I THINK I have figured it out - did lower the feed dogs
but on my machine - the tension is automatic and digital - I was taking it the wrong direction (reading the manual helps)....AND everything I have read says to set the stich length to zero - well I did that but apparently on this machine that just makes the stiches closer and tigher - when I set it to 4 which was the highest it would go - the bobbin thread stopped popping through and I haven't broken a needle in 30 minutes!
I'm going to keep playing and hope figuring this out is worth it!