n1das
TDIClub Enthusiast, Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2002
- Location
- Nashua, NH, USA
- TDI
- 2014 BMW 535xd ///M-Sport, 2012 BMW X5 Xdrive35d, former 3x TDI owner
LOL, VAG-free here too and into BMW diesels!I've been vag free for a while. Interested to see how the sport edition will hold up in the Michigan winters
We'll see how my 535d Xdrive and X5 Xdrive35d hold up over the long haul.
I am working on learning the car's electronics, like learning about VWs using VCDS (VAG-COM). The software and OBD2 cable I have for the BMWs is from Bavarian Technic, basically the BMW equivalent of VCDS and design specifically for BMWs. There are a few other software packages out there that will work with BMWs and allow you to get to the BMW-specific stuff.
Supposedly the latest BMWs use Ethernet instead of CAN to communicate between modules and connecting to the car's "network" is real easy. You can easily build your own Ethernet to OBD2 cable to connect a PC to the network. The car has a pseudo Ethernet router and you connect to it through a few of the unused pins in the OBD2 connector. Basically you can take a standard CAT5 Ethernet patch cable and cut one end off and replace it with an OBD2 connector with connections made to the appropriate pins. You don't have to buy a proprietary interface cable. The other end with the RJ45 connector still on it plugs into the Ethernet port on your PC. The router in the car will automatically assign an IP address to the PC just like plugging the PC into any other Ethernet router to get on a network. The rest is in software.
BMW coding and programming info: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=175
I was recently using the Bavarian Technic software and cable to look at some live data, just like I've done in TDIs w/VCDS. I was just exploring out of curiosity to see what live data I can read with the software. One neat thing I found is the engine ECU (aka DDE in BMW terminology) is able to monitor the turbo's actual RPM, among other things. The turbo actually has an RPM pickup sensor on it, probably a Hall Effect device and like the crank sensor on TDIs. With my 535d idling it was kinda cool to measure the turbo's RPM and find it spinning at 14,000 RPM. When I gun the engine a few times I can watch it spool up to well above 50,000 RPM. When operating fully on boost I would expect it to be well above 100,000 RPM like in our TDIs.
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