HELP!!!

I can help with the bobbin situation. When you have your embroidery unit on the machine the foot controller pedal is deactivated. Put a bobbin on the spindle and thread it up. Then press the "run" button. When the bobbin is full press the "run" button again.

I'm puzzled as to the needle be>I hope someone can give me advice - quickly! I have a Husqvana Rose

Thanks for trying to help. Not long after I posted, my modem gave up the ghost altogether, so I had no option but to wait for replies until Monday, when I was able to phone the dealers.

Technicians were all away on holiday, but I was eventually directed to a very kind and efficient lady who tried to help. After I'd tried her suggestions, we decided whatever was wrong necessitated opening up the machine, so it has to wait, and go to the agents after Christmas, with my DD, who lives close to them. Emily thinks it could be a piece of thread broken off inside.

I'll ask them to look at the bobbin problem too, as I did try the "run" method first. It just didn't run! Even using the foot pedal I had to move the needle each time before the bobbin started turning. DGD will have to wait until after Christmas to get her completed teeshirt!

I have a new modem now, not before time after several partial hits by lightning!

Joyce in RSA.

Not about the embroidery but the lightning.

Make sure your machine and anything connected to it are all plugged into one powerbar with surge protection and the modem phone line also so goes through it. This means your computer, machine, monitor, modem, and anything else there is a cable going to from your computer or embreoidery machine (assuming they are connected together). This makes sure all the devices are at the same potential despite lightining or other surges. Without a difference of voltage on bad surges (lightning etc..) the equipment has no place for the electricity to travel through to. IN other words the lightning may travel into your equipment but cannot go out the other side and should do much less damage.

I have had surge protectors, but have been told that when hit they lose the power to protect, and one doesn't know when they've been hit! Permanent ones cost too much for my pocket, so there doesn't seem to be a solution. The hits on computer equipment all seem to come via the phone line anyway, although the phone itself is not affected, unless it's a cordless phone, so my solution is to unplug the phone line, as well as the pc, as soon as there's any thunder or lightning around. A couple of times, though, it's come out of the blue, with absolutely no warning! Blue sky, sunny and bright, and suddenly a great crack! Weird!

The Rose is plugged in only when I use it, so is not normally vulnerable.

Joyce in RSA.

That is the way I do with all my sewing machines, Joyce. I never leave them plugged up when not in use. I have an excellent surge protector on the computer, even so, I don't leave it turned on all the time like some of my children/grandchildren do. Emily

The trouble is a switch will not stop a damaging hot of lightning coming down your wires. It jumps across the open contacts if bad enough.

The unplugging is a good idea if you have over service wires coming into your home. I have underground feeds and I never worry about any of that stuff.

The power bar should smell if it gets hit bad enough to damage it. I install these little MOV devices from time to tiem on our equipment at work and if they get hit real bad they explode open and you can hear the pop and smell the burn. Inside a power bar? who knows? Some have indicators.

I would use them as well as the all into one unit advice if I lost my valuable equipment to this. Get a highly rated unit. They vary in protective ability. I fthe lightning cannot go through to somewhere else it cannot do damage. Lightning is looking to get to earth. You computer and machine are grounded and provide that path so lightning coming in the phone line will go back out the ground line and vice versa.

If power bar 'smells', then it is grossly undersized - ineffective. Undersizing promotes more sales of extremely profitable (grossly overpriced) products. One minimally effective protector earths transients AND you never knew a transient happened. That 'smelly' power bar does not meet 'minimal'. A protector that self destructs - grossly undersized - also costs tens of times more money per protected appliance. A protector damaged by a surge provided ineffective protection.

Common source of modem damage is AC mains. Surge that seeks earth ground often damages modem's DAA section; where modem connects to phone line. Others then 'assume' surge from AC mains must have entered on phone line. Modem is often repaired by simply replacing only one PNP transistor. That less than 'half Euro' transistor was in the path from AC mains to phone wire. Modems are often that easy to fix because the damage is so often same - enters on AC mains.

