Cheapest way into VCDS?

Vorsprung durch Technik

Vorsprung durch Technik

A2OC Donor
So going on from another thread i've decided to open a new thread on this.

I've been thinking of VCDS for a little while to make my life a bit easier. Having looked at the rostech site prices vary a lot. There's a good professional kit but it's $899 and then there's the VCDS HEX-V2 enthusiast kit at $300 I'm confused as to what kit i would need? What is the cheapest way of doing this? I'm going to need diagnostics so i can check my FSI fix with the engine light on once i've renewed the N316 valve pictured. Cheers Mark.

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Brilliant thread Mark, I am in same situation and will follow closely. Could some comment om how difficult it is to learn to use VCDS for basic functions like read off fault codes and clear them etc.. I manage my SuperVag but VCDS is a lot more complicated I guess ?? It is first of all my 1.2TDI 3L that need serious VCDS support to be back on the road...
 
Hi Mark,

I looked into this about a year ago and some low level bits and pieces I can remember below.

The big difference in price between genuine Ross-Tech packages is the number of cars (VIN's) you can use it on. Top notch are unlimited VIN's coming down to say 3 VIN's for the DIY home mechanic - change cars a few times and it's useless. At the the time the top end packages were WiFI, cheaper ones you end up balancing a laptop on your knees, which reminds me the software reputedly runs better on old versions of Windows, but this might have now been updated. I think there is a cheaper restricted functionality Lite version, but best if an owner comments.

Google VCDS to pick up the genuine (check on Ross-Tech site) UK agents, Gendan are the big name.

I went down to the second hand market. This is legal at a fee. Original owner had bought new car outside the VW stable so useless to him. Two year old kit, with original invoices and paperwork in mint condition and only used a few times. Look on EBay with search 'genuine VCDS' - a few on at the moment.

Lastly there are cheaper kits, very cheap but never looked into, seems a minefield. Paul(Deproman) often comments on his kit and seems very happy with his kit but best to let him comment.

Andy
 
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dieselfan said:
Brilliant thread Mark, I am in same situation and will follow closely. Could some comment om how difficult it is to learn to use VCDS for basic functions like read off fault codes and clear them etc.. I manage my SuperVag but VCDS is a lot more complicated I guess ?? It is first of all my 1.2TDI 3L that need serious VCDS support to be back on the road...
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With my limited experience I would say very easy to the two points you mention. Each has a button on the opening screen you just click and it's done. The more complicated stuff is on lower sub menus. Like the feature to check if your mileomter is telling the truth (not been clocked) but disappointingly own works for diesel - Andy
 
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Some nice info in there Andy.Thumbs up.

I have an old Dell Latitude D830 laptop that runs Windows XP Pro which i've had repaired once so hopefully could press that into service.
 
dieselfan said:
Brilliant thread Mark, I am in same situation and will follow closely. Could some comment om how difficult it is to learn to use VCDS for basic functions like read off fault codes and clear them etc.. I manage my SuperVag but VCDS is a lot more complicated I guess ?? It is first of all my 1.2TDI 3L that need serious VCDS support to be back on the road...
Click to expand...

Lets hope we get some big players along who can point us in the right direction with the whys and wherefores of all options however expensive or cheap.
 
I've never heard of the "limited VIN" number bit before ... I've used my (Genuine) Ross Tech cable on tens of cars over the three years I've had it. I bought HEX-CAN version for ~£275 at a time when I had an A5 and needed to go to Europe and needed to switch headlights to LHD road formation and Audi were going to charge me about £150 to switch them, then back again ... Cheaper to buy the cable and do it yourself!
 
cheapest solution that I have found but only runs on windows XP is the 'VAG Commander' cable and software called 'VW Tools'
It looks and feels like VAGCOM, but does everything were as VAGCOM as limitation unless you register it which runs into the £100 mark for the limited 3 VIN version and increases in cost if you want the 10 VIN or unlimited VIN options

Be aware that VW Tools is flagged as containing a virus by Avast and most if not all antivirus software, I believe this to be a false positive. I have a laptop that is running Windows XP 32bit and as no anti virus software on it as it is NEVER used on the internet and is only used for car diagnostic and remapping
As a bi product VAG Commander can also extract the SKC from the ECU which is needed for key coding
I paid around £10 for the VAG Commander cable and software from ebay

I also have a £3.50 ebay VAGCOM cable that uses the shareware version of VAGCOM, it works fine for reading codes, clearing codes and even does recoding, but it will NOT do adaptation or any of the sexier stuff, but for £3.50 it is a must have in my opinion

