Background:

I have spent the past few weeks here on NAM, on bimmerforums, e90post, and a few other forums trying to piece together how to get BMW Standard Tools to work reliably so I could code my R56. I have wasted hours staring at download timers on RapidShare and HotFile. I have spent entire afternoons searching forums, sometimes in other languages, looking for the answers to what I thought were exceedingly trivial questions that just simply were not answered anywhere else.

Becoming familiar with this software does have a bit of a learning curve, but I was still encumbered by a lack of consolidated, thorough information that left nothing to guesswork and didn't send me off on a wild goose chase looking for software that was only available in a 75-part RapidShare download.

I feel that I finally have a grip on this coding business, and I wanted to give back to the community by making sure that other people who want to take this up as a hobby don't have to drag themselves through the litany of failure and sadness that I did to get to where I am. This stuff isn't that difficult, and I think that with well-written documentation and easy access to the tools needed, this endeavor can be made orders of magnitude more simple.

Yet Another NCS Expert DIY:

I have written a thorough guide in plain English on how to set up your rig and use NCS Expert to code your car. The only other hardware you'll need is the diagnostic cable. The only other information you will need are the actual field names and values. If you own an R55, R56, R57, or an R60, you are in luck. All these models (basically, all "2nd Gen" MINIs) use the same datens, and Jbourne has set up a wonderful Google Docs spreadsheet with most of the known fields/values for these models. Unfortunately, you have to request access to the document. No one likes waiting, so I have provided an offline copy in Excel format. I still recommend you request access to the online version though, as it will get updates from time to time.

The software you'll be using with this guide is not that 15-year-old crap provided by ecutools.com. Anyone who has tried to follow their installation procedures knows what I'm talking about. I have provided BMW Standard Tools 5.0, which consists of a single installation wizard (in English!) that sets up the entire INPA suite. Hooray.

The datens (data files) provided are v38. I extracted them from the ~40GB ISTA-P software suite and bundled them into archives for each chassis. I will happily update the archive to v40/v41 when/if I can find a reliable source.

Lulzy side note: I recently paid $9 to download v40 datens from HotFile only to find out that the entire archive had been stripped of the exact files needed by NCS Expert. Way to go, interwebs.

I've tried by best to organize this software and create a guide that will result in the fewest possible problems when setting up your rig. However, I (and I'm sure the rest of the community) would be happy to attempt to help the novice coder with any problems they have, so long as it is somewhat evident that you have used the search feature first.

I would also be interested in working with people who are proficient with NCS Dummy to grow our database of known fields/values, especially on newer models.


Downloads:

- The Guide (Rev 2011.04.23) (PDF, 193KB) [download]
- R56 Codes Spreadsheet (XLS, 29KB) [download]
- The Software (Guide also included) (ZIP, 660MB) [download]


Further Reading:

- Strobeyprobey's Thread
- xxxjecxxx's Thread on E90Post
- revtor's Thread on Bimmerforums
- Jbourne's R56 Spreadsheet (you must request access)

Change Log:

2013.12.27
- All files moved to Mega
- No longer seeding old torrent

2013.10.23
- Fixed links

2011.04.23
- Added Glossary
- Minor formatting changes

2011.04.20
- Original version


Credits:

The author would like to thank (in no particular order):

- strobeyprobey, Jbourne, revtor, and xxxjecxxx for their contributions to their respective communities and for providing invaluable information in my quest to figure this all out.

Thanks for reading, and happy coding!

 

Nicely done!

 

Very nicely thought-out, articulated, and executed. Thanks for doing the leg-work I was about to have to do

 

Kudos! Excellent work. The interwebs thank you.

 

Wow!

So now, among others, I'll be able to turn off that stupid seatbelt chime?

Fantastic!

Good karma will befall you my friend.....

 

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

 

And I might even be able to get the convertible top to close with the key fob.

 

Are all the NCS Expert files and Software usable in a Windows environment?

 

I just programmed an E64 (645CI) to comfort close the convertible top. So it should be possible with the R57!

 

I would have loved to have written up a complete instruction set, but I just don't have the time to. :-) Figuring it all out was enough of a time sync!!! But I am very surprised how many people have picked up the cables and attempted the program changes!

