LESSON 5. USING CONSTANT SPEED MODE - WITH AND WITHOUT THE MOTION DETECTOR FEATURE.

What is constant speed mode? Do you remember from lesson 1?

It simply means that when you arm the machine, the motor will run at a constant speed. The stitch length will be dependant on how fast or slow you move the machine - just as it was before you got the IntelliStitch.

Power up your machine and do the warm up if you haven't already done so today. What did the one beep mean when you turned on the power? ( see page 1 of the user guide) Read through the whole lesson while the machine is warming up.

To set your machine in the constant speed mode, turn the dial to the stitches per second side. Notice how there are only two numbers. At 1, the machine will sew one stitch per second. As you turn the dial towards 10, the number of stitches will increase until it is sewing 10 stitches per second at the number 10. The length of these stitches is up to you.

Set your dial to 1, secure your thread ends. When you arm the machine this time it will start to sew straight away so be ready to move the machine. Since it will only take one stitch per second, you do not need to move off quickly. Move your machine slowly at first, then gradually increase the speed with which you move it to increase the stitch length. This setting is good for doing basting stitches longer than one inch. Sew a line of long basting. Remember that you cannot pause and expect the machine to stop sewing in this mode, so if you want to pause to admire your stitches, you have to disarm the machine.

Did you notice how there was no drag on the thread? This is called No-Drag Slow Speed. Why is this a good feature? See page4 of the User Guide. At what speeds does this No-Drag Slow Speed operate? (The only numbers on this side of the dial give you a clue.)

Sew a little at varying speeds from 1 to 10. Remember to move the machine as soon as you arm it.

Now turn the dial a little beyond 10 towards Max. There are no numbers here because they are unnecessary. All you need to know is that the motor runs faster and faster until it reaches Max. Your maximum setting may be quite different to someone else's as the IntelliStitch has been customized to suit you.

This time before you arm your machine, set the needle down. You should be used to the machine not starting to sew until you move it by now, so to have it start immediately can be a surprise and you might not be ready to move off. If you start with the needle down, you have to wait for the needle to be lifted out of the fabric before moving the machine. That fraction of a second gives you time to think and be ready.

Try sewing a little, first starting with the needle up, then with the needle down. Do you like starting with the needle down?

Set the dial at 10. Put the needle down then arm the machine and start to sew. As you go along, gradually increase the speed of the motor by turning the dial.

Now sew some designs with the dial set at different points so that you get to know your machine's speed range.

Tie off your threads and move the machine away from your practice piece.

Turn off the power to your machine. Hold down the black start/stop button as you power up again. How many beeps did the machine make? It should have made two - what does this mean? (see page 1)

Move the machine back to your practice piece and secure the thread ends ready to sew again.

Set the dial to a little above 10 stitches per second towards Max. Arm the machine but do not move it - what happened? Did the machine start to sew? Why not? See page 8 and 9 of the User Guide.

Now move your machine and sew a little then pause. Move again - remember the stitch length depends on how fast you move the machine. Pause and increase the motor speed with the dial. Sew and pause some more.

This motion detector feature makes the constant speed mode a little more user friendly, allowing you to pause as necessary without having to disarm the machine. Since you are now used to being able to pause whilst using stitch regulation, being able to pause when using constant speed means you do not have to use your pre-I/S technique of disarming the machine quickly to stop sewing.

When you feel you have practiced enough in this mode, tie off your threads and move your machine away from your practice piece. Turn off the power. How many beeps will you hear when you power-up again?

Unthread your machine back to before the take up lever and take out the bobbin case. Power up again - was your answer correct to the previous question?

Set the dial on constant speed and arm the machine, just as you would for warm up. Is the machine running? Why not? What must you do to make it run ?(there are two possible answers to this question)

How can you warm up your machine if you have the motion detector feature enabled?

To warm up the machine more easily, you should disable the motion detector feature - how do you do this? Turn to page 8 and 9 of the Guide if you can't remember.

Summary of the Main Points in Lesson 5.

No-Drag slow speed operates between 1 and 10 on the dial - this allows you to sew slowly without any flexing of the needle.

Use 1 stitch per second for extra long basting stitches.

Use needle down when sewing in constant speed without the motion detector feature.

When the motion detector feature is enabled, the machine will stop sewing when you stop moving it.

You have to disable the motion detector feature in order to do the warm up routine at the beginning of each day.