B&G HERCULES Assembly instructions

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HERCULES®
HERCULES®EXPANSION
BASIC OPERATION GUIDE
ENGLISH

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Copyright
© 2023 Navico Group. All Rights Reserved. Navico Group is a division of Brunswick Corporation.
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®Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off, and ™ common law marks. Visit www.navico.com/intellectual-property to review the global trademark rights and
accreditations for Navico Group and other entities.
• Navico®is a trademark of Navico Group.
• B&G®is a trademark of Navico Group.
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• H5000™ is a trademark of Navico Group.
• Hercules®is a trademark of Navico Group.
• Edge™ is a trademark of Navico Group.
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• Microsoft Edge®is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
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• Wi-Fi®is a trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance.
Warranty
This product’s warranty is supplied as a separate document.
Safety, disclaimer and compliance
This product’s safety, disclaimer and compliance statements are supplied as a separate document.
Internet usage
Some features in this product use an internet connection to perform data downloads and uploads. Internet usage via a connected mobile/
cell phone internet connection or a pay-per-MB type internet connection may require large data usage. Your service provider may charge you
based on the amount of data you transfer. If you are unsure, contact your service provider to conrm rates and restrictions. Contact your service
provider for information about charges and data download restrictions.
More information
Document version: 001
This document was prepared using software version 1.0
Features described and illustrated in this guide may vary from your unit due to continuous development of the software.
For the latest version of this document in supported languages, and other related documentation, visit
www.bandg.com/downloads/hercules.

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4Connect to Hercules
4Start using the B&G mobile app
5Find Hercules’ IP address
8Connect to Hercules Expansion
8First start up
9The web interface: main menu
10 Setup guide
10 At the dock tasks
11 On the water tasks
12 Dashboard
13 Sailing data and sensors
13 Sailing data
14 Sensors
15 Corrections and targets
16 Apply a set of corrections or targets
16 Edit a correction table or polar table
18 Upload or export polar tables
19 Start line
19 Race timer
20 Start line position
21 Data recording
21 Congure recording settings
21 Start a recording manually
22 Default data set
22 Advanced recording
23 Preset data proles
23 Create custom data proles
24 Add events
24 Access data recordings
24 Export recorded les
24 Delete recorded les
25 Inputs/Outputs
26 Analog/pulse inputs
27 Enter your own sensors
28 Wiring examples
28 Generic 5 V analog sensor
28 Generic 12 V analog sensor
29 213 mast head unit
29 Speed and temperature sensor
30 Serial inputs
31 Wiring example: WS700 series wind sensor
32 Alarms
32 Connecting an alarm device
33 Alarms generated from a MFD
34 Alarms generated from Hercules’ MOB input
35 HV displays
37 Software updates
37 Updates to Hercules
39 Updates to Hercules Expansion
CONTENTS

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CONNECT TO HERCULES
Connect a mobile device or laptop to Hercules via a Wi-Fi®router or Ethernet cable.
¼Note: Follow the instructions in the Installation Guide to install the Hercules on your vessel, and turn it
on, before attempting to connect to it.
Communication with Hercules is via a user-friendly web interface. Access the web interface by connecting
to the Hercules and using either the B&G app, or a compatible web browser such as Google Chrome®,
Microsoft Edge®, Firefox®, or Safari®.
Start using the B&G mobile app
Use a mobile device to visit the App Store®or Google Play®, download the B&G Sailing & Navigation app,
and create a login if you don’t already have a one.
Connect your mobile device to the same network as Hercules. (When your mobile device is within range of
the Wi-Fi®router, the name of the router will be visible under network settings on your mobile device).
In the app, open the My devices menu, select +(1). Select Add (2) under Sailing processor to add Hercules
to your list of paired devices.
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The app will prompt you to scan the QR code®that came with the sailing processor. If the printed card
showing the QR code®is misplaced, the code is also on a label inside the front cover of the unit. Device
registration can be completed without a QR code.
¼Note: A password is supplied with the QR code®. The password will unlock the sailing processor if you
forget the personal identication number (PIN) you set up to secure the sailing processor. The QR code®
and password are inside the front cover of the sailing processor.
On completion of all the steps, the Hercules will be paired to the prole that was used to sign in to the app.
You can now use the app to communicate with Hercules.
¼Note: A B&G sailing procesor can only be registered to one prole.

