Husqvarna / Viking sell several types of 3D & 4D Card Reader / Writer hardware for their older machines that use a proprietary memory card to load the *.hus files to those machines. The most popular machines that use this format are the Rose, #1+, Orchidea, and Iris. As a purchaser, you should know that there are very specific limitations for the use of the hardware and software that Viking sells.

A common sense notion for most people is that if they buy a memory card Reader / Writer, well, that means that it reads and writes. For example, when you buy a memory card reader for your digital camera, you get both the hardware that reads and writes to the memory card, and you get the software. Another common sense idea is that if you buy a memory card Reader / Writer for a certain purpose, then it reads and writes to all sizes of memory cards of that type. 

But that's not necessarily the case. Husqvarna / Viking and VSM software have taken a different approach.

When you purchase the raw hardware for the Viking USB Card Reader / Writer, that's exactly what you get. It comes only with the internal Windows driver software that is necessary to cause that hardware to Read and/or Write. This is because it is a proprietary parallel port or USB device, rather than a generic device. MS Windows 2000, XP, and Vista do not automatically recognize and install it by use of a generic Microsoft driver. The raw Viking hardware does not integrate with the Windows Operating System, does not appear in My Computer or Explorer as a Removable Storage device, and will neither Read nor Write to the embroidery memory card directly from within Windows.

Some people, including this author, bought a Viking Card Reader / Writer Kit. Their belief was that the "kit" meant that it would have the necessary software. That's not correct, either. For example, read the box for the 4D Reader / Writer Kit carefully. It says that it will load an embroidery file (one file) to the embroidery card. That's all it says, and that's all it does. It will not read an embroidery card with the software that is included in the kit. It will not write a complete memory card full of *.hus design files. WARNING: There is one thing that the included software definitely will do; IT WILL ERASE THE CONTENTS OF YOUR EMBROIDERY CARD! This seems rather contrary to what common sense would say. Most people would have thought that buying a Reader / Writer Kit would mean that they were getting Reader / Writer functionality. That is not what Viking is selling you. You are buying a piece of hardware that could read or write under certain specific circumstances, but not these circumstances. Therefore, the functionality that you just paid $199 plus tax to purchase is an embroidery card Eraser / Loader. That's all it says on the box, and that's all you are getting.

People who have purchased the Card Reader / Writer hardware separately from the 3D / 4D Organizer software get exactly the same product that comes in the 4D Card Reader / Writer Kit. They just get it packaged in two separate boxes. WARNING: If you break the seal on the software package, Viking will refuse to give you a refund.

So exactly how does Viking justify telling people that it is a Card Reader / Writer? Well, the hardware actually does read and write. The catch is that you must have the Machine Module software. Can that be purchased as a stand-alone for a reasonable price? No, it can't. You must spend at least the $369 plus tax that it costs for the full 4D Embroidery software package. That is the cheapest new package that contains the Machine Module. You might already own a perfectly good embroidery software from some other company, but that doesn't matter. In my case, I had purchased a $1,729 Inspira Autodigitizing 4.0 package (distributed by Viking!), complete with the optional 4D Drawing Tablet. They were not impressed. The fact that you don't need and can't use the 4D Embroidery software is not Viking's problem. If you don't buy one of their full embroidery software packages, you can't read and write their embroidery memory cards using a genuine Viking Card Reader / Writer, period.

I recently discovered some additional limitations to the Viking Card Reader / Writer. There are at least two sizes of Programmable Embroidery cards that bear the Viking / Husqvarna name. They are directly coordinated with a specific type of Viking Card Reader / Writer and cannot be interchanged. If you want to be able to Write to both sizes of card, you will need two different Viking Card Reader / Writers in order to do so.

The older of these cards has the simple designation "Programmable". These cards are 256K memory cards. They work with the parallel port version of the Viking Card Reader / Writer. They cannot be used in the newer USB port model.

The newer of these cards has the designation "Programmable 512". These cards are 512K memory cards. They work with the USB port version of the Viking Card Reader / Writer. They cannot be used in the older parallel port model.

Multi-format DVD/CD drives, USB drives, Flash memory reader / writers for digital cameras, even MP3 players all come with the necessary reader / writer software for free. However, Viking expects you to pay $369 for the software to read and write to their memory cards. 

Scan the Viking hardware & software in the embroidery and sewing machines listings here at eBay. You will see new or virtually new Viking USB Card Reader / Writer packages heavily discounted. You will see people selling like new Viking Card Reader / Writer hardware & software for a fraction of what they paid, hoping to get at least some of their money back for a product that may never have functioned as they expected.

Some eBay sellers know and understand the contents of this guide.  They know that the card reader / writer does not have full functionality without the matching embroidery software. You can easily identify their listings. They will be selling Viking Customizing Pro, System 5, 3D Embroidery, or 4D Embroidery with the matching Viking Card Reader / Writer as a complete package.

This information was current, per VSM technical support emails from 2 July 2007, and the Husqvarna / Viking web site as of the 8th of August, 2007.