Twin Engine Vessel View Mobile

jmoen438

Just picked up an 04 342. Looking at installed the VV mobile. What exactly do I need for parts? Dual engine harness and J Box?

aero3113

Congratulations, I’m interested in this topic also.

LaRea

Does the boat have digital throttle and shift (DTS)?  If yes, it's easy because you already have a j-box at the helm.

Spyderweb

The expert on this topic at Mercury Marine is Walter Ross (Wally).  Email him with engine serial #'s.  Walter.Ross@mercmarine.com.  There are different setups depending on how your engines are setup.

Ian

A 2004 I unlikely to have DTS. Look at this post https://rinkerboats.vanilla communities.com/discussion/9690/mercury-vessel-view-mobile-on-sale/p2  and a post of mine from April 2019 on my 2003 310, likely much the same. And yes, Wally is the star in helping me out.

JimGuy341

Anyone have a pic of what the VVM screen looks like when running twins?  Just curious what the formatting looks like.

Black_Diamond

You can see quite a bit actually. Easy to move between screens too. RPM, fuel flow, eng temp, water pressures, oil press, voltage. 

Wally at Mercury is a huge help. You will need 2 j-boxes, harness to each engine. J-box connector harness to the single output for the VV Mobile. Plus rename the Port engine from ‘starboard’ to ‘port’. 

Spyderweb

@Black_Diamond and that is what was confusing for me.  These engines are set up all different ways, which results in various VVM setups.  I thought I needed 2 J Boxes but in the end only needed 1 and it works.

@JimGuy341 here's a good video of VVM capabilities 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIfqELm3tH8

It's geared towards 1 screen, but how ever you configure a screen there will be a side by side duplicate of it for your port and starboard numbers.

YYZRC

Here's the latest VV schematic from Mercury.  I was told the Multiwake harness isn't necessary but the dual junction boxes are.  Definitely check with Mercury!

Spyderweb

@YYZRC that's the original setup I was going to go with, and was eventually told I could eliminate 1 J box, the CAN number harness, and the multi-wake harness.  After that, the hardest part was to get someone to rename the port engine to "port". 

YYZRC

Spyderweb said:

@YYZRC that's the original setup I was going to go with, and was eventually told I could eliminate 1 J box, the CAN number harness, and the multi-wake harness.  After that, the hardest part was to get someone to rename the port engine to "port". 

I honestly believe it would have worked fine on my boat as you've described it, but my marina can't figure out how to program the port engine and after calling Mercury and getting the above schematic they were unwilling to try without me having 2 J boxes.  

I begged the Merc tech to send me a tutorial on programming the engine ID that I could give to the marina and all he kept saying was "its a 5 second job". 

Ian

@Spyderweb is right - thats how I did mine (I think I gave him the info). It took my mechanic a little to find it plugged into the diag port but because I had a spare SC port, he plugged into that and knew right where to go.

Programming the ID is not as obvious as you’d expect - “engine ID” ? Nope:

“The port engine will need to have its CityID changed to PORT (CityID 12).  All engines ship from the factory as STBD (City ID 11) as we do not know what application they will be used in.  This CityID process needs to be done with a service tool (Rinda, CDS, etc), typically at a Mercury dealer.  Should take less than 5 minutes if they know what to do”

From Wally last year and as noted above, no issues once we plugged in via the SC port/bus.

prlmnt

Is there any reason I could not use this data harness to connect from the vessel view to the other engine?  Note, there is a resistor at one end of the harness.

Mercury-Mercruiser 84-879981T10 SmartCraft CAN Data Harness 10 Pin 10 Ft.
https://www.mercruiserparts.com/879981t10-harness-assy

JimGuy341

Will the twin engine VVM set up still work if you don't rename the port engine?  Where I'm located, techs are few and far between and I could see this step taking awhile to get completed.

Ian

You have to have it renamed as they are on the same bus and reporting data from each and so the VVM app would not only ever see data from one but likely be confused by the 2 data streams. All you can do in the interim is plug on in, look at the data then swap to the other.

Ian

JimGuy341 said:

Anyone have a pic of what the VVM screen looks like when running twins?  Just curious what the formatting looks like.

I can show you next week once I am in the water.

Ian

prlmnt said:

Is there any reason I could not use this data harness to connect from the vessel view to the other engine?  Note, there is a resistor at one end of the harness.

