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Floobydust
Veteran
Date registered: Mar 2014
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Vehicle(s): 1995 E320 Cabrio, 2003 G500, 2000 SL500, 1980 TR8
Posts: 284
| A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
I have two questions relative to my 2003 G500.
First, I think it's time to make the investment in an SDS system. I have a Carsoft system, but I need the depth of the DAS/Xentry system. The market in these seems to change on a daily basis, so does anyone have any recommendations for a (recent), reliable source for one? Traditionally I have favored the Thinkpad versions as I have several extra machines that could be pressed into service if need be. But from what I have been reading, people seem to favor the Dell based version for its speed. I want to get an up to date system with a recent software version. I don't need wireless interface - cable connection is just fine.
Second, is there a way is SDS to "set" a tire size or speedo fudge factor to correct for larger tires on my G? VW/Audi can do this, but I'm not sure about MB in this era.
Thank you in advance!
- FD |
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gerryvz
Extreme Veteran
Date registered: Apr 2014
Location: Annapolis, MD
Vehicle(s): 1994 G320, 1989 560SEC, 1994 E500 (W124)
Posts: 336
| Re: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
Hi Floob, I have a fairly extensive thread on these systems posted here: http://www.500eboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2651 Best place to get them reasonably priced is vla Aliexpress.com, and get a used, dedicated laptop for garage use via eBay or Craigslist to run the SDS on. The Chinese clone systems that use virtual machines will run on any laptop as long as it has a dedicated serial port, or has a port via a docking station. The add-on serial port adapters can be wonky, so get a hard/dedicated port on the machine you choose. A lot of folks go with the IBM Thinkpad T30s. My garage machine is a ruggedized Dell ATG Model E725. I picked it up for ~$80 on eBay. The virtual machines takes 5-7 minutes to fire up, but once it is running there is no speed penalty, and for the purposes of automotive diagnostics it runs just as fast as the "real deal" Star C3. Agree that you don't need a wireless C4 machine -- not worth the extra expense and hassle. If you do get a dedicated system, DO NOT allow it to connect to your home network. You don't want it trying to download software updates from MB - their updates can disable the clone system !! Just use it as a standalone/dedicated system. Use it on Windows XP, probably with SP2 installed. SP3 can be used, but it can dramatically slow down the system. I think you can also use Windows 7 but I stick with XP seeing as mine is a standalone system that will never need updates. Sorry that I can't answer your question about the tire size adjustment. My newest car is a 500E/E500 and that uses the 38-pin connector and HHT emulation software. I have connected my SDS to a friend's 2005 G-wagen to turn off some annoying warnings that came up on the dash cluster every time the truck was started. That was quite simple. 
HTH, Cheers, Gerry
Edited by gerryvz 11/17/2014 8:53 PM
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Floobydust
Veteran
Date registered: Mar 2014
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Vehicle(s): 1995 E320 Cabrio, 2003 G500, 2000 SL500, 1980 TR8
Posts: 284
| RE: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
Gerry -
Thank you very much for your reply! I have read your 500E board thread and it provides some very useful information.
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djdinaz
Extreme Veteran
Date registered: Jun 2007
Location: Arizona
Vehicle(s): 03 G55
Posts: 439
| Re: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
gerryvz - 11/17/2014 5:46 PM
DO NOT allow it to connect to your home network.
HUGE +1 to that.
I did the Craigslist D630 route, eBay for the multiplexor & software.
To say the Chinese HDD included with the Mux may have contained some 'malware' is a gross understatement. I brought it up on an isolated access point and sat back with a packet sniffer to watch it. It captured network information and attempted to send that data to a rolling pool of IP addresses somewhere in the mainland (very, very sophisticated, someone spent a LOT of time engineering the hooks and payload generation on that one).
The HDD itself contained keyloggers, Trojans, malware windows services, hacked browser objects, infected shared libraries/exe's, some really nasty low level network stack hacks hijacking DNS, and two rootkits.
I corrected the OS's environment, but, one (or more) of the viruses managed to infect several core shared libraries of the Xentry application rendering it inoperable (I found a stripped D630 image on a Russian torrent site that I loaded up on a spare HDD to get Xentry working cleanly). The supplied HDD still has a newer WIS/EPC that works fine, but I usually opt to use a VMware WIS/EPC I built (for the on-screen real-estate). Though it would be nice to have DAS/Xentry/WIS/EPC/StarFinder all functioning in one location (my next endeavor I suppose).
Regardless, the point to all this is to BE CAREFUL with any supplied software from China, treat it with kid gloves, and under no circumstances put it on your home network or plug a thumb drive you don't want a virus on into it..
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Floobydust
Veteran
Date registered: Mar 2014
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Vehicle(s): 1995 E320 Cabrio, 2003 G500, 2000 SL500, 1980 TR8
Posts: 284
| Re: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
Yes, indeed. Nothing but an "air gap" sandbox for any machine with any type of Chinese (or otherwise) cloned software. |
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DUTCH
Administrator Doppelgänger
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: US, GA, Atlanta
Vehicle(s): 2015 Audi Q7 3.0 TDI,2018 Sprinter
Posts: 9963
| Re: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
Floobydust - 11/21/2014 6:04 PM
Yes, indeed. Nothing but an "air gap" sandbox for any machine with any type of Chinese (or otherwise) cloned software.
There are a few of us who have used an American source. A bit more expensive, but completely reliable; and junk software free. |
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atg
Veteran
Date registered: Nov 2014
Location: Los Angeles
Vehicle(s): 2005 G55, 1985 300tdt
Posts: 129
| Re: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
So what pray tell is a good US source for this equipment? Thanks. |
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MiN
Extreme Veteran
Date registered: May 2006
Location: Alpujarras, Spain
Vehicle(s): No cars, at all.
Posts: 555
| Re: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
It hasn't been mentioned in this thread (and I haven't read Gerry's page) but you should get one that has the 'Developer Mode' software. This allows you to do so much more than the standard version. But be careful with it because it's a very powerful tool. Once you go into the Developer mode menus, it is only only in German. |
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gerryvz
Extreme Veteran
Date registered: Apr 2014
Location: Annapolis, MD
Vehicle(s): 1994 G320, 1989 560SEC, 1994 E500 (W124)
Posts: 336
| Re: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
I didn't talk about that on my page. The average owner (at least on my site) is mostly interested in diagnosis, code interpretation and how to use the WIS trees.
Cars (and trucks) since the late 1990s are so much more heavily instrumented and the DAS/Xentry becomes much more important because they rely much more on the computers for diagnosis. programming and repair. If you're any kind of a DIYer on an MB from about 1998 or later, a DAS/Xentry system is pretty much de rigeur.
On the earlier models, with the exception of a couple of systems that have the three-digit "specific" codes, you can get along pretty nicely with a $10 home-made blink code reader made from Radio Shack parts.
Cheers,
Gerry |
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DUTCH
Administrator Doppelgänger
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: US, GA, Atlanta
Vehicle(s): 2015 Audi Q7 3.0 TDI,2018 Sprinter
Posts: 9963
| Re: A couple of DAS/Xentry Questions . .
atg - 11/23/2014 5:30 AM
So what pray tell is a good US source for this equipment? Thanks.
Be very wary of any Chinese source that has you communicate with "Mandy"! She cost me a lot of $$ for no results. Shame on me! |
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