[tinkerman]

Then you will need a D-CAN Cable (K+D CAN). You can get one from Ebay from about $25 and up, but trust me, if you don't want to waste weeks of time needlessly trouble shooting into infinity, get the One Stop Electronics' cable.
http://www.one-stop-electronics.com/shop/
It's like $99 but it just works. With the Ebay offerings, it's really hit or miss in terms of quality, and you are not driving just any old car.

I had initially gotten a $25 dollar cable, waited like 2-3 weeks for it, then ended up trouble shooting for another 2-3 weeks only to realize the cable was the problem, then I had to deal with the seller who did not respond for like a week until I filed an official complaint with Ebay. They then just gave up and said, sorry just keep the cable, and they refunded the $25. But by then I was already at least 1 month into nothing, and had to wait another 2-3 weeks for the good cable. That's almost 2 months before getting going with diagnostic activity!

I have no association with OSE. Just trying to save you about 4-5 weeks of waiting and frustration.

Once you have this OBD2 to USB interface cable, you can connect a laptop to your car. Download Sensible's ISID VM (or full version, but if you are not going to be using this all over town with other series models, then Sensible's ISID VM is the way to go because it will save you at least 30GB of disk s p a c e ). Then download Gini's ICOM emulator with 'snap shots'. Also download Gini's 'Instructions' for initial reference, but note that if you use Sensible's ISID VM like I did, then Gini's network settings in those Instructions will not work (the ICOM will not show up in the ISID's 'Connection manager'). That is why I posted my network settings for Gini's ICOM emulator 'snap shot' VM.

Also refer to my posts on:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ap-shot-method

[jc_bmw]

OK looks like I have the D-Can Cable (just received it) that can do coding. So that is the only hardware I need?

I guess are there instructions in setting up ISID or on how to use it?

[tinkerman]

For setup, refer to Gini's Instructions, then refer to my posts on network settings. If you are using Sensible's ISID VM, most likely my posted settings will work for you as well. But Gini's Instructions give a good general idea of the setup process for an actual ICOM emulator. Of course, just refer to it, and when time comes to execute, use the 'snap shot', NOT the regular ICOM.vmdk.

I'd search online for "ISTA" + "guide" or "manual" etc. You will encounter plenty of bad links, but you should also be able to find some good downloads. It may be difficult to find a very recent version but even an older version should give you a good general idea.

Then again, with a program like ISTA-D, once you have initially read your car's information into the program, you can access a lot of information related to your car thereafter (as long as you continue that session) just by having the D-CAN cable connected to your laptop, but without having to connect to the car. Of course if you try to access particular ECUs for say 'fault codes' then you would have to reconnect to your car. but for the initial 'orientation' to the ISTA-D, it should be enough to just get the initial read from your car then bring your setup to where you usually work on your computer, and just explore the various features of ISTA-D.

Now with ISTA-P, I am told that it's a good idea to actually have a real ICOM(or ICOM clone) for programming the car, instead of an ICOM emulator + K+D-CAN cable. Some folks claim that an ICOM emulator + an OBD2 (K+D CAN) cable is just not 'rock solid' in terms of stability for programming/flashing ECUs. You'd need a power supply(not a battery charger) with at least say 40Amps minimum output as well. In any case, I'd probably use lighter and faster software like INPA, NCS Expert, ToolSet32 if a real ICOM or ICOM clone unit is not accessible. In any case, an appropriate power supply would be required for programming, regardless of which software and interface are used.

I have done light 'coding'(change battery rating in VO using NCS, saving updated VO into CAS /FRM with NCS, then registering new battery into DME with ToolSet32) or just light diagnostic checks and fault code deletions(using DIS V57, INPA) with just a 10Amp digital battery charger connected to the jumper nodes under the hood and a new healthy 90Ah battery at as close to 90% or greater charge level. But for 'progamming'/'flashing' ECUs, I'd get a beefy, reliable, stable power supply ready.

[tinkerman]

Originally Posted by tinkerman

I mounted the vmdk in WinMount but when I try to open the drive I get this error:

"Location is not available
Z:\ is not accessible.
Incorrect function."

What am I doing wrong? Thanks...

Well, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the cause and a 'work around'. It not only resolves the issue for WinMount, but for the ‘Map Virtual Disk’ feature of VMware Workstation, and likely others like VMware DiskMount Utility etc.

Disable UAC(User Accounts Control) in Windows(temporarily as needed):
- In Vista and later versions such as Windows 7, under 'User Account Control Settings', bring the slider setting all the way down to 'Never notify'.

