Vessel View Installation

eshaw

Cadet
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Apr 14, 2018
Messages
9
Howdy folks. Joined the forum to ask for some assistance, hopefully. I recently purchased a new engine for my 16 foot jon boat. The engine is a 40 HP 4 stroke, s/n1C602395. I also got a 881170a13 control box. The control box has a 10 pin connector coming out of it along with the cable for the 14 pin connector that runs to the engine. The dealer installed the remote shifter and engine so that's taken care of. I previously had installed a NMEA 2000 system to control my Motorcraft Xi5 trolling motor and also have a Lowrance Elite Ti7 I use in conjunction with it.
Here's the kicker. I got this brilliant idea that I want electronic gages that would show up on the Lowrance unit. The reason for this is I don't want to cut any holes in my console and I'd like to be able to move the whole system over to another boat when I can afford it. I decided that I want to use a Vessel View Link instead of the mobile version so I don't have to fool with bluetooth. I contacted Lowrance and they say that my Elite Ti7 can act as a display. That is one of the main reasons I'm wanting to go this route instead of using the Vessel View mobile. I've purchased the Vessel View Link 8M0110639 kit for a single engine, a junction box 878492K14 and a 84-879982T20 harness assembly. I've read that this harness has a termination resistor on each end of it.
Will I still need to take the termination resistor that I remove from the engine and install it at the junction box?
Does the engine have to be running or the key turned on in order to see the gages when they are downloaded? Or does just having the Lowrance turned on enough to see the engine gages? I'm assuming there will be a new overlay for them. Can anyone tell me if all this stuff is compatible? I've tried hooking up everything and I've yet to get a new Mercury tile on the home page of my fish finder. Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks!
 

eshaw

Cadet
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
9
The first thing I noticed is that the wiring harness (a) is different than what I have. I have the 879982T20. From what I've read the one I have now has two termination resistors built into it. That may be the difference between the two part numbers, 879981 versus 82. Items (e) and (f) both differ from what I have. I have the vessel view link and it's associated harness in conjunction with my Lowrance unit in lieu of the system view. Supposedly the Vessel View Link allows the interpretation of inputs from the Smartcraft system to be translated into NMEA2000 ouputs that can be viewed on the Lowrance unit. The whole idea is to display engine data using the Lowrance unit so I don't have to mount gages. I wanted something that will be easily transportable if I ever get another boat and is also compact.

I hooked up the 879982T20 harness to my engine after removing the yellow termination resistor (which is yellow) from the engine. I then hooked the other end to the 4 way junction box I mounted under my console. The Vessel View Link was mounted under the console also and its harness was ran to the 4 way junction box. The NMEA2000 tee was then hooked into the NMEA2000 backbone. There's also a 10 pin rectangular plug that comes from the shifter that is ran to the junction box too. The fourth port on the junction box is capped with a weather cap. When I turn on the ignition switch and the Lowrance unit I don't get a Mercury tile on my homepage with the other tiles which tells me, for what ever reason, that it's not reading any data from the Smartcraft system. Does the motor have to be running? I'll have to read up some more on the Lowrance unit itself There may be a dongle that needs changed in one of the menus. I emailed Lowrance and they told me that the Elite Ti7 should be able to display the data. Thanks for posting the diagrams! Any more input is more than welcomed. I'm at a loss.
 
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eshaw

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Apr 14, 2018
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9
I may be wrong but my understanding is that the Vessel View Link acts as a gateway and translates Smartcraft to NMEA2000.
 

alldodge

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Mar 8, 2009
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VV has a a system link which SC uses to connect to other items such as speed and temp sensors. The system link is on the 14 pin connector.

As you know the 10 pin is the CAN network and 14 pin is the Merc. Everything I'm finding requires the gateway to convert the info. Call or email Merc and they should be able to advise
 

dingbat

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
15,417
I may be wrong but my understanding is that the Vessel View Link acts as a gateway and translates Smartcraft to NMEA2000.
I started digging into this a bit for you this morning.

If all you need are the NMEA 2000 PGNs to feed a NMEA 2000 compatible display, you can us the "Merc Monitor".

Vessel View is an "Display Package" for use on Lowrance and Simrad displays using a proprietary (non-NMEA 2000) communication interface. Didn't make sense why they would go with a propriety communication until I realized both companies are owned by Brunswick.
 

eshaw

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Apr 14, 2018
Messages
9
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to contact Mercury and Lowrance, this is ridiculous. If I had a System View or knew someone with one I'd see if the Lowrance unit I have is the problem. I'm relatively sure it's not though. When I get to the bottom of this I'll post up what I find out. Thanks again!
 

eshaw

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Apr 14, 2018
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9
Well, I finally got it up and running. Took me a while but I learned a lot doing it.
 

alldodge

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Good to hear, what was done to get it going?
Can help others
 

eshaw

Cadet
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
9
Good to hear, what was done to get it going?
Can help others
It wasn't overly complicated once I got it. Just had to plug the 10 pin plug at the shifter into the junction box and then plug the Vessel View into the junction box. The vessel view has a outlet for hooking a 2 foot NMEA line (drop) into the NMEA2000 backbone. Other than that I had to install another terminator into the junction box and cap the other open port on the junction box with a weather cap. Last but not least there were two software downloads that had to be done. One was for my Lowrance and the other was for the Vessel View link. Once I got that done they played nice together!
 

QBhoy

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Mar 10, 2016
Messages
8,286
Always read such posts with great interest. I’m thinking of adding a flush plotter like a simrad into dash. Would like the gauges on that too. I wouldn’t get any more data that my smart craft gauges already say...but like the idea. I think I need a gateway between my network and the simrad.
 
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