Earlier this week, I emailed Mercury Marine to confirm whether or not my current boat engine would be compatible with the proposed install of their VesselView Mobile system based on the engine's serial number. Mercury Marine confirmed that the installation would be compatible. Therefore the VesselView Mobile system was purchased, but now I am in a pickle because the plug tied to the ECM, which I would connect a scanner to, is a 4-spade male connector while the plugs on the VesselView wire harness are 10-pin male and female connectors (i.e. incompatible connectors). Therefore, my solution was to order a Mercury Quicksilver 84-863931A1 (Transom Non DTS) Boat Wiring Harness that has a 4-spade female connector and a 10-pin female connector. Will this wiring harness adapter work?

As I understand it Smartcraft/VesselView is for engines 2004 and newer. If Merc says it will work on your 2002, call them back and ask what is needed for connectors to work.

The Smartcraft hookup is pretty straightforward and even labeled on most Smartcraft compatible motors.

I think you meant 2004 and newer?

Yep....corrected.

Thanks!

My 2002 496 was labeled as smart craft on the engine cover. When I called mercury asking questions about hooking up the smart craft, after and hr on the phone with a great tech and me crawling all over the engine, he said mine wasn't smart craft capable. He said they started in sometime in 2002 being smartcraft compatible. Mine was an early 2002.

Directly from Mercury Marine:

Shame I didn't know this when I got mine, my 2001s. I'm a data nerd and would have loved this stuff.
I know it's a 23 year old engine (actually its 2). But I'm surprised no one aftermarket has made any adapters to the older stuff. But I guess eventually it won't be a problem...

Just for clarification (speaking from my 2004 496HO), there is the small flat connector you speak of up in the front of the engine near the remote oil filter. This is where I plug in the tech mate diagnostic tool.

For my vesselview mobile, You plug into the larger plug hanging off the rear of the engine. Mine has a decal on it that says CANBUS if memory serves correctly. I also had to get the yellow "terminator" plug for the vesselview mobile to work. I think it plugged into the vesselview harness.

There is a company called Fox Electronics. They have a box that converts mefi 1- 4 as well as pcm 555 to nmea 2000. I had one hooked to a 2001 502 mag mpi. It also has a Bluetooth module and a phone app. I had mine running to my garmin chartplotter. It is a really slick set up.
fox-marine.com

This place I assume:
https://fox-marine.com/index.php?rou...tegory&path=81