Please use email to reach us for product support or troubleshooting: info [at] system80 [dot] net. We cannot handle support inquiries via social media.
POWER
System80 modules require standard dual rail Eurorack power of +12.0 V and −12.0 V with a voltage tolerance of better than 1.5% (±180 mV).
We recommend using professionally designed, high quality power supplies with plenty of current overhead along with good quality power distribution (bus boards). Overloaded power supplies can have unpredictable effects on system performance. Poor distribution can result in interference between modules.
We do not recommend off-the-shelf AC-DC switching power supplies (Mean Well RT-65B, for example) as they have poor ripple and noise specifications and their voltage tolerances mean they can can operate well below the 12.0 V Eurorack power standard.
NOISE AND DISTORTION
By far the most common support request we get is related to gain staging. If you are experiencing excessive noise, distortion, signal bleed, or interference in the audio signal path, check your gain staging. Proper gain staging is essential to maintain an optimal signal-to-noise ratio in your audio path without distortion (although distortion may be a desirable side effect ). When patching it is easy to lose track of how your audio signals are being attenuated and amplified as they move through your system. As a general rule, avoid attenuating and then amplifying.
OPEN SOURCE
System80 modules are released under a non-commercial open source license. The main intention of the open source license is to document our products for future repair and modification as well as allowing synth DIY enthusiasts to build their own. The non-commercial clause is intended to prevent people from selling our designs or their derivatives on marketplaces like eBay, Tindie, Reverb, etc. At the moment only JOVE is well documented and intended for DIY builds. We have licensed PCBs and panels to be sold by Pusherman and Modular Addict. The rest of the modules have their designs available on Github, but are not currently well-documented, so consider them ‘for information purposes only’. When a project is sufficiently documented to allow a DIY build it will say so explicitly on the project’s Git page.
Finally, I occasionally get service requests for DIY JOVEs that are malfunctioning. Factory produced System80 JOVEs have a black metal panel with grey and orange print. The vast majority of DIY JOVEs have a black and gold PCB or aluminium panel. If you’ve bought a black and gold JOVE, it is a DIY version that is not covered by the System80 warranty.