I urge everyone who has gone as far as programming the car look towards getting even more value out of their cables by getting DIS v57 up and running. You need to get the EasyDIS v44 running in VMware then upgrade it to v57. DIS will give you all of the diagnostic information about fixing the car. It is what the dealer used (recently replaced by ISTA) to reset codes (like the airbag light for example) and check all codes and error conditions that don't even show a warning light. There is a sticky in the bimmerforums that discusses the install process.

 

Thanks again to the OP - I was able to get this working and several settings programmed in less than 2 hours using this thread.

I just posted in the NCS-Expert sticky thread about 1 problem I had (unable to read the FRM module).

 

Jman, I had the same issue reading the FRM module. As I understand it, certain daten versions just... "don't work" with certain modules. The only solution to this that I have seen is to maintain copies of datens that are known to work with a given module, and switch your datens out depending on which module(s) you want to work with.

As this solution is (in my opinion) messy and cumbersome, and because the only decent datens I could find were v38, I didn't include it in the guide. If anyone in the community has access to datens that are known to work with the FRM module, please PM me and I would be happy to add them to the archive and add a section to the guide explaining how to use them.

 

Link to the software is no go as ge.tt has put the kibosh on it for traffic amount. Any possibility to re-issue it as a torrent or different hosting site?

Anyone have a link for a good cable? Or is it any usb to OBD2 will do?

 

Torrent up, see first post. Anyone who can, please stay on after downloading and help seed.

Here's a link to search results on eBay, use the picture in the guide for reference: http://bit.ly/hFtSzU

 

I have an ElmScan 5 multiprotocol ODB Scan tool cable (OBD to USB) which does not appear to work with NCS Expert (although I did not load the NCS Expert driver but simply used the existing driver for ELMScan). I assume I need to BMW D-Can cable and the specific driver include in the package above to make NCS Expert work?

I see the links for cable on ebay.

Thanks for your help and a great write up.

 

Good post bro.

 

Well done . I made a sticky for NCS expert for beginners, maybe we could have updated that one instead of having again another thread on this subject.
Btw, I set up the spreadsheet and updated it with all the codes ...

 

Great job! I think i'll be ready to tackle NCS expert now. =)

 

As far as I know, as long as the cable supports D-CAN and you use the proper driver supplied with the cable, it would work with this software. However, I have only tested with the cable referenced in the documents.

 

im curios what are the limitaions of the software. is there a possibility to accesss the dme? and uncheck certain limitations there.

 

Not 100% sure about that Step, but if I had to venture a guess I would say probably not.

 

Quick question. I have been using NCS Expert 3.08 and wanted to upgrade using your software since its NCS 3.1. I completely deleted my old EDIABAS/NCS/IPNA software (I actually just did a clean install of my Windows XP OS on my laptop) so I could start over fresh.

Anyway, I installed everything following your instructions (a lot easier than my older version, by the way) but whenever I try to have NCS Expert read my ECU, it says "FAULTY CHASSIS." I noticed that after the install, there were no chassis folders in the NCSEXPER/DATEN folder. There were actually no files at all. I created a folder titled R56 and placed the datens in there but I'm thinking that's not right. Any suggestions? If not, I can just go back to my older version of EDIABAS. Thanks.

 

I think you have a problem wih you datens. Have you click on LADEN.BAT in c:/NCSEXPERT/DATEN/R56 ?
I suggest you reinstall NCS, try my sticky, I ve updated the file with V40 as well

 

BBoshart,

With the version of NCS Expert distributed in this thread, the DATEN folder will be empty by default. You must manually create a folder named "R56" (in your case) and copy everything from the "daten" sub-folder (extracted from the R56.zip archive in the "Datens (v38)" folder) into the "R56" folder you created.

Re-read page 7 of the guide and make sure you've followed everything there. If you continue to have issues, let me know.

 

Well I got past the FAULTY CHASSIS issue. I just recreated the R56 folder in the DATEN folder, and ran the LADEN.BAT. NCS can read my VIN and I can select a module to read. But now the problem I'm running into is the only module I can read is the CAS. It won't read SPEG (the one that started this whole process of upgrading so I could turn on my alarm light). But it also won't read other modules like RLS that I could read with my older version. I keep getting this error.

I've copied the SGDAT files and the DATEN files. And I copied the ECU files and replaced any existing ones with the new ones that came in the Datens (V38)/R56/ecu folder.

Any suggestions? Thanks for taking the time to help me figure it out.