This document highlights all the factors to consider when using Orion on older product harnesses such as Saturn, Pluto2, Pluto, Venus and Titan. Orion was developed with new technology and is an improvement on Saturn. It can cover more engines and transmissions with the extra features. In most cases it is backwards compatible with Saturn except when it comes to intelligent coils. See the notes below.

Neptune2 was also discontinued due to Orion that can now do TCU as well. However, the harnesses and drivers are too different to be backwards compatible. Neptune2 is no longer sold.

Basic Coils (No Drivers)

On most firmware Orion will drive basic coils without drivers the same way as the older products.

Saturn had 6 high voltage coil drivers that were used in combination with injectors where Orion has 4 HV drivers and 2 low voltage high current drivers on those same pins. Injector drivers are smaller and less expensive and perfect for injectors. The downside is that if a program used more than 4 coils then the coils must be connected on two other pins. There was very few firmware for Saturn like the Spark only ECU. It could drive 6 coils.

Intelligent Coils (Built in Drivers)

For coils with built in drivers there is no drop in replacement. Orion don’t have the feature to select internal or external drivers because it has 4 positive drivers to drive intelligent coils directly. It does not require any setting nor the 220 ohm pull-ups that were required on the older products. You also need to add a Clean Power relay to bring power into the Orion to supply the positive drivers. Do not use the coil relay as it may damage the drivers. See the drawings for wiring of the relay.

Injectors

Orion can drive 4 Injectors by using the 2 GP outputs on the P2 connector. There are also 4 GP outputs in total like Saturn. Some firmware did use this connection method but driver placement may be different. Confirm with the drawings and GP layout that you are on the same connections.

Power

Due to the difference in driver voltage it became important to add a 6 Amp diode on the power relays from pin 87 to earth to prevent driver damage. See the wiring diagrams for details.

Jumpers

Orion and Saturn jumpers sit in the same position but the Hall/Magnetic selection is swopped around. This made PC Board layout better but it catches old Saturn customers out. Do make a note when you set up a box for a customer.

Harnesses

Orion are sold with the latest design in automotive harnesses. Older harnesses became obsolete and are not featured in the manual. If you use Orion on older harnesses, then compare drawings in the old manuals to the Orion drawings to verify wire colours.

Firmware Programmer

Orion has a BootLoader and does not use the USB Debug Adapter to load firmware. It is now done via the USB cable.