Frequently Asked Questions

It keeps a database of electronic music hardware (synths, drum machines, samplers, audio interfaces, Eurorack modules, studio monitors, MIDI controllers) and the latest firmware version released by each manufacturer.

You sign in, build your personal rig, and we tell you when one of your devices gets a firmware update — no need to check 30 different brand websites every week.

For each tracked product we know the official firmware page on the manufacturer's website. We re-check those pages regularly and compare the version we detect with the one stored in the database.

When something changes, a human curator validates the new version (false positives are a real thing — release notes for an editor app aren't the same as the device firmware) and only then it's marked as a confirmed update.

Manufacturer websites only — official product pages, support pages, release notes pages. No forum scraping, no leaked info, no rumors. If a brand publishes it, we track it. If they don't, we don't make it up.

Used market prices come from Reverb's public Price Guide API.

No. FW//RADAR never stores, redistributes, or modifies firmware binaries or manuals. Every download link points to the manufacturer's official page — clicking it takes you straight there, and the manufacturer's server serves the file. We're a catalog of pointers, not a mirror.

Frequently enough that you won't be the last to know. Without going into specifics, the system runs continuously in the background and checks the entire catalog within a day or two. New releases are usually detected within hours of being published.

Yes. From your rig page, type the device name into the search bar. If we don't have it, you'll see a "Request new device" option. Pick the matching item from the Reverb suggestions (or force-add if Reverb doesn't know it).

Limit: 5 requests per user per day, to keep things sustainable.

Usually within 1–2 hours during normal hours. Behind the scenes, the curator picks up requests in batches, researches the device on the manufacturer's website, configures everything (firmware page, version, prices, tags), and adds it to the public database.

You'll see it appear in your rig automatically once it's been processed.

Two channels, you can enable one or both from the profile menu (or by clicking the Telegram / Email icons next to your name in the header):

• Telegram — connect your account once via a deep link. Fastest setup.
• Email — enter your address (pre-filled from your Google profile), confirm via a verification email, done.

When something updates, you get a daily digest around 11:00 CET with all the new firmware for devices in your rig. No digest is sent if nothing's pending, so you won't get empty emails.

Both channels are strictly opt-in. No marketing, no newsletters, no cross-posting — just firmware updates for your gear.

From your rig page, open the profile menu → Make rig public. A small modal lets you pick:

• Display name — the name visible on your public page (e.g. "My Studio"). Max 40 chars.
• Public URL — auto-generated from your display name (e.g. fwradar.com/u/my-studio), read-only. It follows the display name whenever you change it.
• Emoji — optional. Pick from the picker or paste your own.
• Blurb — optional, max 120 characters.
• Photos — optional, up to 5 photos of your studio or gear. Drag-and-drop on desktop to reorder; the first one is your "cover" and shows up as the card background on the browse and homepage lists.
• Show my rig total value — off by default. Tick it if you want the total value of your gear to appear on your public page.
• Rig is public — the master toggle. You can flip it off at any time and your page returns 404 immediately (nothing is deleted).

Once saved, a green button appears at the top of your rig ("Go to your public rig →") and your rig shows up in /browse-rigs. Admins may also feature a few rigs on the homepage.

You can upload up to 5 photos per rig from the same "Make rig public" modal. JPEG, PNG, HEIC and WebP are accepted; max 12 MB each.

What we do to your files:

• Resize down to 1600 px on the long edge and re-encode to WebP at quality 82 — keeps the photo sharp at any reasonable display size while drastically reducing the file size.
• Generate a 400 × 400 thumbnail for the browse list and the gallery thumb strip.
• Strip all EXIF metadata on upload. We do not keep, expose, or use camera model, GPS coordinates, capture date, or any other metadata your phone or camera might have embedded. The original file is discarded; only the resized WebP and thumbnail are stored.

The first photo is the cover — it's the one used as the card background on the homepage Featured Rigs and on /browse-rigs. You can change which photo is the cover by dragging it to first position in the upload widget (desktop only — mobile reorder coming soon).

Anything that's about your rig — the gear itself, your studio, your patch, your pedalboard, a close-up of an interface, a wide shot of the desk. Be creative.

