Trollhattan Saab has changed!
The site you're viewing now is the original Trollhattan Saab weblog, though it's now an archive only and no new material is posted here. As of February 2009, all new material is posted at our new site - Saabs United.
Please join us at Saabs United and get your daily Saab fix from Saab sources all around the world.
Here’s a subject that I won’t pretend to understand (not that I ever do pretend, but anyways…..)
Saab Trionic 7 is the engine management system used in the Saab 9-5 and Viggen, and in the Saab 9-3 from 2000 until Trionic 8 took over in the Sport Sedan etc from 2003.
There are companies that modify your engine management software so that you get a bunch more boost from your Saab. Commercially speaking, we’re talking about ECU mods from Hirsch, BSR, Maptun, Speedparts and others. But there are people who like to take matters into their own hands and do custom programming, too.
There’s a bunch of guys at ECUproject.com who seem to be into doing this and as part of the exploration they’re doing, one of them has figured out a way to get Saab ECU information to show up on his Saab Information Display, or SID.
There’s a video here that will show you the SID in action and here’s a few screenshots. The ECUproject page on this hack is here and it features a full list of the data you can access.
RPM = revs per minute
Lamb = Lambda correction
tSta = Engine start time (milliseconds)
LIMP = Limp home mode (0=off)
There’s also software that lets you download and then read this sort of data on your computer.
If you’re into knowing everything that your engine is doing – and have the knowledge as to what it’s telling you – then this is something you might want to look into.
ECUprojects.com has a whole section on Trionic7 in it’s forums, too.
–
Again, I don’t pretend to understand any of this and if you want to get into it, then do so at your own risk. You’re a big person now.
–
Searching round for a bit more info, I also found this site by a guy named Tomi Liljemark.
He’s got all sorts of info on there about Trionic, the Saab 9-3 I-Bus system and even some stuff about BSR’s PPC unit.
Tomi’s also done a hack to get information showing on his SID. Video here. Screenshot below.
–
Thanks Mackan!!
–
9 responses so far ↓
1 albert
// Dec 18, 2008 at 7:24 pm
it’s ecuproject.com not ecuprojects.com
2 swade
// Dec 18, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Meh.
The links still work, I think.
3 ctm
// Dec 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Now, if only I had enough pixels on the SID to read the info…
4 alaero
// Dec 18, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Nice post about ECU project, guess what i am doing after christmas!!
should finish my 9-3 off nicely, apart from those Hirsch 6 spokes..
a.
5 Bernard
// Dec 18, 2008 at 11:14 pm
That is too cool.
I think that automakers should offer this as standard. There may have been a business case for not doing so 10 years ago, but now that OBDC readers are a dime a dozen, why not let owners know what’s going on with their LTFT?
That’s “long term fuel trim” for those who don’t know, and probably aren’t be interested.
6 Juan M
// Dec 19, 2008 at 12:06 am
If I could read my SID that would be cool
7 aireeca
// Dec 19, 2008 at 12:28 am
Sigh. If only my pixels hadn’t gone missing….
8 Johan
// Dec 19, 2008 at 1:21 am
“That’s “long term fuel trim” for those who don’t know, and probably aren’t be interested.”
Never understood who came up with the idea to call it ‘long term fuel trim’.
Anyway, Trionic 7 has two fuel adaption values, commonly called multiplicative fuel adaption and additive fuel adaption and as the names imply the first value is multiplied with the fuel quantity while the second is added to the fuel quantity. If these values reach a certain max/min value that will cause a ‘check engine’ and a fault code will be logged.
It would be a good idea to allow SID to display several of these values through a simple menu. It would also be a good idea to allow SID to display fault codes directly. If fault codes were displayed the owner can write down the number and then simply call the closest Saab workshop who then will have a rough understanding of the problem and perhaps even a simple solution, that would make it easier both for them and the owner. If the car seems to lack power, a torquemeter or powermeter is also useful, no need to find a shop that can check if the engine produces the power it’s supposed to, just do a fast check yourself by a few simple clicks.
9 mackan
// Dec 19, 2008 at 4:41 am
Johan, SIDI (Sid info) shows all the things you write about, error codes ( in decimal, need to convert the numbers to hex manually ), adaptation values, misfire, knock, airmass, boost and so on.
The easiest way to modify your own car is to buy a canusb ( http://www.canusb.com ), connect to the canbus of your car, read out your original software, open it with T7suite ( http://trionic.mobixs.eu/ ), select Actions – Firmware info and make sure the “Software Open” checkbox is checked.
You can also see all the maps of your software with T7suite and quite easily modify it for more performance.
For the more advanced user you can also add the info of your liking to sid if the pre configured ones (over 60different in some softwares!) and add economy – normal and sports mode to your car!