AndrewWNZ 0 Report post Posted January 2, 2022 Does anyone have a working USB to OBD1 cable they are no longer requiring? I've bought 3 from overseas and none have worked. Over wasting money so figured I'd try and see if someone has a 'tested' cable they are willing to part with for the right price. Cheers Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle 1662 Report post Posted January 2, 2022 What car are you trying to connect to with what software. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AndrewWNZ 0 Report post Posted January 2, 2022 (edited) Hi Eagle, 1997 E36 323i with M52B25 engine. Using Mikes easy BMW tools with INPA and trying to do coding with NCSExpert. Doing a gearbox swap from auto to manual and want to do the coding to remove the transmission and engine check lights. Edited January 2, 2022 by AndrewWNZ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle 1662 Report post Posted January 2, 2022 Ok. The 16>20pin adapter is what ive always used and most common way to connect. Dont think ive ever seen cable like you describe. Mines not for sale but PM me and i maybe able to loan it if local. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NZ00Z3 187 Report post Posted January 2, 2022 ADS/OBD1 does not work via a USB port. You need an old fashioned XP computer with a real serial port and a special cable if you want to use INPA and BMW standard tools. It's all about how the BMW engineers tried to speed up the processing by doing clever stuff with the serial chip commands that the USB serial emulation does not support. Anything 96 or younger car has an OBD2 DME, so your 97 323i should work off a USB port and the right K-DCAN cable and 16 to 20 pin adapter. Your car will however, have lots of OBD1 modules. BMW didn't get around to making the whole car OBD2 until later. It was 03/98 for the Z3 (E36/7). Other models may have different dates. The usual problem with setting up INPA and a new cable is the addressing of the com port. You need to have the same com port in, INPA, Device manager and the cable. The cable comes set at com port 1. But every time you play with the cable setting with the FTDI software, the com port is incremented by 1 when you save to the cable. The switch on the K-DCAN cable is of no consequence with the E36's. It only comes into play with the E46's and later. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AndrewWNZ 0 Report post Posted January 2, 2022 Cheers Eagle, appreciate that. I am in Hamilton too so if you're happy to lend out your cable it would be greatly appreciated. I'll message you if thats OK. Cheers for the info NZ00Z3. I didnt realise the comm port was also set in the cable. This could be why I am struggling. The PC I am a running is Windows 7 32bit. I have installed Mikes Easy BMW tools and followed his included instructions. Including setting the comm port to comm 1 and setting the latency to 1. We have the ingition turned on, 20pin end of the adapter plugged into the car and the 16 port end into the K-DCAN cable which is then plugged into the PC usb port. Windows recognises the cable so that side of things seems to be OK. when I load INPA I load the profile included with Mikes Easy BMW tools, push Shift and F8 to select older model. Select E36, select engine and select M42 with M52 engine. The thing processes for a bit but eventually errors out with a unable to find or communicate with module error ( cant recall the exact error). Is there a way to reset the comm port of the cable back to comm 1? If not, how do I determine what the comm port of the cable is? Cheers for the help, much appreciated. Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NZ00Z3 187 Report post Posted January 3, 2022 (edited) The MS42 DME is for the M52TUB engines (double VANOS). So, a little confused why you are selecting that one. The MS41 DME is for the M52 engine (signal VANOS) and what I was expecting you to be connecting to. Generally, if you select the wrong DME, INPA will give an error and at the end of that message, it will tell what DME it found. You then select that DME and your are on line. With the FTDI software, you can check to see what the Cable com port setting is. Don't save to the cable and you'll be good. Edited January 3, 2022 by NZ00Z3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle 1662 Report post Posted January 3, 2022 3 hours ago, AndrewWNZ said: Cheers Eagle, appreciate that. I am in Hamilton too so if you're happy to lend out your cable it would be greatly appreciated. I'll message you if thats OK. Yeah msg me if you can't get it sorted. I don't know what modules you need to read for the E36 manual conversion but it will work with all the main ones (DME,EGS,SRS,ABS,EWS) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
