I am reaching out to the group for guidance. I changed out my faded Mercury Systemview display to the new Vesselview 502 display unit. I was told it was a "plug and play" installation with no changes to be made to the Smartcraft wiring harness from the helm downstream to the bilge. The steering sensor on the starboard engine is Mercury part 863188A5. The VV502 appears to recognize the sensor as it gave me a calibration screen to set the offset degrees.

Questions to the group:
1. I cannot find a "steering arrow/rudder indicator" symbol on the display screen. Could someone show me photo of what it should look like on the display screen??

2. Has anyone else run across this issue??

Any guidance would be appreciated....

Any luck with this? I don't think there are many using the 502 yet. What has been your experience wit the other functions of the unit like the maps?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]565696[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]565697[/ATTACH]

The switch over from System View display to Vessel View 502 display was pretty straight forward. All connections from the helm to the engine room remained the same. The VV502 has an extensive map library. In my case, I connected to a GPS740S for navigation information so I don't expect to use the VV502 maps.

I have not resolved the mystery of the rudder/steering position indicator. I have reached out to the seller, Offshore Performance of Fort Myers, Florida. The sales person, Donny, has not responded to any of my questions concerning the rudder/steering position indicator. I have also reached out to MerCruiser customer service. I have had phone conversation with Tom. His last words were, "I will check into it with our guy that knows the system and get back to you". That was 30 days ago.... Needless to say, I am pretty disappointed with "customer service" from the seller and the manufacturer.

I am still hoping one of our members may know the solution to the rudder/steering position indicator and offer some guidance.

Disappointing that neither can help you out with the steering sensor. I would keep hitting up mother Mercury, somebody in there knows what's going on, hopefully just a setup issues within the 502. I know in my service manual for my 525 it says if tabs are plugged into the smartcraft that they need to be setup up as engine number four.... Thanks for sharing, I'm hoping to be able to cram one of these in my dash

Did some searching and did find where smartcraft does indicate it will work if the correct sensor is installed, it doesn't do much about explaining. There are discussions on club searay and THT but nothing which nails it down.

I would like to update the group on this project. On a earlier post, I stated my frustrations with the seller and manufacturer on "after the sale" customer service. I recently made a third attempt at MerCruiser customer service. I was connected to a customer service representative by the name of Kim. He took a very active interest with my set up challenges. He asked if he could have a day or two to study up and asked that I call him back in a couple of days when I could be at the boat. We agreed on a 730am phone call on friday. I called on the agreed date and time and he cheerfully answered. He explained that they discovered additional settings that must be made on the VV502 and VV702 during installation. The settings were a couple of levels deeper in the software that were not mentioned in the installation instructions. While at the helm, he took time to coach me through the settings. The VV502 is up and running. I am amazed at the information settings that can be selected once you know how to dive in to the deeper set up selections. Currently, I have a Garmin 740s slaved into the VV to transfer some of the display data to a larger screen on the port dashboard. I am thinking I will change out the Garmin to the new Lowrence Carbon HDS-9 to gain complete compatibility between the VV and the slave display. If anyone else is considering making the change from the outdated Systemview display to the Vesselview display, it is a go!! Thank you, Kim, at Mercury. You have renewed my faith in the Company.

Great news and thank you for taking the time to update us. I've installed a Simrad GO9 XSE mfd in my Baja with the Mercury vessel view link and am just beginning to learn all the functions. (The VV502 and 702 are rebranded Simrad units) I haven't been able to getting my livorsi tabs with electronic senders to display correctly on the Simrad yet but I also talked to Kim on Wednesday and he said he'd have to get back to me.

Yes these units are awesome with all the available info. I'm very happy I decided to go this route as well There's no way I would've been able to have analog gauges for all this info. The only problem with going with the Simrad vs the Mercury branded model is the lack of instructions regarding the smartcraft.

Thanks for the info. I've got a couple of questions, as I'm considering an upgrade from (color) SystemView to 502 or possibly 702.
- does the 502 connect directly to existing harness at helm? Or do you have to run a new harness from helm to engines?
- does the 502 fit in existing SystemView hole or did you have to trim larger?
- did you hook 502 to Simrad by NMEA2000 network or other?

I just installed a Garmin 7607 (NMEA2000) and Fusion head unit and remote, and I'd like to get upgrade on SystemView to let them all talk.

Thanks
Terry

All:

The engine room to helm connections remain the same. Your new VV will attach to the existing connection at the helm after you remove the system view display. The dash panel opening for the old system view display is larger than the required VV 502 opening. I purchased my kit from Offshore performance of Fort Myers, Fla. They are marketing a lexan mounting bezel that will cover the system view opening and hold the VV502 display unit. Look at the photos I posted earlier and you can see the lexan bezel. It is way overpriced, IMO, but what 'cha gonna' do? I was not in a position to make an adapter bezel myself. Once you have the VV installed and linked to a NEAMA 2000 backbone you can link your components together using NEAMA connections.

Barrydet, did you have have any issues getting your tabs to display on your 502? I have a Simrad GO9 which is basically a larger VV 502 and cannot get tab info to display. I've tried selecting different motors as the one to display. I've checked the inputs right into the computer and I have the correct voltage from the tabs there, and checked the inputs on the network page on the Simrad and can see it's getting no info. I've tried to get a hold of of Dustin with whipple several times but have had zero luck, they're the last ones to touch the computer....