Connect E-Sys to your BMW: ENET cable or ICOM

Two ways to reach the car

• ENET cable: an Ethernet cable with an OBD plug, straight from the PC to the car. Cheap and the most common way to code.
• BMW ICOM (ICOM A, A2, A3 or ICOM Next): BMW's workshop interface. It sits on the OBD port and joins your network by cable or, for the ICOM Next, by Wi-Fi.

With an ENET cable

1. Plug the cable into the car's OBD port and the PC's network port (or a USB / USB-C network adapter). Connect a charger and switch the ignition on.
2. Leave the network adapter on Obtain an IP address automatically. The car does not hand out addresses: within about a minute Windows gives the adapter a 169.254.x.x address by itself.
3. In E-Sys press Connect, choose your car's series and pick Connection via VIN. E-Sys lists the car as its VIN with the gateway's address, for example WBA…_DIAGADR10 (tcp://169.254.1.1:6801).
4. If no car is listed, choose Connection via gateway URL and enter the gateway's address with port 6801, for example tcp://169.254.1.1:6801.

How E-Sys finds the car: it sends a short vehicle-search message to every network adapter of the PC (UDP port 6811, and port 13400 for newer DoIP cars) and lists every gateway that answers. That is why a VPN or a firewall can make the list stay empty.

With an ICOM

E-Sys does not search for ICOMs: you tell it the ICOM's address.

1. Plug the ICOM into the car's OBD port and make sure the PC is on the same network: the ICOM's network cable to the PC or to the same router, or the ICOM Next's Wi-Fi.
2. Find the ICOM's IP address, for example in your router's list of connected devices.
3. In E-Sys press Connect and choose Connection via ICOM/Ethernet. Enter tcp://<ICOM address>:50160, for example tcp://192.168.68.200:50160.

Why 50160: the ICOM gives every module its own port, the ICOM base port (50000 unless changed in E-Sys's settings) plus 10 times the module's diagnostic address. The gateway is address 0x10 (16), so 50000 + 160 = 50160.

An ICOM can be reserved by another PC or by ISTA. E-Sys then only says it failed to open the connection (error C029). Release the ICOM there and connect again.

Newer cars: DoIP

Newer BMWs can talk DoIP (diagnostics over IP). E-Sys searches for them the same way and lists them with port 13400, for example …_DIAGADR0010 (tcp://169.254.1.1:13400).

The list stays empty: what to check

• Ignition on. Press Start without the brake. The engine does not need to run.
• The cable. A working ENET cable bridges pins 3 and 8 of the OBD plug to wake the car's Ethernet. Cheap cables sometimes leave that out.
• The address. With an ENET cable the adapter must have a 169.254 address. A 192.168 address means the cable goes to a router or an ICOM, or the adapter has a fixed IP.
• VPN and firewall. Turn off VPN software. Allow E-Sys's Java (javaw.exe in the E-Sys folder) in Windows Firewall and in any security suite's firewall.
• An old E-Sys still running. An E-Sys whose window closed can keep running in the background and hold the connection. End it in Task Manager (java or javaw).

The E-Sys MAX launcher checks all of this for you with its car connection check: it searches for the car the way E-Sys does (HSFZ and DoIP), tests the ICOM E-Sys is set to, reads the firewall rules, finds an old E-Sys still running, and tells you which option to pick in E-Sys. See also E-Sys connection errors explained.

Questions

Can I use a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi OBD dongle with E-Sys?

No. Dongles made for phone apps (ELM327, OBDLink and similar) do not speak the Ethernet diagnostics E-Sys uses. You need an ENET cable or a BMW ICOM.

My laptop has no network port. What now?

A USB or USB-C to Ethernet adapter works with an ENET cable.

Does E-Sys MAX work with an ICOM?

Yes. When E-Sys is connected through an ICOM/Ethernet, E-Sys MAX reaches the car through the same ICOM for the fault scan, the full backup and module info, and reads the battery voltage when you click it.