From a security stand point it's not ideal, but since peering into the ISID partitions to update SP-Daten is a temporary activity, can be done off line, and done with anti-virus software running, I think it should be fine to have the UAC setting down(OFF) briefly when necessary.

Apparently the UAC(User Accounts Control) feature in Windows Vista and later Microsoft OS, can cause programs to be unable to access some network locations.

For further ultra geek details check out the following link's post #6 along with the Microsoft link within.
http://communities.vmware.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

[tinkerman]

I’d like to edit/customize ISID’s initially displayed screens during initial boot, that show Sensible’s custom comments(in red color). For example, I’d like to indicate the included SP-Daten models for example (especially if I add/update with other models or versions of SP-Daten, so that if others use it, they will know for sure).

Does this need to be done via Admin access to ISID running as a VM, or
via access in Windows to ISID’s data files such as some image files with the ISID’s vmdk mounted in Windows as a ‘mapped virtual disk’?

[GenePoole]

Originally Posted by tinkerman

I’d like to edit/customize ISID’s initially displayed screens during initial boot, that show Sensible’s custom comments(in red color). For example, I’d like to indicate the included SP-Daten models for example (especially if I add/update with other models or versions of SP-Daten, so that if others use it, they will know for sure).

Does this need to be done via Admin access to ISID running as a VM, or
via access in Windows to ISID’s data files such as some image files with the ISID’s vmdk mounted in Windows as a ‘mapped virtual disk’?

It's just the background wallpaper. The registry points to:

P:\BASE\ISID.bmp

which is a copy of the main wallpaper in C:\Windows\ISID.bmp.org.bmp plus the extra text.

You can either change the registry key:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\Wallpaper

or put your own file in P:\BASE\ISID.bmp

Whichever is easier for you.

[tinkerman]

Thank you GenePoole, you just saved me perhaps hours of searching through the ISID partitions. Updating the ISID.bmp 'wallpaper' image seems to be the easiest method for me. 'So glad it is just this simple.

[GenePoole]

Originally Posted by tinkerman

Thank you GenePoole, you just saved me perhaps hours of searching through the ISID partitions. Updating the ISID.bmp 'wallpaper' image seems to be the easiest method for me. 'So glad it is just this simple.

I spent all those hours myself in an attempt to get this working with VMWare 7.x which I've had for a while. The ISID VM Sensible_ provided (I honestly appreciate it BTW) was for VMWare 9.x and I tried everything I could think of to get it to work with my 7.x: I built my own VM disk with the exact same partition structure in VM7 and used gparted to copy the partitions over, but it never would work right; I tried tar on raw mounted partitions with the same results. It would run seemingly fine, but the ISIS server would never connect and I had a banner at the bottom saying something about "ISIS server config in process" but never got it to work. I spent countless hours hacking registry, etc in vain; there's just something I'm missing. I finally broke down and paid the $119 to upgrade my VMWare to 9.02 and it all works fine now.

Thanks to Sensible_ and Gini for putting this out there.

[GenePoole]

Originally Posted by donchris

Hi can you share your Admin Password?

Password for admin is: azerty123

[jc_bmw]

What is the system requirement to run this?

[GenePoole]

Originally Posted by jc_bmw

What is the system requirement to run this?

I've got a Dell Latitude quad-core i7 with 8GiB ram and it seems to run fine. If you had a dedicated laptop, you could probably get away with 4GiB and a dual-core.

[tinkerman]

Originally Posted by GenePoole

I've got a Dell Latitude quad-core i7 with 8GiB ram and it seems to run fine. If you had a dedicated laptop, you could probably get away with 4GiB and a dual-core.

I'm getting away with 4GB RAM and a Core i5(dual core) MacBook Air with 256 GB SSD [106GB available of 158GB allotted to Windows 7 partition(prior to Sensible's ISID installation), and 75GB for Mac OSX Lion partition].

ISID does place considerable load on system resources and revs up the cooling fan's rpm, but the response during operation is just as good or slightly faster than DIS V57 (not bad).

[pweber]

Originally Posted by tinkerman

I'm getting away with 4GB RAM and a Core i5(dual core) MacBook Air with 256 GB SSD [106GB available of 158GB allotted to Windows 7 partition(prior to Sensible's ISID installation), and 75GB for Mac OSX Lion partition].

ISID does place considerable load on system resources and revs up the cooling fan's rpm, but the response during operation is just as good or slightly faster than DIS V57 (not bad).

Extend RAM to 8GB and all will be fine and much faster. 4GB is the size ISID requires.

