Who Has Added Smartcraft to their Engines?

Just looked and right now your are correct only new for 599.. but I promis you can scoop them for 300. Also off shore only forum has them a lot..

And as far as engine codes, that’s exactly what I was pointing out. They don’t pass along that data until you get very new. Mercuiser was who told me that as I was debating the full on smartcraft vessel view link or the gateway. And they told me no individual codes are passed until very late modules so my 2002 was pointless. Stick to engine data only.
 
Just looked and right now your are correct only new for 599.. but I promis you can scoop them for 300. Also off shore only forum has them a lot..

And as far as engine codes, that’s exactly what I was pointing out. They don’t pass along that data until you get very new. Mercuiser was who told me that as I was debating the full on smartcraft vessel view link or the gateway. And they told me no individual codes are passed until very late modules so my 2002 was pointless. Stick to engine data only.


Good info. What’s the “off shore only” forum? Is that part of CSR or elsewhere? I’m going to have to google that and try and locate it. Thanks for the tip.

And your info about the engines is interesting. Mine are 2003 and I’ve been angry at Simrad. Maybe my displeasure was misplaced and should have been at Mercruiser!
 
Just looked and right now your are correct only new for 599.. but I promis you can scoop them for 300. Also off shore only forum has them a lot..

And as far as engine codes, that’s exactly what I was pointing out. They don’t pass along that data until you get very new. Mercuiser was who told me that as I was debating the full on smartcraft vessel view link or the gateway. And they told me no individual codes are passed until very late modules so my 2002 was pointless. Stick to engine data only.

That’s good to know about not getting the fault codes. That’s about 75% of the reason I want the VVM module, in the future get the engine faults and hopefully avoid a repeat of or similar to the issue I’m having now (described below.)

Boat is currently in the shop due to severe rattle in starboard drivetrain that I thought was the damper plate but turned out to be low compression on cylinder #5. Last season I was getting a slight rattle that would go away when raising the rpm slightly, I didn’t know what it was so I ignored it. It was probably the beginning of #5 misfire. Beginning of this season the rattle suddenly got much much worse, so I came to the forum, researched and found it to most likely need a tune up. It did as the #5 plug was bad (electrode almost completely missing) and the rotor and cap were badly corroded. Of course the tune up did not help so I had my shop pull the boat and they found the low compression in #5. I’m thinking if smartcraft had flagged the misfire last year I could have changed the ignition components before whatever catastrophic happened to cause the compression loss. This issue has already caused me to lose 5 weeks and counting of prime boating time and no telling how much $$$, well over $500 for the VVM + cables.

Sounds like I need both VVM to tell me something is wrong and the scan tool to actually read the faults.
 
The scan tool is worth it’s weight in gold when you have a problem... plug in and bam.. ok ICA, or low water pressure, or misfire, or what ever.. gets you pointed to the problem instantly..
 
The scan tool is worth it’s weight in gold when you have a problem... plug in and bam.. ok ICA, or low water pressure, or misfire, or what ever.. gets you pointed to the problem instantly..

So it looks like I want the Rinda TechMate Pro. Is that what you have? For $500 it comes with the 94005 MEFI adapter but I think I might need the 94006 adapter (MerCruiser PCM-555 / ECM-555 adapter for 2001-Up MerCruiser EFI engines and and late model Mercury outboards) for my engines. I do see in the ECM-555 section of the Rinda instruction manual that you can set the engine location (port or starboard).

I think I have the 10p diag connectors (used for Smartcraft) and not the 4p diag connectors used with the 94006 adapter, and the 6.2s should be MEFI-3 or MEFI-4 GM Vortec 5700 based engines. Do you know if that is correct or will I need the 94006 adapter too?
 
The scan tool uses a 4 or 5 pin, be smartcraft is a 10 pin. Different connectors. So you don’t have to unhook anything smart craft to scan for a problem.
 
Not true. The older gen smartcraft does not send fault codes through the gateway..... so only way to get codes is the scanner. Not that I am suggesting you buy a scanner for this. I have one anyway. Just if you have a buddy with one it will do it.. also eBay for 300 will get you one, not 600
I'd beg to differ. My 2001 on VV mobile throws not only a code but gives me exactly what sensor failed. Example, the starboard crank shaft sensor failed and the motor would not start and alarm beeped. My VV said crank shaft sensor error.
 
