smithsurf Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Hi there. New to the joys of GPS ,excuse my lack of knowledge. Could someone please tell me what setting my position format should be for Geocaching? I've done a few caches over the past couple of weekends without any major problems. However when i'm entering co ordinates manually they are usually given as:- N 55° 53.503 W 005° 02.826 instead of British Grid: NS 09557 70700 which i think is the format my etrex is on. Do i have to change the format to enter the N 55° 53.503 W 005° 02.826 co ordinates?? Or am i just way off the mark and dont have a clue?? Cheers. Quote Link to comment
+Just Roger Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Welcome to the addiction You don't say which Etrex you have. On my Venture it comes under Main Menu - Setup - Units. Select hdddº mm.mmm' Normally this will also change the datum (next one down from Position Format) to WGS 84 (as opposed to OSGB datum) Getting the wrong datum can, depending on where you are in the British isles, put you up to a mile away from where you want to be / think you are. This same screen also lets you swap Miles/km and Feet/meters. Happy caching Quote Link to comment
Red Squadron Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Hi there. New to the joys of GPS ,excuse my lack of knowledge. Could someone please tell me what setting my position format should be for Geocaching? I've done a few caches over the past couple of weekends without any major problems. However when i'm entering co ordinates manually they are usually given as:- N 55° 53.503 W 005° 02.826 instead of British Grid: NS 09557 70700 which i think is the format my etrex is on. Do i have to change the format to enter the N 55° 53.503 W 005° 02.826 co ordinates?? Or am i just way off the mark and dont have a clue?? Cheers. The quick answer to your question is YES. The input should be Degrees , minutes, seconds. Quote Link to comment
+Kryten Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 The standard settings for caching are datum WGS84 and display format DD MM.MMM and this is how the GPSr should be st up. The UK national grid location is also shown on UK cache pages but this is a translation and there are always slight differences between the two. It is provided so you can manually plot the cache location on an OS map. Quote Link to comment
smithsurf Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 (edited) Sorry. My etrex is a yellow one? Current settings are Position Format- British Grid Map datum- Ord srvy GB So these are wrong then? I'll change them to whats listed above then. Thanks for your help Edited March 5, 2007 by smithsurf Quote Link to comment
smithsurf Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 (edited) Just changed the datum to WGS 84 but for the position format i only have a choice of hddd.ddddd hddd+mm.mm hddd+mm'ss.s Could you tell me which one of these i should use?? Thanks Sorry,got it hddd+mm.mmm There was an m missing from display because choice was to long. Doh Edited March 5, 2007 by smithsurf Quote Link to comment
+Omally Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Just changed the datum to WGS 84 but for the position format i only have a choice of hddd.ddddd hddd+mm.mm hddd+mm'ss.s Could you tell me which one of these i should use?? Thanks Sorry,got it hddd+mm.mmm There was an m missing from display because choice was to long. Doh You want hddd+mm.mmm. Quote Link to comment
+John Stead Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 The quick answer to your question is YES. The input should be Degrees , minutes, seconds. Surely as others have said it is Degrees, Minutes and Decimal Minutes, i.e. HDDD MM.MMM. To bring seconds into it is only confusing and has led some astray. Quote Link to comment
+V70T5 Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 The standard settings for caching are datum WGS84 and display format DD MM.MMM and this is how the GPSr should be st up. The UK national grid location is also shown on UK cache pages but this is a translation and there are always slight differences between the two. It is provided so you can manually plot the cache location on an OS map. Interesting.... I did wonder about the difference (physical plot) between the OS national refs and the standard lat-long figures. I mostly use the OS reference to get me to the rough location using Autoroute, as it doesn't accept the DD MM.MMM format. Then input the DD MM.MMM into handheld GPS. Quote Link to comment
Red Squadron Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 The quick answer to your question is YES. The input should be Degrees , minutes, seconds. Surely as others have said it is Degrees, Minutes and Decimal Minutes, i.e. HDDD MM.MMM. To bring seconds into it is only confusing and has led some astray. That was me that said seconds, I do apologise and will learn from my mistake Quote Link to comment
