Helix Firmware Updates and MIDI

[hal3001]

So for the last hour I've been trying to update to 2.21.  I thought I had the latest firmware but I guess I've just been using 2.20.  My first attempting completely failed with the Helix going black and the updater telling me that it was unable to complete the update after a few seconds of trying.  Having just updated to High Sierra I thought it was probably a driver security issue.  I doubled checked that and it was fine.   Also one thing to note, the Helix goes black on the failed update but I can just reboot it and it comes back fine (without a new firmware).  I decided to factory reset it in case there was a setting that I had changed that was causing an issue then tried again.  Same thing.  Black screen, failed update.  On a hunch, I I thought maybe Line 6 MIDI sysex messages for communicating with the device from the updater and editor and I do have a BeatBuddy coming into the Helix MIDI in and going out to an Infinity looper so I figured it couldn't hurt to disconnect those.  Sure enough, after disconnecting the MIDI connections the new firmware installed without issue.  Moral of the story, while I still have no idea if they are using MIDI sysex, make sure to disconnect anything that might be sending MIDI clock and or messages from your Helix before attempting a firmware update.  I'm sure that is somewhere in the manual or update notes and I probably just missed it.  Hopefully I can save someone else an hour or two of their time.

[jbuhajla]

Nice catch

[FlyingsCool]

I'm pretty sure they do say to disconnect everything when doing an update.

 

But it's nice to be reminded every so often of such stuff, thanks.