B&G for Cruisers: Is Zeus3 worth the cost vs Vulcan?

[capnJ]

Originally Posted by RKsailsolo

B&G tech service is A1 as far as my personal experience is concerned on my US based 2015 Jeanneau Sun ODYSSEY. So far, exceeding my expectations.

B&G tech service ON THE PHONE has been quite good. I'll agree with that. But I've tried to report bugs on my Zeus via email for almost 5 years now, and I NEVER get responses. And the problems have NEVER been addressed. They have no posted page of known problems, and every time I speak to a Navico agent they listen and promise to get back to me but don't.

Yes, I have reported the bugs by the phone too, but they always tell me to update my software. That I have done a dozen times, but the bugs persist. When I send them screen shots and errors via email, there is zero response.

[Recy]

Originally Posted by capnJ

B&G tech service ON THE PHONE has been quite good. I'll agree with that. But I've tried to report bugs on my Zeus via email for almost 5 years now, and I NEVER get responses. And the problems have NEVER been addressed. They have no posted page of known problems, and every time I speak to a Navico agent they listen and promise to get back to me but don't.

Yes, I have reported the bugs by the phone too, but they always tell me to update my software. That I have done a dozen times, but the bugs persist. When I send them screen shots and errors via email, there is zero response.

What kind of problems do you have?

[capnJ]

What kind of [software] problems do [I] have?

Four problems that I can remember right now:

1. The steering angle gets progressively more wrong as hours go by.
2. The "Time Loc" field goes blank sometimes for hours at a time.
3. Past position tracks are erratically plotted at certain zoom levels.
4. The VMG can be way wrong at times.

[JamesPNW]

IPad Pro with Navionic map will work well for charting. The Zeus pricing is just wacko for price vs function.

[mosss]

Originally Posted by SV Sailfish

Hmmm... we have a Vulcan 9 at the helm and a vulcan 12 at the nav station. Both attached to a B&G 3G radar unit. All communicate with all. (plus mirrored on our iphone/ipad) This system was installed 2 months ago. All new B&G equipment so... don't know why B&G said "no" they cannot mirror. Reps, go figure.

We got the Vulcan 9/3G radar in a bundle from West Marine

Cheers!

Hi!
can you share map data between the two Vulcan units? do you connect via ethernet? (on b&g website seems not supported...)/

I would like to add a Vulcan9 (good offer) to an existing Zeus3 station and would like to share tha Navionics maps already on Zeus to the Vulcan MFD.
Thanks in advance!

[Recy]

No its not possible to share charts. There is an ethernet connection on the Vulcan but it´s for the radar.

[JamesPNW]

According to Navico support, 2 Vulcan MFD can be connected together to share Radar and charts. The Navico supports provided this wiring diagram. It required the NEP-2 device, the Ethernet hub. This can apply to either Vulcan12 and Vulcan9FS.

The Zeus is also connected the same way.

[Recy]

I have one Vulcan one Zeus3 and one Lowrance HDS all connected with a NEP2 on my boat. HDS and Zeus can share charts but not the Vulcan.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by capnJ

What kind of [software] problems do [I] have?

Four problems that I can remember right now:

1. The steering angle gets progressively more wrong as hours go by.
2. The "Time Loc" field goes blank sometimes for hours at a time.
3. Past position tracks are erratically plotted at certain zoom levels.
4. The VMG can be way wrong at times.

exactly my problems with the Zeus 3 9"

[capnJ]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

exactly my problems with the Zeus 3 9"

Have you asked B&G to do something about these problems? I get nowhere. But maybe that's because they hear from so few of us. Please let us all know what you have tried and what the responses have been.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by capnJ

Have you asked B&G to do something about these problems? I get nowhere. But maybe that's because they hear from so few of us. Please let us all know what you have tried and what the responses have been.

Same as you, talked to hotline but nothing happened.
Won‘t take much and long anymore and I just throw it in the bin....
I use my iPad Pro with navionics/isailor for navigation and just give manually the B&G autopilot the heading from the iPad. Problem is you cannot remote steer the autopilot with the isailor, B&G blocks that to sell their 600€ remote control and broadcasting box...their excuse savety...
Well I have a pilothouse ketch but no 2nd helm aft.so I have an iPad there and wanna steer remotely the autopilot with it. No need for a 2nd helm (which previous owner deleted) but I need to be able to adapt/finetune course as this is my favorite place to be when conditions are nice.
At the moment heading is 30 degrees off from COG and I cannot calibrate the rc42/AC12 Autopilot to correct heading...always fails...
First B&G and it will definitely be my last...when it’s working it’s good but if not it’s a nightmare with 1000tickboxes and submenus...

