posted 09-26-2005 10:47 PM ET (US)            

Keep the Owner's manual in the boat. When something like
this happens, do what it says. It probably says something
like: "Check the pitot tube for debris. If the alarm goes
away, all is OK again. If it doesn't go away, see your
dealer and bring your credit card.: ;-)

posted 09-27-2005 11:16 AM ET (US)            

2004 OptiMax: SmartCraft Gauge Warning: CHECK PITOT
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/002284.html

posted 09-27-2005 11:20 AM ET (US)            

Is the documentation for the SmartCraft instrumentation system really this bad? Or are these owners negligent of having read the information provided to them in their owner's manuals?

posted 09-27-2005 01:28 PM ET (US)            

You can also email Mercury questions about Smartcraft functionality/warning msgs u might have and they will respond in most cases the same day. New owners really need to read their owners manual, especially, the warning messages area. It can be quit intimidating on the water if ur not expecting it. There are NO DUMB questions!

posted 09-28-2005 11:08 AM ET (US)            

1. My Dad's neighbor is wealthy & smart (works Wall Street, OK, maybe he's not smart). He bought all his kids brand new foreign cars for high school graduation. One day, he & his son had the hood up on the new graduate's car and were scratching their heads and looking in the owner's manual. The front left blinker did not work when the parking lights or head lights were on. So I said, "take a look, take the lens cover off." They said it would void the warranty and that it had to go back to the dealer for warranty work. I told them to "chance it, they'll never know if you remove the lens cover". We took the lens cover off & found a single filament bulb jammed into the socket. They then said they had to go to the dealer to get the correct bulb as it was a foreign car. I said that I had what they needed in the back of my truck. Five minutes later, after I had put in a NAPA dual filament bulb, the blinker worked fine. They asked "how did you know what to do?"

2. Last month the pitot speedometer of my Dad's 28' Pursuit Denali wasn't working. Dad said it had been out for the last year and a half and he didn't use it anyway (used GPS speed) and wasn't going to get it fixed as the marina where they work on the boat charges $100 an hour and might have to haul the boat to check it out (another fee). I hate "dead" instruments in the dash, so I looked under the console, followed the pitot tube hose to the starboard outdrive, grabbed a mask and a pin, held my breath, jumped over the side (the water was 79F), found the pitot hole, struck the pin in, found resistance, pushed, it cleared and I climbed aboard. Fired up the engines, got underway and the pitot speedometer worked. Dad is 78 and I hadn't expected him to jump overboard himself to find the problem.

Sometimes we just need somebody else to give us a hint.

posted 09-28-2005 08:50 PM ET (US)            

I keep asking this question but none of the SmartCraft owners seem to step up and answer it:

Does the owner's manual for your engine with SmartCraft instruments explain what the alarm message CHECK PITOT means and how to remedy the problem?

posted 09-28-2005 09:57 PM ET (US)            

For my 2003 225 Merc Optimax:
I just went thru my Mercury SmartCraft Operation Manual (2001, Mercury Marine). I have the monitor with Version 2.00 software. The manual mentions the pitot tube, BUT SAYS NOTHING TO "explain what the alarm message CHECK PITOT means and how to remedy the problem".

My engine is not hooked up to the pitot. I looked thru every page of the SmartCraft Operation Manual - everything about the speedometer and nothing is said about the alarm. I didn't find anything in engine's Operation, Maintenance & Warranty Manual either. Just skimmed the several hundred age Service Manual and found noting on the warning. I found stuff on alarms and warnings, but nothing on the CHECK PITOT alarm.

Maybe something in the newer models?

posted 09-29-2005 12:09 AM ET (US)            

http://boards.diynetwork.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/2711916776/m/2691047622/p/

Rich

posted 09-29-2005 09:44 AM ET (US)            

As many times as I get the warning; nothing is blocking the hole(s). I for one hate the warning and would appreciate any info to find the problem and solution.

FYI Since the Mercury motor was purchased with my Boston Whaler; I come here looking for answers from others who may experience the same problems and subsequently offer solutions to both the boat and motor related items. In my opinion that's what makes this forum so much better than any that I have come across.

posted 09-30-2005 08:43 AM ET (US)            

Even better, maybe they should revise the algorithm in the firmware of either the gauge or the engine so that it no longer gives this alarm when there really is not a problem.

A fundamental premise--sort of Technical Writing 101--is that if your device provides a warning message, then the meaning of the warning message is fully explained and some recommendation of what do to next to remedy the situation is offered.

It is also poor design to have a system issue alerts when there really is not an alert condition. Due to human nature, an operator will tend to ignore the warning system in the future if his past experience is that it gives out false alarms.

posted 10-04-2005 10:49 AM ET (US)            

Catch some striper for all of us....go figure...it is maddening to me that Mercury has not addressed a single post on this site nor my telephone calls to their customer service(????) center....again, go figure?!?

posted 10-04-2005 02:52 PM ET (US)            

I would think if they hooked up their diagnostic computer, they would be able to isolate the specific cause for the fault code.

As I understood the pitot function, it is to provide boat speed data to the Smartcraft system. A sensor converts the pressure reading to boat speed.

The pitot reading does not need to be used, a paddlewheel can supply the speed data. The Smartcraft system needs to be configured to accept the data from the pitot or the paddlewheel, so I don't think it cares where the data comes from. The speed reading from pitot pressure can even be adjusted to match a GPS unit speed reading for consistent speed information. Speed input is required to use the Range, Troll Control and obviously boat speed Smartcraft functions.