What you may not upload:

• Photos that are not yours (no scraping product shots from manufacturer sites or other people's posts)
• Photos showing identifiable people without their consent
• Anything sexually explicit, hateful, harassing, or otherwise inappropriate
• Spam, advertising, watermarks pointing to other services, contact details, or external links

See the Terms of Service for the full list. Photos that violate this list will be hidden by moderation.

FW//RADAR uses an auto-takedown flow. The moment any signed-in user reports your photo, the photo is hidden immediately while we review it — this protects against abusive content staying up while moderation queues fill up.

An admin then reviews the report and one of three things happens:

• Restored — the report is dismissed (false alarm) and the photo becomes visible again. You will not see anything in your /my-reports for restored photos.
• Confirmed — the photo stays hidden. You'll see a "Photo hidden by moderation" entry in /my-reports with the reason.
• Deleted — for serious violations the photo is permanently removed (file unlinked from the server). The other photos in your rig are not affected.

Failsafe: if a report stays pending for more than 7 days without an admin reviewing it, the photo is automatically restored and the report auto-dismissed. This prevents bad-faith reports from being used as a denial-of-service tool against innocent users.

If you think a moderation decision was wrong, email us at [email protected] with the photo filename (visible in your My Reports message).

Yes. Re-open the "Make rig public" modal at any time. The photos you've uploaded show up there with a small ✕ button in the corner of each — click it to remove. Drag-and-drop on desktop to change the order; the first photo becomes the new cover. Changes take effect immediately on your public page.

Deleting a photo also removes the file from our server. There's no recovery — if you want it back later you'll need to re-upload it.

Public: your chosen alias, emoji, blurb, the list of devices in your rig, manufacturer pills, tag pills, and (optionally) the total rig value in the currency the visitor picks.

Private — never shown: your email address, your Google profile name, your Google ID, your Telegram link, your specific installed firmware versions, your custom device prices, any reports you've filed.

You can hide the rig total value from the same modal. Your rig is indexed by search engines only if you have the public toggle on; flipping it off returns 404 instantly.

Yes. Just change your display name and the URL auto-regenerates (e.g. "My Studio" → my-studio, then "Warm Granulars" → warm-granulars). There's no cooldown. Note that the old URL stops working the moment you save — if you shared it somewhere, the link breaks.

Go to /my-reports (also linked in the profile menu). You see every report you've filed, its current status, the curator's reply (if any), and whether a follow-up from you is still allowed.

You can add one follow-up reply per report after a curator has reviewed it — this reopens the report for the curator. After that single round, the report is closed. If you need to say more, file a new report.

When a curator replies: you get an immediate Telegram DM (if linked), and one email per day at 09:00 CEST with all the updates across your reports (if email notifications are on). Nothing is sent on days with no activity.

Every email we send has a one-click Unsubscribe link in the footer. No login needed, click once and you're out. You can also disable email notifications from the profile menu on fwradar.com at any time.

Unsubscribing keeps your account and your rig intact — it just turns off the delivery. You can re-enable email notifications later whenever you want.

Reverb doesn't have a price guide for every item — small boutique brands, very new releases, and Eurorack modules often aren't covered. Prices update periodically and may take a while to appear.

Things change. Manufacturers redesign websites, products get discontinued, firmware download links move. If you spot something off — wrong version, dead link, missing manual, wrong manufacturer name — click "Report issue" on the product page. The curator reviews reports daily and fixes the database.

No firmware: the device is pure hardware (analog signal path, no microcontroller, or no user-updatable firmware). There's nothing to track for updates — it just works as designed. You can still add it to your rig for inventory and price tracking.

Discontinued: the manufacturer has stopped releasing firmware updates. The last known version is still shown for reference.

Yes. Free, no subscription, no premium tier, no ads. We do accept voluntary tips via Buy Me a Coffee to help cover the running costs (VPS hosting, domain). Tipping doesn't unlock anything — you get the same service either way.

Because we need a stable identity to associate your rig and your Telegram link with. Google OAuth means we don't store passwords (we never see them) and no spam: your email is used internally only, never shared, never used for marketing.

See the Privacy Policy for full detail.

Yes, anytime. Open the profile menu → Delete account. The deletion is immediate and permanent: all your data (rig, settings, Telegram link, history) is wiped from the database. GDPR Article 17 compliant.