[Sensible_]

Ok,

I haven't been here for a while and I see there have been some issues with compatibility.

A few issues I see have been raised.

- Network settings: this needs to be configured in the virtual network adapter settings. Vmnet2 with an ip of 169.254.0.0 also correct MAC address must be set.

- VMware compatibility: ok, so my vm's work with workstation and player. Player is easier to use in my opinion. If you have 32bit you may want to use the free VMware converter utility to convert the vmdk hdd controller back to IDE. This solves most issues but slightly slower performance in my experience. 64bit os is no problem.

Any other issues?

-

[cupra]

Originally Posted by Sensible_

Just thought I'd share what i'm using for the majority of my stuff now. I trying to ditch BMW Standard Tools in favour of ISID.

So, I found an ISID VM on torrent v3.1 which I have tweaked to make it alot smaller than the original 100gb, improved performance and have updated it with E89 V49.1 files. (Couldnt find V49.3). To make the VM small enough to share have removed ECU data for ALL other models. So this can only be used with the E90.

If you wish to reinstall data for other models simply add the files by mounting the VM in a nix distro or using something like winmount on wndows. Then copy the sp-daten folders into the directory below.

apps/BMW/services/ecudata/[your model number]

This VM has both Diagnostics ISTA/D and Programming ISTA/P installed. When run, ISTA/P loads first followed by ISTA/D - be patient.

------------

I have only tested this VM myself and for me it is working great for my needs. It works with ICOM Emulator + K+DCAN Cable, ICOM clone and real ICOM.

You may also wish to modify the VM settings, specifically the allocated ram to the guest machine. I have set it at 2gb as this is seems optimal for my 5gb Alienware M15x.

You may also notice an 'HDD Monitoring' warning. This is because I reduced the size of the VM HDD to make it easier to share. This has not caused my an issue.

If you find you need extra HDD pace on the VMDK just run it through VMWare Converter.



Rapidshare links in txt file. 26gb Approx.
Torrent Magnet Link
Password: e90post

Please seed

[Vacheron]

Very nice work. Congrats.
Anyone has any idea how to upgrade the system with newer versions of both ISTA/D and ISTA/P data?

[tinkerman]

Hi Sensible et al,

I’ve encountered an anomaly with VMware and hope you can enlighten me.
I recently updated your ISID VM with recently found SP-Daten 49.3 and psdzdata 49.4(although I wonder if psdzdata is even needed for E89 only setup). And it works just fine.
I used the ‘map virtual disk’ feature of VMware to ‘mount’ the 3rd partition disk. I first selected the BASE, E89, and psdzdata folders under ‘ecudata’, deleted the originals by right click and ‘Delete’, then copied over the newer BASE, E89, and psdzdata folders.
I noticed that over all the newer data files take up about 1GB of LESS space than the ‘originals’ in your setup. Therefore, I was expecting that the updated overall virtual disk would be around 77GB or less. But the size of the updated virtual disk is over 95GB!

< Questions >
1. Why is the ‘ISID_31_E89_ISTA-P-D.vmdk' showing as 95GB as opposed to something more like 77GB?

2. Perhaps the files I intended to delete did not get deleted properly? If so, how do they need to be deleted, so that the size of the virtual disk reflects their deletion?

3. I thought that psdzdata is for use with E-Sys on FXX series cars. I only updated the folder because I found what seems to be the latest(?) version. But does it even need to be present on an E89 only setup?

Thank you!

--- Update ---
Okay, so the 'Compact' feature in VMware workstation 9 is NOT reclaiming the 45GB or so of freed up space on the 3rd partition (I deleted even the updated BASE/E89/psdzdata folders in an attempt start fresh). Searching for a solution.

In the meantime, I've decided to reload the original virtual disk provided by Sensible and start over. Any pointers in how to 'reclaim virtual disk space' after deleting older data, would be much appreciated.

Also, I'm still wondering though if an E89 only setup needs the psdzdata folder/files in the ecudata folder. If not I'd delete it and 'reclaim' the roughly 17GB of storage space from the host SSD.

[abhi]

tinkerman can this be used to import fsc codes?

[tinkerman]

Originally Posted by abhi

tinkerman can this be used to import fsc codes?

Sorry, I've not yet familiarized myself with BMW's ASAP (After Sales Assistance Portal) or on-board navigation systems' technology, for I use a 3rd party domestic navigation because updates are perpetually free and easily updated online by the user.

'Hope someone else with related experience will chime in to advise.

[abhi]

I have been unsuccessful at getting thru the torrents. Is there some place else that I can get this? Any help would be much appreciated.

