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B&G v Garmin (GPS/Radar)

22K views 42 replies 19 participants last post by  Benny 
#1 ·
Hello All,

I'm about 6 weeks from pulling the trigger on an upgrade to either B&G or Garmin.

For B&G I'm thinking Zeus2 7 for Garmin I'm thinking 741xs or similiar. The cost difference is negligible. Since I'll be upgrading Radar next (most likely at end or next season). It's important or so I'm told, to choose now.

I'd like to hear specifically from those who have them installed. Please no comments from those who think or have heard or have read. I've got plenty of that on my own. I'm really interested in peoples first hand experience w/ these units.

I have an old st4000 as well (but heck it still works).
I also use ipads as secondary nav units both in cockpit and 'down under' in weather.

Thanks in advance for replies :)
 
#2 ·
Hey,

I currently have a Garmin 740S. It came with the boat and is a nice unit. It integrates easily with other devices (autopilot, vhf, instruments, etc.). However, I'm thinking of buying a B&G Vulcan 7 to get the Sailsteer functions. The garmin doesn't do any of that. The 740XS might but I'm not sure. I expect the B&G unit will be $500 in the spring.

Barry
 
#4 ·
Glymroff,

We just upgraded after a lightning strike, and you are indeed right about the lay-lines on the 740. They are really awesome. We went to the Annapolis show to see what RayMarine, B&G and Garmin had to offer last year. I really liked the Garmin's user interface and software but that was my preference, each one seems to make great gear. I found the Garmin very easy to use and I was pleasantly surprised when I first used the unit with the lay-lines, it almost felt like cheating. I also have a 18 HD radar dome, it is a very user friendly radar set, and I have not been disappointed. With the secondary device like an Ipad or phone, you can stream the radar to your device. This made running at night in NY harbor soooo much easier, I was able to walk up to my bow with my phone and still have a view of my radar display, but I think most vendors include an app now which allows you to have a secondary display. The radar has good auto filtering settings such as gain. I have only really had to adjust it when I was playing with it to practice with each setting. We also had the wireless G-wind unit installed. I like that unit, sometimes it acts up and drops connection, but I think that is due to the Blue Tooth when streaming Pandora to the Meteor Garmin stereo, from what I read I think the wireless wind and Blue Tooth are close in frequency. If you can, I highly recommend looking into the Garmin Meteor stereo if you are into music. I love being able to control it from my phone, or chart plotter. So far I have been quite happy with the 740xs and radar set. It has given me a lot more confidence to run in the dark around me.

Let me know if you have any other specific questions.
 
#6 ·
I have the B&G Zeus2 9". I would not want it in a 7" because the fun things about B&G (sail steer and such) work better with more space. I wish I had the 12".

I have been very happy with B&G. There are a few minor interface things I think could be better (e.g. there are a few settings it doesn't seem to remember) and it has crashed once or twice, but not enough to be a real concern. (I get the impression that Garmin is more stable/mature.) But in general, the interface is very responsive and user friendly, the chart support is good, I have been pleased with the radar (upgrade from old RayMarine stuff), and I think that B&G has found the right balance between good multi-touch interface and physical buttons/controls for when you need them (wet hands, bouncy conditions, etc).

If I had it to do over again, I would still choose B&G, although I might go for the larger size.
 
#7 ·
Travellerw:

I thought the zeus2 had more features than the zeus? Your wireless wind sensor stops working? I've heard this about Raymarines wireless as well. I think I'm leaning towards the B&G instrument package. I was considering the Garmin wind, but this is the first I've heard of someone with a problem with it.

Mr_f: What do you mean 'crashed', and what did you have to do when it happened?

thx
 
#8 ·
I install them all and am an authorized dealer for most. They are all pretty good but Garmin is the winner for me in;

-Least Amount of bugs, crashes & glitches

-Install it, set it up and never hear one peep from the customer

There is one brand with numerous products which I will no longer sell to the customer (and it is not a Navico, Garmin or Furuno product :wink) as their QC, or lack there of, has left me losing money on too many jobs. If you want that brand, and my installation, you buy it, I will install it, and if there are glitches, bugs, recalls etc. it is on your dime to deal with the manufacturer, not mine. I can no longer be the manufacturers "field tester", due to lack of solid design, and factory QC issues any longer.... :wink
 
#10 ·
I have a Zeus2 7" and the B&G 4G Broadband radar. I must say that the 4G radar is outstanding. It uses less power in active mode than any of the traditional pulse radars use while in standby mode and has no main bang / dead area around the boat due to the FMCW technology. The close in detail is amazing as it will show your dingy being towed behind your boat and will even show mooring pennants (rope) extending from the mooring ball to the bow of a boat. Sightseer is really nice also.
 
#35 ·
Latest issue I reported ... waypoints dissappearing from routes. There are enough issues with route creation/navigation that the route functions are useless to me. Particularly frustrating in that all Navico had to do was follow the example of the Northstar products which they acquired ... this all worked fine.

My customer support expereince has been poor.
 
#19 ·
I have the Simrad 3G radar and NSS8 system - most of the internals are the same as the B&G stuff, it's all Navico.

I seem to remember they had a TON of radar problems months ago, but the latest firmware updates seems to have fixed the issues. The radar itself, I really like, and the GS25 external GPS is pretty awesome.
 
#20 ·
I have a Zeus2 system including wind, heading sensor, AIS transponder and 4G radar. I am very pleased with it. I chose it for the sailing functions and it has lived up to the hype. The Z2 is very easy to use, the GUI well engineered and the touch screen has worked flawlessly in wet and foggy conditions. I have the GoFree WiFi interface and can completely control the Z2 from my tablet. I also have data streaming over WiFi to OpenCPN on a Windoze 10 laptop.
 
