GPS problems. Help (1 Viewer)

[Gunner]

Hi
Hope someone can help me

I have Garmin 660 camper sat nav and I have never used or entered gps co ordinates before

If seems a minefield

Looked in the various books for campsite and asci sites

I’ve tried to input to my Garmin.

Either does recognise them or I need to convert them some how

I’m baffled by them

Do I need to be a mathematician

Can somebody please help

I can see on my Garmin there are 3 formats of number availabile to enter

How do I know which is what

As I said before
I have no knowledge of this before

Help appreciated
Thanks

 

[RowleyBirkinQC]

I would guess you need to identify the coordinate type/format in use in the reference book and select the appropriate option in the Satnav before entering such?

Perhaps this link may help explain the different coordinate formats (DD, DMS, DMM etc)?:-

http://www.ubergizmo.com/how-to/read-gps-coordinates/

I also have little knowledge about such, but using Google you can also find sites which convert from one coordinate format to another.

 

[Falcon 269]

I have the Garmin 660, too.

Under Settings: Units & Time: Position Format you will Coordinate Format. Select this and you will have several choices. The 3 you are most likely to encounter are part way down the list:

h ddd.dddddd (decimal degrees)

h ddd. mm.mmmm' (degrees & decimal minutes)

h. ddd. mm'. ss. ss'' (degrees, seconds and minutes)

You can read all about these here: https://www.maptools.com/tutorials/lat_lon/formats

For your purposes right now, ACSI shows site positions in degrees, seconds and minutes so select and Save this in your device. Simply enter the coordinates as shown in the ACSI site into the Coordinates option under Where To.

Useful note. On the Coordinates page you will find a spanner symbol in the top left corner. This takes you straight to the Coordinate Format section in Settings, allowing you to change quickly between formats if necessary.

There a numerous coordinate converter apps for smart phones etc. Google Maps has its own, too:

https://www.gps-coordinates.net/gps-coordinates-converter

Hope this helps. You don't have to understand it in depth, just know how to recognize the main formats and how to switch between them on your Garmin.

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[Mike800966]

It may be of interest to think about the origins of Lat and Long ie the system developed from ancient marine navigation. Position on the earths surface was calculated by the angle of the sun or other objects in the sky in degrees minutes and seconds above the horizon. Since then its got more complicated largely due to decimals and computers!.
Incidentally our earlier Tom Tom (Go 700) needed to be given a format before you could enter, our later one (Via 118) seems to accept them anyhow provided you enter it using the decimal point or the seconds thingy.
Hope this is of interest
Mike

 

[DavidG58]

I have also dabbled with coordinates, not with much success TBH

what I did find was unless you are very lucky get them wrong you will end up miles off course, use town and street you can only ever be a few yards wrong

 

[Mike800966]

Usually, we are entering a Lat and Long to find a known position which is also on the poi list ie supermarket or ACSI campsite. I always turn on that poi and check that the lat and long ends at the relevant poi marker
Mike

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[Lenny HB]

I have also dabbled with coordinates, not with much success TBH

what I did find was unless you are very lucky get them wrong you will end up miles off course, use town and street you can only ever be a few yards wrong

Converting they manually I don't know why but they often come out wrong and you end up navigating to the middle of the Atlantic.
Never had any problems with Camper Contacts or Park4Night coordinates but if you do need to convert much better to use an app or do it online.

 

[tacr2man]

When entering the lat numbers usually just drop in the correct positions with long you sometimes need to eneter one or two prefix
"0" (zeros) dpeneding how its been written down
51.161913, 4.781521 put in 004 781521 depending on the number of slots before .

