[Kaos-Industries]

After hours of research and finally getting my hands on a cable and the car that I'm wanting to code on (my cousin's), I finally managed to have a go at setting up the BMW Coding Tools with INPA and NCS Expert, but so far have had no luck getting either to work, even after three different attempts. Atm I can't even get the two black circles in INPA to show, so I'm guessing that the problem is the connection. I've done everything listed to setup NCS Expert and configure the cable on every tutorial I can find, including changing the settings in Device Manager, but no matter what I try can't seem to get it working, which makes me the think that the cable itself might be problematic. The cable was fairly cheap, around £15, and am wondering whether it's one of those that need to be modified before it'll connect.

Here is the cable: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331789200109

And I've attached pictures of the circuit board inside it.

Will it need to be modified, and if so, what exactly is the process for modifying it?

Thanks!

 

[Kaos-Industries]

Anyone?

 

[acoste]

What car are you working on? The pin 7 & 8 has to be shorted for pre 2008 cars.

Also are you sure the port is set up correctly in Windows? Even when I forget to disconnect pin7&8 the ignition and battery dots come on but fails to communicate.

 

[Kaos-Industries]

What car are you working on? The pin 7 & 8 has to be shorted for pre 2008 cars.

Also are you sure the port is set up correctly in Windows? Even when I forget to disconnect pin7&8 the ignition and battery dots come on but fails to communicate.

Hey, thanks for the reply.

By "shorted", do you mean placing a jumper on pins 7 and 8? And if so, is that the only "modification" that needs to be made for it to work? Also, would this apply to just my cable, or any of the cables on the market - do they all need pins 7 and 8 to be connected together when working with pre-2008 cars?

Atm, I'm working on a pre-2008 E60, but I'm also wanting to use the same cable for plenty of other cars, if at all possible.

 

[acoste]

I have a switch on my connector to short it. You could add a switch or buy a cable that already has it.

You can see a shorted version here:

 

[Kaos-Industries]

Also are you sure the port is set up correctly in Windows? Even when I forget to disconnect pin7&8 the ignition and battery dots come on but fails to communicate.

Sorry for the late reply, decided to try it one last time before I got back to you. I've now tried three different installations with two different versions of the programs, and checked and triple-checked each of the individual settings that the instructions list, and have still had no luck, so I'm pretty positive it's the cable rather than the installation at this point.

I have a switch on my connector to short it. You could add a switch or buy a cable that already has it.

You can see a shorted version here:

Sorry for the late reply. So, as far as I understand things so far from what you've told me and my own research, pre-2008 cars need pins 7 and 8 joined together (known as a Double K-Line), and post-2008 cars need them separated (a single K-Line). Is that right?

What about the higher-end cables like the famous one from One StopElectronics:

http://www.one-stop-electronics.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=16

That obviously supports the Double K-Line, but I can't see anything about a switch anywhere, so how do you think it manages to accomplish it?

And finally, do you know what the difference will be between a generic cable with a switch - whether I buy one or modify my own - and the One Stop Electronics one? Does the One Stop Electronics have any real advantage over the generic cables?

I know I'm being overly curious, but I'm just wanting to cover all my bases and get as solid a grounding of this stuff as possible before I continue. Thanks again!

 

[acoste]

Back to the ports to make sure they are correct because I think you are missing there something

Open the PDF I attached. See step 4

check ediapas ini

check odb.ini

Com port should match with the number the device manager shows.

set all to com9 and then you will be fine

 

[acoste]

Sorry for the late reply. So, as far as I understand things so far from what you've told me and my own research, pre-2008 cars need pins 7 and 8 joined together (known as a Double K-Line), and post-2008 cars need them separated (a single K-Line). Is that right?

Correct.

What about the higher-end cables like the famous one from One StopElectronics:

http://www.one-stop-electronics.com/...&product_id=16

That obviously supports the Double K-Line, but I can't see anything about a switch anywhere, so how do you think it manages to accomplish it?

If you would have read the description you would realize that it uses an additional adapter for pre2007 cars.
Lots of info in that description, go through it.

 

[Kaos-Industries]

Back to the ports to make sure they are correct because I think you are missing there something

Open the PDF I attached. See step 4

check ediapas ini

check odb.ini

Com port should match with the number the device manager shows.

set all to com9 and then you will be fine

As I've already explained, I tried all of these. Everything from changing the variables in the .ini files, to setting the COM ports correctly, to manually adding the EDIABAS working directory to the PATH environment variable; if it was in either the instructions to the coding pack that Shawn Sheridan put together or listed in the Getting Started tutorial on E90post.com, I've tried it, tens of times on at least 3 different installations, hence why I said I'm 90% positive it's not the installation anymore.

Is there any particular reason you said to set the port to COM9? I haven't seen anything to suggest that COM9 would work over other COM ports, and I've already tried both COM1 and COM5.

Correct.

Brilliant, thanks.

If you would have read the description you would realize that it uses an additional adapter for pre2007 cars. Lots of info in that description, go through it.

Okay, despite having gone over that link numerous times, I missed that, so thanks for that. Before I wrote my last post, I actually started using the PDFs on that page to definitively figure out which cars used which cables, and I've just finished writing up a guide on the whole thing that I'll be posting to the forum soon.

One more thing - you said 2007 above, but before that you said 2008? For clarification, which is it?

 

[acoste]

Is there any particular reason you said to set the port to COM9? I haven't seen anything to suggest that COM9 would work over other COM ports, and I've already tried both COM1 and COM5.

I pick a number that is high above the other automatically assigned port numbers so Windows is not going move or reassign my port number. 9 is high enough for that on my laptop.

Models that require D-CAN:
- E60, E61 after 3/2007
- E83 after 9/2006
- E81, E87 after 3/2007
- E90, E91, E92, E93 after 3/2007
- E70 (New X5)
- R56 (New Mini)
- New F Series
- As well as all other new models...