Firstly, briefly, may I introduce myself (though I see many familiar siggies). My name is Nel and I live in Yorkshire. I have been sewing for many years, both by machine and by hand.
Polly and Kate suggested I come over here with my 'wee-problemette' and ask you good folks for help. You come highly recommended! :-)
I have an Artista 180, bought back in 2001, when I was fit and well. It has been used as a sewing machine regularly, but because of said ill-health the embroidery module has been sidelined, after the initial feeding frenzy. (On a side note, Kate, if you can wait till you come up, I have stabiliser and thread to play with till you know exactly what you need for the new machine)
Anyway, I had the machines thoroughly serviced a couple of years back, and mothballed them till I was well enough to start over. That time is now.
I have spent the week starting from scratch, with videos, manuals and lots of cotton practising, manipulating and generally re-aquainting myself with my erstwhile friends. Knowing of the incompatibility problems with the Artista, USB Ports and Windows, I proudly hooked the machine up to an old Win98 machine we had in the loft. So far, so good. The CPS link works just fine.
So, yesterday, I used the embroidery module for the first time. Machine worked fine; did some samples etc. etc. etc. Now confident, I linked it onto the ArtLink Program on the computer...
The Problem: My Artlink program is v2.01 and the machine has been 'updated' to v3.02. They are incompatible. Bernina don't want to know (according to the website); my Dealer has changed hands and haven't a clue. I have emailed Bernina, anyway, but I'm not holding my breath. Their last answer to me, a while back, when I was searching for a parallel/usb connector, was basically unprintable. They suggested I buy a new machine...
I'm stuck. Have you any thoughts? Do you know where I might obtain an ArtLink v3.02 CD, or would it be better to attempt to get 'someone' to regress my module back to 2.01? And even if I do get connectivity, can I still get designs for the 180?
Please can you help?
TIA Nel