Hi Christine, what a legacy from your Grandmother. My condolences on her passing.

When it comes to these two machines, I can tell you that the Innovis-4000D is the more modern of the two. They're both discontinued, so finding sites that allow you to side-by-side compare them is unlikely.

But I'll tell you the areas that embroiderers usually use to compare machines: speed, LCD screen, embroidery area, and ability to use designs from outside sources.

You are right that many people upgrade mostly for the sewing area. The Brother PC-8500 has a 5x7 embroidery area (even if you put a bigger hoop on, the design area remains the same), while the 4000D has a 12x7 embroidery area.

Another reason to upgrade is the way that designs are transferred to the machine. The PC-8500 uses embroidery cards and a specialized card writer box. That technology is aging and the manufacturer has not continued to support it with updates to work on Windows 11. The last computer I was able to use the PED-Basic card writer software on was running (I think) Windows 8. You could replace the box and card with a product like the Ultimate Box if you wind up needing to use a new computer for embroidery. The 4000D can also use a card, but has the added capability of recognizing USBs for design transfer, which I think will extend its life beyond that of the 8500.

The larger LCD screen is also a difference between the two.

The manuals for both machines are available online; if there are particular things you want to compare, I suggest comparing the information in the manuals.
Best wishes!

Thank you!!

Christine, you're welcome!

Hi Jessica, You're right you will need the embroidery unit in order to embroider with this machine. Check Ebay and Etsy. The trickiest thing is going to be verifying that any used embroidery units/arms that you find will work with this model. For example, here's one on Etsy: https://www.ebay.com/itm/234761522915?chn=ps&_trkp...

The seller bought the wrong one and is re-selling, but not giving very specific information as to which machine it will fit.

It looks like if you can find an embroidery attachment that works with your machine, it will probably cost you about $200. The machine comes with some designs built in. If you want to embroider designs from other sources, you'll want to buy a card converter box with software and a memory card. That will probably be approximately another $100.

Hi Patricia. What a lovely gift. I hope you are enjoying the larger embroidery field. This embroidery machine uses memory cards to receive new embroidery designs. If you can get your hands on the card writer box and a re-writable card for it, that is the way to go. If you need to replace those, you can get compatible boxes and cards from Vikant Embroidery. They call theirs the Ultimate Box.
You would get your design ready in Embrilliance ,then you would open the card writer software and show it where you saved your Embrilliance design, plug in the writer box with the card inserted and write that to the card. Then you can take the card out of the writer box and insert it into the embroidery machine. Then use the card button on the machine screen to open the design for stitching.

Thanks I will try that

Great! I hope you get some lovely embroidery out of it.

I bought mine around 2001-03. I paid around 5,200.00 for it at that time. I love my machine I don’t use my machine very much but works really well. Yes it’s heavy but you probably would be lugging it around much anyway. The PE design is really great to

I have this machine. I use the Brother PED software/card to download designs and use them on my machine. It works very well and I haven’t found a design it won’t stitch! You can find info about it on the Brother site as well as download the file for your computer. It may work with an Apple; worth the time to check.

I’d like to know how many stitches per minute this machine stitches. Anyone know? I’d like to compare it to a newer model

Good luck!

Hi Terry!! I am looking at purchasing a used Brother PC8500D on facebook marketplace as my first machine. It's an incredible deal but I am SO hesitant to buy it because of how old it is and I worry that I won't be able to upload designs to it from online. I have seen mixed reviews about the PED software and it all seems so dated with not much information out there. Can you give me more info or at least reassure me that the PED software is worth the purchase if you own this older machine? I have seen that you need to download the software online rather than with the CD (my laptop doesn't even have a CD port LOL).

Hi Brittany, just in case Terry doesn't see your question, I'll offer what I know.

PEDesign is updated and is now in version 10. When you're asking about PED software, do you mean the PED Basic software that controls the writer box for writing to the card? You are going to need that, or else a card writing alternative like the Magic Box or Ultimate Box in order to use designs from the Internet or from your own creation with your machine. PED Basic is discontinued, so you can no longer download the software online from Brother. So My suggestion is to get the Ultimate Box. Many people use this to transfer designs to their older machines like the PC8500D.
Vikant Ultimate Box web site: https://vikant-emb.com/
And here's their FAQ which shows that you will want the Ultimate Card version 1 for your Brother machine. https://vikant-emb.com/faq

PED-Basic, Magic Box or Ultimate Box , none of these create designs. They just transfer them to the card for your machine. You need that, otherwise you're limited to the designs that are included in the machine's memory. There are something like 100, so it's not bad, but most people want more and different designs.

As to whether the full PEDesign software would be worth buying for an old machine -- that's really up to user preference. So long as you have a card writer box that works and a working card, you can use any designs (that fit the sewing area for your machine -- 5"x7") from any software that will write to the PES format. That means you're not limited to PEDesign, and can also look at Embrilliance, Dime Inspirations, Hatch, or other brands of software for creating and manipulating designs for your machine. All of these software brands will write to PES format.

I was reading your responses to other posters. You have just saved me almost $2,000. I bought a Brother PC8500 in about 2001. I probably spent about $5,000 then plus purchased several extras, including some embroidery cards of designs I liked then. Used it for awhile and then various life events interfered such as stressful work. I changed churches last year; a church that has many African immigrants from South Sudan, Congo and Uganda, and joined a church sewing group. One of the members has a beautiful expensive Baby Loc embroidery machine and did an African themed beautiful sewing embroidered wall hanging for an associated charitable group fund raising gala's silent auction. It sold for $2,000. I stopped bidding at $1300. So anyhow I decided it might be time to get back to the neglected machine and found some wonderful African themed designs online. I have been I pondering about whether to buy a newer machine and have spent hours looking at the various offerings online, Yet at my age, it might be money better spent, especially since I never made full use of the machine I have. So, I will follow through on your suggestion of checking out the Ultimate box. Thank you again.

Susan, than you for posting this. We really can do a lot with older machines. I really hope you enjoy your renewed acquaintance with embroidery!

Hi Susan,

We're glad to hear that you were able to see these responses, and will check out the Ultimate box. Best of luck!

Thanks for the info, Terry. I found info online that indicates that this machine sews 600 stitches per minute.

Sincerely,

~Heather
[email protected]

Thank you, Heather.

I imagine that was considered fast at one time.

For sure, Terry. :)

~Heather
[email protected]

2000 I have one just like it

Thanks, Elva!

Hi Debby, Here's a series of videos from BYU-Idaho Sewing that include several that show some of the embroidery capabilities of this machine. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy9wEWdMtsGrpHdTo...
They are not all machine specific, but look for the machine name, and you will be able to identify the relevant videos.

Most of the introductory videos I have seen for that machine were posted in 2012. Given that, my best guess is that it was manufactured in 2012 or 2011. It was common (still is) for embroidery software to require Windows and to only be accessible in Apple with a Windows emulator or translator. It may be possible to use the download with a newer version of Windows, but I have not been able to find any documentation of continued support for that machine's software.

The machine does have a number of designs and alphabets on board, though -- so it is possible to use it as a stand-alone embroidery machine and never connect it to a computer at all.

The user's guide for the machine (if you don't have the manual at this point) can be downloaded here: https://support.brother.com/g/b/manualtop.aspx?c=u...

Hi Debby,

This is an old one for sure! I don't even see specific information for it on Brother's Web site. I'll see what I can find and get back to you. So far as I know, Windows 95 applications are no longer being supporte.d