Embroidery Newbie with a Barudan FDR question

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posted
19 years ago

Sun, May 30, 2004 2:23 AM

Greetings,

My cousin is trying to break into the embroidery business. He knows

*very, very* little about the embroidery business.

He purchased a used Barudan 6 head, 7 needle machine, I don't know the model of the machine but the disk reading unit says "Barudan Model FMC-II (Roman numeral 2) and the keyboard unit that stores/controls the design is a Barudan Model SMT Monogram System Control Keyboard.

I know the Monogram system and

He bought it from some guy in the Carolinas and got about 5 hours training on it. Luckily he had a friend with him videotaping the training.

I heard the guy telling him (on the tape) that the unit runs Barudan FDR best, and I think that I heard him say it also runs Tajima? but it is harder to run.

He also bought the Sierra Embroidery Office EO Edit v.6.75, w/dongle for $800, I saw it on EBAY yesterday with an opening bid of $175.

I'm makig a few simple letering designs for him and I already know more about the setup than he does. I watched the tape.

Now the questions:

I already know (from reading a few notes on the web) that FDR is not as popular a format as others.

My question is WHY? Is it outdated? Embird does not convert to FDR and a few sites that offer free (and paid) designs do not offer them in FDR. I've D/L'ed a few and saved them as FDR and we managed to run a few designs successfully but I am really looking for information of

*ANY* kind on embroidery, the Barudan FDR format, etc.

(OFF TOPIC = What a pain, this unit uses DD disks, I must have tossed out a 100 DD disks last year because I couldn't remember the last time I used a DD disk = End OFF TOPIC)

Can I run Tajima on it, and what format?

Oh, BTW, my cousin is still waiting for the operating manuals for the machine so he really has only my technical skills to figure out his problems. I've been running/fixing all types of machinery for years and I'm computer literate.

Any one have any advice for me?

Thanks for your help.

Jerry

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posted
19 years ago

Wed, Jun 2, 2004 3:22 PM

Hi, Jerry,

Hopefully I can help you with your Barudan FDR questions.

I'll start by saying that Embird DOES convert to and from the Barudan FDR format, both the double-density and high-density versions. The version you have may be a few revisions behind, but the latest version (Embird 2003 build 4) will convert to and from all the Barudan formats. It also supports uploading and downloading designs to/from Barudan machines via serial cable, for those machines so equipped, and supports writing directly to a CompactFlash card, which our new models now support.

I think many of the questions you have may also be better answered if we knew the exact model and serial number of the machine. It can be found on a plate mounted to the front of the frame on the machine. The serial number is important because some features and parts are only available on models built after a certain date. The serial number can tell us when it was built. It will also tell us for certain whether your machine can read in Tajima format patterns.

Based on the description you gave, though, your machine was probably manufactured some time in the mid- to late-1980s. That's the reason your machine uses double-density disks: high-density disks were just coming into the computer world, and most machine owners at that time were just happy to get away from the paper tape input that was used before diskettes. At the time those machines were made, high-density disks were either not around yet, or too expensive to implement.

The FDR format is not as popular as other formats, but it should be, in our opinion. For instance, with the FDR format, color changes can be recorded with the pattern, so that you don't have to manually teach the colors every time (converting to formats such as DST, HUS and PES loses this information). For that reason, working with the Tajima DST format means that the machine must be taught the colors every time. That adds time and overhead to your production.

The FDR format is certainly not outdated. It is still used on machines that we produce today. Our machines also support patters from most other commercial machine formats. And as I said earlier, the latest version of Embird does support the FDR format, so you can download patterns in any format supported by Embird and convert to FDR.

Operating manuals are available by calling our parts department at

1-800-273-3672. Parts books are available for free download from our Web site at

formatting link

You can also download free patterns fromour Web site as well.We also offer machine training. Five hours from "some guy in the Carolinas"is probably not sufficient enough to fully know how to operate a multi-headmachine.

Hope this helps,