Line 6 Helix.

[Dood]

15 hours ago, BigRedX said:

The cases look great but the sizes seem to be all wrong for what I need. Ideally I need something slightly wider and less deep than the XL version.

44cm is far more depth than I need for just the Helix, but I don't think enough extra to allow me to fit other stuff behind it with all the plugs and cabling. And 74cm isn't quite wide enough to fit the Adrenalinn next to the Helix unless I turn it sideways which I don't think my OCD will allow!

How much do I need to leave around the edges in order to be able to lift the pedal board out of the case easily?

You could ask FlightCase Warehouse to build to your exact specification of course. They do have that facility. Or, if you like to create on your own terms, then have a look at Thomann's Live Case Builder (or named something similar) where a graphical interface will allow you to see what the final design will look like with your choice of hardware. A bit more expensive but not the most expensive cases I have seen.

I found that actually I needed the 44cm depth because I mounted a 4 way power adaptor on the back of the board permanently so that I could leave LT plugged in as well as some USB power adaptors, rather than having to unplug those every gig. Also, with the added depth it meant that straight instrument cables were not hanging off the back of the board to get stood on. (My board lived inside the flight case all the time.) To lift the board out of my flight case, well, the FCW boards actually have a cutaway on one corner meaning that you can get your hand underneath to lift it out. However, I did leave about 2cm between the edge of my LT and the board perimeter to help with getting it in and out.

I also bought some of those really thick stick on foam/rubber feet usually for house furniture to put on the bottom of my board. It did lift the board up so LT was more level with the lip of the FCW case, but mainly to make it sit on the floor more evenly and not get too messed up underneath when playing on uneven surfaces.

[intime-nick]

Righto, here are the fixing plates for a Helix Floor - top & bottom views shown.  They are slightly thicker and a bit larger overall than the LT versions to cater for the fact that only 4 are used to fix the unit down instead of 6 on the LT.  100% fill, printed in ABS and use the existing screws that retain the rubber feet to attach to the Helix.  Use CSK wood screws to fix to the pedalboard.

Re. the sockets on the back, i've added a bit of extra length so you can rotate them away from any interfering sockets if needed but they should be OK lined up perpendicular to the front & rear edges of the Helix

One thing you could confirm before i print some to test - I am assuming the rubber feet on the Floor are the same as the LT - if you could measure the height of the rubber feet and the diamater of the fixing screw (it should be M3), that'd be helpful

 

EDIT : they don't have to be green !! (other colours are available)

Edited August 17, 2018 by intime-nick

[EBS_freak]

1 minute ago, intime-nick said:

Righto, here are the fixing plates for a Helix Floor - top & bottom views shown.  They are slightly thicker and a bit larger overall than the LT versions to cater for the fact that only 4 are used to fix the unit down instead of 6 on the LT.  100% fill, printed in ABS and use the existing screws that retain the rubber feet to attach to the Helix.  Use CSK wood screws to fix to the pedalboard.

Re. the sockets on the back, i've added a bit of extra length so you can rotate them away from any interfering sockets if needed but they should be OK lined up perpendicular to the front & rear edges of the Helix

One thing you could confirm before i print some to test - I am assuming the rubber feet on the Floor are the same as the LT - if you could measure the height of the rubber feet and the diamater of the fixing screw (it should be M3), that'd be helpful

Looking great.

Im sure Chad's face is that colour right now.

I'm sure you could do the same for the Kemper community...

[intime-nick]

if the Kemper foot controller has a similar arrangement of rubber feet on the bottom, no probs 🙂

[mrtcat]

6 hours ago, intime-nick said:

Righto, here are the fixing plates for a Helix Floor - top & bottom views shown.  They are slightly thicker and a bit larger overall than the LT versions to cater for the fact that only 4 are used to fix the unit down instead of 6 on the LT.  100% fill, printed in ABS and use the existing screws that retain the rubber feet to attach to the Helix.  Use CSK wood screws to fix to the pedalboard.

