Vessel view mobile retrofit

Sep 6, 2013
112
Mission Bay, San Diego
Boat Info
2008 240DA
SOLD: 1988 230WE
Engines
5.0 Mercruiser EFI with BIII
Hey all. Thanks in advance.

Im looking to put vessel view mobile on my boat mostly to read codes and keep tabs on engine diagnostics. Looking to see how hard it would be to install vessel view mobile. I do not have any existing smartcraft architecture, nor do I need any smartcraft gauges. Just the mobile. What do I need to know/look for and what expense can I expect to pay?

Motor is 2003 Mercruiser 5.0 EFI. Serial is 0M6...... and mercury website says it works on my engine model with serial 0M3..... and up. It is a bobcat repower, the hull is 1989.
 
To start you need the VV harness to already be on the engine. The harness will have a yellow cap and a 10 or 12 pin purple adapter for plug and play. If you have this harness, then the VVBT module plugs right into it. Download the app and your good to go.
 
It’s actually called a Smartcraft harness, not VV. But I agree. I have 2003 OM3 engines. I used the Mercury NMEA 2000 gateway to make a NMEA 2000 network (not the mobile gateway). Works like a champ. I wanted engine data on my chart plotter, not my phone.
 
Look for a yellow cap on the end of a harness. It may also be a footlong dead end harness connected the the harness. On the 8.1S its below the oil remote tucked under a bundle of other smaller harness. On yours my guess under the cover near the ecm.
 
Alright guys posted this on THT without much help. I think this is it. Not yellow, But it is on about a foot of dead cable coming from the ECM, and there is a tag that says diagnostics right before the plug. I included pictures of the harness, numbering on the dead cable coming from the ECM, and the plug. What says CSR, plug and play?
 

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Is that a 4 pin cable? If so, that’s not it. There is a diagnostics connector and a separate Smartcraft connector. Read the attached, it should help.
 

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I think it's a 10 or 12 pin connector, purple housing inside.
 
My motor is a 2003 6.2L mpi and it had a dust cap with a purplish color rather than the yellow cap that others describe. It was near the ECM buried under the wires. If yours is similar, you will need to buy a yellow “terminator “ end cap to go on the Vessel View Mobile. Apparently my motor is Smartcraft ready, but not fully set up.
 
Here is a picture of the dust cap from my boat
 

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Here is a picture of the dust cap from my boat
That is the correct cat for the correct connector. People are getting yellow and purple mixed up. The caps are typically purple, if they are just dust and water tight caps. The yellow caps, or a connector with a yellow band on it, have a resistor embedded inside. It’s called a terminating resistor, or a termination. The electrical signals being transmitted must have a termination at either end of the cable. Some people had a yellow cap, because they had a termination resistor there. Others, like you, and like me, only had purple caps ( in this case, the terminating resistor was somewhere else). But you found the right place to connect.
 
That is the correct cat for the correct connector. People are getting yellow and purple mixed up. The caps are typically purple, if they are just dust and water tight caps. The yellow caps, or a connector with a yellow band on it, have a resistor embedded inside. It’s called a terminating resistor, or a termination. The electrical signals being transmitted must have a termination at either end of the cable. Some people had a yellow cap, because they had a termination resistor there. Others, like you, and like me, only had purple caps ( in this case, the terminating resistor was somewhere else). But you found the right place to connect.

So I found the connector and the VV plugged into that purple connector just fine. It picked up the engine on the app, the module went solid green meaning it was connecting, and even showed the ECM serial number etc. However, it could not finish the connecting process on the app. It kept saying to “key on” when I was keyed on and/or running. I ordered the yellow terminator cap on Amazon for eight dollars, and I am hoping that is the reason. I would have called mercury, but they were already closed.
 
This is NOT MY CONNECTOR but wanted to post of the picture that mercury sent me for a reference if anyone else needed. I found the connector on the port side of the motor, after of the ECM.
 

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I'm trying to add a Mercury Vessel View Mobile module to my '05 290 Amberjack. The boat has a Smartcraft SC5000 unit that works great, I just want to add an ipad. Where is the Smartcraft J-Box located?
 
I’m told under the dash. My motor was smartcraft ready but no junction boxes or any smartcraft gauges, so I hooked up directly to the diagnostic terminator and it bluetooths straight to my iPad. iPad is split screen Navionics and vessel view app.
 
Split screen, I am not detecting any split screen capability in the vessel view app from Mercruiser. Can you post a screenshot of the two apps running side by side? Also, the app still does not support landscape mode, which is how I currently use my iPad, but I could use my phone as a vesselView monitor.
 
Split screen, I am not detecting any split screen capability in the vessel view app from Mercruiser. Can you post a screenshot of the two apps running side by side? Also, the app still does not support landscape mode, which is how I currently use my iPad, but I could use my phone as a vesselView monitor.

Split view is a function of iOS on newer iPads which allow you to run 2 apps side-by-side. I believe that's what OP was referring to.
 

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