A good BMW scanner for the picky E53 4.4?

[turquise1]

Hey ppl,

You guys recommend a decent scanner / tester for a BMW?

I have been using a basic one for a while and the more complicated things I started to work on, the more I needed to test properly and the basic tool would not help anymore. I have also been using INPA successfully but I don't like carrying a laptop around for this.

Also, my E53 4.4 seems to be picky on scanners with the setup it has. It is a 00/06 production and I have both the 20 pin under the hood and 16 pin inside connectors. I have already tried Foxwell NT530, AutoPhix 7910 and iCarsoft BMM v3.0. Only Autophix works giving me basic functionality but I am looking for graphing and module actuation functionality as well.

Also, I have tried all of the different connections on 20 pin and 16 pin including shorting certain pins (20 to 17, 7 to 8 etc) and that did not work either. I can't even get live data from those so called (NT530 and iCarsoft) BMW specific tools. I finally traced all the pins on 16 and 20 sockets and built my own 20 to 16 pin adapter, matching each of their pin functionality using the info I found on the internet and failed once again.

Again, INPA seems to work fine although there is no graphing there, very limited actuation and once again I do not like carrying a laptop for that.

So, I would like to hear your experiences with other scanners around or under $1000. I am willing to spend such money as long as the tool does what it says it would..

I have been looking at some Autel and Launch products but hesitant because this buying and returning process has become very annoying..

Experiences?

Cheers,

Ozzie