As many of you know at this stage I have been fine tuning my coding & diagnostics skills over the past few years. I've bought many different kits & cables in that time. You'll find reviews that I have written on these cables on various sites but I'm not going to re-hash that because there is no point.
The reason there is no point is because there is only one solution I recommend right now, that is the solution being offered by BMTechnic in the UK.
http://www.cable-shack.co.uk/
What is Cable-Shack?
Well it is really just a neatly packaged bundle of software & diagnostic cable containing
- DIS v57
- INPA (with a modified version to maximise English content)
- NCS Expert (Coding)
- TIS (How To guides)
- Progman (don't install)
- Tool 32
- NFS
- WinFKP
Why Cable Shack & not EBay Cable?
You might say "sure all of that software is out there & freely available" why should I pay Cable Shack?
Here's some very good reasons:
- The difference with Cable Shack is the install solution that they have developed. It takes all the headache from the install. What is normally a mire of potential pitfalls becomes a one click install. Many of you have contacted me in the past (& still are) about issues you have had installing non-Cable Shack solutions so the install problem is a biggie
- Up to date Daten files. Updating the Daten files in your INPA/NCS Expert is vital if you are using the kit on newer cars (not F Series). Having older Daten files prevent you doing certain jobs. Cable Shack has the latest Daten files available always as part of their package. The updating process is another tricky task you can avoid by going with Cable Shack.
- Quality of the interface cable. Cable Shack are essentially rebranding a Chinese cable. However they are ensuring that the firmware on the cable is correct & testing each & every cable before shipping them to you. The EBay sellers are not doing this, in fact most sellers don't know how to use the cable they are selling
Which cable to get?
Cable Shack offer a number of different cables suitable for E-Series models, they have a simple to follow selection guide.
If you want to do diagnostics on an e36 then Cable Shack don't offer a cable suitable. However you can use their software package with an ADS type interface which can be bought elsewhere. You do need to change some software setting but I'm sure Chris would provide you with a macro to automate those changes. Just remember that in order to do e36 diagnostics your laptop must have a real serial port or specific PCMCIA to serial cards. A USB to Serial converter will not do, the data will not pass correctly through a USB-Serial adapter.
More detail will be added to this thread & you can ask specific questions on install here in this thread, not just for the Cable Shack solution.
If you have now moved on to an F Series Car then the diagnostics & coding game has moved on. The software & cables covered above are not suitable. The good news is that the Cable is cheaper and less complex, you need an E-Net Cable.
For diagnostics the solution out there is Rheingold. This is basically ISID and sometimes referred to as ISTA/P.
This is similar to the current system used by the dealer network. For F-Series cars you use this software with the E-Net Cable. However you can also use Rheingold with E-Series cars, but you need to adjust the configuration and also use a K+D CAN cable.
For coding F-Series cars you need to download the E-Sys software & use the E-Net Cable. It is similar in concept to NCS Expert albeit through a different software package.
EDIT: I updated this thread as BMTechic were taken down since it was originally written. I also added some info for F-Series cars.
Note that for E-Series cars www.bcables.com is an alternative to Cable shack.
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