Trionic
Encyclopedia
Trionic is an engine management system developed by Saab Automobile
, consisting of an engine control unit
(ECU) that controls 3 engine aspects:
Hence the numerical prefix
'Tri
' in Trionic. 'Ion' comes from the fact that it uses ion current as a sensor for knock, misfire and synchronization detection
Since Trionic 7, the throttle and thereby the air charge is electronically controlled, but the name "Trionic" was not changed accordingly.
and 'New Generation' 900
turbocharged engines. The engine management system was first utilized on the Saab B204 and B234 "H" engines
to monitor and control the fuel injection system and turbocharging pressure control.
The Trionic 5.2 and 5.5 systems utilized the manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensor and the intake air charge temperature sensor to calculate the fuel injection curves , while the Trionic 7 and 8 systems are mass air flow type. The two have substantial differences that prevent utilization of components between the two. Generally speaking, engine tuners prefer the easier to work with Trionic 5 systems over the Trionic 7 and 8 which are more restrictive in what can be manipulated in the software.
The intellectual rights to the Trionic 5 and 7 systems were sold to BAIC, along with the Saab H Engine
that it was designed for, in 2009 as part of Saab's
restructuring and transfer of ownership from General Motors
to Spyker
.
Generally speaking, Trionic systems are shortened to indicate which version they are, eg. T5, T7, T8, etc. The engines with T5 had red ignition modules which differentiate them visually from the T7 models which had a black ignition module. The ignition module on both T5 and T7 are an integral ignition coil and electronics that plugs directly onto the spark plugs without the use of spark plug wires that are typically used on most engines.
The T5 and T7 management systems has been successfully manipulated to allow self-tuning for enthusiasts but as of December 2010 T8 tuning has not allowed similar results yet.
SAAB Models Utilizing Trionic Engine Management System:
the Trionic engine management system, by way of various open source
communities. The work involves understanding the binary files stored in the ECU itself, and what changes affect the car's hardware and operation of the vehicle.
There also some alternative options in the way of interceptors like # nichip] that clamp the various inputs to the standard management systems, but they are restricted by the fact that fuel delivery generally cannot be easily increased as manipulation of the air-flow meter input and/or aggressive modifying of the ignition timing causes the Check Engine Light (CEL) to illuminate easily due to a deviation between the expected and targeted torque and quality of emissions.
It is therefore common to increase the fuel pressure across the board by using an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator when tuning is performed by these interceptor computers, and trim the fuel out instead. However, increased fuel pressure has the side-effect of affecting the engine's ability to idle due to injector lockup, and as such sometimes an alternative solution of additional injectors instead of a raised-fuel-pressure regulator is proposed.
The number of cars with such complex requirements is very low, and in general a full aftermarket engine management system is used in these cases, such as Nira or MoTeC.
Saab Automobile
Saab Automobile AB, better known as Saab , is a Swedish car manufacturer owned by Dutch automobile manufacturer Swedish Automobile NV, formerly Spyker Cars NV. It is the exclusive automobile Royal Warrant holder as appointed by the King of Sweden...
, consisting of an engine control unit
Engine control unit
An engine control unit is a type of electronic control unit that determines the amount of fuel, ignition timing and other parameters an internal combustion engine needs to keep running...
(ECU) that controls 3 engine aspects:
- Ignition timingIgnition timingIgnition timing, in a spark ignition internal combustion engine , is the process of setting the angle relative to piston position and crankshaft angular velocity that a spark will occur in the combustion chamber near the end of the compression stroke...
, - Fuel injectionFuel injectionFuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....
- Acts as a boost controllerBoost controllerA boost controller is a device to control the boost level produced in the intake manifold of a turbocharged or supercharged engine by affecting the air pressure delivered to the pneumatic and mechanical wastegate actuator...
.
Hence the numerical prefix
Numerical prefix
Number prefixes are prefixes derived from numbers or numerals. In English and other European languages, they are used to coin numerous series of words, such as unicycle – bicycle – tricycle, dyad – triad – decade, biped – quadruped, September – October – November – December, decimal – hexadecimal,...
