Anybody got a view on these Mercedes Benz Super star MB C3 clone type diagnostic tools? Was about to get a mobile diagnostic technician to come out but looking at their website it appears they are just using one of these which you can pick up for about £400. If they are any good I was thinking might as well just buy it myself.
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Some are very good, some not so good.
Not sure what a 'Super Star' is though
Not sure what a 'Super Star' is though
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They all seem to work, some are just built better (multiplexer) and will last a lot longer. I can't point you at a recommended seller but someone else may be able to
You need to have a laptop with genuine serial port. Otherwise there is no guarantee it will work, and external hard drives are extremely slow. Usually suitable laptops are IMB T30-T60, Dell 620-630 some Panasonic. Seller will ask you what computer you are using, hard drives are sold according that.
Those 'super stars' are only sellers way to announce component might be slightly better than in others. Might. Also some of them can be plugged to 24V system, cheapest won't endure that. You never know what seller is good, quality changes between the production batches.
Those 'super stars' are only sellers way to announce component might be slightly better than in others. Might. Also some of them can be plugged to 24V system, cheapest won't endure that. You never know what seller is good, quality changes between the production batches.
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As above, you have no way of knowing until you open up the mux. The main thing that goes on them are the power regulators. Just open up the mux and if there are no heat sinks fitted to the power regs, just get some from maplins and attach them. Its a simple enough task. I have had my clone for 5 years now. They are ok for home/private use but would not stand up to regular workshop use unless you do the above.
Star is not too difficult to install on any laptop that has a serial port. And not impossible when using a usb2serial or cardbus2serial.
Star is not too difficult to install on any laptop that has a serial port. And not impossible when using a usb2serial or cardbus2serial.
I personally own a MB Super Star C3. The difference with the 'Super Star' bit is that you are meant to get free updates for a year. I purchased mine in January, but I think there's been one update since?
I haven't opened up the MUX, but it seems to work well. I've used the system to code many changes to my CLK, adding cornering lamps, extra bits in the display, etc as well as just diagnosing things. STAR is hugely comprehensive and it's great to be able to test things out.
My system was supplied as a Virtual Machine, which is fine so long as you are installing the system onto a fast machine with lots of RAM and preferably a SSD (Solid State Disk) as otherwise it can be dog slow.
I ended up installing STAR myself directly to my laptop - not really something you should do if you're not computer literate as it involve a fair amount of file editing and a rough understanding of what's going on.
One of these days I might buy myself a genuine secondhand MUX.
I haven't opened up the MUX, but it seems to work well. I've used the system to code many changes to my CLK, adding cornering lamps, extra bits in the display, etc as well as just diagnosing things. STAR is hugely comprehensive and it's great to be able to test things out.
My system was supplied as a Virtual Machine, which is fine so long as you are installing the system onto a fast machine with lots of RAM and preferably a SSD (Solid State Disk) as otherwise it can be dog slow.
I ended up installing STAR myself directly to my laptop - not really something you should do if you're not computer literate as it involve a fair amount of file editing and a rough understanding of what's going on.
One of these days I might buy myself a genuine secondhand MUX.
How does the MB super star actually work? Is it easy to setup out of the box. Got a problem with my car and would like to have a go at looking into it but don't want to end up with a problem trying to setup the MB super star.
Thanks
Thanks
Found this on youtube. Seems ok to setup. Got pretty new dell laptop that I imagine could handle it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEpodG2rybk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEpodG2rybk
As I said before, the Super star is just a flavour of the cloned chinese offerings. The mux is the same as the rest of the offerings, mine was reasonably good quality. The 'super star' bit is simply an add-on which updates your installation periodically, apart from that it's the same as the rest.
Remember, this stuff is of very grey legality, as is a dealer level tool. Is it very possible to trash your car if you don't know what you are doing. Mercedes Techs spend a long time being trained on the equipment. There's scratchy support, no help guides, you really are on your own to figure the stuff out.
Remember, this stuff is of very grey legality, as is a dealer level tool. Is it very possible to trash your car if you don't know what you are doing. Mercedes Techs spend a long time being trained on the equipment. There's scratchy support, no help guides, you really are on your own to figure the stuff out.
Yes I know not to play around too much. I had the equivalent for the BMW system. BMW system was better though because you could turn your existing laptop into their garage system and a clever guy was selling a cable to hook the computer up to car. Easy to use.
Bjm34new
Active Member
sorry to ask but will the MB star C3 work on smart four two? as would be good to be able to play with my w204 and wife's smart
mickday
Active Member
I bought my C3 star from eBay included with Laptop but have since migrated to running it on a VM on my Win 7 laptop, which is much quicker. All seems to work OK I have used for various jobs with my S211
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You should really be looking at a C4 now (SD Connect) as the C3 is quite old, mind you I guess that means the price of C3's should be coming down as they become less popular.
To anyone that has one of these what would be the difference between these two apart from the £200 in cost? Thanks
http://www.diagtools.de/wholesale/super-mb-star-update-by-internet-fit-all-computers.html
http://www.diagtools.de/wholesale/mb-star-c3-diagnostic-tool-for-benz-truck-and-cars-1802.html
http://www.diagtools.de/wholesale/super-mb-star-update-by-internet-fit-all-computers.html
http://www.diagtools.de/wholesale/mb-star-c3-diagnostic-tool-for-benz-truck-and-cars-1802.html
If anybody is feeling super charitable and knows a bit could they have a quick look and see which one they would recommend for me. I'm Not a mechanic just somebody who would like to know what the error messages are when they come up. This german website seems to have lots of options.
WWW.diagtools.de
WWW.diagtools.de
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The main differences seems to be the more expensive one has some serial cards and has a few options enabled that are quite easily accomplished, like the TOP version is just Das Developer mode. Run WIS/EPC direct from the desktop (this is just java shortcuts created and the 30min timeout removed) Unsure about the versions as they seem to say different versions in different parts of the page, neither are the latest though.
