# SWF - No more sneaker net with USB drives



## enewbold (Oct 17, 2010)

Using a 32gb SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive on my SWF Embroidery Machine

It's really a simple process that took me days to actually figure out! My first and biggest mistake was trying to use the 64gb SandDisk Connect wireless flash drive. The SWF embroidery machines (mine is a 1501-TC) don't recognize any USB flash drives larger than 32gb.

I purchase a 32gb SanDisk Connect wireless from Amazon for around $25, which is so much cheaper than the $270 USB2WIFI device!

So, here are the steps I use:

1. Make sure the wireless stick is turned on and the little light on it is flashing. You DO NOT have to insert your wireless stick into a computer USB port! I just plug it into one of the SWF USB ports.

2. Next, open your computer's Wireless Networks tab. This is where you will find the wireless network you normally connect to and other available networks. It is usually found in the lower right-hand corner of your PC screen.

3. Connect to the "SanDisk Connect XXXXXX" network shown (the XXXXXX is whatever shows up in YOUR network list for YOUR SanDisk drive). PLEASE NOTE that this will disconnect you from the internet, but that's OK for the time being, because we are working with files from our local hard drive and the wireless flash drive in your SWF machine.

4. Open a web browser to http://172.25.63.1 and you should see your wireless stick contents there. Since I use my wireless stick exclusively for the SWF machine, I deleted everything on it first.

5. Make sure the wireless stick has been inserted into one of the SWF machine's USB ports.

6. Now open a Windows Explorer pane and navigate down to wherever you keep your embroidery files.

7. Select a file (or two or three), drag them into your web browser page and drop them there.

8. Go to your SWF machine and import the files: open the USB input port and copy the files into the SWF slots. ESC out of the SWF USB input screen when finished copying the files.

9. Now here's an important part: Remove the wireless flash drive from the SWF USB port it is in (let's call it port #1) and immediately insert it into the other SWF USB port (let's call it port #2). You have to do this step, because SWF machines keep USB port you used locked up and you can't wirelessly add or delete any files to it while it's locked. To overcome this limitation, you simply move the wireless stick to the other USB port, which unlocks it.

10. Go back to STEP 7 and delete and/or add additional files into/off of the wireless flash drive. Ta-Da! No need to move the wireless stick into a computer USB port anymore!

11. When you're finished using the SanDisk, open your computer's Wireless Networks tab again and reconnect to your normal everyday use network. Your internet connection is now restored.


I hope this makes sense to everyone, but if it doesn't, just shoot me an email and we can work through any connectivity issues together. 

And also note that there is another way to connect to the SanDisk Connect wireless drive AND stay connected to the internet on your PC, but I am still researching that one and trying to work through the issues of doing it correctly.

That's it. Hope someone can make use of this info.

Ed Newbold
Columbus, Ohio


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## Pincushion (Feb 7, 2014)

Wow, great answer. Finally a solution.


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## Friday's (Jan 20, 2008)

Okay I tried this. Could not read from the 32 Gig flash drive. I have 8 different SWF machines and tried 4 of them with no luck. Think it has to do with the way they are formatted. You cant format the 32 so I went and purchased a 64 and was able to format to exFat but still couldn't get it to work. Most SWF machines use MS-Dos (FAT) so any help on this would be great.

Thx


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## enewbold (Oct 17, 2010)

Friday's said:


> Okay I tried this. Could not read from the 32 Gig flash drive. I have 8 different SWF machines and tried 4 of them with no luck. Think it has to do with the way they are formatted. You cant format the 32 so I went and purchased a 64 and was able to format to exFat but still couldn't get it to work. Most SWF machines use MS-Dos (FAT) so any help on this would be great.
> Thx


Hi. Did you get the "wireless" version? I also mentioned that the SWF machines will definitely not recognize 64gb wireless flash drives. I use my "32gb SanDisk Connect wireless" with my SWF all of the time.

If you like, I can give you a call and see if it's being used on your machines like I do it on mine. Let me know. I'm home in the evenings from 6pm (EDT) most days.

Cheers,
Ed


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