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Principles of Operation




Interior Lighting

Principles of Operation

NOTE: The Smart Junction Box (SJB) is also known as the Generic Electronic Module (GEM).

The SJB supplies voltage to the interior lighting system. The interior lighting system illuminates the courtesy lamps to enhance visibility of the interior while a vehicle door is ajar, and the vehicle speed is less than 15 km/h (9 mph). The SJB controls all interior lighting functions and timing by monitoring inputs from the door ajar switches, the instrument panel dimmer switch, and the vehicle speed.

Interior Lamp Arbitrator

The SJB chooses between the interior lighting, the interior mode, the interior lighting delay, the illuminated entry, illuminated exit and the battery saver to determine which feature has precedence of activating and deactivating the interior lamps.

The features are prioritized as follows:

- Perimeter alarm/panic alarm
- Battery saver
- Interior lighting
- Interior light delay
- Illuminated entry
- Illuminated exit

Ambient Lighting

The ambient lighting feature provides illumination of the cup holders (front and rear) in the center floor console and to the front and rear footwell areas. There are a total of 7 LED lighting locations. The ambient lighting feature is only available when the ignition key is in the ACC or RUN position.

The ambient lighting module provides voltage and ground to the LEDs. There are 3 different color (red, blue and green) LEDs housed within each LED assembly. By illuminating various color combinations, the LEDs are able to produce 7 different colors of ambient light. The ambient lighting switch is an input to the ambient lighting module. With each press of the ambient lighting switch, the ambient lighting module cycles through a different color variation or turns the ambient lighting feature off. The module retains the last color setting between uses.

Battery Saver

The SJB provides automatic shut-off of the demand lamps and courtesy lamps after a time-out period in order to save battery voltage. A timer in the SJB is started when the ignition is turned to the OFF position and all the doors are closed. When the time-out period for the lamps has elapsed, the voltage is automatically shut off to the lamps by the SJB. While the SJB has voltage disabled, if the ignition is turned to any position other than OFF, any door becomes ajar, the UNLOCK button of the Remote Keyless Entry (RKE) transmitter is pressed, a valid keypad code is entered, an unlock request from the door lock cylinder is received, or the instrument panel dimmer switch is turned on, the SJB restores voltage and starts the timer again.

NOTE: Time-out is 1 minute if the vehicle has less than 80 km (50 miles).

The battery saver time-outs are as follows:

- Courtesy lamps = 10 minutes
- Demand lamps = 10 minutes

Field-Effect Transistor (FET) Protection

The SJB utilizes a Field-Effect Transistor (FET) protective circuit strategy for many of its outputs (for example, the headlamp output circuit). Output loads (current level) are monitored for excessive current (typically short circuits) and are shut down (turns off the voltage or ground provided by the module) when a fault event is detected. A continuous DTC is stored at the fault event and a cumulative counter is started.

When the demand for the output is no longer present, the module resets the FET circuit protection. The next time a request activates a circuit that has been shut down by a previous short (FET protection) and the circuit remains shorted, the FET protection shuts off the circuit again and the cumulative counter advances.

When the excessive circuit load occurs often enough, the module shuts down the output until a repair procedure is carried out. Each FET protected circuit has 3 predefined levels of short circuit tolerance based on the harmful effect of each circuit fault on the FET and the ability of the FET to withstand it. A total level of fault events is established based upon the durability of the FET. If the total tolerance level is determined to be 600 fault events, the 3 predefined levels would be 200, 400 and 600 fault events.

When each tolerance level is reached, the continuous DTC that was stored on the first failure cannot be cleared by a command to clear the continuous DTCs. The module does not allow this code to be cleared or the circuit restored to normal operation until a successful self-test proves that the fault has been repaired. After the self-test has successfully completed (no on-demand DTCs present), the continuous DTC automatically clears and the circuit function returns.

When the first or second level is reached, the continuous DTC (associated with the short circuit) sets along with DTC B106E. These DTCs can be cleared using the module self-test, then the Clear DTC operation on the scan tool as long as the fault itself has been corrected.

If the number of short circuit fault events reach the third level, then DTCs B106F and B1342 set along with the associated continuous DTC. This DTC cannot be cleared and the module must be replaced.

The SJB FET protected output circuit for the interior lighting system is for the courtesy lamp output circuit.