richsg

I have been using the Van Damme Ethercon Cat 5e cable for the past couple of years for my rack with no issues at all.

I had exactly the same issue when using my external expression pedals with my helix rack. I was using TS cables to connect my two Boss FV-500 pedals. It would initially work but then would start going down to 95/96%, then would just drop to 60%. I would also had to invert the polarity. I eventually fixed this by using a TRS to TS cable. Solder the the tip to tip and shield to shield but leave out the ring on the TRS side. TS goes to helix TRS goes to pedal. If you are connecting when the helix is on, make sure you connect the cable to the pedal first then to helix and it will self calibrate. I now have perfect 100% every time and I don't have to invert the polarity.

Do you use a different device for your main audio interface? When I did the update it changed my helix to my default audio device and wouldn't let me connect to hx edit, once I disabled the helix and put my focusrite audio interfce back to default the helix connected to hx edit just fine with no issues.

I have had issues in the past on earlier firmware freezing on the update. I found it was the usb input on the computer that was causing the problem. When I used usb 2.0 it had the problem, when using usb 3.0 it was fine. I am using Helix rack and control and pc running windows 10. I've just done the 2.8 update and it was actually the quickest update I have ever had and no issues at all.

I have had an issue with external pedals when plugging into my rack controller. The percentages vary and can cause an issue with the controller sometimes sticking and not changing presets. When I plugged the pedals directly into the rack, everything works fine which led me to question if there was a power issue aswell, with not enough power getting through the rack controller ethernet cable to recognise the external pedals? I'm not too sure if it would affect them but have been thinking of getting a power adaptor for the controller to see if the extra power helps. I usually use two external pedals, when i once tried three the controller froze and wouldn't do anything.

If you have the Helix rack, you could just connect a cable from the buffered guitar thru socket on the rear to the input of your tuner. This way the tuner would always be available and you won't have to roll back to 2.53. This is how I have mine set up with a Korg DTR-1.

I thought I was looking at my own rig when I saw your post!! Almost the same apart from the Rocktron!