Thread: Garmin Coordinates not normal

ThunderStick,

From what I can gather Garmin are using decimal Lat & Lon not minutes and seconds. So 54deg 59min might read closer to 54.97deg

Have a look at this page and see if this will help:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html

Have had an instance where a guy "lost" his broken down Ford F250 in the middle of the Desert because he had these confused was about 5Mi away from where his car was!

If you can UTM is much more accurate because it is almost impossible to get this part wrong.

Cheers,
Thwack

Thanks for the help... this is wierd minutes and seconds seems to be more of the standard with other GPS software anyway.

Is there a mathematical equation for converting between the two types of coordinates.

Sure is, there are many ways apparently to do this conversion I have copied the following examples from http://www.csu.edu.au/australia/latlong/dms.html as this one was the simples to do by hand. there are programming examples at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/213449


EXAMPLE1:

D = Degrees
M = Minutes
S = Seconds
.m = Decimal Minutes
.s = Decimal Seconds

DM.m = Degrees, Minutes, Decimal Minutes (eg. 45o22.6333)
D.d = Degrees, Decimal Degrees (eg. 45.3772o)
DMS = Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (eg. 45o22'38")
Process for Converting Latitude/Longitude Coordinates:
1) DMS --> DM.m (45o22'38" --> 45o22.6333)

- Divide S by 60 to get .m (38/60=.6333)
- Add .m to M to get M.m (22+.6333=22.6333)

2) DM.m --> D.d (45o 22.6333 --> 45.3772)

- Divide M.m by 60 to get .d (22.6333/60=.3772)
- Add .d to D to get D.d (45+.3772=45.3772)

3) D.d --> DM.m (45.3772 --> 45o22.6333)

- Multiply .d by 60 to get M.m (.3772*60=22.6333)

4) DM.m --> DMS (45o22.6333 --> 45o22'38")

- Multiply .m by 60 to get S(.6333*60=38)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EXAMPLE2:

Converting Degrees, Minutes, Seconds to Decimal Format

latitude and longitude in a decimal format: 42.1361

latitude and longitude in degree, minute, second format: 42deg, 08min, 10sec

To convert coordinates from degrees, minutes, seconds format to
decimal format, use this easy formula:

degrees + (minutes/60) + (seconds/3600)

The example coordinate above would be calculated as:

42 + (8/60) + (10/3600) = 42.1361

or

42 + (.1333) + (.0028) = 42.1361

Thanks for the help, this is going to be very very usefull.

Originally Posted by ThunderStick

garmin is a far superior gps software to iguidance.

That's a matter of opinion Thunder.

To me it ain't all that!

Originally Posted by treetop777

That's a matter of opinion Thunder.

To me it ain't all that!

Compared to IG 4, yeah garmin it is top notch. Tons more POI's, A lot more features, A lot better text to voice, Customizable vehicle icons... The list goes on.
I hate to say it, but IG has a ferocious competition now.
I my car anyway....

In RR I was able to knock out at least 3 screens in my skin because Garmin has those features native.
Gas prices, Weather, Trip Meter, Hotel Prices, Flight Information.... You get the picture.

Oh yeah, nav by coordinates with out any hack needed.... THE BIG ONE