I finally solved my issues.
Additional issues that I faced were linked to the ODBII ebay cable(s) that I used, not with the cables themselves but with the driver. Apparently FTDI, the maker of the serial interface chip in these cables has published a driver that gets downloaded via Windows Update. I believe I had version 2.12.x.x. That version detects that the chip in my ebay cable as counterfeit and resets the PID of the chip. But it's also nice enough to leave a message in the Event Log. You can read more if you google "ftdigate".
Anyway, once I got a second cable and older drivers, I was able to connect
via INPA.
I used mainly this to install the tools:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1222277
Weird behavior, if you go to the FRM module and use the "Activate" module function in INPA, I was able to turn the headlight on. But of course it doesn't stay on after the car start, goes back to not lighting up.
I looked high and low for the procedure to reset the FRM short-circuit counters. Apparently the FRM detects a short circuit - due to my fried ballast
and keeps a counter. I read that once it gets to 50, the FRM needs to be changed. Anyway, I found the right procedure, I used Tool32 to read the counters and they were @ 18 for the right low beam. I looked at the trial and error instructions from here:
http://blog.obd2express.co.uk/2015/0...diabas-tool32/
... but I found something a bit more deterministic. It was on a Russian forum, I used Google Translate to translate the page and found a PDF with much better step by step instructions to reset the counters:
PDF attached
my way of giving back to the community.
I found that there was some contradiction between the 2 methods, one says I should check the Data option next to the function arguments, the other says to try both ways. I tried both checked and unchecked following the PDF, it didn't work the first time but I kept trying to reset the short circuit counters and kept checking their values - at some point it worked.
I used both ‘steurn_reset_kurzsclussab…’ and ‘_reset_kurzschluss_sperre’ to reset, the second one worked with the Data unchecked but didn't immediately reset the counters... I guess there must be some delay because about a few tries later they were at 0. If someone has an actual explanation for this, let's post it.
I then reset the errors with INPA and now I have 2 functional headlights.
AaronZ34: you're a loser.
[LATE EDIT] This post may have the answer to my reset issues:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=625111
and this:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=866044