B&G Zeus 2 / 12" Chart Plotter - advice.

[mhember]

Hi All,

I'm considering buying a second hand B&G Zeus 2 chart plotter, which is at a significant discount from the current Zeus 3 model.

Has anyone got any experience with the Zeus 2? Any gotchas, or things I should be looking out for? What is the single control like?

I'm going to be bulkhead mounting it, are the kits available still - or is it the same fitting as the later models?

With thanks

Marcus

 

[Ningaloo]

Actually the Zeus3 is also obsolete (replaced by 3S) and you might also get a good deal on these. Look at Svb24.com.who often have offers. Do you need 12"? You might get a newer 9" for the same price. A Zeus2 will be at least 4-5 years old so check the screen for delamination.
I have owned 9" Zeus2, Zeus3, a 7" Vulcan and now have a pair of Zeus3S. Excellent products especially SailSteer. The touch works well and I rarely use the buttons or rotary scroll wheel but these are handy when wearing full length gloves. Fitting kit should be identical. I swapped the 2 for a 3 under warranty and it didn't need changes.

The hardware has evolved slightly with more robust scroll wheel and better cover for the SD cards but the main difference is more powerful CPU and better visibility screens.

Zeus2 won't get any more software updates which used to add new features at least once a year, however these have been much less frequent of late.

Personally I'd recommend buying the newest (or new) you can and consider the Vulcan which is lower price.

 

[vyv_cox]

I have the 12 inch Zeus 2. It is a brilliant bit of kit but as with so much yachting instrumentation seems to have been designed by a computer nerd who has never been on a boat. Editing routes on its touch screen is far from easy and there are several other actions that should be far easier. Once set up though it is superb.