 

[Mike800966]

Well you can get a rough check, just imagine it as a percentage of 60, but I would never try to do anything closer, thats why i prefer to re-check that its also a known poi, good job we arent relying on them like sailors have to ! In the meantime I've looked up the mapcode system looks like a solution looking for a problem to me!!
Mike

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[Mike800966]

Its easy to get confused about E/W or minus signs, I just imagine being in balloon hovering over the Greenwich meridian and the direction the earth revolves- it can all get a bit mind blowing but it does work
M

 

[pappajohn]

To enter unknown co-ords i always use Google earth.
Place the curser on the exact map location and it shows co-ords at the bottom of the map.
Transfer to satnag.
For camp sites/showgrounds etc it's never sent me anywhere other than the entrance gate, which is my preferred location.

 

[Lenny HB]

To enter unknown co-ords i always use Google earth.
Place the curser on the exact map location and it shows co-ords at the bottom of the map.
Transfer to satnag.
For camp sites/showgrounds etc it's never sent me anywhere other than the entrance gate, which is my preferred location.

Also with Google maps if you right click on the spot you want and select "What's here?" it will show the coordinates.

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[Littlewheels]

I have also dabbled with coordinates, not with much success TBH

what I did find was unless you are very lucky get them wrong you will end up miles off course, use town and street you can only ever be a few yards wrong

Not sure why it would send you astray if you didn’t allow it as once you enter the Coords it flags up the address.

 

[DavidG58]

Not sure why it would send you astray if you didn’t allow it as once you enter the Coords it flags up the address.

that presumes you also have the address, in which case why not enter that?

I recall as a scout many years ago misreading a map, where all we were given were grid references, quite unusually the south oxford area has the same numbers on both sides of the map, so a transposed number (either read wrong or given incorrectly) would have you potentially walking a long way too far

some folk seem to be determined to use coordinates, I personally don't get it, but then we still like to have a map on our laps to check out sat nags as well

 

[Pausim]

Some minor inaccuracies can creep in because of the various map datums used. For instance if the position was originally taken from an OS map the datum is probably OSGB36, which is slightly different to the WGS84 datum which is, I believe, often the default datum used by gps units. I have read that Google Maps/Earth uses WGS84.

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[bladerunner]

There is a free "app" called co-ordinates - input any of the GPS co-ordinates and it will show all 4 possibilities. I find it very useful to transfer co-ordinates across

 

[DJA]

In the meantime I've looked up the mapcode system looks like a solution looking for a problem to me!!

The Mapcode system only works on Tomtom Sat Navs as it was originated by the originators of the Tomtom Company. You can find a Mapcode for a position using an App which has Mapping similar to Google. The App will tell you the Mapcode and Long/Lat of the position you want.

As an example the map code of the centre gate at Buck House is DH.FX and the long Lat is 51.50156 -0.14129. If you enter DH.FX into search on a Tomtom it will take you to the gate. The Mapcodes are so accurate you can almost identify individual spaces in a car park. The System works worldwide.

 

[Gunner]

Thanks for advice. Will sit tomorrow and have a dabble with the Garmin and co ordinates

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[klaatu]

Usually, we are entering a Lat and Long to find a known position which is also on the poi list ie supermarket or ACSI campsite. I always turn on that poi and check that the lat and long ends at the relevant poi marker
Mike

If you have your destination in your Satnav as a poi, then why not select the poi rather than entering the co-ordinates?

 

[Littlewheels]

that presumes you also have the address, in which case why not enter that?

I recall as a scout many years ago misreading a map, where all we were given were grid references, quite unusually the south oxford area has the same numbers on both sides of the map, so a transposed number (either read wrong or given incorrectly) would have you potentially walking a long way too far

some folk seem to be determined to use coordinates, I personally don't get it, but then we still like to have a map on our laps to check out sat nags as well

If you are selective in that you know the source of the Coordinates is good you know the reliability of them and I personally find them to be pretty much exact, however, I do also believe in having a Map to hand if only to observe what and where you are passing by, it’s very easy for some folk to follow a SatNavs instructions and not having a clue as to where they are.

Additionally, an Address is only as good as its source! It can be entered incorrectly and area codes outside of the UK are very unreliable.