Super Cool New Mercury App.

craigswardmtb

I was supposed to be on the second run as well but got mine today. Stoked!  
If you have dual engines with analog gauges and no DTS than you will need some additional rigging as our boats do not run any smartcraft cabling.  It looks like I need an engine cable from each engine going to their own junction boxes. Than a can link harness tying the j boxes together. I will then run a 25' harness to the helm and plug the BT module in to that. I thought I could use one jbox and wally confirmed that is not how it should be rigged. He said by using one jbox "you tie the cranking batteries through a low power circuit which is bad". Proper rigging is through two j boxes and a can link adapter harness tying the 10 pin j boxes together. It is more money than I wanted to spend on harnesses but I would rather do it right. I have an architecture drawing I'll dig up and post. 

craigswardmtb

Also you need your dealer or someone with a programming tool to change the cityid on the port motor from stbd to port. All motors come from the factory as stbd and are typically only changed if they rig the boat for smartcraft at the factory. 

craigswardmtb

Michael T

You guys are having do much fun with this I'll have to come-up with something really special for an encore........ Give me a couple of weeks!

Dream_Inn

Craig, I thought if you removed the CAN power on one engine, you wouldn't be tying the cranking batteries together.  This is how I had done it on my prior 310 (current 400 has DTS, therefore already had everything at helm).

onislandtime

Craig, what year,make and model is your boat. I have to do the same to my engines as they are not wired for smartcraft. Do you have a vender to purchase from?

reneechris14

Dude it like bunch of old men getting their first x box.everyone is so excited it's great.if merc see this the price is going to sky rocket.I just wish I had a boat I have the app.

summerx

i'm so bummed... my engines are '00, so they don't have the necessary components to install this.  Anxious to see how this works for everyone.
also interested to see anyone with a 310/312/320 and merc 5.0s.  like to see their GPH and best cruise RPMs, etc.
while it may not be exact for mine, be nice to have a close approximation.

jme097

Requested my access last night with my access code. Can't wait to get this installed. 

skennelly

I got the Android app installed...now just need to make it down to the boat on Friday to do the install and start testing.

Cableguy Greg

How long did it take for you to get the app?

Black_Diamond

Do you need to use the weather caps with or without the terminating resistor?

I might just hook mine up to one engine this weekend to get it testing and get all the cables I need now.  Thanks for the wiring diagram, I was all set to use one jbox!  Lucky a lot of this stuff is on ebay.

jme097

why does the module have 2 plugs on it? That I am confused about lol. 

skennelly

@Cableguy Greg - I applied for the app on Monday and received an email on Tuesday, but it was for the wrong version download.  I emailed Wally same day and today I received an email for the correct version I asked for (Android).  I'd say it takes about a day to get the email.

onislandtime

Single engine owners cant test twin engines lol. Twin engine owners should be testing twin engine configuration to conduct beta testing for twin engine owners lol

skennelly

@Cableguy Greg - Strike that.  I applied for the app yesterday (Tuesday) morning and got an email for the wrong version same day....told Wally about it and then received the new email today for the right version.  They are processing it pretty quickly

onislandtime

Kudo's to Wally!!!!! He has been bum barred with emails from the excited Rinker owners to beta test this great (low cost) product.

craigswardmtb

Dream_Inn said:

Craig, I thought if you removed the CAN power on one engine, you wouldn't be tying the cranking batteries together.  This is how I had done it on my prior 310 (current 400 has DTS, therefore already had everything at helm).

You may be right DI, i'm not sure to the answer.  I'm going to play it safe with the above diagram and use two Jboxes.  Merc provided me this doc earlier this year when i was looking to potentially install VV7.

JME - the extra plug on the harness is i believe only to be used if you do not have an extra open 10pin port on your jbox where you can install a terminating resistor.  IF you had other smartcraft gauges/gateway/etc occupying all ports on the jbox than you would need to install a terminator on that harness.

onisland - My boat is a 2005 360.  Motors are also 2005 8.1L Merc 496's.

craigswardmtb

onislandtime said:

Kudo's to Wally!!!!! He has been bum barred with emails from the excited Rinker owners to beta test this great (low cost) product.

Yeah Wally has been great.  I emailed him at 10pm last night with a question and he responded minutes later.

Michael T

So, it's a good thing thing that we didn't write-off Wally to soon? LOL!!!!!

LaRea

Any lingering doubts evaporated when the hardware showed up in my mailbox!

craigswardmtb

One other thing to keep in mind, if you want the fuel data you will still need the fuel harness.  This harness is for a dual tank/engine setup.  My 496 uses the 3pin connector.  See attached.

onislandtime

Craig, your saying without this fuel harness you will not receive fuel burn or any fuel data? Where does this get plugged into?

Dream_Inn

You will receive fuel burn, just not read what is left in the tank.  I may actually buy this harness, but been using VV for 4 years now without it.

elarson5757

craigswardmtb said:

One other thing to keep in mind, if you want the fuel data you will still need the fuel harness.  This harness is for a dual tank/engine setup.  My 496 uses the 3pin connector.  See attached.

No place on this mobile vesselview module for other harnesses to attach so I assume with this your only parameters are the ones read only by the main connector. 

onislandtime

@Dream_Inn where does the harness connect? The harness is only 20 to 25 bucks not bad.

Dream_Inn

It just connects to the fuel tanks and into the smarcraft harness.  I'm considering it now because about 2 weeks ago my stbd fuel gauge isn't showing correctly.  I haven't played with it yet, could be gauge, wiring, or sender.

craigswardmtb

onislandtime said:

Craig, your saying without this fuel harness you will not receive fuel burn or any fuel data? Where does this get plugged into?

That is correct and what i have been told from Merc.  If your tanks are tied to an analog fuel gauge than you need to feed the smartcraft system with this smartcraft harness.  The harness can plug into either engines disconnected fuel connector/port, which should be located close to your main 10 pin smartcraft connector.  I was incorrect my 496 uses the 6 pin harness, 859743T04.

craigswardmtb

Another correction, if your engine harness cables have a yellow band on them, there is a built in termination resistor.  The engine harnesses i referenced above for my dual engine setup all have termination resistors built in.  I was told in this scenario you would not need a termination resistor on the Jbox, or VV BT module harness.  Just weather caps.

onislandtime

@craigswardmtbIt Sounds like you and I have the same situation, about $300 (harnesses) get smartcraft signal.