Airbag disabling- for a dog

[Silver60th]

Ok, I realize this probably isn't the smartest question. Just curious though.

Is there a way to put a switch inline to the passenger airbag to have the ability to turn it on/off? Without causing lights to come on. Also, without having to due any crazy engineering/modding.

The reason I am asking is that I like to bring my dog with me on rides, mainly in the front seat. Any small crash is likely to deploy the airbags, and an airbag in a fender-bender is more likely to kill a dog in the front seat than the force of the impact.

Just thinking out loud here. Any advice/info/thoughts would be greatly appreciated. And try not to sound like an ass if you think my idea is stupid

 

[FlexdXJ]

Any small crash is likely to deploy the airbags, and an airbag in a fender-bender is more likely to kill a dog in the front seat than the force of the impact.

Its gonna take a decent hit to set it off! Are you talking trail rides or around town? Also what kind of dog is it? My buddies Lab/pit mix was in the back of my jeep when I hit a Mercedes at 50 head on and she came out fine!

 

[winkosmosis]

What if you seatbelt your dog in? Will it still move forward far enough to hit the airbag?

http://www.ruffrider.com/

 

[ert01]

Just fyi...

My dog is a belgian shepherd... (retired narcotics dog). He was in the back of the work truck (Trailblazer) when we got in an accident on the highway doing 120(km/h). We T-boned a guy who decided to cross the highway without stopping at his stop sign. The other truck was a complete write off and the whole front end of mine collapsed in. The dog just bounced off his divider in the back and walked away without a scratch... they are VERY resilient animals and can take a lot. I chalk that one up to the fact that there was nothing in the back that could bounce around into him. He was secure in his area which has no sharp edges or loose objects...

Not trying to diminish what you're doing... keeping your dog safe is great. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[joe_peters]

How about one of these:

http://www.policeairbag.com/Disconnection_with_Simulators.htm

 

[01xjkiller]

not to steal the thread but i was wondering if you could shut both airbags off on an 97 w/o major mods for just trail riding but i want to keep the on when im just driving from town to town. thanks

 

[joe_peters]

not to steal the thread but i was wondering if you could shut both airbags off on an 97 w/o major mods for just trail riding but i want to keep the on when im just driving from town to town. thanks

You can do a search, but I don't remember anyone posting about a deployment from just wheeling, I think you should just keep them active.

Or, check the link I posted above. You would have to plug/un-plug them all the time, hardly seems worth the effort.

 

[-Kiel-]

I witnessed a jk's side air bag go off 2 summers ago. He hit the rocker pretty good though.

 

[kastein]

You can do a search, but I don't remember anyone posting about a deployment from just wheeling, I think you should just keep them active.

Or, check the link I posted above. You would have to plug/un-plug them all the time, hardly seems worth the effort.

From the other thread right now on airbags - ktm racer 419 has had his 96 airbag go off twice while offroading, though the 96 is the old mechanical airbag setup.

I have a 98 ACM on hand to reverse engineer. I'll see if I can figure anything out... from the look of the airbag simulator linked above, all you have to do is put a dummy load resistor of the correct resistance and power handling capability on the lines instead of the airbag, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

 

[joe_peters]

From the other thread right now on airbags - ktm racer 419 has had his 96 airbag go off twice while offroading, though the 96 is the old mechanical airbag setup.

I have a 98 ACM on hand to reverse engineer. I'll see if I can figure anything out... from the look of the airbag simulator linked above, all you have to do is put a dummy load resistor of the correct resistance and power handling capability on the lines instead of the airbag, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

Yeah, I read that thread a couple minutes after my earlier post here!! Must be some kind of Karma thing, and I'm left holding the sh*ty end of the Karma stick, again! :dunno:

 

[kastein]

Little bit later than "tonight", but here's some info:

(all pertains to 97 model year, colors/pin positions may differ in later years)
Driver side squib wiring is positions 1 and 2, colors are Dark Green/Light Blue and Black/Light Blue.
Passenger side squib wiring is positions 5 and 6, colors are Black/Yellow and Dark Green/Yellow.
Passenger side pressure sensor wiring is positions 11 and 12, colors are Violet/Yellow and Brown/Yellow.

Looks like the tracer color indicates the side the wiring goes to (Light Blue = DS, Yellow = PS) and the main color indicates the polarity of the line. I'm guessing the Dark Green lines are the switched power and the Black lines are the grounds, but I haven't had time to pull the board off of the ACM baseplate.

Relevant components on the ACM PCB:
* 3x 35V 1500uF electrolytic capacitors. These are probably the energy storage bank, based on the location on the board and some fairly heavy traces I see between them and the squib drive transistors.
* 2x large SMT transistors. I am 100% certain these are the squib drive transistors, I just need to figure out whether they are positive or negative side switch configuration and how the continuity/impedance monitoring signal is returned from the drive circuit to the microcontroller.
* 2x large 0.62 ohm SMT chip resistors. These are probably part of the squib current draw monitoring circuit but I am not sure yet.
* 11x medium SMT rectifiers or solid (tantalum/niobium oxide) electrolytic capacitors. I'm not sure which yet, I can't quite make out what the markings are without scraping some of the waterproofing off. Some are in what appears to be a charge-pump circuit to charge the energy storage capacitor bank (likely to a higher voltage than 12V automotive power for absolute certainty of ignition, though I'm not certain) and others appear to be linked directly to the squib drive circuitry.

Hopefully I'll have some time to hack on this a little more in the near future, but tonight is looking pretty much gone, tomorrow I'm driving for many hours, Friday I'm probably too busy to even check my email, and Saturday isn't looking good either... we'll see.

(crossposted from other airbag thread, just in case anyone's only watching one or the other)

 

[Talyn]

IIRC 97+ has two fuses to pull in the passenger side interior fuse box. At least for the 97+ I wouldn't worry about the air bag deploying off road. Int he past I had rear ended someone and they didn't go off. I think if they go off you definitely will need them.

 

[maybe2fast]

2 ohm resistor will simulate an airbag and keep the lights off. So unhook the battery and unplug the airbag and install a 2ohm resistor as a jumper across the plug. It will simulate an airbag and disable the bag (because its unplugged)

 

[kastein]

ok, so it is just checking resistance then - and the resistance of a squib is approx. 2 ohms?

I'll have to measure that myself to really be happy, but this sounds like the simple solution I expected... 3PDT toggle switch or a transistor switching network, wire it up to swap from one to the other and drive a big red AIRBAGS DISABLED warning light on the dashboard.