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Connect to Hercules using the app
Open the B&G app.
In the mobile app, select Hercules (1) from the devices panel. Select Manage (2) to open Hercules’ details
page, then select Connect (3).
¼Note: The app remembers the Wi-Fi®network on which it most recently connected to Hercules, and
rejoins that network when you select Connect (3). You may need to enter the password for the Wi-Fi®
router.
Once connected, select Settings (4) to open the main menu for the Hercules web interface.
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1234567890
x.x.xxx
1234567890
x.x.xxx
xx-xx-xx
xx-xx-xx xx-xx-xx
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xx-xx-xx
xx-xx-xx
Find Hercules’ IP address
An IPaddress is assigned to Hercules when it connects to Ethernet.
You can use the B&G app on a connected mobile device, or a display connected on the NMEA 2000®
network, to nd the IP address for Hercules.
¼Note: The IP address assigned to Hercules is required to access the web interface using a web browser.
¼Note: You can assign a permanent IP address to your Hercules unit using the web interface. Navigate
to General > Connectivity > Ethernet, then select Edit under Manual setup.

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Find Hercules’ IP address using the app
Connect to Hercules via the app, and select Settings (1) to open the web interface.
The Setup guide is visible if there are setup tasks awaiting your attention. Select the menu icon to pass
the Setup guide and enter the main menu.
Navigate to General (2)>Connectivity (3)>Ethernet (4) to see the IP address for Hercules on the network.
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1234567890
x.x.xxx
xx-xx-xx xx-xx-xx
xx-xx-xx
xx-xx-xx
To communicate with Hercules using a different device, connect the device to the same network as Hercules
and enter the IP address into the device’s web browser.

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Find Hercules’ IP address using a display
When Hercules is on a NMEA 2000®network, its IP address is shared across the NMEA 2000®network and
can be viewed on a compatible display or multi-function display (MFD).
On your MFD or display, navigate to Sailing processor >CPU info. Record the IP address displayed under
Sailing processor info.
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123.45.678.90
To communicate with Hercules using a different device, connect the device to the same network as Hercules
and enter the IP address into the device’s web browser.
¼Note: A compatible display or MFD can be used to update basic settings on the sailing processor,
however, the web interface is recommended for a detailed system setup.

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CONNECT TO HERCULES EXPANSION
Hercules Expansion is a separate module that extends your system with further congurable inputs.
¼Note: To connect a Hercules Expansion to your Hercules, Hercules WTP, or Triton Edge, refer to the
instructions in the Installation Guide.
Hercules Expansion and the sensors connected to it are visible under the Inputs/Outputs menu on the
same web interface as your primary sailing processor. For information about how to congure the inputs
and outputs, refer to the Inputs/Outputs section on page 25 of this manual.
¼Note: Hercules Expansion does not come with a QR code® and cannot be registered to your B&G prole.
FIRST START UP
The rst time you start the Hercules sailing processor and access the web interface, prompts will guide you
through system settings such as naming your sailing processor, choosing your preferred units for data, and
setting the time zone.
This onboarding process is only repeated following a factory reset.
These settings may be adjusted later through the Preferences and General menus, which you can access
from the main menu on the web interface.

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THE WEB INTERFACE: MAIN MENU
Toggle the list icon (1) on the main menu to reveal the list of menus, or collapse the list to give yourself
more room on-screen.
¼Note: Items may be arranged differently when viewed on differently sized screens.
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J
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B
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F
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A Setup guide—Lists tasks for setting up and checking your sailing instruments.
¼Note: The Setup guide only displays when there are setup tasks awaiting your attention.
B Dashboard—Overview of data values and sensor statuses.
C Sailing data—Displays calculated and measured values, and gives access to sensors for checking and
conguration.
D Corrections and targets—Gives access to advanced calibration of boat speed, true wind angle, true
wind speed, and polar tables.
E Start line—Ping the start line and control your race timer.
F Data recording—Start a data recording, congure data recording settings, and upload or export sailing
data.
G Inputs/Outputs—Congure the Hercules (or other compatible units, including Hercules Expansion) for
your connected sensors.
H General—Gives access to general system settings such as network connections and software version.
I HV displays—Allows you to congure and control your HV displays using the Hercules web interface.
¼Note: This menu option is only present when one or more HV displays are connected.
J Preferences—Gives access to options related to the web interface display, such as units of
measurement.