All appliances have internal protection - already contain what a power cord protector would hope to accomplish. So that appliance protection is not overwhelmed, a protector must earth before a transient can even enter the building. Electronics in a path to earth ground are easily damaged. Effective protectors must have a dedicated earthing wire; a less than 3 meter connection. No earthing wire (such as on grossly undersized power bars) means ineffective protection. It is undersized to promote more sales - ie the 'smell'. Grossly undersized promotes sales to the naive AND profits higher profits with each protector.

Protectors so grossly undersized as to 'smell' and 'lose power to protect' are sold on hype by pricing them higher. IOW take a $7 from the grocery store, cover it in fancy paint, and sell it for $100. Some will claim it is a 'high quality' only because it is so expensive. More problems with those 'quality' protectors:

You had modem damage that is often due to an AC mains surge. Besidessewing machine and modem, other appliances to protect are smokedetectors and heating system; essential to human life. These are alsoprotected by only one 'whole house' protector. Plug-in protectorscost tens of times more money per protected appliance, are oftengrossly undersized to 'smell', and without earthing cannot protectfrom the typically destructive type of surge.. How to identify an inferior appliance protector. 1) No dedicated wire to earth - an absolutely essential connection. 2) Manufacturer avoid all discussion about earthing. Look at their numerical specs. Instead, facts are withheld so that the naive will assume all surges are same. No earth ground means no effective protection - from a typically destructive type of surge.

Anything that plug-in protector might accomplish is already inside each appliance. Internal protection that is overwhelmed when surges are not earthed before entering a building. Again, what defines the effective protector? A less than 3 meter connection to earthing. No way around that principle even defined in IEEE and British Standard documents.

Two posts that discuss protection and household wiring problems are in rec.crafts.textiles.quilting on 25 Apr 2005 and 4 May 2005 entitled "OT - irons and computerized sewing machines" at

More details are in rec.crafts.textiles.sewing on 6 Dec 2003entitled "CAUTION: power outage DANGER!" at

For accurate information on plug-in surge suppressors try John Bengi.

Or the best information I have seen both surges and surge protection at

the title is "How to protect your house and its contents fromlightning: IEEE guide for surge protection of equipment connected to ACpower and communication circuits" published by the IEEE in 2005 (theIEEE is the dominant organization of electrical and electronicengineers in the US).And a second guide is this is the "NIST recommended practice guide: Surges Happen!: how toprotect the appliances in your home" published by the NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology (the US government agencyformerly called the National Bureau of Standards) in 2001Both guides were intended for wide distribution to the general publicto explain surges and how to protect against them. The IEEE guide isaimed at people who have some technical background. The NIST guide isaimed at mere mortals.

Because of his religious belief in earthing w_ can not understand how plug-in suppressors work. As described in the IEEE guide, they work primarily by clamping, not earthing.

Both the IEEE and NIST guides say plug-in surge suppressors are effective

"Undersized" is a "straw man". Plug-in suppressors are available with ratings from junk to very high.

If you don't have technical arguments you try pathetic scare tactics

The religious earth mantra again - not shared by the IEEE or NIST. And numerical specs are readily available for plug-in suppressors.

Religious mantra #3. The IEEE published the IEEE guide that says that plug-in suppressors are effective.

---------- As John said, all interconnected equipment has to be connected to the same surge suppressor or connections to other equipment (including phone, cable-TV, ...) have to also go through the suppressor.

Suppressors can 'wear out'. If selected with a high Joule (energy) rating they will last a long time. The IEEE guide describes 2 ways a suppressor can connect the protected load - either across the MOVs (protective devices) or directly to the incoming line. If connected across the MOVs, if the MOVs wear out they will be disconnected and the load along with them - a warning that the protector has failed. Suppressors also should have lights that indicate whether they are working.

For John - voltages above about 6000V produce arc-over in panels or receptacles reducing the likelihood of arcing across an open switch.

-- bud--