+Lost in Space Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 .....I mostly use the OS reference to get me to the rough location using Autoroute, as it doesn't accept the DD MM.MMM format. .. Er, what "Autoroute" are you using? Microsoft Autoroute certainly accepts decimal degrees....... Quote Link to comment
+V70T5 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 .....I mostly use the OS reference to get me to the rough location using Autoroute, as it doesn't accept the DD MM.MMM format. .. Er, what "Autoroute" are you using? Microsoft Autoroute certainly accepts decimal degrees....... Using Autoroute 2007 now. I tried copy/pasting the format given in cache entries however it says they are invalid. Also tried remving spaces ect but can't get it to accept. Any suggestions appreciated I didn't properly read the dialog box (below) and just assumed they could only be entered as XX.XXXX format? Gavin Quote Link to comment
+GAZ Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 .....I mostly use the OS reference to get me to the rough location using Autoroute, as it doesn't accept the DD MM.MMM format. .. Er, what "Autoroute" are you using? Microsoft Autoroute certainly accepts decimal degrees....... Using Autoroute 2007 now. I tried copy/pasting the format given in cache entries however it says they are invalid. Also tried remving spaces ect but can't get it to accept. Any suggestions appreciated I didn't properly read the dialog box (below) and just assumed they could only be entered as XX.XXXX format? Gavin You're right Gavin, Autoroute only accepts Degrees Decimal....ie 54.12345deg....so I usually copy and paste the British Grid...cos it's easier...and that gives me a near-enough area. Gaz Quote Link to comment
+Gavin4077 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I'm sure theres a topic on this forum somewhere that explains the different formats, I must read it one day Gavin Quote Link to comment
Red Squadron Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I'm sure theres a topic on this forum somewhere that explains the different formats, I must read it one day Gavin Whenever I use Autoroute I convert the Geocache lat/long simply by using a calculator. N52' 33.772 I type in 33.772 divided by 60 = 56286 So autoroute Location Sensor sees N52'56286 E000'31.890 I type in 31.890 divided by 60 = 53150 So Autoroute Location Sensor sees E0' 53150 It works great If you use the co-ords above it will show you a point about halfway along Norman Drive in Whittington Norfolk Quote Link to comment
+Gavin4077 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 Ahhh.... I didn't think it would be that easy ! I've noticed quite a few cache pages that don't include the OSGB reference, so that formula will come in very handy. Strangely enough, I noticed when I convert GPX to CSV (Autoroute recognised format) they appear perfectly in the program. The conversion process must also use this calculation I guess. Like I say though, it's all new to me. If I can get something to work, thats the main thing, rather than understanding exactly HOW it worked Quote Link to comment
+peacefrog77 Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 I have a coordinate of 37.97548119 -92.76798604 for a trailhead. Whick of the settings on my Garmin extrex 20 do I need to change to make it work with that format? I think it is in position format but I don't know which one of those settings to pick. Thanks for help. Cathy Quote Link to comment
+Pharisee Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 I have a coordinate of 37.97548119 -92.76798604 for a trailhead. Whick of the settings on my Garmin extrex 20 do I need to change to make it work with that format? I think it is in position format but I don't know which one of those settings to pick. Thanks for help. Cathy I don't believe you can enter your co-ordinates in exactly that format. Positive numbers are North and East, negative numbers are South and West So you could enter them as N37.97548 W092.76798 using the Position Format hddd.ddddd° You could also convert your co-ordinates to the more usual Position Format hddd° mm.mmm' by multiplying the decimal part of the number by 60 to convert it to Minutes. For the latitude 0.97548119 x 60 = 58.529 so the latitude would be N37° 58.529' and similarly, the longitude would be W092° 46.079' Hope that helps a little Quote Link to comment
+Bear and Ragged Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Groundspeaks own http://www.geocaching.com/wpt/ will change it for you. Quote Link to comment
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