I do have the dongle!! I don't understand the external source for the floppy, when there is a slot in the machine.

Just re-read this. Are you thinking you can use the external drive with the machine rather than the computer ? The Designer 1 does not have the ability to read external drives.
Not sure if you read my answers to your other message. There was a similar thread from "lakeacres' in July 2014 where she was able to get the floppy disk drive to work by cleaning it:

"by lakeacres 15 Jul 2014


+6
Well we chose to purchase and run a floppy disk cleaner through my sewing machine and it seems to be working. Yippee. I will say that if I was to choose which new cheaper machine I would have purchased it would have been the Brother machine. But since the old one is now working and does a wonderful job at embroidery I think that I will stay with it for a while I am kind of bummed that I am not getting something new though. Oh well."

3 comments

by SewOften 27 Sep 2016

I don't know what is going to happen. The external will plug into my laptop and MAYBE read the HV floppy's. It doesn't need cleaned.....it looks brand new based on an internal inspection. The plan maybe to reformat the disks with the appropriate format, I really just don't know.

by sewist1 27 Sep 2016

You can't tell if the heads have a build up by looking inside the slot (they become oxidised). Trying the disk cleaner is an inexpensive way to find out if it is as simple as needing a clean or whether the drive has gone bad. They still whirr as if they will read even when there is a problem - had that happen in an older computer. Remember the Designer 1 first came out in 1998 in the US. That makes for a very old floppy disk drive.

by sewist1 27 Sep 2016

It appears the disks you have (as per your other thread) are for the Designer 1 and would have come with the machine when new therefore would be in the correct format. I have those disks and when I put them in the machine it reads them and I can load whichever design I want to the machine.

When you have original Husqvarna disks you just stick them in the slot in the machine and choose the design you want.
If you have downloaded designs from the internet, or digitised some yourself, you have to write them to a diskette. That's where the floppy drives comes in.
The software manuals tell you exactly how to do it. You need vip to start with. Put a diskette in the slot. Go to accessories, reader/writer, format the diskette, open it and add the designs of your choice (vip format) and when you click the save to icon the lot is automatically converted to shv and loaded on the floppy, ready to be used in your machine.

2 comments

by mops 26 Sep 2016

I bought my D1 in 1998 and my daughter still uses it, as I do when I visit her. She mostly uses the software for lettering and has me digitise whatever else she wants, which I email and she writes it to a floppy.
Read both the machine and the 3D manual and all will be clear. It will be time well spent and prevents a lot of frustration and flawed results!

by SewOften 27 Sep 2016

I am reading. Yesterday did a lot of long overdue mending. The machine worked well until I tried sewing chanelle(sp) on a jacket, then I broke needles like crazy. I used the designated thread, needle, presser foot, and sewing adviser.

The machine reads a format called SHV. It will not read designs in other formats. You must put your designs into the software and convert them to SHV first. Then insert into the machine. The D1 is an awesome machine. I had my first one in 1998 and kept it until 2 years ago. I also checked into converting it to USB, but the cost was about $500 and I felt that to be too much to invest into a 13-14 year old machine and technology. Good luck and enjoy your new machine. Hugs. Nan W

1 comment

by SewOften 26 Sep 2016

Thank you! I got sticker shock when I priced embroidery machines, and looked until my eyes almost fell out of their sockets to find this machine. It was still more than I wanted to pay, but I love character and didn't mind fixing it up a bit to get it to run, but now comes the embroidery learning curve, and I won't know until I get an external drive if its going to do what it was designed to to. It surely helps to have all this additional insight, so I am remaining hopeful.

Hi and welcome. I have just read this and the replies to your other posting. I too have a machine that uses floppy disks. With my dongle in my laptop and my floppy disk drive too I can download a design to a floppy disk and then put the disk into my machine. Machines with both the slot for a card from the softwear and a floppy were top of the range machines when new. If you don't have a external floppy disk drive they can be bought easily from ebay as can the floppies themselves. Though I have the facilities for both I use the floppy more as I can load a number of designs on at once where as the memory card only takes one design at a time. Machine embroidery is great fun but there is a learning curve in getting to grips at the start. BUT its well worth all the minor hiccups that can happen at the start. It sounds as if you have a great machine so happy embroidering and keep asking the questions here. Have a look under the Q&A section when you have some time as there is a huge amount of advice etc

1 comment

by SewOften 26 Sep 2016

Thank you!!

That one I can answer. Lets say you download a freebie from here or purchase a design. It needs to get onto the floppy and the only way you can do that by having a external floppy disk drive. Then you can move it from your computer on to the floppy and put it in the slot in the machine. That is a much easier way then the dongle. The dongle will only accept the very expensive cards and from my experience they fail very often.

2 comments

by sewist1 26 Sep 2016

The dongle is the security device which allows the software to run. You can't load designs onto a dongle.

by SewOften 26 Sep 2016

Good to know, thank you!