'Tri
Tri
Tri may refer to:* An intern specializing in Float and Share research.* tri-, a numerical prefix meaning three* El Tri or El Tricolor, are the nickname of the Mexico national football team.* El Tri, Mexican rock group...
' in Trionic. 'Ion' comes from the fact that it uses ion current as a sensor for knock, misfire and synchronization detection
Since Trionic 7, the throttle and thereby the air charge is electronically controlled, but the name "Trionic" was not changed accordingly.
History
The SAAB Trionic engine management system was developed for the 9000Saab 9000
The Saab 9000 is an automobile that was produced by the Swedish company Saab from 1984 to 1997. The 9000 was replaced by the 9-5 in the late 1997....
and 'New Generation' 900
Saab 900
The Saab 900 was a car produced by Saab Automobile from 1978 until 1998 in two generations. The first generation from 1978 to 1993 is known as the "classic"; the generation from 1994 to 1998 is known as the "new generation" ....
turbocharged engines. The engine management system was first utilized on the Saab B204 and B234 "H" engines
Saab H engine
The Saab H engine is a redesign of the Saab B engine. Despite the name it is not an H engine, but a slanted inline-4. The H engine was introduced in 1981 in the Saab 900 and was also used in the Saab 99 from 1982 onwards and the Saab 90. It continued in use in the 900/9-3, 9000, and 9-5...
to monitor and control the fuel injection system and turbocharging pressure control.
The Trionic 5.2 and 5.5 systems utilized the manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensor and the intake air charge temperature sensor to calculate the fuel injection curves , while the Trionic 7 and 8 systems are mass air flow type. The two have substantial differences that prevent utilization of components between the two. Generally speaking, engine tuners prefer the easier to work with Trionic 5 systems over the Trionic 7 and 8 which are more restrictive in what can be manipulated in the software.
The intellectual rights to the Trionic 5 and 7 systems were sold to BAIC, along with the Saab H Engine
Saab H engine
The Saab H engine is a redesign of the Saab B engine. Despite the name it is not an H engine, but a slanted inline-4. The H engine was introduced in 1981 in the Saab 900 and was also used in the Saab 99 from 1982 onwards and the Saab 90. It continued in use in the 900/9-3, 9000, and 9-5...
that it was designed for, in 2009 as part of Saab's
Saab Automobile
Saab Automobile AB, better known as Saab , is a Swedish car manufacturer owned by Dutch automobile manufacturer Swedish Automobile NV, formerly Spyker Cars NV. It is the exclusive automobile Royal Warrant holder as appointed by the King of Sweden...
restructuring and transfer of ownership from General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
to Spyker
Spyker Cars
Spyker Cars is a Dutch sports car marque. The modern Spyker Cars only has the legal right to the brand name. The company's motto is "Nulla tenaci invia est via", which is Latin for "For the tenacious, no road is impassable". The marque's logo displays the piston engine of an airplane, a reference...
.
Models and ECU information
| Trionic T5.2 Trionic T5.2 The Trionic T5.2 was introduced in Saab 9000 year 1993 and was discontinued the same year. Its Engine Control Unit is based on a Motorola 32 bit CPU. This engine management system was used on the "long block" engines. Its was superseded by the Trionic T5.5 engine management system... |
Trionic T5.5 Trionic T5.5 Trionic T5.5 is an engine management system in the Saab Trionic range. It controls ignition, fuel injection and turbo boost pressure. The system was introduced in the 1994 Saab 900 with B204L engine.-Changes:Since 1994 a number of changes have occurred.... |
Trionic 7 | Trionic 8 Trionic 8 The Trionic 8 is an advanced engine management system created by Saab Automobile. It is used in both SAAB 9-3 and Opel Vectra vehicles, and is available with 150, 175 and engines... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Released | 1993 | 1994 | 1998 | 2003 |
| Processor | MC 68332 Motorola 68000 The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor... |
MC 68332 | ||
| User ROM | 128 kB Kilobyte The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information... |
256 kB | 512 kB | 2048 kB |
| Features | TCS/ETC Optional | TCS/ETC Optional /intake heatplate Optional | 98-99 Does not use TCS on four cylinder models, optional on 00-02 four cylinder models |
?? |
Generally speaking, Trionic systems are shortened to indicate which version they are, eg. T5, T7, T8, etc. The engines with T5 had red ignition modules which differentiate them visually from the T7 models which had a black ignition module. The ignition module on both T5 and T7 are an integral ignition coil and electronics that plugs directly onto the spark plugs without the use of spark plug wires that are typically used on most engines.
