I have been using VXDIAG VCX SE BMW for a year now and I’ve been very happy with it. It’s a very good alternative device.
The vcx se BMW scanner was bought directly from autonumen website and came in 6 days (they claim that they have a warehouse in the US and UK. ).
Price is very good, definitely an icom killer.
It works with all models. Update F series using ISTA+ no problem. I tried i-level software update on f32 and it works fine.
It is possible to run the ISTA software from an external hdd but expect it to work slower. I tried it on external hdd as didn’t have enough space on my macbook, it worked just fine but much slower, so I ended up replacing my macbook’s ssd to 1tb.
You can buy the dongle separately and it works with all ista software regardless of where you downloaded them from. I actually bought ista and dongle separately as well.
Everything works as expected. It is an icom equivalent device so it should serve as one. I have tried software update and programming which worked fine with both ista and esys.
I run ista on my macbook air via bootcamp or parallels desktop virtual machine. However I bought ista from ebay and the seller installed it remotely for free. I think that’s the best and most secure way. There are also many videos showing how to install ista but it changes from version to version in most cases, so I recommend you buy a solid ista package with remote installation which shouldn’t cost more than £60-70. Considering the software capabilities, it’s a very reasonable investment.
Some images attached:
