B & G Forward Scan.....does yours work?

[Sputnik]

Hi,
I refitted my Hunter 356 with all new B&G Zues2 nav' kit, and Raymarine autopilot recently.
The B&G forward scan has never worked satisfactorily, it looses bottom lock at low depths (typically 2 m under the transducer) and becomes unreliable. (I am on the East Coast of the Uk, and enjoy creek crawling and exploring, so am frequently looking for the channel, but there is also much shallow water here).
I have also now noted that on the occasions I am in deeper water it is telling me I am about to encounter shallow water at ranges of about 30m.
I have changed the transducer, sonar hub, & plotter. I have tried switching off all other equipment that could interfere. Tried all the settings, all updates etc etc.

The Q I have is: Does anyone have B&G Forward Scan that they can say reliably works please?
I don't want to get into debate of seamanship/other methods/other suppliers/etc please.

Neil

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Sputnik

Hi,
I refitted my Hunter 356 with all new B&G Zues2 nav' kit, and Raymarine autopilot recently.
The B&G forward scan has never worked satisfactorily, it looses bottom lock at low depths (typically 2 m under the transducer) and becomes unreliable. (I am on the East Coast of the Uk, and enjoy creek crawling and exploring, so am frequently looking for the channel, but there is also much shallow water here).
I have also now noted that on the occasions I am in deeper water it is telling me I am about to encounter shallow water at ranges of about 30m.
I have changed the transducer, sonar hub, & plotter. I have tried switching off all other equipment that could interfere. Tried all the settings, all updates etc etc.

The Q I have is: Does anyone have B&G Forward Scan that they can say reliably works please?
I don't want to get into debate of seamanship/other methods/other suppliers/etc please.

Neil

Neil--

A review and discussion of Fwd Scan sonar appeared in Practical Boat Owner. A discussion of the B&G unit is near the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, your description of issues seems to comport with PBO's findings. Unfortunately, it may be that what you're seeing is what one gets with the system.

[DeepFrz]

Forward scan radar is really only good for feeling your way around smooth water at very slow speeds. The compute power required is very high so any boat motion beyond very slow is impossible to display properly. That is unless there has been tremendous advancement in the past few years.

[Sputnik]

No change to the quality of the forward scan despite several software updates.......still unreliable.

[Bill O]

Thanks for the update. Always hoped it was going to be a replacement for our old Interphase forward scan, but unfortunately your results are consistent w/others.