We have had a Topaz 30 for several years, and only recently tried to use the embroidery feature. We had bought a show model and we found at this late date that we hadn’t gotten the “Dongle” and so we could not load designs into the machine. We researched online a lot - “They” will tell you that you cannot use regular thumb drives for inputting design files using the USB port on the Topaz 30, and replacement “dongles” are really expensive. We also had the uptake loop issue which no one (shop that sold it to us, Manufacturer’s authorized repair facility) seemed able to fix, but was corrected by my putting wire insulation on the straight leg of the loop to narrow the gap (I now see that there is an “upgrade,” but we have never been notified of any such). Needless to say, we have been very disappointed by the lack of Viking/Husky customer care, but the machine now works OK. But ranting often fixes nothing, so here’s what we’ve found:

To embroider from existing design files, there is a way to do so without buying the very expensive Viking/Husky Dongle. If you convert the .HUS design files to .VP3 format and put them on a plain old thumb drive (non-Viking/Husky, but keep it to one that is no larger than 2gb), the Topaz will recognize them, load them, and embroider them. As Karma would have it, the files can easily be converted using the 4D Organizer. On ours, we just arranged them in folders like Animals, Flowers, Fonts (note that the fonts are .VF3 format and were generated using the 4D quickfont program saving as Pfaff), Leaves, etc. Many of the files on the CDs that came with the machine are already in .VP3 format. So far the regular thumb drive is working just fine, and by mirroring the files on the laptop, we can view the design in 4D organizer which includes the worksheet window (thread descriptions, etc.) and the RealSize image. The Topaz display is very rudimentary. We have downloaded many VP3 files and all are recognized and read from the regular thumb drive.
We are now happily embroidering everything in sight!