Coded failure indicator for an air bag system

Claim 2

An air bag system for an automobile comprising: deceleration sensor means for sensing deceleration of the automobile; air bag means for providing occupant restraint; air bag firing means coupled to said air bag means for deploying said air bag means; diagnostic means coupled to said deceleration sensor means and said air bag firing means for actuating said air bag firing means in response to signals from said deceleration sensor means; said diagnostic means being coupled to a plurality of different electrical locations in said air bag system to monitor voltage levels at those electrical locations thereby detecting the occurrence of faults at those electrical locations; indicating means coupled to said diagnostic means for giving a unique coded indication of any of a plurality of faults; and wherein said diagnostic means associates a unique sequence of equally spaced pulses of an equal duration with a given fault so that a single indicating means can display a plurality of faults by displaying sequences of different length, each sequence including equally spaced pulses of equal duration.

Claim 3

An air bag system as recited in claim 1 wherein all of the faults are prioritized and only the fault with the highest priority is displayed.

Claim 4

An air bag system as recited in claim 2 wherein said diagnostic means includes the following assignment of priority and uniquely associated pulse sequence: ______________________________________ Fault Code Fault Monitored (No. of Flashes) Priority ______________________________________ Disconnected Diagnostic Module 1 1 Connector Diagnostic Module Fault continuous light 2 Loss of Air Bag Deployment 3 3 circuit power (+12 volts) to Diagnostic Module Shorted left, center (high level) 5 4 or right forward crash sensor deployment circuit Defective firing circuit disarm 10 5 device Defective rearward sensor 4 6 (Attachment, Sensing Element, or input/output circuit) Driver air bag circuit inoperative 6 7 Passenger air bag circuit 7 8 Inoperative Open left, center, or right 8 9 forward crash sensor ground circuit Open left, center (high 9 10 level) or right forward crash sensor deployment circuit Open external flasher circuit 11 11 All forward crash sensor 2 12 disconnected ______________________________________

Claim 5

An air bag system as recited in claim 3 wherein said pulse has a duration of about 0.5 seconds and is spaced from an adjacent pulse by about 0.5 seconds.

Claim 6

An air bag system as recited in claim 4 wherein a pulse sequence is separated from a sequential pulse sequence by about 2 seconds.

Claim 7

An air bag system as recited in claim 5 wherein: said indication means is a light capable of flashing and positioned so as to be visible by a driver of the automobile.