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SETUP GUIDE
The Setup guide opens automatically following the onboarding sequence. Follow the prompts and
complete the tasks in the order they’re presented. Some data-entry and source selection tasks can be
completed on your vessel At the dock (A). Tasks listed under On the water (B) require you to maneuver the
vessel at sea.
To return to the setup guide from a different screen, select Setup guide (1). To start a task, select it (2) in the
setup guide.
To remove a task from the setup guide, select the more icon then Dismiss.
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A
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¼Note: The Setup guide does not display if all tasks have been completed or dismissed. All tasks can be
reopened and adjusted later.
At the dock tasks
Secure your device
Protect your settings with a personal identication number (PIN). To revisit this task later, navigate to
General>Security>Secureyourdevice.
¼Note: If you forget the PIN, the sailing processor can be unlocked from the PIN screen by entering the
password found on the inside of your Hercules’ front cover.
Add your boat details
Enter your vessel’s name, type, model, and dimensions. To revisit this task later, navigate to General > My
vessel.
Select measured sources
Select the congurations and core sensors to be used by the Hercules processor for boat speed and wind.
(This should be performed before running an Auto source selection.) To revisit this task later, navigate to
General > Boat network > Sources.
Review source selection
If your vessel has an instrument system with more than one sensor for a data category, you can swap which
sensor is used. To revisit this task later, navigate to General>Boatnetwork>Sources. The Auto source
selection wizard is also found under this menu, and if used, will nominate sensors for you.
Review sailing data
Lists key data, and indicates the status of related data sources. A green status indicates a reading is valid;
a red status indicates that a reading isn’t valid. Navigate to Sailingdata in the main menu to review the
readings at any time.

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Review depth offset
Enter an offset so that the depth reading displays depth below keel or, if preferred, depth measured from
the water surface. To revisit this task later, navigate to Sailingdata>Sensors>Depth.
Review GPS offsets
Enter the positions of each of your GPS receivers, relative to vessel’s bow, to get accurate start line values. To
revisit this task later, navigate to Sailingdata>Sensors>GPS>Operations.
¼Note: Your vessel’s beam and length must be entered for a GPS offset to work. To enter beam and
length, navigate to General>Myvessel>Boatdimensions.
Connect to B&G cloud
Manage B&G cloud data sharing preferences. To revisit this setting later, access Preferences from the main
menu.
On the water tasks
Calibrate the boat speed
In a sea trial, follow the steps in the calibration wizard to calibrate your boat speed sensor. To revisit this task
later, navigate to Sailingdata>Sensors>Boatspeed>Input.
Calibrate the compass
In a sea trial, follow the steps in the calibration wizard to calibrate your compass.To revisit this task later,
navigate to Sailingdata>Sensors>Heading>Input.
Calibrate the wind angle offset
In a sea trial, follow the steps in the calibration wizard to calibrate the measured wind angle offset. To revisit
this task later, navigate to Sailingdata>Sensors>Windangle>Operations.
¼Note: Precise measurement of the wind angle offset requires a steady wind direction. If possible, delay
the calibration of the wind angle offset until the conditions are suitable.

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DASHBOARD
The dashboard provides an overview of key readings and operations without you accessing the menu.
A
A
D
D
C
C
B
B
E
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F
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A Sensors—Gives an overview of core selected sensors.
¼Note: A red background indicates that data may not be valid, and you should review the sensors
associated with that reading (including checking the sensors’ physical connections).
B Sailing data—Gives you access to all the calculated values and associated settings for each piece of
data.
C Data recording—When a recording is in progress, you can add event markers, and save the recording(1)
from this panel on the dashboard. If recording is not in progress, you can start a recording from this
panel.
D The gauges panel shows the loads on the central processing unit (CPU load) and NMEA 2000®network
(N2K).
E Internet connection status.
F Recordings pending upload—Recorded data les sare stored in the sailing processor’s memory. Data
types recorded by default will be uploaded to your prole in the cloud when an internet connection is
available, provided you’ve chosen that option in the data recording menu.

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SAILING DATA AND SENSORS
Sailing data
Open the Sailing data (1)menu, and select a category (2) to display readings for that category.
Select a reading (3) to open the data and sensors card associated with that reading.
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Readings are in real-time, with the refresh rate determined by the damping value.
¼Note: The units of measurement can be changed via Preferences under the main menu.

