Anyone had problems with B&G Vulcans ?

steveeasy said:
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
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EXACTLY the same happened to me. I bout end of 2017 season and used very lightly. VERY lightly.

It would flicker after a while, and would feel hot, then not display the Navionics charts but a reboot would fix it. On this summers 2 week break, it started flashing again, super hot on the back to touch and then shut down, never to power up again.

Did you get any useful responses from the B&G folk?
 
steveeasy said:
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
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.Hi.
Had my V7 since 2017. Many problems. Screen freezing, and could not turn off. Regularly rebooting itself. Cannot see the C Map charts, so working on base map.
Has been back for testing a couple of times, only recently found out that they test it in Demo mode, as they do not have any instruments to connect to!!!
They did replace the chart chip, but made no difference.
Spoke to the Service Manager yesterday, and he suggested running it without the chart, to see if I have any issues then. He wasn't really interested, until I asked about upgrading to V9, then his ears pricked up.
I'll report back what happens.
 
Good luck getting any replacement B&G kit. They are part of Navico (Simrad, B&G and Lowrance). Navico have always been my least favourite of the big name suppliers, their support has historically been atrocious, although it seems much improved now.. They are currently going through some changes with distributor network, after a, erm, "parting company" with the largest distributor of marine electronics in the UK.

We've had some Simrad kit on order since mid July, latest expected delivery date is mid October, but that may well go the way of previous "expected delivery dates". How deliveries will be affected by changes to their distributor network is anybodies guess.

We've had some delays with Garmin and Raymarine, but nothing like Navico.
 
steve230556 said:
.Hi.
Had my V7 since 2017. Many problems. Screen freezing, and could not turn off. Regularly rebooting itself. Cannot see the C Map charts, so working on base map.
Has been back for testing a couple of times, only recently found out that they test it in Demo mode, as they do not have any instruments to connect to!!!
They did replace the chart chip, but made no difference.
Spoke to the Service Manager yesterday, and he suggested running it without the chart, to see if I have any issues then. He wasn't really interested, until I asked about upgrading to V9, then his ears pricked up.
I'll report back what happens.
Click to expand...
Just been contacted by Navico. They had my unit in for testing, last week. Seems they now agree the unit is faulty.
 
steveeasy said:
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
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No. I don't believe it's a one off. My C Map chart chip seemed to make things worse. I then used a Navionics chip, which worked much better albeit, with 3 seconds latency occasionally, but it didn't freeze and lock up as it did with C Map and reboot itself.
Navico finally agree, after 3 tests over 2 years, that it's a faulty unit.
Tip they test in demo mode which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Get them to test it live real time, which seems to be difficult to do on a desk.
 
steve230556 said:
Just been contacted by Navico. They had my unit in for testing, last week. Seems they now agree the unit is faulty.
Click to expand...
They finally have agreed to replace the Vulcan 7 FS unit for a Vulcan 7 R unit, which apparently has a better processor. Its only taken 2 years, 3 inspections and multiple emails, plus a lot of input from me to keep pushing.
I did use a Navionics chart card, to test against the C Map chart, and although the Navionics card, locked briefly, it did recover and continued to work, as opposed to C Map, which failed completely. It also ran cooler than the C Map.
 
PaulRainbow said:
Good luck getting any replacement B&G kit. They are part of Navico (Simrad, B&G and Lowrance). Navico have always been my least favourite of the big name suppliers, their support has historically been atrocious, although it seems much improved now.. They are currently going through some changes with distributor network, after a, erm, "parting company" with the largest distributor of marine electronics in the UK.

We've had some Simrad kit on order since mid July, latest expected delivery date is mid October, but that may well go the way of previous "expected delivery dates". How deliveries will be affected by changes to their distributor network is anybodies guess.

We've had some delays with Garmin and Raymarine, but nothing like Navico.
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I see their new distributor is AQUAFAX.
 
steve230556 said:
I see their new distributor is AQUAFAX.
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That's correct but they have virtually no stock, their total stock of chart plotters is 9 B&G units, 0 Simrad. As things stand, i suspect some dealers won't stock Navico products, but if they do i wouldn't expect there to be much, if any, discount on RRP. Whereas, at present, Raymarine and Garmin electronics are typically sold 15-20% below RRP.
 
