Yes, that is exactly what I am calling a test bed. "offboard", never would have thought to google that.
BTW, I found this neat white paper on GM Networks. http://tomboynton.com/GMnetworks.pdf
Oh, so you have them president's looking over your shoulder? :-)
I am with you, just probing. I also want to get a BCM. Might even use the GPIO of the R-PI to tickle some inputs and see what happens. And for using R-PI as remote start/doors, wire it in like an alarm with remote start. Then using the GPIO to control relays. Just thinking out loud.
I hear you, the old 97 stepchild thing. I gave $350 for it and tried things on it that I would not have done on my driver. Like, bought cheap on-line front wheel bearings. When it came time to do my 06 GP daily driver, I went to parts store. The interesting thing, they were the same, even the packaging was identical (other than sensors, the 06 does not have ABS). I bet the pallet from China was sitting on the dock, they picked these to go to the parts stores and the others went to the online store. As I said, the PCM and BCM are only $25 each at our local pull a part, so might do a "offboard" for the 06 also. :-)