Cheers,
Paul
 
sciroccorrado said:
I've never heard of the "limited VIN" number bit before ... I've used my (Genuine) Ross Tech cable on tens of cars over the three years I've had it. I bought HEX-CAN version for ~£275 at a time when I had an A5 and needed to go to Europe and needed to switch headlights to LHD road formation and Audi were going to charge me about £150 to switch them, then back again ... Cheaper to buy the cable and do it yourself!
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Hi Jeremy,

You must have an unlimited VCDS. I assure you VIN limitation it now an integral part of Ross-Tech's pricing structure, maybe not in place when you bought your kit. Just look on their site or Gendan. There is also a better value 10 VIN package.

Andy
 
depronman said:
cheapest solution that I have found but only runs on windows XP is the 'VAG Commander' cable and software called 'VW Tools'
It looks and feels like VAGCOM, but does everything were as VAGCOM as limitation unless you register it which runs into the £100 mark for the limited 3 VIN version and increases in cost if you want the 10 VIN or unlimited VIN options

Be aware that VW Tools is flagged as containing a virus by Avast and most if not all antivirus software, I believe this to be a false positive. I have a laptop that is running Windows XP 32bit and as no anti virus software on it as it is NEVER used on the internet and is only used for car diagnostic and remapping
As a bi product VAG Commander can also extract the SKC from the ECU which is needed for key coding
I paid around £10 for the VAG Commander cable and software from ebay

I also have a £3.50 ebay VAGCOM cable that uses the shareware version of VAGCOM, it works fine for reading codes, clearing codes and even does recoding, but it will NOT do adaptation or any of the sexier stuff, but for £3.50 it is a must have in my opinion

Cheers,
Paul
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All very interesting and far more affordable, but I am struggling with the second paragraph ' It looks and feels...' - probably these damn predictive text editors. - Andy
 
yes VW Tools 'looks and feels' like VAGCOM i.e. one is modelled on the other. I'm not sure which came first VAGCOM or VW Tools, but you can see that they are like brother and sister
If you can use VAGCOM then you would have zero learning curve to use VW Tools, only the colours seem different. I swap between VAGCOM and VW Tools without having to think about it

Hope this helps
Cheers,
Paul
 
the cheap cables are not worth the hassle. XP is ancient and belongs killed on any self-respecting network and that won't get any better. I had issues getting my "reasonable" cable to connect consistently to all the devices in my car, even with an old version of vag-com, a real serial port and an old Dell D610.

The limitation on VINs is now pretty much across the board on all of the newer software; if you're looking (like me) to be able to adapt more modern stuff at the same time, you don't really get much change from €200. The options are basically VCP, Ross-Tech or OBD Eleven.
OBD Eleven is quite good in that it allows you to use Bluetooth to get data and it's not expensive. But you must buy their BT dongle.
Carista is supposed to be quite good. Torque wouldn't clear my errors.
I will have to bite the bullet at some point and there's no way I'd currently invest anything into a setup which requires a serial port. They are going the way of the dodo on portable devices, so something with BT or USB is the way to go.

All of the newer versions are slowly demanding you be online at the same time, too, to deal with piracy issues.

As far as Avast complaining about a false positive is concerned.... if most of the AV tools say it's got a virus, the chances are it really has. And then even air-gapping doesn't necessarily help much.

- Bret
 
Thanks for your reply bretti, but i'm a complete novice with all this and don't understand what all the cables are called and what they do. Regarding Blue tooth, do you mean you don't need to attach a cable to the laptop? Those items you mentioned have you got any prices they would be helpful in this thread. Apologies to appear to be thick but it's not my forte and i'm in need of spoon feeding.Cheers Mark.
 
I takes Bret's points, and they are valid to some degree, but
I use a laptop ONLY for car diagnostics, it NEVER connects to the internet or any other network, it is totally stand alone and as such Windows XP is totally fine
The Virus that may or may not be present in VW Tools (I suspect it is a false positive i.e no virus) as not done any damage to anything so far and it has been there for nearly 12 months.
The required investment is minimal, not including the laptop (which I already had in a cupboard not being used) was under £25 for all the cables and software that I have.
I have never had a problem connecting to the various control units once I set the COM port baud rate to 2400 in device manager

If you have the money then go ahead and shell out £200+ for the VAGCOM solution, I simply offer a cheaper alternative

Regards,
Paul
 
depronman said:
If you have the money then go ahead and shell out £200+ for the VAGCOM solution, I simply offer a cheaper alternative

Regards,
Paul
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Only problem with that is it's very limited to something like 3 cars and not what i'm looking for. It would help if we could see these bits of cables and dongles etc etc, as calling out random names means very little to me as i'm an absolute nubee to this sort of thing.
 