I'd beg to differ. My 2001 on VV mobile throws not only a code but gives me exactly what sensor failed. Example, the starboard crank shaft sensor failed and the motor would not start and alarm beeped. My VV said crank shaft sensor error.

That makes sense and seems to agree with what MerCruiser says about their mobile gateway (that it can show codes). That means the code to arm on the smartcraft bus. And for me, the question is whether those codes make it through to the Nema2000 bus? And if they do, which chart plotter will actually show that level of detail? Ah questions, questions. These are only hypotheticals at this point. I would buy a scan tool before I changed my chart plotter!
 
That makes sense and seems to agree with what MerCruiser says about their mobile gateway (that it can show codes). That means the code to arm on the smartcraft bus. And for me, the question is whether those codes make it through to the Nema2000 bus? And if they do, which chart plotter will actually show that level of detail? Ah questions, questions. These are only hypotheticals at this point. I would buy a scan tool before I changed my chart plotter!
My buddy has a 360 and just updated all equipment and yes his nema2000 understands the codes to English. He has the newest of new smart craft hardware and monitor. The monitor also displays his charts. I'll have to report back on his main monitor brand but it also displays in English the codes via nema2000. In addition his autopilot can be ran by his phone. The screens are all black flat smooth glass, no buttons. Its beyond awesome!
 
My buddy has a 360 and just updated all equipment and yes his nema2000 understands the codes to English. He has the newest of new smart craft hardware and monitor. The monitor also displays his charts. I'll have to report back on his main monitor brand but it also displays in English the codes via nema2000. In addition his autopilot can be ran by his phone. The screens are all black flat smooth glass, no buttons. Its beyond awesome!


Well I hope this is true, but they told me it would not. I have only had it all working a few weeks and luckily no issues yet to know. But Merc told me on phone it was only a Fault period not what the fault was with the older smart craft stuff? Maybe need to call again and get more clarity.. or unplug a sensor ands= see what happens.
 
Well I hope this is true, but they told me it would not. I have only had it all working a few weeks and luckily no issues yet to know. But Merc told me on phone it was only a Fault period not what the fault was with the older smart craft stuff? Maybe need to call again and get more clarity.. or unplug a sensor ands= see what happens.

It could be. Wonder what year is considered "old" Smartcraft (that wouldn't have this info) and when they become "newer" (that would)?
 
Well, just say'n my 2001 8.1s engines are sending codes in English via the sensors name of something goes wrong.
 
My 2002 sends English codes to the scan tool. But told not to NMEA network even with the gateway. But. I have also not had a fault.
 
Well, I think sending the codes to the scan tool isn't an issue. So that makes sense that it shows up there. You may be onto something about whether the gateway passes it or not. But in reality, it's just probably a byte or two of data so I wouldn't think it would be difficult to get through the gate way. I'm sure the gateway isn't analyzing the data that's coming across the network. It's just passing it. My hunch is that it is the chart plotter itself that's not displaying that data and the code. I'd love to hear if someone running a RayMarine or a Garmin can see the codes on their plotters.
 
Just FYI - I got my the Vesselview Mobile module installed this weekend and I can verify that it does pass through faults with both engines to my iphone via bluetooth.
 
Just FYI - I got my the Vesselview Mobile module installed this weekend and I can verify that it does pass through faults with both engines to my iphone via bluetooth.

Nice! I was out Friday night, in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay when my engine started sounding the two beeps per minute alarm. Ugh. No apparent issues: temps ok, oil pressure ok, etc. On anchoring, dropping to idle, my SB engine died. Started back up (with throttle) and it died again on idle. Meanwhile, the alarm kept sounding. All signs were a dead IAC valve. But I couldn help but think: wouldn’t VV mobile be nice, so, I could read the code and be sure it was the IAC? Turns out, it was. But VV mobile is half the price of a Rinda scanner, too. How ridiculous would it be to have BOTH the Mercruiser NMEA gateway sending SC engine data to my plotter AND a VV mobile sending it to my phone? #decadent
 
This weekend I will unplug a sensor and see what I get to my lowrance then.

Jamrin what year is your boat?
 

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