#22 ·
I have a mid-90's B&G autopilot with AP-2 controller and large hydraulic actuator (don't remember the model and not at the boat). It doesn't interface with the Z2 but works fine so I moved the priority of replacing it down the big long list.

BTW, I think the one thing that can't be done on the tablet is control the autopilot.
 
#27 ·
I spent some time at the Newport Show, and looked at all of them closely. I learned NAV the non electronic way first. So when I looked at them I was looking at them from a different point of view. As a system engineer I was impressed with the Garmin because it was simple to use and even my girlfriend understood it... I've used Garmin for Land Navigation as well so it is no brainer for me which one I am having installed in the coming months. Also when I'm crewing for a friend in SF, CA he has Raymarine and it drives me crazy to use.
 
#28 ·
glymroff,

We were faced with replacing our nav and radar on our boat when we acquired her in May-2014. We went with B&G 4G Radar and Zeus T-8 [Zeus2 wasn't available yet...] We also like the functionality that the GoFree1 WiFi offers [but are on our 3rd unit replaced under warranty...] Since then we added the V50 VHF radio with remote wireless mike and AIS rx.

It all performs very well. We like the SailSteer functionality of the MFD, and the 4G radar is astounding compared to other units I have had experience with over the years.

If I was doing this today, I might be tempted to go with Zeus2 because we could benefit from the forward looking sonar where we currently cruise. [I understand can add one to our Zeus Touch system but it requires a black box and more $...] Other intriguing attributes of the Zeus2 are the dual SD Card slots and the beefier processor/RAM specs. [If you get into a self-debate about Zeus vs. Zeus2, there was a recent, detailed thread on Cruiser's Forum on that topic.]

I did have a Garmin 541S on the previous boat [no radar] and that nav system suited our needs on that vessel at the time.

Let me know if you desire more details, and best wishes with your project.

Cheers!

Bill
 
#29 ·
Bill,

Did you look at the Vesper 8000 or similiar for WiFi interfacing? Or is the GoFree Wifi1 required to use iPad functionality?

Glad to hear you are happy w/ the equipment. I'm thinking about adding a simrad autopilot (ac12, rc42, rf25), and drive the existing wheel pilot. Will update everybody on this thread after putting all this together in Jan....
 
#30 ·
Glymroff,

I believe the GoFree is required for the Zeus Touch MFD mirror/control functionality via iOS and Android devices, but this need to be re-verified as it has been over a year since I did my research...

I am interested in the Vesper 8000 and its ability as a NMEA 0183/2000 bridge. However, the boat came with a Vesper Watchmate 850 and the NMEA bridge function is covered by the Zeus- and broadcast via the GoFree, so my needs are covered for now... But, if I didn't already have an AIS transceiver, the 8000 would be high on my list...

RE: Autopilot- I am in the early stages of researching using an appropriate B&G autopilot brain with my existing hydraulic motor/ram configuration, so I'll be interested in how your autopilot choices work out.

Cheers!

Bill
 
#31 · (Edited)
We had a complete B&G system installed with broadband radar and a Zeus 7 at the steering station. My bride and I both would like to go back to our antique Garmin system that worked perfectly for 14 years. To mention the B&G system has been working well or been trouble free would be dishonest of me. The installer has visited numerous times to fix software problems between the VHF radio and GPS and the Marpa on our radar won't fix on a target no matter what we have attempted. Sometimes the screen just freezes and my bride powers it down and then back on again. The software cards and new versions have not solved this. There are features we like but the problems have been driving us to drinks.
 
#32 ·
BillB36,

That sounds like a nightmare...

As a fellow boater with a self inflicted B&G installation I have a few questions to help us all understand what might be going on, and what to be aware of...

We had a few minor issues with our installation initially as well. The first issue was with the V50 VHF radio: it came out-of-the-box with the undocumented feature of serving up the wx channel whenever it wanted- without changing channels... A firmware update took care of that issue and its been stellar ever since...

And, as I previously mentioned in my earlier post in this thread, we are on our 3rd GoFree WiFi device- but the first 2 each performed as expected... until they didn't... [All cheerfully replaced under warranty...]

The only other issue we have experienced was having our iPad screen mirrored to the MFD loose connection [go blank] when we stood next to it wearing one of our wireless headsets. A change of WiFi channel frequencies took care of that issue.

RE: Firmware: For those who haven't done your own yet, they are pretty easy: download to a micro SD card from the internet and put it into the MFD and follow the instructions. I've done both the MFD and VHF this way. The only odd-ball was having to send the wireless mike into a dealer to have its firmware updated...

RE: MARPA not keeping a lock: Do you mind sharing which Rate Compass you have installed on your N2K network? [From when I installed our B&G network last year I recall the B&G ZG100 GPS/compass was adequate for external GPS antenna and for providing the RADAR overlay on the chart plotter, but is not sufficient for MARPA- per B&G. I don't know if that has changed since then...]

RE: General troubleshooting: Has your installer performed any diagnostics of your N2K network? [e.g., with a Maretron N2K Meter or equivalent.] I have read, but not experienced, that errant traffic from other systems sharing the N2K network can sometimes cause headaches- especially multiplexers or NMEA 0183 to N2K bridges that are ill-configured. [Again, not from personal experience...]

I am absolutely no expert, but can share what has been working for us. Your answers will help us all better understand what to look for and possibly avoid with our own installations.

Thanks in advance for your help, and I hope you get everything working flawlessly soon...

Cheers!

Bill
 
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