Andrew said:
Hi Jeremy,

You must have an unlimited VCDS. I assure you VIN limitation it now an integral part of Ross-Tech's pricing structure, maybe not in place when you bought your kit. Just look on their site or Gendan. There is also a better value 10 VIN package.

Andy
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From what I can see this is where the difference between buying a Ross-Tech Cable, and a cheap ebay cable comes into play. Looking at their pricing table there is no limitations on the Full version of the software which you automatically get when you buy a kosha cable.
 
Hi Jeremy,

I think we are at slight cross purposes. Probably my fault as I have noticed I missed a word out, it would have been better if I had said 'unlimited VIN VCDS'. Yes it is true all genuine VCDS packages have unlimited functionality, but with VIN limited packages this is only true within their VIN range. I learned today you can use, for example, a 3 VIN package on a 4th car (or more) and it will work to quite a useful extent but some more fancy stuff is unavailable.

This page from ilexa is most informative

https://www.ilexa.co.uk/shop/compare-vcds-versions

Andy
 
I don't have much more to add, to be honest. I don't see the point in investing *anything* on a box for Windows XP. I don't trust it further than I could throw it.

Bluetooth is the future for this stuff. Laptops which have RS232 have a very limited lifespan (when was the last time you saw a PATA disk?) and then it becomes another investment.

Torque Pro is apparently quite good. I've heard better things about OBD Eleven, and at their €40 price point, that would be my choice if I was looking to keep it simple. It's also way easier to use than VCDS, which is potentially quite dangerous for those who don't know 100% what they're doing.
Caritas is apparently also quite good, I haven't tried it thoroughly yet.

OBD Eleven is the tool of choice on the German forum for those who don't want to shell out for a real Ross_Tech cable and software.

- Bret
 
Just thought I'd add what I have learned about VCDS-Lite to this thread, rather than start a new one. I wanted to try something on the cheap to see if I find it useful first. Although Bluetooth dongles and Torque app are dirt cheap, it didn't suit me because I don't have an Android device with Bluetooth and didn't fancy getting Android emulator to work on the laptop. So decided to try the free VCDS-Lite s/w from Ross-Tech with 3rd party USB-to-OBD2 cable.

VCDS-Lite version 1.2 is the latest available from Ross-Tech as a free download. It has many limitations compared to the paid-for versions of VCDS s/w. The limitations are listed on Ross-Tech website. The ones I noticed are that auto-scan is not available - you have to scan each module individually, and some fault code descriptions are replaced with reminders that this is free software. You can google the fault code numbers for clues instead. VCDS-Lite installs and runs fine on my Win 7 Pro 64 bit laptop.

I bought this cable off ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191563446821

I suspect all of the cheap ones direct from China that look like that are probably exactly like that, based on the same Chinese chipset: CH340, LM339 (so not FTDI based and not opto-isolated). The cable came with a mini-CD with VAG-COM release 409-1 s/w which was intended for Windows XP and did not work on Win 7 Pro 64-bit. There were some how-to instructions for installing driver software but these were irrelevant because they referenced FTDI chipset and did not mention CH340. Btw I think opto-isolation is just belt-and-braces to protect the laptop USB port, so did not worry about lack of it here. To get this cable to work with VCDS-Lite on my laptop I had to rectify some snags:
1. Windows auto-installed some generic Microsoft CH340 driver dated 2009 but this didn't seem to work. I googled CH340 driver and installed that instead. It turned out to be a more recent one signed by the chip manufacturer wch.cn and dated 2014 (CH341SER)
2. I had to make sure the cable is assigned to a COM port in the range that VCDS-Lite expects (COM1 - COM4). If Windows auto-assigns a higher port number (check using Device Manager), then reassign manually to a free COM port in COM1 - COM4 range (use Device Manager for this also).
3. In VCDS Options, make sure the right COM port is selected.
4. In VCDS Options, change Start Baud from default 0 to 9600. Before I did this, it would work with all modules except Engine, I was getting "cannot sync baud rate" error.

So now VCDS-Lite reports that all is well and latency is excellent. I read CCU fault codes and reset them. Sadly some have reappeared since (intermittent "can't lock" and "won't de-safe" from one of the rear doors). I was happy to learn that the Engine management unit only reports one fault - intermittent lack of comms from A/C controller.
 
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