I would look closely at the calibration instructions in the PDF or Smartcraft manual, and check how the Smartcraft system is calibrated. If you do not have a Smartcraft speedometer, calibrate the system for no pitot input- pitot data is useless if it cannot be displayed.

I finally have some time this weekend to play with the boat. I do have an SC1000 Smartcraft monitor, it does not display speed. But the NAVMAN 6000 GPS/Fishfinder is integrated with the Smartcraft system. It will display engine and system faults, and I have noticed that engine/sensor faults do show on occasion, but no alarm or fault will show on my SC1000 monitor. I wonder if it is a pitot sensor fault. I always assumed it was oil level and fuel level, for there are no senders connected to the Smartcraft system.

Just some thoughts. I honestly have not spent a great deal of time reviewing all of the available features of the Smartcraft system. The dealer set mine up when my engine was installed, I have not changed the settings at all.

Rich

posted 05-07-2006 09:59 PM ET (US)            

PS: I went through all my manuals and found the dealer didn't include anything on smartcraft. He is calling Merc tomorrow to see what he can get.

So far... love the boat and the motor will serve my purposes well... I just hope I don't have many issues with false messages.

Thanks for the interesting comments.

posted 05-07-2006 10:08 PM ET (US)            

Hooking up your Smartcraft speedo/systemview to use GPS instead of the unreliable pitot tube:

A lot of new owners don’t realize the speedo is digital and can take a NEMA in from your chartplotter/GPS to read speed and GPS info. Coming out of the back of your GPS are two wires called the "NEMA out" . They are labeled (+) and (-). Take the + wire form your GPS wiring harness and connect it to the white/blue stripe wire coming out of the back of the Smartcraft speedo. Take the blue wire/wite stripe coming out of the speedo and connect that to the ground that you used to ground the GPS unit ( black wire for gps).

Now go to the "CAL2" setup of the speedo (see smartcraft PDF file above) and you will be able to choose GPS for speed and turn off the pitot tube. Now get accurate speed, GPS info like dist to waypoint and most importantly, accurate MPG info.

posted 05-08-2006 11:37 PM ET (US)            

NMEA is implemented in two manners:

A. Unbalanced uses one wire for each NMEA connection, and the
normal electrical ground (- side of the battery). This is how
a normal PC serial port works, and the parts to do it are
dirt cheap.

B. Balanced, aka push-pull, uses two wires(+ and -) for each
NMEA connection. This is how the NMEA standard is actually
written. The parts are more expensive but it's more
noise-immune.

The good news is that the two can talk to each other. You
just tie the balanced side + signal to the one wire for the
unblanced side, and the balanced side to ground.

And NMEA is directional, a connection is either IN or OUT.
You connect the OUT connection on the side that's sending
information to the IN connection on the side that wants to
hear the information.

It looks like the SmartCraft use balanced, where white/blue
is NMEA IN +, and blue/white is NMEA IN -.

Most GPSs are single-ended, and don't have + and -.

So your directions should read:

If your GPS has wires labeled NMEA OUT + and NMEA OUT -,
connect SmartCraft NMEA IN + (white/blue) to GPS NMEA OUT +,
and connect SmartCraft NMEA IN - (blue/white) to GPS NMEA OUT -.

If your GPS has only has a wire labled NMEA OUT (no + and -),
Cconnect SmartCraft NMEA IN + (white/blue) to GPS NMEA OUT,
and connect SmartCraft NMEA IN - (blue/white) to ground.

And a final point: one NMEA OUT can be connected to a few
NMEA IN (typ. four), so you can connect the GPS to both
an DSC VHF radio and the SmartCraft.

posted 05-09-2006 05:33 PM ET (US)            

The Garmin 2006/2010/3006/3010/3206/3210 are all single-ended
(I can't remember a Garmin that wasn't) and label their
NMEA connections IN and OUT, not + and -.

posted 05-22-2006 01:19 AM ET (US)            

If your BMW had a display that sounded an alarm and warned that you should

CHECK FRAUNHOFER

and the only way you could discover what this meant was to get on the internet, search using GOOGLE, and find a website that did not really directly focus on supporting BMW vehicles, would you think that this was a situation that represented good engineering, design, and support by the manufacturer? I don't think you would. That is my point.

The real irony here is the SmartCraft system is supposed to be "smart", isn't it? It has a nice alphanumeric display. If the guys who designed it were sharp they could probably figure out how to scroll text across it so that the message was not limited to ten letters or so. And the SmartCraft could be really smart and tell the operator to check the lower unit for debris blocking the Pitot tube intake port. But even giving the engineers the benefit of the doubt--hey maybe they wanted to put this feature in there and the bean counters said it would cut the profit margin--at least the marketing guy or the engineering support guy should have included a sentence in the owner's manual about this alarm. How much extra would that have cost?

If I pay $900 extra to get the SmartCraft option, it ought to have some smart feature. It should not give me warning messages that I cannot interpret. It ought to have a listing in the owner's manual that shows all the messages and explains them. I've been asking people about this for a long time, and no one has ever said, "Oh, yeah, finally found the explanation in the owner's manual." So I don't think it exists.

Now in the meantime, I have been keeping this page available and very well indexed on GOOGLE.COM so you could find it. And only God knows how many owners of Mercury SmartCraft have come here to find out what the CHECK PITOT alarm means.

The way I see it all of those owners ought to say (to me), "Hey, thanks for providing this information." And they ought to write to Mercury and tell them how silly it is to hand out messages on the SmartCraft alarm system without making them clear or providing some documentation.