OBDII interface for my BMW

[digitalwanderer]

Quoting myself from a BMW forum:

I'm sorry for just posting like this, but I'm having an awful time using the search feature on this site for some reason. I'm interested in getting a DIS/GT1 setup installed for my laptop on my 01 325xi, but I'm pretty clueless about what I need or how to go about it.

Can anyone help and point me in the right direction or give me a clue please? Thanks in advance.

EDITED BITS: Hunting around I managed to find some great tutorials on the software side of things thanks to Randomy's guide and David MC's success thread, but I'm still clueless on hardware and where to get the cables I need. (I'm trying!)

EDITED BITS II: Uhm, is this the hardware bit (Ediabas/INPA 4 BMW 100% compatible OBDII Interface) I need to interface to a laptop? It looks right, but seems awful cheap at $30.

So I'm basically looking for a OBDII setup to hook my laptop up to my 2001 325xi, anyone have any experiences with it?

 

[Mintmaster]

Quoting myself from a BMW forum:


So I'm basically looking for a OBDII setup to hook my laptop up to my 2001 325xi, anyone have any experiences with it?

I bought one off eBay and it worked for my 2003 330ci. I don't have any software that deals with BMW specific codes/features, but it works fine. I had the common P0491 "secondary air system" problem come up, had some fun narrowing the problem to a vacuum hose, and fixed it quite easily.

The software was even open source. I had a grand plan of putting a custom carputer in using an EEEPC as a base, and using OBD to monitor speed and get performance data, but time is just so short these days...

 

[digitalwanderer]

Yeah, I had my "service engine soon" light come on the other day and cause me no end of panic until I found out it was a loose gas cap.

I just want to be able to diagnose/clear things myself, thanks for the info.