Denso Corporation

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Hisanori Miura

Nobuyuki Iwasaki

Kenichiro Sanji

Youichirou Suzuki

Noboru Maeda

An activation system for a passenger protection device comprises a pair of communication wires, a central unit for detecting currents flowing in the communication wires, and a satellite unit for varying the currents flowing in the communication wires based on output data of an acceleration detection sensor. The central unit calculates a sum of the detected currents and compares the sum with a first predetermined level to detect the output data of the sensor. The central unit also calculates a difference between the detected currents and compares the difference with a second predetermined level, thereby detecting failure in the communication wires and stopping activation of the passenger protection device.

Activation system and method for passenger protection device

A circuit system includes: a master node; and a slave portion including a plurality of non-grounded slave nodes, each of which couples with the master node through a pair of communication lines. The master node and the slave portion provide a differential transmission system for differentially transmitting a signal among the master node and the slave nodes. The slave portion has a predetermined impedance. The differential transmission system has a good signal condition and a sufficient low common mode noise.

Circuit system

An apparatus is provided for transmitting data in an airbag activation system mounted on a vehicle. The apparatus comprises a communication channel, a plurality of sensor units mutually communicably connected via the communication channel, and a processing unit. Each sensor unit senses a state of the vehicle, produces data indicative of the sensed state of the vehicle into a set of digital data including actually sensed data of a predetermined bit length, the actually sensed data corresponding to the sensed state of the vehicle, and outputs the set of digital data to the communication channel at predetermined transmission intervals. The bit length of the actually sensed data is changed depending on the sensed state of the vehicle. The set of digital data is outputted successively from the sensor modules. The processing unit successively receives the digital data from each sensor unit via the communication channel.

Apparatus for transmitting data acquired from bus-connected plural on-vehicle sensors to processing unit

An airbag ECU includes a communication bus connection circuit for connecting communication buses to communication circuits. A central control circuit connects some of the communication buses to the communication circuits with the communication bus connection circuit and sets addresses for some of slave sensor devices. When those addresses are set, the other communication buses are connected to the communication circuits by the communication bus connection circuit, and addresses for the other slave sensor devices are set. Thus, a circuit can be made simpler without any influence on address setting, thus reducing cost and size of an airbag apparatus.

Communication apparatus

An apparatus for driving an occupant-protecting airbag device mounted on a vehicle is provided. The airbag device includes an airbag and a squib and the squib can be deployed by igniting the squib. The apparatus comprise plural sensors, plural A/D converters, a determination unit and an ignition circuit. Each sensor senses a physical quantity acting on the vehicle to output an analog signal indicative of the physical quantity. Each of the plural A/D converters is electrically connected to at least one of the plurality of sensors to cause each A/D converter to perform an A/D conversion on the signal. The determination unit uses the signal converted by each A/D converter to determine whether or not the airbag should be deployed. The ignition circuit causes the squib to ignite to deploy the airbag when the determination unit determines that the airbag should be deployed.

Apparatus for driving on-vehicle occupant-protecting airbag device

An acceleration sensor module, installed in a front region and/or a side region of a vehicle, includes a sensing section and an adjusting section. The sensing section includes a capacitive detecting section and a converting section. The detecting section detects the acceleration of the vehicle. The converting section converts a capacitance value into a voltage value. The adjusting section includes an AD converter, a communication circuit, a power source section, and an oscillator. The AD converter converts an analog output of the converting section into a digital value. The communication circuit sends an output of the AD converter to a collision judging section. The power source section supplies electric power to each of the AD converter, the communication circuit, and the sensing section. The oscillator supplies the clock to the AD converter and to the converting section of the sensing section.

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Gamagori, Japan

Hisanori Miura