The T5 and T7 management systems has been successfully manipulated to allow self-tuning for enthusiasts but as of December 2010 T8 tuning has not allowed similar results yet.
SAAB Models Utilizing Trionic Engine Management System:
- 2nd Generation 900Saab 900The Saab 900 was a car produced by Saab Automobile from 1978 until 1998 in two generations. The first generation from 1978 to 1993 is known as the "classic"; the generation from 1994 to 1998 is known as the "new generation" ....
("NG900") 1994-1998 - T5 - 9000Saab 9000The Saab 9000 is an automobile that was produced by the Swedish company Saab from 1984 to 1997. The 9000 was replaced by the 9-5 in the late 1997....
1994-1998 - T5 - 1st Generation 9-3Saab 9-3The first generation 9-3, a substantially improved 'new-generation' Saab 900 was launched in 1998 for the 1999 model year. Saab claimed that 1,100 changes were made, including a revised suspension in an attempt to tighten up the handling characteristics of its predecessor, the Saab 900...
1999 - T5 (Except Viggen, which is T7) - 1st Generation 9-3Saab 9-3The first generation 9-3, a substantially improved 'new-generation' Saab 900 was launched in 1998 for the 1999 model year. Saab claimed that 1,100 changes were made, including a revised suspension in an attempt to tighten up the handling characteristics of its predecessor, the Saab 900...
2000 to 2002 - T7 - 2nd Generation 9-3Saab 9-3The first generation 9-3, a substantially improved 'new-generation' Saab 900 was launched in 1998 for the 1999 model year. Saab claimed that 1,100 changes were made, including a revised suspension in an attempt to tighten up the handling characteristics of its predecessor, the Saab 900...
2003 to Current 4cyl - T8 - 1st Generation 9-5Saab 9-5The Saab 9-5 is an executive car produced by the Swedish automobile maker Saab. The first generation was introduced in 1997 as the replacement to the Saab 9000 for the 1998 model year. At the time, the car represented a great leap forward for Saab...
1999-2009 4Cyl - T7 - 2nd Generation 9-5Saab 9-5The Saab 9-5 is an executive car produced by the Swedish automobile maker Saab. The first generation was introduced in 1997 as the replacement to the Saab 9000 for the 1998 model year. At the time, the car represented a great leap forward for Saab...
2010-Current 4cyl - T8
Projects/Aftermarket (Non OEM) tuning
Many people around the world are working on reverse engineeringReverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
the Trionic engine management system, by way of various open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
communities. The work involves understanding the binary files stored in the ECU itself, and what changes affect the car's hardware and operation of the vehicle.
There also some alternative options in the way of interceptors like # nichip] that clamp the various inputs to the standard management systems, but they are restricted by the fact that fuel delivery generally cannot be easily increased as manipulation of the air-flow meter input and/or aggressive modifying of the ignition timing causes the Check Engine Light (CEL) to illuminate easily due to a deviation between the expected and targeted torque and quality of emissions.
It is therefore common to increase the fuel pressure across the board by using an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator when tuning is performed by these interceptor computers, and trim the fuel out instead. However, increased fuel pressure has the side-effect of affecting the engine's ability to idle due to injector lockup, and as such sometimes an alternative solution of additional injectors instead of a raised-fuel-pressure regulator is proposed.
The number of cars with such complex requirements is very low, and in general a full aftermarket engine management system is used in these cases, such as Nira or MoTeC.
External links
- ecuproject.com, Community dedicated to giving Trionic power to the people! Founded by Andrew J. Weaver and Steven A. Hayes and supported by the global SAAB community.
- http://trionic.mobixs.eu/, "Trionic Suites" open source engine tuning software