[tinkerman]

Originally Posted by tinkerman

--- Update ---
Okay, so the 'Compact' feature in VMware workstation 9 is NOT reclaiming the 45GB or so of freed up space on the 3rd partition (I deleted even the updated BASE/E89/psdzdata folders in an attempt start fresh). Searching for a solution.

In the meantime, I've decided to reload the original virtual disk provided by Sensible and start over. Any pointers in how to 'reclaim virtual disk space' after deleting older data, would be much appreciated.

Also, I'm still wondering though if an E89 only setup needs the psdzdata folder/files in the ecudata folder. If not I'd delete it and 'reclaim' the roughly 17GB of storage space from the host SSD.

Good news! VMware vCenter Converter Standalone works, and there is even a simpler solution - 'SDelete'. Thanks to DanDanio(from Bimmerfest) and Sensible for their pointers.

Also, my ISID operates just fine without the psdzdata folder that was in the 3rd partition( apps>ISTA-P>BMW>Services>data>ecudata ) and made it possible to ‘reclaim’ 20GB!

[VMware vCenter Converter]

Summary
With Converter, a new virtual disk(‘destination machine’) needs to be created based on the old virtual disk (‘source machine’). And depending on how the ‘Conversion’ settings are set, it is possible to adjust the maximum volume sizes and/or just ‘shrink’ the virtual disk’s size as it appears in the host OS’ explorer. There are a LOT of options that can be viewed as ‘versatile’ or ‘complicated’.

1. Pros
A. Even if a single virtual disk(vmdk) consists of multiple partitions, Converter will process all partitions together(without having to individually process each partition), as long as under ‘Data to copy settings’, ‘Data to copy type:’ is set to ‘Select volumes to copy’, resulting in the final disk size showing in the host OS as a sum of all actual data sizes within all partitions(all unused disk space is zero filled and ‘reclaimed’).
B. Graphic User Interface (as opposed to a command line based) gives a sense of user friendliness on initial use.

2. Cons
A. Can seem to be too many options(potentially confusing to new users).
B. Source virtual disk’s configuration settings were replaced with new settings causing booting issues in the destination virtual disk. This may have resulted from having the ‘Reconfigure virtual machine’ setting (under ‘Destination customization’) set to ‘Yes’. Therefore, this may not be a real issue, but I have not checked this.
C. To resolve the issue with configuration settings (which in my situation was not being replicated during the ‘converting’ process,) I had to reuse the source’s vmx(VMware virtual machine configuration) file – I had to open the source virtual disk’s vmx file in notepad, and update the file names mentioned in the vmx file with the destination virtual disk’s file names. Of course if the destination virtual disk is named the same as the original source then it should be possible to just ‘reuse’ the old vmx file without updates.
D. A new virtual disk must be created. Therefore if the source is large, say 80GB, even if 30GB is ‘reclaimed’, the 50GB destination virtual disk still needs to be ‘created’ at speeds comparable to copying to an external drive, and this additional disk space needs to be available somewhere along with some ‘elbow room’.

Detailed Procedure
* I’ll post details later if there seems to be a demand for this information. I doubt it at the moment.


[SDelete]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897443.aspx

Summary
With SDelete, each partition within a virtual disk needs to be mounted onto the host OS explorer one at a time, and processed with SDelete which will ‘reclaim’ the ‘dead space’. Then the entire virtual disk needs to be ‘compacted’ within VMware Workstation.

1. Pros
A. Although initially might seem tedious to use because it is a command line executable, it is relatively limited in its functions, making it much simpler than Converter.
B. Works directly on the virtual disk’s partitions. Therefore, there is no need to ‘create’ a new virtual disk, a huge time saver.
C. No need to be concerned about configuration settings being replicated or not, for this tool focuses on drive space maintenance as opposed to recreating entire VMs.

2. Cons
A. If there are multiple partitions within the virtual disk, and you want to ‘reclaim’ space from all partitions, then you have to mount each partition(to show up in the host OS’ explorer) one at a time and process each partition, before ‘compacting’ the entire virtual disk in VMware Workstation.

Detailed Procedure
* I’ll post details later if there seems to be a demand for this information. I doubt it at the moment.

In the end both methods produced satisfactory results - reduced my 77GB ISID vmdk(customized for E89 series only) down to 57GB!

But in the future, I think I’ll opt for SDelete, for it is quicker and takes up no additional storage space to process.

Cheers.

[BusyBox]

Can you share how you manipulate the ISID offline days counter?

Thank you!