Difference between B&G Zeus Touch and Zeus2?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Track? or a heading to way point? or course made good?

Anything, all I can get is a circle around the waypoint.
I'd like a course line and a way of knowing how far off this line I am.
Been awhile but I think I get a line from the boat showing present heading, but no distance readout to waypoint, not time remaining, not cross track error, etc.

[Maika]

Originally Posted by deluxe68

The Touch does not have any knobs or buttons, might need a keyboard.

Oh yes, it does. One 12'' heading my way now for $1139:
B & G Zeus Touch T12 Touchscreen, Multifunction Display

[donradcliffe]

I just delivered a boat with a Zeus touch 12. My experience was that it was not intuitive and pretty user unfriendly-Steve Jobs would have put the team that programmed it in jail. To use its features, you would need a good manual, and the manual is total crap.

When I got to the boat, the unit said 'no radar'--an hour of technician time got it sorted--somehow the unit got put into slave mode. The next challenge was changing radar range--not in the manual.

The charts showed pretty pictures, and where the nearby highways were, but left out little things like shipping lanes. Maybe there is an option for real charts, but I used my netbook with opencpn for real navigation.

[Maika]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I just delivered a boat with a Zeus touch 12. My experience was that it was not intuitive and pretty user unfriendly-Steve Jobs would have put the team that programmed it in jail. To use its features, you would need a good manual, and the manual is total crap.

When I got to the boat, the unit said 'no radar'--an hour of technician time got it sorted--somehow the unit got put into slave mode. The next challenge was changing radar range--not in the manual.

The charts showed pretty pictures, and where the nearby highways were, but left out little things like shipping lanes. Maybe there is an option for real charts, but I used my netbook with opencpn for real navigation.

Sounds like the plotter was not set up properly, neither with the radar configured nor any sea chart installed, you can not blame the plotter for that.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Anything, all I can get is a circle around the waypoint.
I'd like a course line and a way of knowing how far off this line I am.
Been awhile but I think I get a line from the boat showing present heading, but no distance readout to waypoint, not time remaining, not cross track error, etc.

Yeah I have the same issue with my Zeus2. Can't get a simple line drawn from the boat to the waypoint. Sailsteer draws things that don't make sense. It's like it is telling me to bear off so I can tack at a layline instead of continuing course straight to mark. Currently not a fan. And have tried all kinds of things just to get the simple line to waypoint.

[a64pilot]

Yeah, we have to be doing something wrong, I mean course line to waypoint cross track error and time enroute, I had handhelds back before they had charts in them that gave you that.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Yeah, we have to be doing something wrong, I mean course line to waypoint cross track error and time enroute, I had handhelds back before they had charts in them that gave you that.

Yep, my twelve year old Garmin did it beautifully. I was hoping that someone from B&G would comment. They lurk here and jump in to defend their product occasionally, or to tout the latest software release as a fix-all for all problems. I have tried all possible combinations of extensions lines from the boat, extension lines from the waypoint, etc., and nothing seems to give this simple presentation. There is something similar to XTE, but I don't think that is exactly what it is - shown in the list on the right. Basically it is the degrees to steer from current course to be heading to waypoint.

I have wind and boat speed (paddle wheel) and GPS all hooked up to Zeus2. So far, none of the laylines presented make any sense. Things like when heading downwind, it says I should bear off heavily and then jibe when I get to layline. Upwind, you could be laying the mark and it comes back saying to bear off and then tack. Maybe there is something I didn't set up. But so far I am unimpressed with Sail Steer, and just leave it turned off. Maybe I should start a separate thread as I know some people love it.

[donradcliffe]

The owner said the radar had worked previously, so either some button pusher found a menu or the unit spontaneously switched itself from master to slave.

The Zeus touch was 'integrated' with some B&G displays which gave me range, bearing, and ETA to waypoint. However, when I changed the time zone on the Zeus from Daylight savings to standard, it did not change the time on the B&G display, and I wasn't going to waste my time chasing the display menu down.

I agree with the other posters that a line on the chart to the waypoint would be a big help, but I wasn't able to find that option. The radar display did have a line to the waypoint, however.

I was able to display chart and the broadband radar side by side on the Touch, which worked pretty well when thick fog blew in just outside Marina Del Rey, but I can't remember whether the Touch allows overlay, which would have been handy when I was trying to distinguish which radar returns were boats (including gaggles of Optis) and which were buoys/breakwaters.

[sailjumanji]

Well at least my Zeus2 will do chart overlay, and it did quite well. We had about two hours of fog traveling on the ICW, and were able to pinpoint the barge locations, and a swing bridge, quite nicely. That was pretty much plug and play when we got the radar hooked up.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Anything, all I can get is a circle around the waypoint.
I'd like a course line and a way of knowing how far off this line I am.
Been awhile but I think I get a line from the boat showing present heading, but no distance readout to waypoint, not time remaining, not cross track error, etc.

Try Menu>Menu>Chart>Course Highway [check the box]

That will give you a red line with little arrows, in a shaded corridor, from you to the waypoint.

Note that if you wander off this line and activate Track Mode in your pilot, it may (depending on how far off you are) try to maneuver you back on. So you can reset the course line by hitting (from Chart view) Menu>Navigation>Restart. That resets it back to your present position.

