bimmerz box

One dongle, every protocol

K-line (ISO 9141 / KWP2000), DS2, dual high-speed CAN, IBus. Switch between them in the dashboard.

Browser-native

The dongle hosts its own web apps from an SD card. Any modern browser on phone, tablet, or laptop is the UI.

Wi-Fi access point

No pairing, no Bluetooth profile drama. The dongle exposes its own AP and a captive portal that drops you straight into the dashboard.

Open hardware + firmware

ESP32-P4 module, KiCad schematic, all source under MIT. Build your own, modify ours, or buy a ready-to-ship unit.

All the bimmerz tools

EDIABASX (diagnostic jobs), INPAX (live values), NCSX (coding), NFSX (flashing), TUNEX (tuning) — all run against the same dongle.

Updates over the air

Dual 7 MB OTA partitions on the device, USB-MSC asset drop-in for the SD card. Push a firmware build, refresh the dashboard, done.

What's in the box

bimmerz box is a small Wi-Fi-equipped OBD-II dongle. It plugs into the car's diagnostic port, brings up its own Wi-Fi access point, and serves the full bimmerz toolkit — EDIABASX, INPAX, NCSX, NFSX, TUNEX — as web apps you load in any browser tab.

Inside it's an ESP32-P4 application processor with 32 MB PSRAM (handling the diagnostic engines and the HTTP / WebSocket server), an ESP32-C6 co-processor for Wi-Fi + BLE, dual high-speed CAN transceivers (TJA1051T), a K-line transceiver (L9637D) for older DS2 and KWP2000 ECUs, and an SD card holding the web apps + your BMW DATEN-disk SGBDs.

How it works

Plug it in. OBD-II port, ignition on (or running).

Join its Wi-Fi. Network name BimmerzBox, default password bimmerzbox. A captive-portal window pops up with a welcome screen.

Open the dashboard. Browser → http://172.16.7.1/. You see a tile for each installed app.

Pick a tool. EDIABASX for fault codes / jobs, INPAX for live values, NCSX for coding, NFSX for flashing, TUNEX for editing firmware images.

That's the whole user-facing model. The dongle does the heavy lifting (running BEST2 SGBD bytecode, framing DS2 / KWP2000 telegrams, decoding CAN frames); the browser is just a screen.

Three ways to get one

DIY from modules — Waveshare ESP32-P4 dev kit + MikroE click breakouts + jumper wires. No PCB fab, no SMD reflow. Up and running in an afternoon. Cost TBC.

DIY custom PCB — KiCad design + firmware source, all open. Reflow your own board for an OBD-II-sized finished unit. Cost TBC.

Ready-to-ship — assembled, tested, comes with a case and a labelled cable. Plug-and-play.

All three land you with the same firmware, same web apps, same ECU communication. They differ only in how the hardware is put together.

Status

Active development. The Waveshare ESP32-P4 Module DEV-KIT is the canonical dev target — the firmware boots end-to-end against it. The custom PCB is in schematic capture. EDIABASX + INPAX have been verified on the bench as well as in the car; CAN is wired in firmware and waits on the production PCB.

bimmerz boxYour BMW's diagnostic toolkit, on a Wi-Fi dongle.