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Old 16-02-2018, 15:53   #1
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Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

Our B&G Zeus Z8 chartplotter has worked well for several years but recently the vessel location icon has lost accuracy by up to 100 metres. We've checked all the connectors and they seem fine. Just wondering what else, other than faulty connectors, could be causing this problem.
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Old 16-02-2018, 15:59   #2
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pirate Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

Atmospherics.. Sun spots.. a faulty gizmo in orbit..
There have been times when my little boat on the plotter has been sailing along a ridge 1 mile away from me as I go along some coasts..
With just 100metres out your doing well.
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Old 17-02-2018, 07:16   #3
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Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

You add anything to the Bimini, or anything that may be blocking the GPS antenna?
Do you have an external antenna? An external antenna usually works a whole lot better than the built in.
Check how many satellites are being tracked and what it’s DOP dilution of precision or EPE estimated position error is.
Then have you activated WAAS? Or EGNOS?
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Old 17-02-2018, 12:47   #4
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Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

Did you add an AIS recently?
If it has its own inbuilt GPS and is linked to the plotter, it might get confused by two signals....
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Old 17-02-2018, 15:15   #5
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Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

No we didn't make any recent changes to the bimini. It's not showing any satellites but is still somehow positioning the boat albeit erratically.
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Old 17-02-2018, 15:17   #6
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Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

We have an AIS connected but that wasn't recently installed.
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Old 17-02-2018, 19:13   #7
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Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

try reducing the position update rate in "settings",for fast powerboats the update rate should be high ie once every second or so, for yachts once every 12 seconds or so should stop heading and speed readings jumping around
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Old 17-02-2018, 21:44   #8
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Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

Thanks everyone for you help. It looks like we've resolved the problem. We have two GPS connected to the B&G and went into the manual source selection option and selected the other GPS which wasn't selected as the preferred source. The boat position is no longer jumping around.
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Old 18-02-2018, 05:18   #9
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Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

Great!
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Old 18-02-2018, 07:40   #10
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Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

In case you ever need to perform diagnostics on the GPS signals you are receiving, I use a very useful app appropriately named GPS Diagnostics.

Last I knew it was only offered for iOS devices. [iPhone and iPad...]

In case this is useful.

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Old 18-02-2018, 12:50   #11
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Re: Chartplotter boat icon jumping around

Glad you have fixed this. I first thought you had the same problem as I had. I use an iPad for inshore chartplotting as the charts are a lot cheaper for the same thing as I would get on the Zeus. A few months ago a software upgrade for the Zeus had it sending messages on the ethernet with class B AIS positions received from other vessels as our own positions so our boat position kept jumping from current location to the location(s) of the other vessel(s) around.

B&G have a fix for this apparently which should be in there next release in the meantime I have downgraded to an older version of the Zeus software.
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