Customer Reviews

Brother PED-Basic Software for Downloading Embroidery Designs

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I've been doing machine embroidery for about 5 years, and just purchased my first Brother machine (which I absolutely adore). Before that, I have 2 other machines, and I used card readers/writers by Amazing Box. My first one broke. The second one still works. But, these Amazing Box products are amazingly flimsy, light and cheap. The software barely works with any operating system, and trying to used the things was always on a hope and a prayer.

Then, because I want everything to be just perfect with my new and expensive Brother machine, I bought the PED Basic box with blank card media. I plugged it into my USB, loaded the software, and transferred a design from my computer to the card without having to even look at any instructions. The card then went into my machine, the machine picked out the design, and everything stitched flawlessly.

The PED Basic card reader/writer is small and compact, but has a good amount of weight to it. It feels sturdy and of high quality. It is fast and simple to use. So, even if I didn't have 2 inferior products to compare this to, I'd still have to give this box 5 stars.

And, you definitely can't beat the price at Amazon! Now, I just have to find an additional blank card, since I like to have 2 or 3 of them "just in case".

Not much to say about this... just that it works well for transferring embroidery files from your computer to the data card. Easy to use, basic program. Lets you do minor resizing of files, and you can look at a preview of what the design will look like once stitched.

I just wish that you could do more with this program, as far as minor edits, especially for the high cost... but I have another program for that now.

If you have Windows Vista, go to the Brother website to download a different driver for the card reader - don't use the included disc.

If you have windows Vista, make sure you download the software directly from the Brother's Website. It only takes a couple of minutes to download the software. The program is easy to use and I was able to find a lot of free embroidery designs to use with my SE350. The software reads PES files. You can google for free pes format embroidery designs and tons of links will pop up.

My husband purchased this for me as an accessory to my PE270D machine. It really makes transferring designs easy! It is easy to learn for just about anyone and you can even resize and view the colors for each design in the preview tab. I recommend this primarily for newbies to embroidery but of course it is great for all just for the blank card and ease of use.

I've enjoyed finding free designs on the net and downloading them to my computer and stitiching them out on my brother embroidery machine... great fun... easy to use!

The PED card reader is just a card reader that was created by Brother to read/write their own proprietary cards for their sewing machines. The software included is simply a software that you use to transfer pes files onto the cards.

Brother is way behind on updating the software for the PED card writer. Not only do they not include Vista with the card writer, the current version and drivers for Vista - available on their Web site - runs on Vista 64, but all instructions and help are designed for Vista 32 and will not work on 64.

At the same time, unless your brother has a USB port, this is the only solution to adding new designs to your Brother Machine. Just be sure to download the correct software off of the brother help site at welcome.solutions.brother dot com so that you can use this driver with your computer.

So - you have only two choices - buy the brother proprietary card writer or don't write cards to transfer new embroidery files to your sewing machine. [If you haven't purchased one of their sewing machines, you may want to compare prices to see if one with a USB port will serve you better]

I have this item and it is a great help in downloading all the free embroidery designs you can find online. I have never had any trouble with it. Worth the money.

I purchased a used embroidery machine (Brother PE170D) about a year ago. It comes with severl built-in designs, but most are disney, which does nothing for my teenage son. I used it very infrequently, mostly for basic monograms. Now that I have the PED Basic and I am embroidering all the time! The set up was very easy and it was ready to go in minutes. With all of the free and low cost designs on the web the possibilities are endless! I wish it'd bought it back when I bought my machine, although I'm very happy with the new low price. Great investment - you won't regret it for a second!!

I am amazed at how much this allows me to download! I thought I would only be able to download designs from the Brother website, but I was WRONG! You can get designs from almost any embroidery site with this!!! I love it! I've done so much with it, that it's basically paid for itself! I definitely suggest the investment!

Excellent. Worked great the first time. I downloaded free embroidery designs from various websites and wrote it to memory card and plugged card into Brother SE270D sewing machine.
I paid $129.73 for this, now it is even cheaper.
I liked it so much that I purchased another blank read/write card (compatible with Brother SE270D machine) since I purchased so many more embroidery designs.