DON'T TRY AT HOME, attempt to use Arm64-based laptop for X5 diagnosis

[workingonit]

Originally Posted by X5chemist

...Take a break and some deep breaths.

I relaxed, thought about it awhile, told the wife she was going to swap laptops...then about 24 hours later I resumed my quest, but following a different guide and using different downloads. Fifteen minutes ago, after workingonit for 2.5 hours, I think I've done it. As it's now dark, I'll wait 'til tomorrorrow to actually try INPA (or NCS Expert, or one of the four other packages/programs I downloaded).

I watched a YouTube video by Evan Goyuk this afternoon, "The Easiest Setup Guide INPA and NCS EXPERT"
https://youtu.be/MfuFA7noM0Q, then threw caution to the wind and went ahead.

Trusting the two-year-old info and downloading from yet another old link, I did get the program(s) installed, but not the driver for my K-line FTDI-chipped cable. So I hunted for a version specifically intended for ARM64-based desktops (close enough), and installed driver and two enabling features (one from the FTDI site, and one from Microsoft). On my third attempt, everything worked. I set the desktop (laptop) shortcuts into a folder, while I installed the programs (and zipped and extracted files, and driver setups) into the 128GB SD card I use for supplementary storage (the laptop already has an internal 128GB SSD). I have no desire to fill up my boot drive with these experiments, so that was the only precaution I took.

I only have two ports on my laptop, a USB-A and a USB-C 3.0, so my K-line cable couldn't have a dedicated port to use. As the guide said it must be COM-1, I had to make the K-line cable (using a USB-C OTG adapter), identified as an added USB device (COM-3) share the 3.0 port (COM-1), by re-designating it also as COM-1 though Microsoft warns against sharing ports. The USB-A port (COM-2) has a hub attached, with wireless mouse dongle and space for three more. I tested to make sure that the shared COM-1 port was still able to accept & transmit data, by loading & unloading a 500GB SSD with 200GB of files. So, it should work.

[workingonit]

I watched another video from Evan Goyuk today, to see how INPA was supposed to work...and it does! I went through most systems and INPA mirrors my Foxwell NT510 Elite, both reporting only 2 errors (INPA)/faults (Foxwell), both in KOMBI. They come and go, but never seem to stay away long, and cause no problems.

I need to set "Microsoft print to PDF" as the default printer on my laptop, so the F9 "Print" will keep a record for me, without screenshots, et al.

Another thing: I'll have to use my cellphone for "Google Translate" on/off-line, to read the German tech terms shown in INPA, because what little German I learned 50 years ago is long gone from my memory.