds itself in place, rest the solder on the bare wire and then melt it with the iron. The resistor is a little more tricky as you end up needing 4 hands to hold the wire, the resistor, the solder and the iron. You can get a gadget to make that easier - the one I've got is this one - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-633830-Helping-Magnifying-Workpiece/dp/B000O3RJFC/ref=sr_1_5?crid=AO13L9JCRYXD&keywords=helping+hand&qid=1575844763&sprefix=helping+ha%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-5 It's not great, but not much point spending more if this is likely to be a one off project. One possible alternative to the soldering iron might be solder seal heatshrink connectors... I've not used them personally, but saw them used in a youtube vid a while back. You'd still need a hot air gun or mini gas torch though.... (I presume you wouldn't be able to just use a fag lighter like you can with normal heatshrink?) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Connectors-Waterproof-Connector-Electrical-Retardant/dp/B07QZZM4GQ/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?keywords=solder+heat+shrink&qid=1575844168&sr=8-3-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzNVRRRlBSSU5JUjRDJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjMyNTc1RUM3SVNQMUxKTTJSJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAyNjk5OTYxNUxITkwzM1M2Wk01JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== I think they'd be fine for the resistor, but might not work for the footswitch / midi socket tags. You could trim one end of the heatshrink down a bit so the solder is near the end and then slide that over the tag (assuming it'd fit) but whether it would shrink enough to seal a flat tag well.... I just don't know. You can definitely use a normal 9V pedal power supply instead of USB if you prefer.... Just add a suitable socket to the VIN and GND pins on the Arduino and it'll run off anything between 7 and 12V DC. I've been using these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00O9YT6MG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and they seem to work OK.... Again, needs soldering though. One possible alternative I've just thought of would be to use a larger format arduino like a Uno which can accept shield adaptors... Something like this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ocamo-Musical-Breakout-Instrument-Interface/dp/B07Z7LJ3K4/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=arduino%2Bmidi%2Bshield&qid=1575846038&sr=8-7&th=1 would piggyback on top of the Arduino Uno and save you some work. As an added bonus, the Uno comes with a DC power socket already on the board so you'd pretty much just be soldering the footswitch wires... aaah no hang on... just seen in the description of that MIDI shield that it comes with the MIDI connectors unsoldered. Bummer!

Looks like a v2 update is in the works... It's still a fair way off being done but the basic functionality is getting there. The main differences from the last one are most obviously the Nextion touchscreen (as recommended by @EBS_freak ) and expression pedal input. Currently all you can do on the touchscreen is scroll between a few different pages of predefined footswitch configs, but I'm planning to make it programmable from the touchscreen and able to save changes to onboard EEPROM too. The "expression pedal" is an old crybaby wah with an adaptor harness connected between the existing circuit board and the pot & toeswitch connector, so I can just use a TRS plug into the existing Input jack. It's not ideal - the wah doesn't use a linear pot like an expression pedal would - but with a bit of software compensation it's plenty good enough for testing. I could stick a linear pot and a momentary switch in it - (or pay Mission Engineering £150 for one already done ) but I'd rather keep an eye out for a cheap broken wah or empty chassis than sacrifice a working one for the cause. This'll do for now though. I was thinking I'd need an output from this into the expression jack input on the HX stomp, but it seems that EXP over MIDI works well enough that I can't see the point. As an added bonus, I've got it set so that the pedal transmits on both EXP1 and EXP2... so if I were to add a volume and a wah block to the Stomp, their default configs mean the toe switch flips between wah and volume without having to set any controller assigns on the Stomp. The other main difference between this and V1 is also down to the expression pedal.... The default controller for block bypass on wah/volume blocks on the Stomp is FS5... and I was previously using FS4 & FS5 for Preset Up & Down as there is no MIDI CC to do this. You could use a PC if you knew which preset you were in beforehand - but I don't have a way do get that info from the Stomp to the Arduino. So now I've had to add the ability to do command chains - if I send Footswitch mode ->Scroll / FS1 or FS2 / Footswitch mode -> Stomp then I can get Preset up/down functionality without needing to dedicate FS4/5 to it. More control options! Yay! I've also ended up using a bigger Arduino board for this one.... I think it might be possible to squeeze it onto the Nano, but I'd have to rework the code to use SoftwareSerial for either the MIDI out or the touchscreen, as well as lots of memory optimisation - I'm already using nearly 3kb and the nano only has 2kb available. I suspect this would be easy enough if I move all the fixed text strings into progmem, but I'm not going to worry about it for now. I've got a spare Mega available, there's going to plenty of space for it in the controller housing, and it makes the development process a bit easier.

Working on that at the moment.....

It's entirely possible I've misremembered, or missed some crucial detail somewhere... I've done a bit of googling and can't seem to find it again, so presumably it's not a massive issue if it's not on every HPF FAQ on the internet!

I read somewhere that in certain cases that HPFs can cause issues where the reduction in cone travel means the heat generated is concentrated around one part of the voice coil and could potentially cause damage if it overheats. Not sure how hard you need to be pushing things for this to be a realistic cause for concern, but probably worth looking into if you're putting a sizeable amount of power through your cabs....?

I think for that to function with the single footswitch requirement, you'd need to dedicate one of the footswitches to Snapshot Up in the global settings, which might prove to be a pain if you wanted to use 3 footswitches in a more conventional manner in any other presets. Can't think of any other way to do it though...

When you're doing this, are you using a TRS to stereo TS adaptor of some sort? If you stick a mono TS plug into the send jack then it will presumably get a summed Send L+ Send R mix, which would explain what you were experiencing....