Project

General

Profile

Actions
History

Wiki »

BMWSoftware » History » Revision 6

« Previous | Revision 6/7 (diff) | Next »
Anonymous, 11/05/2025 11:36 AM
fix formatting

BMW Software

Dump of all I know

Overview

(this is taken from the Guide to ISTA document)

What does ISTA stand for? ISTA is a workshop system that contains BMW AG Data and Information. ISTA stands for Integrated Service Technical Application. Way back when, during the initial development of this tool, BMW used DIS (Diagnostics Information System), and as the programs evolved and due to the nature of the file naming conventions utilized by BMW, the workshop system became known as Rheingold in the enthusiast world. Rheingold in actuality is the folder that contains the main application and data. Rheingold became ISTA-D (D stands for Diagnostics) and BMW’s programming application (not discussed in this document) used the same nomenclature, ISTA except with a P (for programming) or ISTA-P. This document only discusses ISTA+.

Eventually, based on the direction that the company is taking, ISTA-D and ISTA-P for F-/I-/G-/Mini/RR series cars will be rolled up into ISTA+ for diagnostics AND programming. What does this mean? It means, that ISTA-P will contain all chassis data until around August 2017, then BMW plans to phase out all BN2020 vehicle data in ISTA-P. So, ISTA-P will be used for Programming on E-series only and ISTA+ will be everything else. Programming (or also called Service Data) in ISTA+ is required for programming F-/I-/G-/Mini/RR cars. BMW now provides these files as deltas to original programming (SDP) data.

ISTA+ can be used to diagnose ALL cars BUT program only F-/I-/G-/Mini/RR series cars and beyond. E Series Programming is not supported in ISTA+.

BMW officially breaks up the new ISTA+ application capability into two parts – Diagnostics and Programming. Following is a short breakup of each feature within ISTA+:

  • DIAGNOSTICS:
    • Vehicle identification for specific vehicle management
    • Information research for repair and maintenance
    • Guided troubleshooting
    • Software repair
  • PROGRAMMING:
    • Software Update
    • Control Unit Replacements
    • Retrofits / conversions

K/DCAN Cable

ISTA+ 4.52.4x

  • Downloaded from torrent from bimmerscene

Setup

  • Copy install directory to target machine.
  • Run ista_standalone_installer_4.52.40.exe and follow instructions to install (note this will take a while to install).
  • Delete the included EDIABAS version(s) (C:\EC-APPS\ISTA\EDIABAS).
  • Install EasyBMWTools-BimmerScene.exe which includes EDIABAS 7.3. It will install EDIABAS to C:\EDIABAS.
  • Edit C:\EDIABAS\EDIABAS.INI an make sure it's configured for STD:OBD as per the ISTA+ guide PDF.
  • Ensure K/DCAN cable comes up as COM1

Notes

  • EDIABAS >=7.6 does not support OBD via the K/DCAN cable so you must use 7.3
  • EDIABAS must be installed of linked to C:\EDIABAS\ in order for ISTA+ to work

ISTA+ 4.49.20/23

DON'T USE THIS VERSION - I NEVER GOT IT TO WORK

  • Downloaded from here

Setup

  • Install using installer
  • Fix missing EDIABAS connection option as described here: https://cartechnology.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=95073
    • Edit C:\EC-APPS\ISTA\TesterGUI\bin\Release\ISTAGUI.exe.config and add this to <appSettings>:
      <add key="BMW.Rheingold.OperationalMode" value="ISTA_PLUS" />
  • Add missing ODB.ini file to C:\EC-APPS\ISTA\Ediabas\BIN (see attachments to this page)
    • Be sure K/DCAN cable is configured as COM1
  • See Guide to ISTA document (attached to this page) for instructions on how to connect with K/DCAN cable using EDIABAS

Update PSdZData

PSdZ stands for “ProgrammService Daten Zentrale” in German, which translates to “Programming Service Data Center” in English.

  1. Install ISTA+ (in my case ISTA_Standalone_4.39.20) standalone without programming files
  2. Unpack PSdZData (in my case v4.46.41_PSdZData.7z) to C:\EC-APPS\ISTA\PSdZ\data_swi....in case you don't find data_swi create a folder.
  3. Go back to the ISTA+ installation folder and go to "files_only_for_manual_install"
  4. Run the fallowing files in order: - ISTA_firewall_rules.bat (run as Administrator) - ISTA_Reg_Fix_min_x64.reg - AppCheckDisable_to_use_different_DBs.reg
  5. In the same folder you have regfiles_full_sdp_blp there you will find ISTA_Reg_Fix_x64.reg...edit it and change the version of the PSdZData ex. "SWIData"="4.46.41"

Miscellaneous

Updated by 8 months ago · 7 revisions