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Actuation apparatus for actuating the protective devices for the safety of vehicle occupants

  • US 5,802,480 A
  • Filed: 06/05/1996
  • Issued: 09/01/1998
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/15/1993
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An actuation apparatus for actuating a protective device for safety of vehicle occupants, comprising;

  • an accelerometer which outputs a deceleration signal at a time of a crash;

    a one-chip microcomputer, including,a central processing unit in which the signal received from the accelerometer undergoes arithmetic operations, anda MASKROM which is a read only memory, in which an algorithm for the signal received from the accelerometer undergoing said arithmetic operations is preset;

    an EEPROM for said central processing unit, which is a writable memory; and

    an ignition circuit to actuate the protective device on a basis of a signal received from said central processing unit;

    wherein parameters for use in said arithmetic operations, are preset in said MASKROM and said EEPROM;

    said parameters are divided into first and second parameters;

    the first parameters include common threshold values for actuating said protection device and are common to all types of vehicles and are preset in said MASKROM and the second parameters are for adjusting said common threshold values so as to correspond to a specific vehicle type and are preset in said EEPROM; and

    when the second parameters can be read from said EEPROM, said first parameters read out from said MASKROM are used in place of said second parameters preventing a malfunction of the actuating apparatus at a time of a crash so as to prevent serious injury to the vehicle occupants.

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