Re. the sockets on the back, i've added a bit of extra length so you can rotate them away from any interfering sockets if needed but they should be OK lined up perpendicular to the front & rear edges of the Helix

One thing you could confirm before i print some to test - I am assuming the rubber feet on the Floor are the same as the LT - if you could measure the height of the rubber feet and the diamater of the fixing screw (it should be M3), that'd be helpful

 

EDIT : they don't have to be green !! (other colours are available)

Looking great. Yes the feet are identical on both btw. There are six feet on the helix floor model but two are pretty close together near the middle so no use for a fixing. 

[BigRedX]

41 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Looking great. Yes the feet are identical on both btw. There are six feet on the helix floor model but two are pretty close together near the middle so no use for a fixing. 

AFAICS the other two feet are under the front of the expression pedal to give the Helix a bit of support at that point. And as mrtcat said they much too far from the edges to be any use for fixing the unit to a board.

@intime-nick the fixing plates look fantastic. How much are you going to be asking for a set?

[BigRedX]

8 hours ago, dood said:

You could ask FlightCase Warehouse to build to your exact specification of course. They do have that facility. Or, if you like to create on your own terms, then have a look at Thomann's Live Case Builder (or named something similar) where a graphical interface will allow you to see what the final design will look like with your choice of hardware. A bit more expensive but not the most expensive cases I have seen.

I found that actually I needed the 44cm depth because I mounted a 4 way power adaptor on the back of the board permanently so that I could leave LT plugged in as well as some USB power adaptors, rather than having to unplug those every gig. Also, with the added depth it meant that straight instrument cables were not hanging off the back of the board to get stood on. (My board lived inside the flight case all the time.) To lift the board out of my flight case, well, the FCW boards actually have a cutaway on one corner meaning that you can get your hand underneath to lift it out. However, I did leave about 2cm between the edge of my LT and the board perimeter to help with getting it in and out.

I also bought some of those really thick stick on foam/rubber feet usually for house furniture to put on the bottom of my board. It did lift the board up so LT was more level with the lip of the FCW case, but mainly to make it sit on the floor more evenly and not get too messed up underneath when playing on uneven surfaces.

I think what I'm going to do is cut a bit of board slightly smaller than the internal measurements of the XL case and see if I can work out a logical location for everything I need complete with all the relevant plugs. At the moment it's going to be the Helix, Linn Adrenalinn, two Sony wireless receivers, a 9V PSU, maybe a second expression pedal for the Helix, and mains distribution for everything. I can see I'm going to need right angle plugs for almost everything to get it all to fit. Can anyone recommend some good (preferably metal-bodied) right angle DIN plugs that can configured for cable exit in any direction?

[Dood]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I think what I'm going to do is cut a bit of board slightly smaller than the internal measurements of the XL case and see if I can work out a logical location for everything I need complete with all the relevant plugs. At the moment it's going to be the Helix, Linn Adrenalinn, two Sony wireless receivers, a 9V PSU, maybe a second expression pedal for the Helix, and mains distribution for everything. I can see I'm going to need right angle plugs for almost everything to get it all to fit. Can anyone recommend some good (preferably metal-bodied) right angle DIN plugs that can configured for cable exit in any direction?

Sounds like a good plan!

I haven't looked, but certainly I was able to buy some XLR Right angled jacks made by Neutrik that could be configured for exit direction. Hopefully they do the same for DIN connectors too!

[mrtcat]

12 hours ago, BigRedX said:

AFAICS the other two feet are under the front of the expression pedal to give the Helix a bit of support at that point.

@intime-nick

Yep, pretty sure you're right. Shouldn't be a problem to leave the feet on in the middle as the edge fixings look like they'll be thick enough to balance it out.

[BigRedX]

11 hours ago, dood said:

Sounds like a good plan!

I haven't looked, but certainly I was able to buy some XLR Right angled jacks made by Neutrik that could be configured for exit direction. Hopefully they do the same for DIN connectors too!

All the metal bodied DIN right angled DIN plugs I've seen are very chunky. I've had plastic bodied ones in the past that could be configured for up or down cable exit, but I thinkI'm going to need left and right exits for the Helix and Adrenalinn.

This is the problem with the original MIDI spec that allowed manufacturers to cut corners and use DIN connectors instead of the preferred XLRs. You have use cheap badly made plugs for can be the most critical connection on hi-tech equipment.

[intime-nick]

I'll print a set of the fixing plates for test - happy to send them out to @mrtcat (as he asked first) - let me know details via PM.  @BigRedX - if they work OK, I'm happy to make another set - they'll only be a few quid - I'll work out the cost later

[intime-nick]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

All the metal bodied DIN right angled DIN plugs I've seen are very chunky. I've had plastic bodied ones in the past that could be configured for up or down cable exit, but I thinkI'm going to need left and right exits for the Helix and Adrenalinn.

This is the problem with the original MIDI spec that allowed manufacturers to cut corners and use DIN connectors instead of the preferred XLRs. You have use cheap badly made plugs for can be the most critical connection on hi-tech equipment.

what about these Switchcraft ones - (they can be bought from lots of places online - this was just the first one i found)

http://www.actionhardware.co.uk/parts-online/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1420

Edited August 18, 2018 by intime-nick

[BigRedX]

2 hours ago, intime-nick said:

what about these Switchcraft ones - (they can be bought from lots of places online - this was just the first one i found)

http://www.actionhardware.co.uk/parts-online/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1420

Thanks!

It looks as though these can have the cable entry/exit point at any angle to the plug so that will be exactly what I need.

2 hours ago, intime-nick said:

I'll print a set of the fixing plates for test - happy to send them out to @mrtcat (as he asked first) - let me know details via PM.  @BigRedX - if they work OK, I'm happy to make another set - they'll only be a few quid - I'll work out the cost later

And thanks again.

[intime-nick]

No probs. Prototype mounting brackets have printed OK. @mrtcat, let me know where to post them via pm. 

[mrtcat]

3 hours ago, intime-nick said:

No probs. Prototype mounting brackets have printed OK. @mrtcat, let me know where to post them via pm. 

Fantastic stuff. Pm sent and I'll get pics of the mounted helix up as soon as fitted. 

[BigRedX]

A note to anyone who uses the computer editor for their Helix and not the controls on the unit itself, at some point in the last year Line6 changed the name of the editor program from "Helix" to "HX Edit". So when you download the latest version, it doesn't over-write the differently named older one, and if like me you've made a shortcut to the editor, using it will continue to bring up the wrong version which is missing a lot of the new functionality including the ability to assign parameters to the Snapshot functions.

I spent a very frustrating couple of hours at the weekend wondering why my version of the editor didn't correspond to the instructions in the "Pilot's Guide", and ended up downloading and applying all the components again (Updater, Firmware and Editor). This brought up the right (newer) version of the editor and suddenly everything seemed to make sense! However the next day when I called up the editor from my shortcut it had gone back to the old version! It wasn't until I spotted that I now had two versions of the editor and the shortcut was pointing at the old one that I realised what was going on. 

So check your Line6 folder in Applications and make sure you only have the most recent version of the editor program or you could be in for a nasty surprise!

[EBS_freak]

On 17/08/2018 at 14:07, intime-nick said:

if the Kemper foot controller has a similar arrangement of rubber feet on the bottom, no probs 🙂

It does - but I haven't got a pedal case at the moment. I can get you measurements if you want to hit the Kemper forums though.

[CameronJ]

Saw this on Facebook earlier - Rock&Roll killers are hard to kill!

*strong language alert*

 

[mrtcat]

intime-nick's smart mounting brackets have arrived. Absolutely no flex in the plastic and all the screw holes are the perfect size including a nice recess for the m3 foot screws to sit in allowing them the thread all the way in. They were really easy to fit with the rear brackets being long enough to avoid the various sockets on the rear to get in the way. There's also a good 4-5 mm of clearance underneath so the vent on the bottom is still able to breathe. Very very pleased with them. Massive thanks to intime-nick for taking the time and using his skills to make this happen. 

 

[intime-nick]

Good stuff, glad they have worked out well. @BigRedX, if you’d still like a set, PM me with your address and we’ll sort out details etc. 

[Dood]

I'm starting to think about downsizing from my Helix LT to HXFX. I'm starting to wonder if I really need all those bells and whistles for gigging?