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HelixScreen

Sonic Pad Install

End-to-end guide for the Creality Sonic Pad: install, update, and uninstall.

The Sonic Pad is a standalone 7” touchscreen that can run Klipper. It uses a 32-bit ARM userspace (armhf) despite having a 64-bit-capable processor (Allwinner H616).

Tested firmware: SonicPad-Debian only. This is the only Sonic Pad firmware HelixScreen has been tested on. It replaces Creality’s stock OpenWrt image with Debian 11 (bullseye), which is what gives the Pad a normal systemd + GNU userspace for HelixScreen to install into.

HelixScreen is not tested on Creality’s stock Sonic Pad firmware. The stock image is a heavily cut-down OpenWrt build, so the installer’s assumptions about systemd, package tooling, and archive utilities do not hold there. If you are on stock firmware, flash SonicPad-Debian first.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”

HelixScreen requires Klipper and Moonraker to already be installed and working on the Pad, typically via KIAUH or a similar tool. HelixScreen replaces whatever touchscreen UI you’re currently using (e.g., KlipperScreen).

  • Hardware:

    • Creality Sonic Pad (7” 1024x600 capacitive touchscreen)
    • Network connection (Ethernet)

  • Software:

    • SonicPad-Debian (Debian 11 bullseye): see the note above
    • Klipper and Moonraker installed and working (via KIAUH or similar)
    • SSH access (sonic@<pad-ip>)
    • About 100MB free disk space

Install

Section titled “Install”

The standard installer works on Sonic Pad:

Terminal window
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prestonbrown/helixscreen/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

What the Installer Does Here

Section titled “What the Installer Does Here”
  • Detects the Pad as a 32-bit ARM platform and downloads the pi32 release binary
  • Installs to ~/helixscreen/ and sets HelixScreen up as a systemd service
  • Stops and disables any competing touchscreen UI so it doesn’t fight over the display

Service Control and Logs

Section titled “Service Control and Logs”
Terminal window
sudo systemctl start helixscreen      # or stop / restart / status
sudo journalctl -u helixscreen -f     # follow logs

Updating

Section titled “Updating”

Use the bundled installer (no need to download it again):

Terminal window
~/helixscreen/install.sh --update

Add --version vX.Y.Z to pin a specific version. Check the current version with:

Terminal window
~/helixscreen/bin/helix-screen --version

Uninstalling

Section titled “Uninstalling”
Terminal window
cp ~/helixscreen/install.sh /tmp/install.sh && sh /tmp/install.sh --uninstall

This removes HelixScreen and restores your previous UI (e.g., KlipperScreen).

Quirks and Notes

Section titled “Quirks and Notes”
  • The Pad has a Goodix GT9xx touchscreen controller; the touch calibration wizard runs automatically on first boot if needed
  • Moonraker runs on localhost:7125 (the default), so the wizard’s connection step needs no changes
  • The display-sleep service is automatically stopped to prevent backlight conflicts
  • If the brightness slider or auto-dim do nothing, force Creality’s brightness helper with HELIX_BACKLIGHT_DEVICE=brightness in ~/helixscreen/config/helixscreen.env; see Troubleshooting

See Also

Section titled “See Also”