[shepherdsond]

Originally Posted by FlyingScot

From this link, it appears the Zeus does the windplot over time graphs and the vulcan does not. https://ww2.bandg.com/downloads/zeus-3-software-update/

Personally I like to use both the touch screen and the buttons/knob depending on the situation. Same as on my laptop. Also, if something freezes up, sometimes the other input type will get it moving again. Personally I haven't experienced this on the Z3, but I suspect I will at some point.

Details on the screens and processors seem hard to find, but they do describe the Zeus models with terms like "all weather", "ultra wide viewing angles", "super bright" and "high performance". They don't use these terms for the Vulcan. Maybe they think these are important for 'bluewater'?

Obviously it would be best if you could spend a few minutes in full direct sun with each of them. Also a quick test with wet hands.

Edit:
Vulcan 9" screen: 800 x 480 Pixels: 384000
Zeus3 9" screen: 720 x 1280 Pixels: 921600
That's a lot more detail on the same size screen.

The 7" Z3 has 600 x 1024 Pixels: 614400
I'd probably buy the 7" Zeus3 over the 9" Vulcan.

I have the Vulcan 7 and it does do the windplot over time.

[John29]

I have ACP 2 autopilot and Hydra 2000 processor and displays, all 20 years old. Im*looking at upgrading to*N2K network, Zeus or Vulcan and Triton. I*want to keep the ACP 2 autopilot at least for now. Has anyone got their Zeus or Vulcan talking to the ACP 2?

[dave777]

Originally Posted by John29

I have ACP 2 autopilot and Hydra 2000 processor and displays, all 20 years old. Im*looking at upgrading to*N2K network, Zeus or Vulcan and Triton. I*want to keep the ACP 2 autopilot at least for now. Has anyone got their Zeus or Vulcan talking to the ACP 2?

Sort of ...


Prior owner had Raymarine everything. First we installed a Lowrance 3G with HDS gen2 plotter, integrated the rest of the Raymarine instruments by upgrading Seatalk1 to SeatalkNG (NMEA2000 with non standard connectors) with a shared backbone as described by others, and things worked. Then we got swayed by the B&G marketing and got a Zeus touch plotter, and integrated that. First we were berated for having the lack of common sense to thing that a GPS with Compass that is claimed to be NMEA2000 (Point1) would somehow work with a B&G Zeus which also claims to be N2K. So we started down the upgrade, cross grade, part swap, update journey that makes boating seem like another day at the office, in the shadow of Bill Gates.

The amount of headaches and near-compatibilities will use up to many bits on the interweb of Al Gore's so suffice to say that Navico's ability to have their own company Lowrance talk to B&G and vice versa is much worse than either of these two units and Raymarine. Go figure? Also, the journey was quite painful once you had something a software update, which they require you to perform or they basically won't talk to you, would break it. New features, which we didn't need, and perhaps bug fixes for others would be provided at the expense of working basics. It was very much as if we were unpaid beta testers, or perhaps alpha testers. Having some background in tech myself, I spent hours documenting issues via eMails and offering to help debug. Suspicions grew that my efforts were ignored. If only I had charged them...


Back to your question. We replaced the old Raymarine autopilot computer with a Simrad AC42 which has been working flawlessly. We didn't a problem with the old Raymarine (though it was very basic) and weren't seeking new features, it was just that the combination of the Lowrance and B&G plotters screwed each other up. It's working pretty much OK now, but if our time was worth $10 than we could have purchased a complete new multi-plotter Garmin system, had it installed, plus paid for beverages for a while.


So - "yes for the Lowrance HDS gen2 touch & Zeus touch plotters, certain older Simrad autopilots work well".


But I have to agree with all of the posters on this thread who give a very low customer service rating to B&G. Also, it seems some of the posters who felt otherwise were actually happy with middle-man retailers/installers as opposed to B&G.


Long story short - YMMV. And when you make an electronics choice, drill holes etc., it's hard to alter course.

[simonhantler]

Originally Posted by Matt Johnson

Lowrance is Navico (a Venture Capital firm).

I find it ridiculous that in this day and age; with a company that sell technology products, you are required to call in for support (but they never returned my calls) and 100% ignored our simple tech emails until we started bashing their service in videos (they had a record of receiving my emails). Their service manager even told me that they don't often respond to email as their system is poorly set-up and the only way to get service was to call (2015-2017). I want written records of all correspondents to reference with tech discussions, and I do not want to have to make calls and remember what "solution" we came up with.

They have updated their customer service processes for 2018, but after years of horrible/non existent service and products launches where no testing is done and the customer is the bug finder (V50, Touch, Triton all had major faults at launch), I'll never, ever recommend them.

I found Raymarine's N2k connecters to be a minor irritant, but overall not that big of a deal.... At Least the connectors are high quality unlike some brands. I was extremely happy with their quality once they were purchased by FLIR.

While I'd love to be able to afford NKE and Furuno, I'll probably jump back to Raymarine next time I have to update.

Matt

Matt (long term subscriber of MJS) what product are you talking about in general above?