Chinese made PIWIS tester I, II - has anyone used it?

I posted the following question in teh RENNLIST. ______________ I was wondering if anyone of you has actually owned and used one of these Chinese made PIWIS tester II? I would appreciate if you could actually give me factual information as opposed to speculations that I have read in many sites. Moreover, no need to insult Chinese manufacturers, as many have done on this site and many others, since I own and use a Chinese made clone STAR Diagnostic system form my Mercedes, and am extremely satisfied with its performance. __________________________ Someone told me that I only need PIWIS I (as opposed to the PIWIS II), in that for my vintage Porsche 996 (2201), the II does not work as well as the I does. Moreoevr, the person who answered told me that I would only need a cable, which looks very similar to the Duramteric cable (which I own). The purpose of opting for PIWIS, i sthat I liek to also be able to program ignition key, etc. Your factual comments are much appreciated in advance. Cheers, Zack

Most of the cheap Chinese PIWIS systems actually turn out to be knock offs of the early Durametric system relabeled as a PIWIS system, and even then some of them have proven to be such poor copies that they either don't work or do harm you your electronics. As for PIWIS I or II, the system II will work perfectly on any 996; the big difference between the I & II is that the II is a hyper secure networked system to prevent pirated copies and can be disabled remotely by Porsche if they detect a bogus or unauthorized system on the network. The system II was also never sold to anyone, it was only leased (first year costs are just short of $20K,and then around $12K for each year thereafter), again to give Porsche total control over who has one and whether it works or not. It is also the only PIWIS system that can be kept updated as new systems and cars are added. When Porsche when from I to II, they simply discontinued all I support, which makes the I system questionable, as it does not work on cars built after 2005.

JFP Thank you for your input. However, I had followed most threads available in regard to this topic. I got two views; (1) One like yours that say the system was junk; and (2) a very few people who had actually used the system, and claimed the system worked perfectly. As I stated in my request, I was hoping to get some factual information and statistics from those who have or are using the system, rather than speculation. I had similar output from some fellow MB owner when I was going to acquire one of the Chinese made Xentry/multiplexers for my daily driver (MB E320). However, I bought one of them, and it works flawlessly. As stated, I thank you very much for your time for your input; nevertheless, I like to obtain the views of those (apparently very few) that actually use the system. BTW, I am talking about theh system that comes with a multiplexer. Regards, Zack

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You are getting feed back from someone who has seen and used them. And some are rip-offs (old Durametric systems repackage), some are dangerous, and some actually work to varying degrees (mostly PIWIS version I). People that have purchased them bring them to the shop when they can't get them to do what they bought them for, or bring the unit and their car when they hooked it up and the car stopped running. We have pretty much seen it all. Buying something like this from overseas (where they all seem to come from) without being able to see and test it before forking over the cash can be more than rather risky. Prices are also all over the place. We have seen people get version I units for less than $1K that worked, and other people spent a lot more and got something that did not work at all, or was not what it was supposed to be. To me, that seems like a very risky game to play, so I would suggest proceeding with caution, but the final decision is yours.

Many thanks for the clarification JFP! Cheers, Zack