Im looking for ISTA or INPA Software. Need some advise.

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by EODguy

I know that I sound like a salesman for them, but getting a Foxwell nt-510, nt-520 or even the nt-710 is the best item in 95%+ of the cases and the best part is you can leave it in the car 24/7, 365 without worry. Mine has survived without problem for 3+ years and air temperatures here hit over 140f and I don't park in the shade....

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+1 on this. I have the Schwaben equivalent to the NT510. It is in the car at all times. It will do just about everything you will need from the laptop programs 95% of the time.

[victell]

Originally Posted by EODguy

I know that I sound like a salesman for them, but getting a Foxwell nt-510, nt-520 or even the nt-710 is the best...

What is the difference between the nt-510 and the nt-520? I've searched but haven't found anything yet. I already have a nt-530 but it sounds like the 510 and 520 have more functions.

[EODguy]

The 510 and 520 communicate with all the modules in the e53 where the 530 has some that it can't read/reply to....



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[workingonit]

Originally Posted by victell

What is the difference between the nt-510 and the nt-520? I've searched but haven't found anything yet. I already have a nt-530 but it sounds like the 510 and 520 have more functions.

I bought my NT510 Elite in January '21, after researching bi-directional scan tools for BMW, which I didn't even get until 4 months later (I bought it with General Motors software, which I needed to use first, then bought the BMW software when I got the X5).

I read many posts on all the BMW (and some Porsche) forums, and saw that the Foxwell NT5xx models were favored as the best bang for-the-buck units. But, depending on the date purchased and location of the purchaser, the Foxwell units had different model designations, different software offered for them, and slight differences in functionality.


When I got mine, there were 3 choices I was debating:

• 1) NT530, from a third party source, via Amazon (don't remember the name),
• 2) NT510 Elite, from OBDZON (listed "as the rights owner of FOXWELL") via Amazon in Jan '21, and
• 3) "Schwaben by Foxwell", from ECSTuning (from what I've read, it's a NT510 Elite, in grey, with the same functions as the above, but more expensive; I wasn't sure if it would accept GM software, so I went with the NT510 Elite)

As far as I can tell, there are NT510, NT510 Elite, and NT510 Pro models, NT520 and NT520 Pro models, and the NT530 in the NT5xx series. What (if any) differences between plain, Elite, and Pro designations there are, I don't know. I've looked up E53 functionality on their websites (there are at least two, and possibly more sites for sales & support), and they seem to be the same functions.



My NT510 Elite is supported by https://www.foxwelltech.us/ (or www.foxwelltech.com), and isn't even listed on the https://www.foxwelldiag.com/ site. Go figure.

Overall, I think the NT510's & 520's might have a little more versatility, but I've no way to reliably say for sure, but it looks like the newer NT710 model beats them all, and is what I'll get next (I'll talk the wife into agreeing to buy one, so I can work on her "new-to-her" '14 Lexus ES350 (I've read that they'll let you move my other already-purchased software over to it, when I buy it with Toyota-Lexus software).

[nick325xit 5spd]

For BMWs, nothing beats having INPA / ISTA / NCSExpert / Tool32 / WinKFP.

The Foxwell and such are handy tools to have, but not nearly as capable.

Fun fact: You can run these in a VM on an Apple Silicon Mac. I just coded in a new steering angle sensor on a friend's E46, for example.

[RocketyMan]

Originally Posted by nick325xit 5spd

For BMWs, nothing beats having INPA / ISTA / NCSExpert / Tool32 / WinKFP.

The Foxwell and such are handy tools to have, but not nearly as capable.

Fun fact: You can run these in a VM on an Apple Silicon Mac. I just coded in a new steering angle sensor on a friend's E46, for example.

Agreed.

I also did that too on my steering angle sensor. I had to buy a new one and needed the vin coded.

[victell]

Originally Posted by workingonit

...As far as I can tell, there are NT510, NT510 Elite, and NT510 Pro models, NT520 and NT520 Pro models, and the NT530 in the NT5xx series. What (if any) differences between plain, Elite, and Pro designations there are, I don't know. I've looked up E53 functionality on their websites (there are at least two, and possibly more sites for sales & support), and they seem to be the same functions.

...Overall, I think the NT510's & 520's might have a little more versatility, but I've no way to reliably say for sure...

This seems to be what I've found as well. At this point I don't feel confident enough that the 510 or 520 will have more functionality than my 530. Guess I'll stick with what I have for now. Thanks for the thorough reply.

[Henn28]

Originally Posted by nick325xit 5spd

For BMWs, nothing beats having INPA / ISTA / NCSExpert / Tool32 / WinKFP.

The Foxwell and such are handy tools to have, but not nearly as capable.

Fun fact: You can run these in a VM on an Apple Silicon Mac. I just coded in a new steering angle sensor on a friend's E46, for example.

I had inpa working great on my windows 10 pro laptop, until I needed it again and it can’t “communicate” with the X5 now. I’m hoping I don’t have to uninstall/reinstall, but it may come to that.

[Factory6speed]

Yeah, ISTA is the way to go for these cars, when it works. But it's not really something you use every single day. My experience has been every time I dig it up every 6 months or so and go to use it, I either can't get it to start, or more commonly I can't get it to connect to the car.

So spend an hour or so fiddling with network settings and whatever and maybe I can get it to connect. But usually this ends with erasing the whole operating system and reinstalling everything. And then it usually works a couple times. Lately it's been good I think.

There was an effort to package everything in a nice virtual machine but I don't know how that really ended up. It's hard to maintain something like that and keep it updated. It would be great at first though. The dockerfile would be good but this is all windows stuff. I think it's too sophisticated to use wine, it's a c sharp app so probably wouldn't work.

I finally got the cable for this car and a brand new battery, I'm going to put it on the maintainer later and we'll see how much red stuff is there. Well I'll probably just clear everything in horror and then check again in a few weeks and see what comes back.

[nick325xit 5spd]

Originally Posted by Factory6speed

Yeah, ISTA is the way to go for these cars, when it works. But it's not really something you use every single day. My experience has been every time I dig it up every 6 months or so and go to use it, I either can't get it to start, or more commonly I can't get it to connect to the car.

So spend an hour or so fiddling with network settings and whatever and maybe I can get it to connect. But usually this ends with erasing the whole operating system and reinstalling everything. And then it usually works a couple times. Lately it's been good I think.

There was an effort to package everything in a nice virtual machine but I don't know how that really ended up. It's hard to maintain something like that and keep it updated. It would be great at first though. The dockerfile would be good but this is all windows stuff. I think it's too sophisticated to use wine, it's a c sharp app so probably wouldn't work.

I finally got the cable for this car and a brand new battery, I'm going to put it on the maintainer later and we'll see how much red stuff is there. Well I'll probably just clear everything in horror and then check again in a few weeks and see what comes back.

I have it running well in a VM on UTM. Even with x86 emulation on ARM it's running well for me.

As a bonus, I can just copy the VM from machine to machine and it starts right up (I've now run it on 4 or 5 different Macs). The only mistake that I made is that there's enough personal stuff in this Windows install that I wouldn't be willing to just copy it to a friend's machine.