Coordinates whats the deal

[peterc10]

Coordinates for me every time. Works on Google maps and my sat nav app (Sygic) for sure. And it is very reliable throughout the world. Used it in Europe and USA without any problems. AFAIK it also works on most other sat navs. I do not understand those that say it doesn't.

Coordinates come in 3 formats: degrees minutes and seconds, degrees and decimal minutes or decimal degrees,. With most sat navs you have to first choose that you want to use coordinates (rather than address or postcode) and then choose what format to use. However Google maps will let you just cut and paste any format of coordinates into its search bar and it recognises which you are using automatically. Simples

 

[peterc10]

Well can someone help me with this, I'm looking up a aire at oradour sur glane it's
N 45.935669
E1.024890
Or
N45.56.8
E1.1.29
The co-ordinates on my garmin 660 are
h ddd.ddddd
h ddd mm mmm
h ddd mm ss.s
None of those seem to match ???
Confused

The first format for the Aire is decimal degrees, i.e. ddd.ddddd
The second is degrees and decimal minutes, i.e. ddd.mm.mmm, I think
ddd mm ss.s is degrees, minutes and seconds.
The "h" stands for what side of the equator or Greenwich meridian you are referring to. N or S means North or South. You can guess what E and W means. These can also be expressed as + or - as well, but I constantly get confused as to which is + or -, but, fortunately, my sat nav does not!

 

[Busman]

The top format in your post is h ddd.ddddd

Just select that format on the Garmin then input N 45.93567 , E 1.02489 (I have rounded the N value to 5 decimal places).

p.s. you ignore the 'h' as that is for hours and you are working in degrees only.

The thing that's thrown me is there's one number to many, I see you've changed the last two numbers from 69 to 7 and just left off the 0 off Is there a formula ??
Thanks

 

[DBK]

The thing that's thrown me is there's one number to many, I see you've changed the last two numbers from 69 to 7 and just left off the 0 off Is there a formula ??
Thanks

You may have to round it off when the GPS will not take all the digits. However, it will probably be accurate enough if you just enter as many digits as will fit.

The rules for rounding are if the last digit is 5 or more round up, 4 or less, round down. So the number 4.565 should be rounded up to 4.57 if you can only fit 2 decimal places but 4.564 should be rounded down to 4.56. But if this makes your head hurt don't bother, it will be close enough.

 

[Busman]

Got it, it's sunk in now

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[Al1]

Thanks to all for the info, learnt something new.
Al

 

[RS_rob]

Co-ordinates by far and away the best option. Try using postcodes in the back of beyond!
Copy and paste this into Google Maps and it should bring up a location close to Skegness - 53.123456 0.123456
If your Sat Nav needs the data in degrees \ minutes \ seconds there are many websites that will convert these for you, eg Link Removed
You should also see it in this format when you paste into Google Maps. -
53°07'24.4"N 0°07'24.4"E

yep that worked fine & point to a road Thorpe Bank

here are what I had

N:50.24021 E:004.79151 Gorran Haven
&
N:50.10388 E:005.39053 Praa Sands

& all that rounding stuff has lost me completely

 

[DBK]

yep that worked fine & point to a road Thorpe Bank

here are what I had

N:50.24021 E:004.79151 Gorran Haven
&
N:50.10388 E:005.39053 Praa Sands

& all that rounding stuff has lost me completely

If it's Cornwall those East coords should be West. As they are written they are probably somewhere in Holland.

It is confusing but the zero line of longitude passes through Greenwich and everything to the "left" is W but just to add to the confusion West is also sometimes shown as negative.

A trick I have learned is after entering the coords to get the satnav to show it on the map, this is a good way of checking you are at least going to where you expect to go and not heading completely in the wrong direction.

If rounding is a problem just ignore it and enter as many of the digits as will fit. You should still be within a hundred yards of where you want to be.