I've been using my Ernie Ball Jnr Volume pedal (passive) as an external expression pedal with my Helix for years. Now I've switched to the Stadium XL I found it intermittently worked until the more recent 1.2.1 firmware update, and now it doesn't work at all. For that reason, I believe the issue is connected to firmware, so I'm hoping there will be an fix in an upcoming version?
To confirm the pedal isn't at fault, I took my gear into the guitar shop I bought it from and confirmed it with their Stadium. Both boards work with other pedals (e.g. the Dunlop DVP pedals).