This is bordering on off topic perhaps, so forgive me since I'm still extremely new here, but... what's going on with the SDM in 1998 and some early 1999 model year GM vehicles? Most of the cars I've looked at (98 GMC Jimmy, 99 Oldsmobile Alero, 98 Saturn for explicit examples) have a "tan" wire (circuit #800) running from the SDM to slot 9 of the DLC and the most descriptive description I'm seeing on the diagrams is "UART Serial Data". My guess is there's an adapter that uses pin 9 instead of pin 2 for the bus+. Doesn't make sense to me to use an entirely different network protocol to program the SDM when J1850 VPW "class 2" had already been well defined by then. Then again, it doesn't make sense to isolate the SDM from everything else.
That brings me to another set of vague but perhaps more on topic questions. 1999 Saturns have a purple wire running from pin 4 of the SDM connector to pin 1 of the DLC, which the diagrams call circuit 1807, which anyone reading this is probably aware that 1807 is always (in 1996-2008) the main class 2 bus+ circuit. Starting in 2000, pin 4 of the SDM, which is identical to the 1999 one AFAIK (SIAB with new SDM first available in 2001), goes to the BCM instead of pin 1, and according to the diagrams, there's another purple wire going from slot 5 of the SDM to the IPC. I've never verified this, but it's got me scratching my head. If the SDM is connected to the BCM, which is obviously connected to the IPC, why the redundant wire?
I've completely disassembled the interior wiring in my 99 SL2 with the one exception being the SDM, since I couldn't figure out how to get the connector off without breaking it. Supposedly, there's an "airbag telltale lamp driver module" somewhere in the 99, which supposedly controls the airbag light in the otherwise fully-PCM-controlled cluster, so maybe it's under the main SDM case. I tried just looking at the wires but after 25 years, the tape around the bundle running under the center console, which was surprisingly well done, is completely petrified.
Anyway, backtracking a bit... is it safe to assume that any purple wire identified as circuit 1807 on a 1996-2008 (or whatever, before the switch to using the CAN bus for OBD-II) GM vehicle can be connected to the DLC pin 2 wire? I'm guessing that is so and that there was (is?) an adapter for the 1999 model years still lacking a BCM that effectively "shorts" pins 1 and 2 together, temporarily connecting the SDM to the main network and making it possible to check/clear unlatched B codes from the SDM.
By the way, the reason I originally got interested in this is the radio. The 1997 S-series coupe/sedans had a OEM/"Delphi" brand 12 disc trunk mounted CD changer option that works when the "AX" button on the head unit is pushed. Even though the radio isn't connected to anything else, I figure what the manual calls the "E/C Data Line" going between the head unit and the CD changer is really class 2 connection and if so, that would mean it would be rather trivial to trick the head unit into thinking the CD changer is available and I could listen to audio from my phone's AUX port. It would also mean I could assign functions to e.g. the RDM button. I am almost certain I remember a thread on the now defunct saturnfans.com forums where someone did exactly what I'm talking about, although it may be using a different protocol.