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all about the Brother SE400 Sewing & Embroidery Machine

Brother PED-Basic Software for Downloading Embroidery Designs

By KAMALA in Software •

Buy Brother PED-Basic Software

With the Brother PED-Basic® Software and card reader/writer you can download embroidery designs from the Internet and write them from your PC onto original Brother cards.

You can use the Brother PED-Basic Software when you want to embroider designs that aren’t built-in to your embroidery machine, and

  • Your Brother embroidery machine such as the SE350, LB6770 PRW, or PE700 doesn’t have a USB port.
  • Or you want to organize your designs on memory cards.

When You Probably Don’t Need This Software

  • If your embroidery machine has a USB port that is compatible with a USB stick or thumb drive such as the PE770, you can just store designs on a thumb drive and don’t need to write memory cards.
  • If your embroidery machine has a USB port that attaches to your computer, such as the SE400, HE240, LB6800 PRW, you can download embroidery patterns from your computer and save them in the machine’s memory.
  • If you want to create or digitize your own design, you will need to buy more advanced software that might include a card writer.

Even if your embroidery machine has a USB port that attaches to your computer for downloading, you might still want to write embroidery designs on a memory card. For example, if you don’t have a laptop or it’s inconvenient to move your computer next to the embroidery machine, you can transfer designs on a memory card.

Of course use your own judgement. You might have a good reason for needing this software that I don’t know about.

Brother PED-Basic® Software Features

  • Download free or low-cost embroidery designs (.pes format files) from the Internet
  • Import embroidery designs from CD-ROM
  • Built-in embroidery samples
  • Three frame sizes
  • Resize most designs from 90% to 120%
  • Print an image of the design and information about the pattern: name, size, number of stitches, and thread colors
  • Print sewing area box & center axis of the pattern
  • Print template grid that you can use as a template to place the design on your embroidery project.
  • Realistic stitch design preview – The stitching and colors are displayed on your computer screen so that you can preview the actual embroidery.
  • Writes the embroidery design data (.pes files) to Brother original memory cards for your embroidery machine.

For use with all Brother home embroidery machines with a memory card slot.

Note: This product cannot be used to create embroidery data or designs.

Compatible with Windows compatible computers with a USB port and CD-ROM drive. Requires Windows 98 operating system or later. Be sure to check for compatibility with your own computer.

Click here, to download an updated driver from Brother’s Support website. Then click on “PED-Basic Update.” Then select your version of Windows from the options, click “Search” and download the driver. You can also download manuals from the Support Center.

Note: Not compatible with Macintosh. You must use additional software that runs Windows on a Macintosh such as Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion, or BootCamp to use PED-Basic with a Macintosh.

Brother PED-Basic Embroidery Software

What’s Included with the Brother PED-Basic Software?

  • USB Card Writer Box
  • CD-Rom containing PED-Basic software installer and sample designs
  • 4M Blank Memory Card (rewritable)
  • Instruction Manual


Four Easy Steps to Downloading Additional Embroidery Designs

Brother PED-Basic Software Steps
1. Using your computer and the PED-Basic software, download free or purchased PES embroidery data from any embroidery design site or pre-packaged design pack. 2. Preview and/or edit the imported embroidery data on the screen. 3. Write the PES data file to an original Brother embroidery card. 4. Insert the card into the slot on your embroidery machine, press the Memory Card Key on the control panel, and select the design you want to embroider. Continue the same as with a built-in design.

How to Write More than One Design

Many people ask me how to write more than one design or how to add additional designs to a card without overwriting the old designs. It’s easy to do, but the manual isn’t very clear. So here’s how.

Click the browse button and navigate to the folder where your embroidery designs are. This can be a folder on your hard drive or on a CD. Then in the box on the left — the “Available Patterns List” — you’ll see the designs you can copy. Click the pattern you want to write to the card. Then Click the arrow button in the center of the boxes to move the design to the “Selected patterns list.” Do this for all the designs you want to write to the card.

If you already have designs on the card that you want to save, you must select the card first and move those designs to the “Selected patterns list.”

Be sure to keep checking the “Card capacity indicator” because the card may not hold all the designs you want, especially if you have a lot of them from a CD.

You can also select multiple designs by, holding down the Ctrl key or Shift key while clicking the designs. Or you can just drag the designs from the left box to the right box.

All the designs in the right box will get written to the card.