Mercury-Mercruiser 84-879981T10 SmartCraft CAN Data Harness 10 Pin 10 Ft.
https://www.mercruiserparts.com/879981t10-harness-assy

I used 2 of the 889981T10 cables, this model has terminator resistors inbuilt, whereas yours is CAN bus compatible. Depends on the year of engine and S/N as to the right ones to use. As an early SC implementation mine was somewhat simpler than what you see now.

Spyderweb

@icoultha was very helpful to me in setting up, and he put me onto Wally.  Went through 3 marinas and well over a month to finally get the city ID changed to port.  I did try it playing around in the marina before it got changed, and I'm pretty sure it would show the info from the starboard engine, but could not locate the port. 

prlmnt

icoultha said:

prlmnt said:

Is there any reason I could not use this data harness to connect from the vessel view to the other engine?  Note, there is a resistor at one end of the harness.

Mercury-Mercruiser 84-879981T10 SmartCraft CAN Data Harness 10 Pin 10 Ft.
https://www.mercruiserparts.com/879981t10-harness-assy

I used 2 of the 889981T10 cables, this model has terminator resistors inbuilt, whereas yours is CAN bus compatible. Depends on the year of engine and S/N as to the right ones to use. As an early SC implementation mine was somewhat simpler than what you see now.

Thanks for the answer.  I believe my engines are CAN bus compatible with the vessel view unit.  What I'm looking at doing is to mount the vessel view mobile unit on one engine and plug the main connector to it.  Then use the second connector that has the resistor to connect to the other engine using the harness cable I listed.  I don't see any reason to use a connector hub/ J box (other than mercruiser forcing everyone to buy more components than are necessary).  What I know about CAN networks is that every device just needs to be connected to the two data wires with a 120 ohm resistor at each end of the two data wires.  It would be dirt simple and much cheaper to just run the one harness cable that I listed from the vessel view.  But I don't know what the pin outs are on the plugs or how the harness cable is wired.  So it might not work.  Are there any wiring diagrams for the vessel view mobile's connectors?

Thanks,

Brian

aero3113

Can anyone verify if these are the correct PN’s I will need to install VVM in my ‘08 330?

1 pc 84-892323T01 SmartCraft Dual Engine Instrument Adapter.

2 pc 84-879981T20 SmartCraft Harness Assembly.

1 pc 84-891957K01 SmartCraft CAN-P Link Harness asembly.

2 pc 878492K14 Mercury Junction Box.

Grahamu

Are you connecting just the VVM module or are you connecting instruments ETC as well.

aero3113

@Grahamu , Just Mobil.

Grahamu

You will need two  cables as noted and one junction box. The length of cable is determined by where you are going to mount the VVM module. I have mounted mine behind the helm seat under the counter as it was easier and shorter than mounting under the dash. one cable was 5' longer because of the distance between the 2 engines, a T20 and a T15. The terminator end of the cable plugs into the engine harness and the other end into the junction box along with the module cable. On the port engine plug you need to disconnect the power supply and also a Merc Tech will have to program the port engine as "port" as all engines from the factory are programmed starboard.

aero3113

Thanks @Grahamu , it’s still confusing to be for some reason! LoL. I have a scan tool and renamed the port engine last season.

YYZRC

You will need a T20 and a T25 cable if youre mounting the J Box at the helm. 

aero3113

It wouldn’t work if I just leave it in the engine compartment?

YYZRC

For the negligible difference in price for the cables, and knowing that you will do the install yourself (not paying $100+/hr for labor), I would mount the J box at the helm.

Grahamu

It is supposed to work from the engine compartment but  I did not want to take a chance. The Bluetooth signal strength, I just assumed, would be better close to the helm where the tablet is mounted. If you put in the engine compartment you will not need 20' cables. I think 10' are the smallest. If you are considering expanding the system at a later date it would be better mounted at the helm.

YYZRC

Here’s what my marina quoted me for parts (I already had one J box)

Pat310

I mounted mine in the engine room and it worked ok. Had a few times it disconnected and would have to reconnect. This winter I moved it to the cabinet behind the helm using this 6’ 10 pin extension cable between the jbox and the VV module. Found it on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/173923123445

Ian

Works fine for me too. However are you sure you don’t have any SmartCraft or NMEA up at the helm now? Definitely have open plugs on the motors?