Anyone had problems with B&G Vulcans ?

[steveeasy]

On my recent trip when I could well have used my New B&G Vulcan it decided using it once a month was too much and it got hot and went off never to come back on again. Whilst I liked the idea of touch screen and the gizmos. I found it hard to roam. difficult to even change time. it would reset when it felt like it. all in a week. then simply gave up and shut down.

After a few minuets of firing up the Garmin 128 I was back in action. the garmin must be 20 years old. like new, easier to enter everything. simple to scroll. Ive not used the Vulcan much probably 10 times. Warranty finished I might as well bin it.

Anyone else in the same Boat!!

Steveeasy

 

[neil1967]

No problems with mine. Refresh is sometimes a bit slow. Much better and intuitive than the Lowrance HDS it replaced - I couldn't get inside the head of the guy that programmed that!

 

[KAL]

Ours has been fine. I wonder whether you might have a slightly iffy connection on one of the power cable leads? That would cause it to lose power momentarily then restart when it was restored. Just a thought?

 

[Venus1]

Ours has been fine. I wonder whether you might have a slightly iffy connection on one of the power cable leads? That would cause it to lose power momentarily then restart when it was restored. Just a thought?

+1
I am in love with my Vulcan. The bees knees.
As KAL says, suspect a power supply issue?
Also I’m curious about your “it gets hot”. Mine does get warm, but apart from a few seconds to refresh (worse since software update) it has been faultless - despite my voltage occasionally falling to an indicated 11v.
EDIT: I’m not very fond of the power plug into the unit. It doesn’t seem to have a positive closure...which might make the power supply inconsistent???

 

[steveeasy]

Must be a one off then. Had no other problems. I've checked the supply power cable with volt meter and all seams well. The screen got very hot. Just won't turn on. Looks like I'll have to send it off.its out of warrenty so might not be worth fixing.
Dteveeasy

 

[Aardee]

Really happy with my Vulcan 9, except the sun cover is so tight you can't remove it without it also taking the (fragile-looking) bezel with it. Fortunately it's below deck at the chart table so not exactly critical.

 

[mhouse]

It's worth calling b&g . They don't repair gear but normally offer big big discounts off replacements.

 

[KompetentKrew]

I was meaning to start a thread like this myself - mine occasionally freezes and stops responding for a few seconds, just long enough to be annoying, no more.

 

[steveeasy]

well I spoke to where I bought it from and was told it only had 1 year warranty. so I called B&G and asked if they would repair it. they said its still covered by warranty. I questioned this as it was purchased in April 2018.
His response was that all there products are covered for 2 full years from date of purchase. He went on to say its EU law that now makes all electrical products sold in the EU covered by a min 2 years. he said so when you pop in to currys and told its only 1 year its not correct its 2 years.

Well that's good news for me and all of us it seams

Steveeasy.

 

[guyd]

My B&G vulcan 7 has just locked up in the logo screen, occasional flickering. Supplier chandler is sorting out for me as its not even a year old.

 

[KompetentKrew]

My B&G vulcan 7 has just locked up in the logo screen, occasional flickering. Supplier chandler is sorting out for me as its not even a year old.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but it remained stuck on that screen even after rebooting?

 

[guyd]

Yes - just shows B&G logo, powered on and off several times, left for half an hour, plugged, unplugged, even re did the power connections. removed data card too. and unplugged all cables bar power.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Damn. Maybe I should get mine replaced, lest it get any worse.

 

[Red Panda]

My Vulcan 7 has been great so far, I installed it about 18 months ago. I ran new power cables for it during installation.
It does get noticeably warm to the touch, especially on sunny days, but no sign of any misbehaviour so far.

 

[ctva]

My Vulcan is now in its third season but I had a similar fault of freezing screen and restarting. After discussions, tests, software updates and more discussions with the very helpful, knowledgable and professional technical guys in the south of England, it was finally identified as a faulty cmap cartography card (apparently they think there was a small batch of these) so I now have a new FoC card bang up to date. Great customer service, just ask for the tech dept.

 

[TopBanana]

Love mine. No issues so far, using Navionics mapping

 

[steveeasy]

Love mine. No issues so far, using Navionics mapping

seriously,
Do you find it easy to scroll down, when mines working again !!, I find it a pain in the Axxx to scroll and find anything and everything. last time it was working I spent an hour trying to change the time. then my crew member spent a good hour and he got nowhere with it.

Im not convinced, but perhaps im being a little bit critical.

Steveeasy

 

[ctva]

seriously,
Do you find it easy to scroll down, when mines working again !!, I find it a pain in the Axxx to scroll and find anything and everything. last time it was working I spent an hour trying to change the time. then my crew member spent a good hour and he got nowhere with it.

Im not convinced, but perhaps im being a little bit critical.

Steveeasy

I find it very easy and intuitive.

You could try reading the manual...:encouragement:

 

[KompetentKrew]

I find it easy and intuitive when in chart-display mode. Going "back" one level into the main menu and trying to find system options, I find less so. Some chart options are selectable from within the chart display mode, some you have to exit chat display mode and to back to system options to access, which doesn't make sense to me. I find it more logical when I think of different menus as "windows".

 

[steveeasy]

I find it very easy and intuitive.

You could try reading the manual...:encouragement:

I suspect its an age thing. im far too young to read all that.

Steveeasy