This document outlines my experience diagnosing my BMW E34 with INPA/DIS.
My E34 is a JDM-spec car that originally shipped with a JATCO JR502e transmission. It was built in 09/91, with an M50 pre-VANOS engine.
Summary
The approach I have taken so far is summarized as follows:
- Install BMW DIS v39 natively on an IBM Thinkpad R40
- Install Windows 2000, INPA 6.4.3 (Referenz). Run IHVsrv32 and the Diagnostic Head Emulator
- Use an RS232 -> ADS interface cable (http://openlabs.co/projects/Tiny-ADS-Interface)
- Use a Linksys WRT54G router to provide a network beween the Thinkpad and the W2k machine (a Dell Latitude C840)
To get the Thinkpad running, I followed this guide:
and
I managed to get into the Recoding area of the E34 once, getting these critical values:
(I have heard that losing the GM/SA/VN numbers and not having a ZCS value is very bad, so I’ve attached a picture here)
I could not connect to many of the modules afterwards. Diagnosis within DIS took over an hour to clear codes and I was unable to get any diagnostic data.
Along with the brittle-ness of having two laptops set up, the router, getting DIS to talk to DiagHead, and so-forth, I decided I should instead use INPA to talk to the car.
Unfortunately, the version of INPA I have only has files for DME 3.31 (M50 with Vanos), with the other files being rare as hen’s teeth.
However, INPA is actually a soft-coded beast. Each element in the UI corresponds to a configuration file which outlines the options. The mapping from RS232 configuration to displayed/enterable parameters is also configurable.
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=704094
This makes adding the option in the menu for E34 M50 2.5 l, DME 3.3 quite simple. However, it is critical to not brick the DME. (Although I do happen to have a spare just in case). Reading the forums, I have discovered that DIS also uses .PRG files for the rs232->configuration mapping, and that INPA uses the same files.
Exploring in the DIS Hard-disk
BMW DIS runs on SCO OpenServer 5.0.7 (the SCO who tried to sue any Linux vendor 10 years ago.), which uses a proprietary file-system/partitioning format. http://scofaq.aplawrence.com/FAQ_scotec1linuxfs.html . SCO allows multiple file-systems to live within the same partition. Linux drivers for this “divvy” schema are non-existent.
So, the next plan of attack is to use FTP on the DIS computer to get all of the files out onto a real computer.
Once the files are loaded off the Thinkpad, I plan to write a shell script that does a recursive diff to find which files have exist on DIS and not INPA. For files that exist in both, I want to do a binary diff and make sure they are actually the same.