Helix Latest Software

This page describes bug fixes and new features as they are released.

There will be improvements to the software since your Helix was manufactured so its a good idea to do a Web Upgrade (in the Extra menu) once your Helix is attached to Wifi. The upgrade takes about a minute.

You can find the date of the software on your Helix on the settings tab of the web UI or app.

If you notice any bugs or have ideas for new features please email on thebrennanb2@gmail or post on the forum

12th March 2025

This release is available through the Trial Upgrade mechanism. It has the following changes

  • Better support for Mesh routers - the Wifi setup process now displays the signal level of each access point (wiress router or mesh repeater). For mesh owners that will allow you to pick the device with the best signal. Helix will subsequently reconnect to that device.
  • Fix for crash caused by a CD in a 100 CD collection. This fixes the crash but discards the musicbrainz metadata when it is too big so you may not get a match in these rare circumstances.
  • Better styling of the Helix idle screen

11th March 2025

This upgrade adds a new menu item to the Extras item. Trial Upgrade will install experimental or beta software that has new features. If the trial software misbehaves you can revert by doing a regular software upgrade.

12th February 2025

This upgrade adds an "experimental" shuffle function following requests from owners. Strictly speaking there is insufficient internal memory in Helix to implement a true shuffle function on the SD card so we opted to play tracks at random. That sounds the same but it isn't. Shuffle will only repeat a track once everything else has been played whereas random could play the same track again. The bigger your music collection the less likely you will notice.

Shuffle on the CD is a true shuffle because there are at most 99 tracks.

You turn shuffle on/off using a new item on the main menu.

But the best way to use it though is simply to press next when Helix is not playing and a Sonos zone is selected. Helix will then play 20 random tracks to Sonos.

There are likely to be some things that don't quite work as you would like. Let me know by email or on the forum.

 

24th October 2024

Updated release for the problem caused by the recent outage at the Cover Art website - though it looks like the site is back up today

17th October 2024

This release for Helix fixes a problem caused by the recent outage at the Cover Art website

12th February 2024

  • Swap Left & Right on 3.5mm jack
  • Play Left+Right on Mono DAC Helix (as opposed to Right only)
  • Modify test tone generator (factory use only) to play higher pitch on Right

3rd January 2024

  • Fix playback of last few seconds of a CD to Sonos. It was stopping early.
  • Fix compatibility with WAV files generated on B2/B3

8th December 2023

  • Better ripping of scratched CDs. Now rips all the tracks it can and displays a summary - rather than giving up at the first bad track
  • Fix a problem with NEXT introduced in the snippet fix below

27th November 2023

  • Remove snippets of old track played when new track started
  • Improve behaviour after playing last SD wav file on card.
  • Adjust wav track lengths to match CD track

23rd November 2023

This provisional update allows ripping and play to a Sonos speaker. Previously starting a rip would force selection of "Wired". This function uses a lot of CPU bandwidth let is know of any problems and we can mitigate.

16th November 2023

  • Display invalid SD format with a red icon
  • Add an SD format function to the Extra menu
  • Fix problem cause by breaks in Wifi - Sonos OK but web UI stopped
  • Fix problem caused by unusual subcode on some CDs - very occasionally a CD would fail to play or rip.
  • Streamline the volume control so there is less delay