Current Mood : Elated and sated !
I did it ! Whooo-eeee ! The USB holds no further mystery to me ! Of course, I want ten minutes alone with whoever wrote the manual...
Beloved Hubby ended up not going to the AirSoft games today - it was only 27 degrees this morning, and that seriously interferes with weapons play. But we were up early, like 5am early, so we had a nice home-made breakfast - link sausages with syrup and biscuits - and went back to bed. DFIL must think we spend most of our weekends in the bedroom, as we were still asleep when he dropped off Dearest Son this morning.
Speaking of, Dearest was less than impressed at first with his little monogrammed drawstring bag, once it was apparent there was nothing inside ! He came around later, and started storing Lego figures - to him, the important pieces of Lego ! - inside. It does fit the game controller for his laptop, something that's normally transported inside a Mal-Wart sack tied to the cushioned hard case he uses for his laptop, but it's a bit tight. So I'm gonna make another one.
With downloaded designs ! With my guys home, we had a slow, relaxing day. I even took a nice afternoon nap, after re-reading the USB manual a few more times. It's only seven pages, counting the usual FCC regulations page. By the time I was ready, I'd cleaned off my desk, straightened out the USB cable and connected it, and decided which designs would be the first to transfer. The onboard memory on the sewing machine can only hold twelve designs at a time, so I needed to choose wisely. I also wound a fresh bobbin, and got the machine threaded with a full spool of regular ole thread. The drop-in bobbin has a clear case, so I can now see when the thread's running low ! Cool ! Also, when I use the machine's ‘cut threads' function, it pulls both top and bottom threads to the underside. Awesome. Hooped up some fresh unbleached muslin, and proudly bore the machine to my computer desk, along with the manuals and software.
Since the manual didn't say whether or not the machine had to be on, and it didn't show a power cord in the illustration, I left it. And had to go back to the Lab to get it. But once it was all installed, my computer instantly saw the Brother as Removable Disk L, the drivers installed in less than a minute, and it was but seconds of click/drag to transport designs between them. Gleefully, I gathered the Brother back to the Lab and got ready to Em-BROY-Derrrrrrr !
Unfortunately, the USB manual doesn't mention that you'll lose everything in unstored memory once the power is shut off to the machine. And once you transfer stuff, that's it for the directions in the USB manual. (sigh) So I unplugged it once more and carried it back to the computer, this time, dragging the main manual along. The main does say that, and offers a way to store designs to the Brother's memory, and they'll stay there until erased. Again, it can only hold twelve, max.
So I did it again, and... the designs vanished when I turned it off. And every time I tried to store anything, I got a ‘do you want to delete the current design ?' message. I was really getting frustrated, but I finally got one in memory. Restored, I tried to store another. And got the ‘do you wanna delete ?' message again. What, I could only store one ?! It seemed to be so. Everything else I tried got me either a ‘fail' beep or a ‘delete' message. Arrrgh.
Reread both manuals, and didn't know much more after as before. It really seemed as though turning off the power would erase everything, so I'd need to 1) either move the computer back into the Lab, so I could move it without powering down, 2) carry Dearest's laptop to the Lab to transfer designs, or 3) find one of the $60.+ cards the machine was set up to use. How frustrating !
But just about when I was gonna take my one design and at least try it, I decided to go through the machine's memory. And the last four designs were in there ! WTH ? Evidently, the ‘wanna delete' just refers to the temp memory, not the stored memory of the machine. Too bad there's no way to tell the difference ! Downloading ‘em puts ‘em in temp memory, and storing them requires deleting ‘em from temp once they're in system memory.
Of course, this is nowhere in either manual. So I wrote down how I did it with Design #5, and it worked ! Yeah, it was as kludgy an interface as Dearest's game controller's last week, but I'm starting to think one helped me understand the other. And, heck, I got it, which is the main thing. I soon had #5 in system memory, and wrote down directions in the right page of the manual. Using those, I got #6 in without thinking, so I got it now !
Then, it was time. Since I'd already done all the ‘leg work' earlier, I just had to reinstall the embroidery platform and then the hoop, and choose a design. And. It. WORKED !! Dearest claimed the ‘fireworks' design for his next drawstring bag, but I didn't have time to work on putting the new-font free-download initials on the other side. So I'll work on it tomorrow, while he's in school.
Yeah, I could have spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the Lab, happily embroidering stuff, but it's increasingly rare to have long, leisurely weekends with my fellas. So I chose to hang out with them instead. Tomorrow, I'm going into the City with Beloved, and he's promised to stop anywhere I like. Unless there's a thrift in our path, I don't see us stopping, except for lunch, maybe. I got the Sewing Notions embroidery design set I've been wanting, since I know that USB and downloads work, and I think that's about all I'll need for a while. Aside from any adorable free downloads, that is !
Oh, and I ordered the MAD doll stands. Her shop is back up, and she says she'll mail Monday. So, expect a review on those soon after they arrive. If they're half as good as they look on her site, I'll be so very happy ! Once I can get to the dolls and stuff, my lab is a wreck right now ! Backed up all my new patterns, old blogs, and photos on the hard drive to a CD-R, something I've not done since maybe October.
So, while I spent $42. today, it all came out of my eBay sales, so in my mind, it doesn't count ! I love my creative book-keeping, don't you ?
And I forgot to tell ya - we curb-shopped a free office chair Friday. It was dirty, but in decent shape, so I got it cleaned up today, and it's my new computer chair. Dearest got to choose between his current one and my older one, and his old one is going out to our curb this week.
Before I forget again, here's a link straight to the American Girl pattern sets (make sure you have Adobe Reader installed) -
http://www.agplaythings.com/AG%20Patterns/DollDressPatterns.html
AG Playthings.com is also fun to browse around, once you're done downloading all six sets !!
