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Glitchy footswitches


jerhon
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I used my helix at a convention this weekend, I was having problems with the footswitches.  I press one down to activate or deactivate a block and it's almost like the footswitch press happened twice.  It will turn the block off and almost immediately turn it back on.  It does the same thing the other way around.  I push the button when a block is off, it will turn it on and then back off.  

 

It doesn't do it every time.  I've noticed it when practicing some, but it seems like it's getting worse.  It happened enough to me while I was playing it live this week to get worried about it.

 

Anyone else been running into this?

 

I'm running latest firmware, etc.  Rebuilt the patches, so on and so forth.

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I saw this when building patches... almost like pushing it hard caused the "double action"... was afraid it would happen at a gig, but last night (knock on wood), it did not happen... it seemed to me I was using a "lighter touch" with my foot at the gig and it seemed to be more consistent - lighter and kind of quicker.   

 

I wonder if the switches are just a bit too sensitive?

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I had a similar experience and finally entered a support ticket. This is a hardware issue that occurs occasionally and if you fill out a ticket, Line 6 will take good care of you-it’s a warranty repair. I sent my Helix in 7 days ago and they replaced all of the foot switches and according to UPS Tracking it will be delivered Monday! I got it in November ‘15 so the 2 year warranty was about to expire...but I have a feeling they would have covered it anyway. I continue to read stories of how Line 6 has gone above and beyond when it comes to customer service.

 

I waited a long time to fill out a ticket; I wasn’t sure what the problem was because it was so intermittent, and I thought I was doing something wrong when building presets...I had a few gigs that weren’t much fun because I hadn’t figured out what the problem was. I even got another Helix as a backup (I was going to do that anyway) but I’m happy with how things turned out. Fill out a support ticket, or call and talk to someone-they will get you squared away!

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  • 1 year later...

CONTACT CLEANER.

 

For anyone else coming across this in the future, I had this issue (flickering footswitch action, as the OP describes).  I took the cover off, found the small gap in the plastic casing around the footswitch where you can see the spring and the switch's contact points, and hit that with DeoxIT, and worked the switch for a few seconds.  Completely solved my problem.  Much like mixing consoles, these things are surrounded by dust/debris them night after night on stage, and as well engineered as the Helix is, sometimes crud gets on the contact points.  I went ahead and hit all the switches with DeoxIT while I had the cover off, just for good measure.

 

DISCLAIMER:  I am a touring pro musician, NOT an electronics expert or an authorized repair technician for Line 6.  I don't know what impact following my suggestion may have on your warranty, or if it will solve your issue.  I just happen to be big on finding solutions I can apply on my own.  Hope this might help someone down the road.

 

Cheers,

JT

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