Brother PED-Basic Reviews — What Are Others Saying?

Before you go out and spend your hard earned money on software to download embroidery designs, it’s important to consider what other people think of the product after they’ve owned and used it for awhile. Click here to read the 106 5-star reviews on Amazon.com

Click here to see today’s price @Amazon.com

Our Readers Respond ...

  1. Cathy Mohr says

    February 5, 2021 at 10:24 am

    I bought the per basic more than a year ago. Recently purchased a new computer and cannot find the disc to download the program onto my new computer. Any suggestions?

    • César fusiinelli says

      February 14, 2021 at 8:56 pm

      No vendes el ped básico..??

    • Vince says

      February 22, 2021 at 9:27 pm

      I hope I am not too late for you
      https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadhowto.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hf_basiceus&os=10014&dlid=dlfh000345_000&flang=91&type3=401

  2. Janet Gardner Jettman says

    January 12, 2021 at 6:40 pm

    I am new to Ped-Basic. I have the program installed but can’t figure out how install a new pattern from CD. Do know how to get the CD drive to show up on the program so the design can be transferred to the program.

  3. Dana says

    December 27, 2020 at 8:33 am

    I have a Babylock EAC accent embroidery machine . do you know where I can get a manual for it?

  4. Michelle says

    December 11, 2020 at 10:19 am

    I have an Innov-is 1000 and use PED-Basic with it. I used it just fine last Friday, but now when I attempt to go into the same folder on my PC to transfer a design to the PD Basic card the file doesn’t show up. In fact, none of my PES files show up in the folder, I can’t even get into some of the folders to see my files, even though I know they’re there because when I go on Windows Explorer I see the files. I have reinstalled PED-Basic for good measure and the problem persists. Any help would be most appreciated!

  5. Liz Ward says

    November 24, 2020 at 4:30 am

    I have been using my PED Basic for several years now and it has been great. Haven’t used it in several months and yesterday I plugged it into my laptop to add a design and it didn’t show up as connected anywhere. I also tried it on my desktop and it was nowhere to be found. I wonder if the usb connecter maybe has gone bad and if so can it be replaced? Thanks for your help..

  6. Kristine Reichert says

    November 10, 2020 at 10:03 am

    I have been using the led basic card for quite awhile, I use it with my esante ese embroidery machine. Have not had problems until now, design shows on the machine but I cannot select it. I uninstalled then reinstalled the software, with the same result. I guess I’m asking if this is a memory card problem or do you think it’s a problem with my machine? Have you heard of this happening? Thank you

  7. CK says

    November 2, 2020 at 11:57 am

    Hello. I have been using PE Design for a couple of years now but have not run into this problem until now. I have no problem writing to my card from my computer or anything but due to a recent computer crash we had of our old laptop my card is now the only place I have 4 of my files. Is there any way to get my files off of my card and put them on to my new computer so that I can have more access to them than just from my card?
    The reason I ask is I have 2 other embroidery machines I would like to use the files on and they do not take the cards. Thank you for your time. CK

  8. Ann Waters says

    October 23, 2020 at 2:24 am

    Are the Amazing Designs Great Notions rewritable cards compatible with the Brother PED reader/writer? Since both types of cards work with Brother machines, can the cards be used interchangeably with the Brother PED Basic And the Amazing Designs Magic Box??? I don’t want to stick the Great Notion (or other rewritable card) in the PED Basic and have the card destroy the PED Basic!

    Thank you!

  9. Ann Waters says

    October 23, 2020 at 2:15 am

    I have a PED Basic with 1 embroidery card. My question is can I buy additional 4M rewritable memory cards for it? Will other non Brother 4M rewritable memory cards that work with Brother machines also work with the PED Basic card writer??? I would like to use several cards at the same time with my 2 Brother machines….

  10. Vera says

    September 26, 2020 at 9:26 am

    Hello,
    I purchased a used babylock Ellure and bought the PED basic software to download files, it works great. My question is how do I write out a word with fonts I’ve purchased? I’ve only been able to do 1 letter.
    Thank you

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Welcome to my BrotherSE400 Blog

Kamala Kelly, Brother SE400 EnthusiastHi, I'm Kamala. I love all the textile arts and started making my own clothes when a young child. As an embroidery machine, the Brother SE400 was my first love, and I started this website to share my experiences, discoveries, and also to provide reviews on anything related to the Brother SE400.

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