Help & About
Tap the About row at the bottom of the Settings panel to open the About overlay. This sub-overlay shows system information, update management, and HelixScreen branding.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| HelixScreen Logo & Branding | HelixScreen logo, “by Preston Brown”, copyright notice, and a scrolling contributor marquee |
| Printer Name | The name of your connected printer (set during setup wizard) |
| Current Version | Your installed HelixScreen version |
| Update Channel | Stable or Beta; Dev is added when beta features are enabled |
| Check for Updates | Check for and install new versions (on Android, the install step opens the Play Store listing or the GitHub release page, depending on where the app came from) |
| Klipper | Installed Klipper version (fetched from Moonraker) |
| Moonraker | Installed Moonraker version |
| OS | Operating system version |
| Print Hours | Total print hours tracked — tap to open the History Dashboard |
| Open Source Licenses | View licenses for all open source libraries used by HelixScreen |
Checking for Updates
Section titled “Checking for Updates”Tap Check for Updates to look for a newer release on your selected update channel. If one is available, an update dialog walks you through installing it. You’ll see the following stages:
- Update Available — Shows the new version. Tap Install to begin, or Cancel to dismiss.
- Downloading… — A progress bar tracks the download. You can still Cancel at this point. The dialog closes straight away, but the download itself keeps running quietly in the background until the current transfer finishes; the partly-downloaded file is then thrown away. If you start another update before that has happened, you’ll get an Update Failed screen reading “Previous download still finishing” — wait a few seconds and tap Retry.
- Verifying… — HelixScreen checks the downloaded file before installing.
- Installing… — The new version is written into place. Do not power off your printer while this is in progress.
- Update installed! — Confirmation that the new version is in place.
- Hang on, we’ll be right back! — HelixScreen restarts itself to run the new version.
Steps 5 and 6 are each shown only for a moment: the install is already finished by then, and the short pause exists so you can see that it succeeded before the app exits and comes back.
If something goes wrong, an Update Failed screen appears with a Retry button so you can try again, or Close to dismiss.
Caution: Once installation begins, leave the printer powered on until HelixScreen restarts on its own. Interrupting an install can leave HelixScreen in an inconsistent state.
On Android, the install step opens the Play Store listing if you installed from Google Play. Otherwise it opens the GitHub release page, where you download the new APK and install it over the old one.
Easter Eggs
Section titled “Easter Eggs”- Tap the Printer Name row seven times to launch a hidden Snake game
- Tap the Current Version row seven times to toggle beta features — works like Android’s “tap build number” developer mode
Enabling Beta Features
Section titled “Enabling Beta Features”Tap the Current Version row seven times in Settings → About to toggle beta features.
When beta features are enabled:
- Update Channel selector gains a third entry, Dev
- Additional items appear in the Advanced panel (Macro Browser, Timelapse, etc.)
- Plugins section appears in Settings
- Tap seven more times to disable
Update Channels
Section titled “Update Channels”| Channel | Description |
|---|---|
| Stable | Recommended. Tested releases only. |
| Beta | Preview builds with new features. May have rough edges. |
| Dev | Development builds. Appears only with beta features enabled, and requires a dev_url configured under the update section of your config file. |
Note: Selecting the Dev channel without a
dev_urlset in your configuration shows a “Dev channel requires dev_url in config” message and won’t check for updates. Dev builds are intended for HelixScreen contributors — most users should stay on Stable or Beta.