1rotty 40 Report post Posted November 3, 2008 I recently bought one of these after studying reviews etc & thought it could be a pretty useful thing to have. After finally getting it loaded on the PC (the instructions are crap) my brother & I thought "cool,lets have a play"so to the shed we raced & plugged into the 540 & did a 'full diagnose'-very cool information & no error codes-"Excellent" we thought. Big bro says "I've got the airbag light on,lets see if we can reset it". So after a bit of car shuffling we hook up his 740 & off we go with the 'full diagnose'.Get a couple of error codes & reset,including the airbag light-"all good" we say."Aint this a great thing." NOT !!!! It completely nuked his OBC,cleared everything leaving all the displays blank,rev counter stuck on 6k,fuel guage out,no stereo etc etc. Took it to Jeff Gray for a recode-NOT !! Just wouldnt happen. So now module is on its way to AK hopefully for a rebuild ($300), if possible,or failing that a new unit at $600. So folks BE WARNED it could happen to you-be careful !!! The Airbag light reset tho. LOL.Big bro thinks perhaps next time it needs resetting it might be cheaper at the dealers Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jordyboy2 0 Report post Posted November 3, 2008 Ouch, thanks for the heads up though xD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1rotty 40 Report post Posted November 4, 2008 So today I took a deep breath & possibly a big dose of stupidity & ran a diagnose on my other 540.It has sold & needed the airbag reset. Didnt have any dramas except that I got a large number of 'module not responding' messages. Any comments from our resident techys?? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jochen 4 Report post Posted November 4, 2008 (edited) Don't play with software unless you are experienced! Make sure you READ before your WRITE! MAke sure your READS are 100% reliable before any WRITING ! Be aware of static discharge issues, earth potential etc Are you using a laptop on its own battery, or are you on a big PC running from mains? Does your vehicle interface use opto-isolators? BMW Software and Interfaces is designed to be bulletproof, other third-party systems are less bulletproof, and some wierd problems can exist. Are all port speeds / baud rates etc setup properly with no port conflicts eg internal modems? I've never had issues with programming BMWs myself, apart from the odd databus transmission clash, but I make sure the connection is always good and I take care that static is not an issue. I have no direct experience with carsoft. As for module not responding, what timeouts are you using? Have you taken care to reduce unnecessary databus traffic to prevent data overload? Do you have any log files showing log activity for analysis? Edited November 4, 2008 by jochen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1rotty 40 Report post Posted November 4, 2008 Don't play with software unless you are experienced! Make sure you READ before your WRITE! MAke sure your READS are 100% reliable before any WRITING ! Be aware of static discharge issues, earth potential etc Are you using a laptop on its own battery, or are you on a big PC running from mains? Does your vehicle interface use opto-isolators? BMW Software and Interfaces is designed to be bulletproof, other third-party systems are less bulletproof, and some wierd problems can exist. Are all port speeds / baud rates etc setup properly with no port conflicts eg internal modems? I've never had issues with programming BMWs myself, apart from the odd databus transmission clash, but I make sure the connection is always good and I take care that static is not an issue. I have no direct experience with carsoft. As for module not responding, what timeouts are you using? Have you taken care to reduce unnecessary databus traffic to prevent data overload? Do you have any log files showing log activity for analysis? Hi Jochen-thanks for your post.Just to show my ignorance the only questions I can answer are - laptop on mains power & apart from resetting airbag error & changing language from German to english we only read the analysis Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
*Glenn* 854 Report post Posted November 4, 2008 I've said this before as well... a scanner is just a tool, which anyone can buy. But you have to have knowledge of how everything works and understand what you are reading from the scanner. Sometimes many of the fault codes are the result of something else which cannot be monitored electrically. ie: Most oxygen sensor fault codes indicating out of scale symtoms are due to air leaks..... and the list goes on. My suggestion, If you want to play, do alot more research and be very, very careful, or it is going to cost you $$$ BTW: most of our diagnostic gear is stand alone and is not subject to virus's or conflicting software some laptops might have. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hybrid 1043 Report post Posted November 4, 2008 Alot of what Jochen talks about is also a little bit on the Old school side of computing. Some of you guys who where into computers / BBS's using modems on ISA slots will remeber the pain in finding "clear" address space and IRQ when running on the higher com port numbers. Most of the 'web 1.0' modems that came out were plug and play and this sort of knowledge wasn't needed (while problem with address space and iterupts still existed) What jochen is saying is when dumping data over RS323 to the Ibus/kbus, there is NIL error correction in the transfer protocol. Cars pick up alot of static from moving around. Especially in dry air. Most laptops dont actually have earth on the plugs however the first thing this static is going to do when you plug into the DME is go down the shield of your RS323 cable to you laptop and want to find the shortest earth point. Things to think about none the same. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