I was somewhat put off Garmin through experience in non-marine applications, and was contemplating updating our boat's electronics to B&G over the course of this winter. In fact, I have already bought a B&G VHF (not yet fitted).

Perhaps I should re-consider Garmin for the Chart Plotter - what are their tiller pilots like?
 
Chae_73 said:
I was somewhat put off Garmin through experience in non-marine applications, and was contemplating updating our boat's electronics to B&G over the course of this winter. In fact, I have already bought a B&G VHF (not yet fitted).

Perhaps I should re-consider Garmin for the Chart Plotter - what are their tiller pilots like?
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Garmin don't make a tiller pilot, but the Raymarine one can be interfaced to steer to a waypoint, route or to wind.
If you want to see some Garmin kit in action you're welcome to come and take a look at mine, my boat is all Garmin.

Before one of the usual suspects pops up and claims that i'm "marketing", it makes no difference to me what brand people buy, i'm just offering the chance to see some equipment in use, none of the local chandlers have displays like they used to.
 
For those who have slow running units it’s worth clearing all old tracks as they are known to use a disproportionate amount of memory and slow the machine considerably.
 
Yes self-repowering I had an early Vulcan7 and it rebooted a lot, not very full memory .

It needed to be in warranty ( I was not) if I wanted a 'fix" it would have been just a swap out unit- I don't think they repair them.

Went to Raymarine Axiom 9 and a lot better but not immune to the odd freeze; sensitive to low battery volts especially when its been on and then you start the engines, would have hoped it had a decent reservoir capacitor to deal with some fluctuation like this.( my boat batteries are new and on intelligent mains charger most of the time) .
 
martin99 said:
Yes self-repowering I had an early Vulcan7 and it rebooted a lot, not very full memory .

It needed to be in warranty ( I was not) if I wanted a 'fix" it would have been just a swap out unit- I don't think they repair them.

Went to Raymarine Axiom 9 and a lot better but not immune to the odd freeze; sensitive to low battery volts especially when its been on and then you start the engines, would have hoped it had a decent reservoir capacitor to deal with some fluctuation like this.( my boat batteries are new and on intelligent mains charger most of the time) .
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This is not a fault of the Axiom, it's down to your electrical installation. All electronics are sensitive to low voltages. This will be caused by two things, inadequate wiring and the fact that you're using the same battery to start the engine. Thicker wiring to the plotter will help, possibly cure it. A separate engine battery will definitely cure it.
 
PaulRainbow said:
That's correct but they have virtually no stock, their total stock of chart plotters is 9 B&G units, 0 Simrad. As things stand, i suspect some dealers won't stock Navico products, but if they do i wouldn't expect there to be much, if any, discount on RRP. Whereas, at present, Raymarine and Garmin electronics are typically sold 15-20% below RRP.
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Aquafax are distributors for B&G and Lowrance, not the simrad range. They have had a large delivery in the last few weeks including a number of B&G plotters into the Luton and Hamble warehouse :-)
 
ammyj said:
Aquafax are distributors for B&G and Lowrance, not the simrad range. They have had a large delivery in the last few weeks including a number of B&G plotters into the Luton and Hamble warehouse :)
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That's correct, Aquafax only took on the B&G and Lowrance brands. The Simrad account has been taken on by EP Barrus.

According to the Aquafax website, their total stock of chart plotters is 4 x Vulcan 12R and 3 x Zeus 3S-12
 
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I have 2 vulcan screens aboard.
The cockpit one shuts down when it overheats in the direct sun.
The other in the cabin, (same batch and bought together) never causes a problem.

Other than that, it's like using an old, worn out ipad to be fair. I expected better and the more complex they make them (whatever the brand), the worse they seem to get!
My old garmin 526 never wobbled once and was exposed in a cockpit most of the year...........
 
guyd said:
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.
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We were considering B&G and this discussion made me think again, shall we go for Raymarine set instead?
 
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