To get (a) distance to waypoing; (b) time to go to waypoint; (c) waypoint bearing; and/or (d) XTE, you need to do the following:

EITHER:

1. Go to the SailSteer page. [Pages>Nav>Sailsteer]. You get TTW-S (time to waypoint by sailing -- it considers tacking etc.), WPT BRG (bearing to waypoint), DTW (distance to waypoint), by default.

OR

2. Go to Nav view [Pages>Nav>Instruments] and set up a page with whatever data you want. You have a choice of several different page formats, and absolutely any data on the network can be displayed there.

OR

3. Set up an Instrument Bar over your Chart view. To do this, use the wrench icon next to the chart view icon, check the "Instrument Bar" box, then Edit Instrument Bar. You can choose one row or two, and whatever data in five boxes above and six boxes below that your heart could only desire. Good choice of nav data would be DTW, TTW (or ETA), BTW, COG, SOG, XTE, Time, Position. Just one example.


I hope that helps?

I prefer to look at nav data on a Triton. Do you have any of those? I keep one of my four scuttle-mounted Tritons permanently set on nav data.

The Triton has a wonderful default nav data screen which is like old fashioned pre-chart plotter GPS's, which I miss so much. Position on top, then COG, Time, SOG, BTW, ETA, DTW. It's fabulous -- couldn't live without it.

I also have a nine-window custom screen set up with all that minus position but plus VMC (velocity made good upwind), Heel Angle, Rudder Angle. I tend to use that sailing upwind.


I hope this is useful. Modern plotters are so flexible, that you should be able to display all your data absolutely however you want. Don't settle for less!

P.S. Forgot to mention that the Triton also has a compass screen which I really like. This has a ribbon compass across the top, showing you heading. Carats show BTW and heading ordered by the autopilot computer. Then you have BTW, XTE, and COG in windows. Below that, a graphic representation of your XTE. You might like that one.

A64, as a former military pilot, you'll like this one -- I have a great friend who is a retired Marine Corps general, former air wing commander, with decades of experience as pilot in F4's (combat in Vietnam), F18's, and Harriers. Every time he is on board, first thing he does is to plant himself at my nav table (with a tall glass of whiskey) and plays with my nav gear. "If only we'd had half of this stuff in our aircraft!" He is fond of saying.

[a64pilot]

Touch will do an overlay, IF you have a very high dollar heading sensor.
My old Garmin did all of these things we are discussing, to include Radar overlay and with only one box, the plotter itself.
I'm very disappointed with my Zeus touch, I thought I was getting a Zeus 2, but got a touch, but if the 2 is like the touch and I think it is, a Garmin blows it out of the water for usability and ease of use.
Maps suck on the Zeus too, my Ipad with Garmin Blue Chart is what I use in a harbor etc., and I do not think the Zeus has shipping lanes either.
I think it's a shame when I get to where I really need accuracy and I go to my Iphone or Ipad over my plotter.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[a64pilot]

Dockhead, I have a Zeus touch, do you have a Zeus 2?
I don't recognize a lot of what your saying and I'm not at the boat, but the thing has to be able to do these displays, they are so basic, I can't believe it can't. So that means I just don't know how.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Dockhead, I have a Zeus touch, do you have a Zeus 2?
I don't recognize a lot of what your saying and I'm not at the boat, but the thing has to be able to do these displays, they are so basic, I can't believe it can't. So that means I just don't know how.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

No, I don't have a Touch 2. I have the very first Zeus Touch ever imported into the U.S. I'm an "early adopter" And at the nav table, a Zeus non-touch with all the lovely buttons.

Don't despair; your Zeus Touch can do all of that and even much, much more.

I'm not a Zeus "fanboy" -- I've posted about a raft of problems I've had. The main negative of these is they are terribly buggy, and crash on a regular basis. Which is unforgivable. But functionality is fine. They do more or less everything you could ever want them to. And the user interface is quite decent -- logical and well thought out. Maybe not better than Raymarine, which is also very good, but more powerful than Garmin, more flexible, and with more functions.

Give it a try when you're on the boat, and let me know if I can help.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

. . . Maps suck on the Zeus too, my Ipad with Garmin Blue Chart is what I use in a harbor etc., and I do not think the Zeus has shipping lanes either.. . .

One of the nice things about the Zeus is that you have a choice of cartography. If you don't like the (usually standard) Navionics cartography, you can use C-Map. Or various other chart packages.

But I've used the Navionics (if that's what you have) cartography around Florida. In my experience, it was absolutely fine.

I would bet dollars to donuts that you are, for some reason, using the base map (Navionics Silver or Insight) instead of a normal cartography pack (Navionics Gold or Platinum, or any of the C-Map ones).

Don't use the built-in base map! You must buy an SD card with normal charts. They sell the plotter as if charts are included, but it's really just a base map.

If you do have the chip, but you're only seeing the base map, then do this:

Menu>Chart Options>Change to Navionics [toggles with "Change to Insight"]

[colemj]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

I was hoping that someone from B&G would comment. They lurk here and jump in to defend their product occasionally, or to tout the latest software release as a fix-all for all problems.

Really? I have never seen this. I have seen many other manufacturers monitoring the forum and providing assistance (Rocna, Spade, Jeppesen, Standard Horizon, Vesper - just to name a few), but never Simrad/B&G.

Mark