[Rich]

Sup guys, I think im finally making some ground with installing this INPA thing, its only been a few months of trying to get my head around it.

I have this diag cable here and was wondering of anyone knows if it'll work with INPA or if i need a specific one. I dont have much in the way of tech specs but the software that came with this one had something to do with "ELM327" in it.

much appreciated.

 

[rebel.ranter]

Hi I don't think that one will work with INPA, you're best off buying either:


D+K CAN Cable this one will cover post march 2007
or
Ediabas INPA Serial Port Cable, ODB II Serial Port required on your laptop, or use a USB to serial but youare only entering headach territory IMO.
or
VAG-COM KKL cable, you'll need to do a little soldering modification to use this one, see guide on "how to" here. The advantage is that the VAG-COM cable has a built-in USB to serial adapter.
Hope this helps. I have 2nd two cables working & a Carsoft Cableworking with INPA, wouldn't recommend the Carsoft cable for INPA, toomuch of a pain.

 

[Gar]

Hi I don't think that one will work with INPA, you're best off buying either:


D+K CAN Cable this one will cover post march 2007
or
Ediabas INPA Serial Port Cable, ODB II Serial Port required on your laptop, or use a USB to serial but youare only entering headach territory IMO.
or
VAG-COM KKL cable, you'll need to do a little soldering modification to use this one, see guide on "how to" here. The advantage is that the VAG-COM cable has a built-in USB to serial adapter.
Hope this helps. I have 2nd two cables working & a Carsoft Cableworking with INPA, wouldn't recommend the Carsoft cable for INPA, toomuch of a pain.

i bought this inpa on your recommendation a while ago mark im picking up a laptop now with an rs 232 connection this week will i have any problems running it or is that all i need

 

[rebel.ranter]

As long as you have the software, the lead & the serial port equipped laptop you can use INPA to your hearts content! Of course you're gonna want to get GT-1/DIS & SSS Progman running next too! INPA is the most straight forward install, see here on how to install. Make sure you install INPA 4.4.7/Ediabas 6.4.3 before you upgrade to INPA 5.0.2/Ediabas 6.4.7. Also it is important to install it from an image (.ISO) or a copy of sofware copied to disc. Using Daemon tools to mount image is the easiest.

 

[Gar]

As long as you have the software, the lead & the serial port equipped laptop you can use INPA to your hearts content! Of course you're gonna want to get GT-1/DIS & SSS Progman running next too! INPA is the most straight forward install, see here on how to install. Make sure you install INPA 4.4.7/Ediabas 6.4.3 before you upgrade to INPA 5.0.2/Ediabas 6.4.7. Also it is important to install it from an image (.ISO) or a copy of sofware copied to disc. Using Daemon tools to mount image is the easiest.

happy days thanks mark

 

[Rich]

Hi I don't think that one will work with INPA, you're best off buying either:


D+K CAN Cable this one will cover post march 2007
or
Ediabas INPA Serial Port Cable, ODB II Serial Port required on your laptop, or use a USB to serial but youare only entering headach territory IMO.
or
VAG-COM KKL cable, you'll need to do a little soldering modification to use this one, see guide on "how to" here. The advantage is that the VAG-COM cable has a built-in USB to serial adapter.
Hope this helps. I have 2nd two cables working & a Carsoft Cableworking with INPA, wouldn't recommend the Carsoft cable for INPA, toomuch of a pain.

brilliant, thanks for the info,

Would you say the VAG COM one would be the best one to go for considering the price and USB compatibility? I don't mind doing a little soldering to it since it has the serial adapter built in to make things a little handier.

Ideally i would have used a laptop with a serial port but the one laptop i was able to get my hands on, wont load up windows xp for some reason, so ive had to settle for something a little more recent with only USB to connect to.

thanks again for the tips,

 

[rebel.ranter]

What problem are you experiencing with setting up XP? Is it saying that it cannot find files? It could be a faulty hard drive, I had the same issue with one of my laptops, & a new hard drive resolved the issues.

 

[Rich]

Thats something i hadn't thought of actually, i forget the exact problem now but i'll dig it out and try again later on. I have a couple of IDE hard drives i can switch around and see if that makes any difference.

 

[Rich]

Success!

I managed to get XP installed on the older serial equipped laptop and all it took was a new hard drive in there, The only down side being the hard drive was only a 6gb one so not a whole lot of room. That souldn't really be a problem though.

I also managed to get Carsoft 6.5 installed and it seems like a nice program to work with.

@ rebel ranter: would all 3 of those cables work with carsoft as well as inpa?

If i go with option 2, the one with serial connector will I be able to read later model cars? my own is a 2003 E60 so id need it to work with that.

 

[rebel.ranter]

Carsoft will only work with the Carsoft cable, you'll realize that this software isn't a patch on INPA when you have it working! The Carsoft cable can be used with INPA, GT-1/DIS & SSS Progman but the down side is you have to run a Carsoft diagnostic before you use any of the rest of the programs.
They all rave on about the modified VAG-Com cable as being the best because it is cheap & readily available, also mainly that it is USB. I like my option 2 best!
Cars up to March 2007 have D-CAN so any of the cables will do the job. After that K-CAN was used so you need the first (more expensive) cable or you will not be able to talk to all the modules.
I could definitely use my Carsoft cable on my e36 & the 2nd cable did auto detect on it also (no issue with e39), I have not used VAG-Com cable on e36, yet. The VAG-Com cable is also likely to work for some functions unmodified too from what I have read, I must get down to modifying mine (was holing back as I was thinking it might be handy for VWs).
Just remember that using any of the cables means using the software in a way that was not originally intended so you are likely to hit the odd glitch in use. I wouldn't be using this set up to suppot a business or anything.
Having said that I've had no issues at all so far.

 

[Rich]

Brilliant, thanks again for the info,

Sure i'll probably just buy both of them to get to know em,.


I got Carsoft in a bundle with a load of other diagnostic softwares so just thought id give it and run and see what its like. It was a lot easier to install than INPA and seemed handy enough to use but sure theres no point in buying yet another cable huh.

 

[rebel.ranter]

Get it going with the Carsoft cable anyway.

 

[Rich]

firstly, thanks for all the help rebel, i would have given up ages ago if not for the tips.

I got the cables today and i already had INPA installed on the computer. a few tweaks and i had it all up and running and was finally able to reset the pesky restraint system failure warning in the car so the cables have paid for themselves imo.

I dont know if its anything you would be familiar with rebel.ranter, but have you any idea how i could go about turning off my DRLs? I "dont think" its done in INPA and from what i have been reading i'll need to use something like SSS Progman or NCS Expert. NCS looking like the handier one to install of the two. Have you any experience installing that?

cheers.