From the punching center to the production floor, the Beta’s features and flexibility truly put it in a class by itself. Simple, intuitive, and easy to use, the Beta is built on the advanced embroidery disk unit technology that made the Alpha Disk Reader a success.

The Beta is a full function disk unit that reads, writes, and formats the industry’s most popular disk types. The Beta features all of the disk reader functions of the Alpha Disk Reader. Add to that the Beta’s write functions and the serial port model (Beta232), and you’ve got the most flexible, feature-rich disk unit in the industry!

What you can do with a Beta Disk Unit

• Connect your Barudan paper tape reader, even streaming readers, to convert paper tape patterns to disk.
• Replace your BMC, FMC, TMC, FDR or virtually any other disk or tape reader with affordable state-of-the-art technology.
• Connect your JM series keyboard and save your name drops and other custom work to disk for easy recall. Never re-do a name drop again!
• Connect your editing or digitizing system, or your reader/punch, to read and write embroidery disks.
• Use common DOS high-density diskettes

Standard features

• Auto disk type sensing. When reading a pattern from disk, the Beta Disk Unit automatically senses the type of pattern disk inserted. When writing a pattern to disk, the Beta Disk Unit automatically senses the inserted disk as either double-density or high-density and writes the appropriate DOS format.
• Ease of use. Simply select the desired pattern by number and press the run/stop button.
• Consistent output. The Beta Disk Unit always outputs patterns in Barudan stitch format.
• Legacy machine support. In its pattern repeat mode, the Beta Disk Unit is especially friendly to older machines such as BEAT and BEAU series equipment. In this mode, you can re-send a pattern to the machine repeatedly without having to touch the Beta. Stitches longer than 6 mm are converted to auto-jumps to ensure machines don’t move off pattern.
• Real-time pattern writes. Patterns are written to disk in real time as stitch data is received. No more waiting for the disk reader to finish!
• Chenille support. The Beta Disk Unit automatically translates Melco chenille patterns to Barudan chenille format.
• Industry standard connectors. No expensive proprietary cables to buy! The Beta Disk Unit has monogram and multi-head output connectors, and a standard input connector. In the Beta232, a standard 25-pin serial port connector is provided for input and output.
• Auto stitch type sensing. Tajima stitch code received over the Beta’s input connector is automatically translated and written to disk in Barudan stitch format.

Beta Disk Unit options

Beta Model 232 (Beta232)

With the Beta232 connected to your computer’s serial port, you can now use your computer to read or write pattern disks! Using the worldwide standard RS232 DCE protocol, the Beta232 connects to any device that has a standard serial port. The Beta232 has the same serial port connector wiring as a modem, which means that you can use off-the-shelf computer serial/modem cables.

In a typical application, you might connect Macintosh-based punching equipment to the Beta232 serial port using a standard off-the-shelf Macintosh modem cable. With this configuration, you could read or write Barudan patterns to the disk mounted in the Beta directly from the Macintosh computer.

The Beta232 comprises a serial port module that replaces the rear panel of the standard Beta Disk Unit. It supports four popular baud rates (1200, 2400, 4800, 9600 baud) and supports connections with or without handshaking.

Other serial disk units carry a hefty price tag and reward your investment with poor performance and limited capability. The Beta232 is affordable and pays you back with a powerful combination of compatibility, connectivity, capability, and performance.

Specifications