Designer 1 disk drive

I don't know about the drive in the D-1, but floppy drives in general should last a long time with proper care. That care includes keeping the interior as clean as possible. In a sewing machine environment, that could mean adding another layer of external protection - peelable masking tape over the opening, for example. It's also just about a requirement that you use a floppy disk cleaner periodically. This is usually a simulated floppy disk that has a felt floppy insert instead of a magnetic disk; you drop a drop or two of head cleaner (like VHS head cleaner) onto the felt.

Did your dealer perform a drive cleaning like that? That's often all it needs!

The vibration of a sewing machine is a burden that a computer-mounted drive doesn't have to bear. One would THINK that the engineering would take that into account - like CD players in cars.

- Herb

Sandy My D1 did the same thing. It should still be covered under the warranty. After the disk drive was replaced it has been fine. It is

If they have it, it will probably be way overpriced. Find one at a computer store (Fry's, CompUSA, PC Club) or consumer electronics stores (Circuit City, Best Buy), or stationery stores (Office Depot, Staples) or on-line (search for "Floppy Drive Cleaner"). A cleaning kit (cleaning diskette and fluid) should run less than US$5, but could be as much as $10.

- Herb

" telling me "no disk inserted", when I knew it was! Today I took the Designer

This is a fairly common problem. The type of disk you use in it does not really matter. Because they create heat they are prone to failure. The same is true of any of the machines that use floppy drives. The part is covered under warranty the labour is not.

I hope the dealer installed or re-installed the latest software update for the D1 before probing around the machine. Sometimes that will solve the problem. Sometimes the plugs will jiggle loose enough to cause a sporadic problem. And, for whatever reason, sometimes a disk drive will absolutely refuse to work with one machine, but will work fine in another.

gwh

Any power dissipation in a floppy drive, even under frequent use, is negligible and won't result in any measureable heating or lifetime degradation. I'd be far more concerned about dust flying around and gunking up the drive. I think installing a floppy drive in a sewing machine is a poor design choice on the part of the manufacturer.

Agreed not good design now but think of the market - most PC's purchased today still have a floppy - after 20 odd years!? They are cheap too - although not when supplied Husquavarna (the UK supplier) I am sure!

Pete F

Yeah, well, don't look now but floppies are going the way of the dinosaur. On most models of Dell PCs they're no longer included in the low-cost base model, for example. Floppies are no longer useful for machine setup and configuration because they just don't hold enough and manufacturers have pretty much switched over to bootable CDROMS for that kind of thing.

If sewing machine manufacturers were really customer-focused as I'm sure their corporate mission statements (blecch) probably claim they are, they'd be using USB pen drives. Cheap, fast, relatively obsolescence-proof, and will plug into darn near any PC.

Use of these proprietary data cards really ticks me off. I don't mind paying for the machine, but it bugs me that they want to keep you captive to their (unnecessary) proprietary format.

My machine is still in the shop--was told it would only be 7--10 days to get the new disk drive from Husqvarna--but now it is over 2 weeks--I called and was told that Husqvarna had problems with manufacturer of drive and was switching to another and lucky me--I would get the new manufacturer's disk drive. Sigh--I wonder if I could get a "loaner" in the meantime! Sandy

manufacturer of drive and was

This problem has been on going since the problem with the smoking/burning ones. The new manufacturer has been in place for over