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Sensors
The Sensors menu is on the right of the Sailing data screen, and is used to access data cards and settings
for core connected sensors. Values from these sensors are also displayed on the Dashboard.
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B
B
A Live data value—This is derived from the inputs and operations applied.
B Directly used by—Lets you know which calculations depend on the live data value.
C Input—Lets you check or change the source used for the live data value, and view other readings from
the same source.
D Operations—Allows you to apply settings and adjust offsets for that source.
¼Note: Refer to the inline help text on the web interface for detailed information.

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CORRECTIONS AND TARGETS
Correction tables allow you to correct boat speed and true wind direction tack to tack by applying offsets at
different wind speeds or heel angles.
Select Corrections and targets (1) to see an overview of the corrections data..
AB
D
C
1
Hercules can store correction tables for each of the following:
A True wind angle correction—Adjust the true wind angle reading depending on true wind angle, across
a range of different true wind speeds.
B True wind speed correction—Adjust the true wind speed reading depending on true wind angle, across
a range of different true wind speeds.
C Boat speed heel correction—Adjust the boat speed reading depending on heel angle, across a range
of different boat speeds.
D Polars—Show target boat speed as a function of true wind angle, across a range of different true wind
speeds.

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Apply a set of corrections or targets
Use the drop-down list (1) at the top of a corrections table or polar table to select and apply a set of
corrections.
For polar tables, the polar data selected from the drop-down list is used for targets displayed under
Performance in the Sailing data menu.
Select the enlarge icon (2) at the top right of any table to open its graph full screen. This allows you to
view the legend for the different wind speeds (A), and to access the data for editing.
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Edit a correction table or polar table
Enlarge the correction graph or polar graph to full screen, then select Edit (1).
To edit an existing correction table, select the pencil icon (2) beside its name.
To open a new table lled with default data you can overwrite, select Create new (3).
Select a cell (4), or tab between the cells, to enter true wind angles or corrections. Corrections can be
negative or positive.
¼Note: Refer to the inline help on the web interface to view the processes for determining correction
values. The true wind angle correction table contains an Auto-calibrate wizard that gives prompts for
maneuvers to calculate the correction.
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Correction tables and polar tables on Hercules can be customized by adding (or deleting) rows and columns
using the web interface.
With the table open for editing, select a column at its heading (1) to insert a new column for true wind angle.
Select +(2) to add a new row for true wind speed (the new row will be inserted at its correct position in the
table automatically).
Select the pencil icon (3) to change the title of the set of corrections or polar table.
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Upload or export polar tables
Select Edit (1) to open the list of polar tables saved on the sailing processor.
To edit a polar table, select the pencil icon (A) beside its name.
To open a new polar table lled with default data you can overwrite, select Create new (B).
Select the export icon (C) to save the currently selected polar table to a connected device. Files are
exported in .txt format.
C
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B
A
2
Load from le (2) allows you to search your connected device for a pre-written polar table, and upload it to
Hercules.
Files from the following software tools can be uploaded: Expedition™, PredictWind®, Adrena™, iPolar™, and
B&G H5000™. The following le formats are accepted: .pol, .txt, and .csv.

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START LINE
Race timer
The race timer (A) can be used to count down to zero from a specied time.
Use the -(1) and +(2) buttons to adjust the race timer.
Use the Start/Pause (3) button to start, pause, and resume the countdown.
¼Note: The option to start a data recording when the race timer starts its countdown is found under the
Data recording settings menu.
When the timer reaches zero, it starts counting up to show the time elapsed from zero. The timer continues
to count until you stop it.
The Sync (B) button jumps the timer forward or back to the nearest whole minute.
The Reset (C) button reverts the timer to its start value.
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A
A
3
2
C
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B
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Start line position
When Hercules has the position of a race start line, it can display a range of helpful calculations related to
the start line.
¼Note: Before pinging the start line, ensure you have entered the offset (relative to the bow) for the GPS
source you are using. Enter the offset by navigating to Sailingdata>Sensors>GPS>Operations.
To ’ping’ (record the positions of) the ends of the start line, position the bow of the vessel at the port end of
the start line, and select the port icon on-screen (1).
Move the vessel to the starboard end of the start line, and when the bow is at the starboard end of the start
line, select the starboard icon on-screen (2).
The times displayed at each end of the start line on-screen show when each position was recorded. Data
values shown against a red background indicate invalid calculations (the position of the start line has not
been recorded correctly).
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FF
EE
AA
C
C
BB
A Distance behind start line
B Start line distance to port
C Start line bias
D Boat speed
E Start line distance to starboard
F Bias advantage