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Old 03-11-2015, 13:33   #1
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B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

I know there are a couple of B&G techs on here, as well as some people who have owned this system longer than myself. I am having some difficulties with the following, and would love some advice:

1. I can set navigation to go to a waypoint or a cursor position, but Zeus doesn't draw a line from the boat to the waypoint showing what course would be direct route. On my Garmin, you got the line, XTE, distance to waypoint, etc. I have not been able to get any of this. I have tried extension lines from the waypoint (I get a couple of lines, plus a circle around the waypoint - and none of the lines are pointed toward the boat) and extensions lines from the boat (looks like these are extension of current course - with limited length, and maybe laylines). I do get one numerical number at the bottom of the list of data that shows how many degrees the boat course needs to change to head to the mark. Anyone know how to set this up to do the simple course to mark, XTE, distance to mark, time to mark?

2. Zeus2 gets wind data and speed thru water from ST60 instruments. I know this is working because all is displayed. When I invoke Sail Steer, I get laylines from the mark that don't seem to make any sense. For instance, we can be sailing a course moderately downwind, and the lines are saying to bear off or jibe. I could understand this if we were going too deep, but that is not the case. Upwind, we could be laying the mark, and the lines say to bear off or tack to get to port or starboard laylines, and then tack. Makes no sense. Is there something that needs to be set up besides the tacking angles?

3. Sometimes Zeus2 powers down and restarts without warning. This is a new unit, and we just finished a 12 day cruise, and it did this twice. I am wondering whether anyone else has experienced this. I know it was not an external power issue, because the way my unit is set up you have to press the power button to turn it on.
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Old 04-11-2015, 16:20   #2
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

1. If you go to Settings => Chart you will see an option to called Course Highway. Tick this and you will see your direct line and the cross track error limits.

2 I not not sure 100% about the ST60 but it looks like it is providing NMEA0183 data. If you have a 183 to N2K converter then you can check that your sources for water and wind speed are being provided by the converter. Or you can get a Serial / Video cable and connect the ST60 directly to the B&G unit.

3. Sound like it has encountered an error and needed to restart. What version are you running and what were you doing at the time of the restart?
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Old 04-11-2015, 16:40   #3
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

Thanks for the course highway tip.

The ST60 data is going thru a Seatalk to Seatalk ng converter. I know B&G Zeus is getting the data because it is all available for presentation on the B&G. Certainly the wind data is, as is the depth data from the speed/depth instrument. I guess I need to look to see if paddlewheel speed is coming thru, but since depth is, I figured speed from the same instrument is as well.

We were motoring with instruments on when the Zeus2 shut down and restarted. At first I thought I might have bumped the power cord, but if it lost power that way, it would have required me to push the power button on the unit again to get it up. As of about a month ago, I updated the software on the unit, which was required to use the updated C-map chip as well.
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Old 04-11-2015, 16:49   #4
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

Rusty, I remember when I first started up the Zeus2, I did not have the wind instrument and speed/depth turned on. As such, when Zeus2 came on it did not see them. Even though I subsequently turned them on, they were not on the list of devices. To alleviate this, I had to do a factory restart (don't remember exact terminology) on the Zeus2 after leaving the other instruments on. Then it could see the other devices. At that time though, the paddle wheel was not in the water. I guess that wouldn't matter as it would just be reading zero speed. But wonder whether Zeus2 had seen this as zero and ignored or something. Anyway when I get back to the boat, I need to look over whether speed thru water is coming thru. Again, I can't see how it wouldn't be coming thru, since the other data from that instrument is available on Zeus2.
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Old 04-11-2015, 17:42   #5
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

After reading the Raymarine web site I am a bit confused about the ST to STNg converter. It seems to me that it does not convert the NMEA0183 Sentences to N2K PGN messages. Rather it enables the 183 data to be sent on the STNg's 6th pin.

If this is the case then the B&G should not see any of the data. Interested to hear if you are seeing data on the N2K network.

With non Raymarine conversion you would use a 0183 to N2K converter that will change the 0183 sentance into N2K PGN messages.

This link shows how Simrad does it.

Article Details

I am no expert on Raymarine set ups so I am happy to be corrected if I have it wrong.
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Old 04-11-2015, 17:51   #6
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

I have had a Zeus 2 fail. It froze and rebooted a lot. It got replaced. It wouldn't run more then 10 mins at a time when finally replaced. If it's only happened once just keep an eye on it.

He is converting seatalk to n2k. No 183
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Old 04-11-2015, 18:22   #7
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

Ok I found this Thomas Knauf Â*Â*Â*Â*SeaTalk Technical Reference which gives more info on Seatalk.

It is nothing like NMEA0183. So I have no Idea how the converter works.

In the Settings => Network => Device list Do you see the ST60 listed?
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Old 04-11-2015, 18:23   #8
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

Rusty, the converter takes the data from Seatalk to Seatalkng - which is the same as N2K. The converter is on the backbone of the N2K network. The Zeus2 gets the data from the ST60+wind, the ST60 speed/depth, and the S1 autopilot.

About two months ago, right before my trip, I received a new chip from C-map. They said for this chip to work properly, the Zeus2 needed to be updated with latest software. So as of about that time, I got onto the B&G site and downloaded the latest software update, and loaded that onto Zeus2. So unless B&G has released a fix to the shutdown since then, I have the latest software. My unit shut down twice during the 11-day trip. It was purchased in March 2015, although not installed on the boat until much later. (House renovations took priority.) Hopefully B&G gets a fix sometime, as I have heard of others crashing as well. Or it gets bad enough to just return to West Marine. I think the warranty is one year. Or I guess I hope. We just retired and have plans next year to take off thru Florida in late Feb, then Bahamas starting in April, and back to Texas in July. I need a dependable chartplotter. I thought/hope I have one.
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Old 04-11-2015, 18:39   #9
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rusty007 View Post
In the Settings => Network => Device list Do you see the ST60 listed?
I think it was listed there. The boat is in Alabama, and I am in Texas. So I cannot look anything up now.

That said, I get the ST60 depth on the Zeus2 display. When I show SailSteer, I get the apparent wind angle from the ST60 plus, etc. Doesn't that say that the devices have to be seen?
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Old 04-11-2015, 18:41   #10
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

Rusty, wife says it shut down three times in 11 days. Once she was steering the boat, and I was unaware. Anyway, what have shutdowns been attributed to in other cases?


Oh, and I looked it up, and am running software version 3.0, which was required update to be able to use the Jeppesen 2015 chip features.
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Old 05-02-2020, 15:03   #11
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

what is the procedure and code to do a language PACK change from USA pack to European Pack.
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Old 06-10-2023, 12:54   #12
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Re: B&G Zeus2 Operation Questions

I have a B&G Zeus 2 MFD on my Catalina 42 sailboat. The wind, speed and autopilot are Raymarine, I'm using a Raymarine converter so the Zeus uses data from the Raymarine instruments and autopilot. All of this worked fine for a long time. Recently I used the auto select data sources feature and now the Zeus doesn't recognise or use data from the Raymarine equipment. When I go to the data sources screen the Raymarine instruments show as off OFFClick image for larger version

Name:	<a title=Screen shot of Zeus data sources screen.jpg Views: 18 Size: 423.4 KB ID: 281771" style="margin: 2px" />

Any idea how to have the Zeus turn this data on so it uses the Raymarine data?
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