corords

[bazza 1]

hey guys Ive just got a garmin 60csx handheld gps its great but. ive been n google earth and located a spot id like to walk to.now the cords for this are 38.008609, 140.963185 now ive put them into the gps but theres too many numbers can you tell me please tell me whats going on. do ineed to change a setting on the gps? id love to learn to make full use of this item but I only know the basics hope you can help

 

[biggles1024]

I'm not 100% sure what formats the 60csx can work with, but the most common format nowadays is degrees and decimal minutes and it looks like this:

S38° 00.517' E140° 57.791' That location looks like its smack bang on the Victoria-South Australia border.

The same location in the older format of Degrees, minutes and seconds S38° 00' 30.992'' E140° 57' 47.466''

Note that "format" also goes by the name "notation". As the risk of confusing you, you're changing the appearance of the co-ordinates, you're not changing the Datum and so conversion is not required.

If you're not clear on what to do with this information, just reply to this thread. We'll have you up and running quickly.

Cheers


PS. There are a great many websites that allow you to do this and quite a few apps also. The one I used on this particular occasion was http://www.geocachingtoolbox.com/index.php?lang=en&page=coordinateNotation&status=result

 

[MongooseDownUnder]

Um... Don't you just multiply the decimal by 0.6 to get minutes?


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[biggles1024]

Um... Don't you just multiply the decimal by 0.6 to get minutes?


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It will, but then it becomes necessary to explain that the first two digits after the decimal point need to be moved in front of the decimal point and the remaining digits need to be rounded off to three decimal places to produce the format required by the GPS. That's fine after some experience has been gained, but imo having a website or an app do the calculation is a better option for those starting out because no further manipulation of the result is required.

 

[MongooseDownUnder]

Multiply the decimal by 60 then you dont have to change anything? I only mention this because if you are somewhere which you dont have access to a calculator I think most people could manage to calculate with a pencil and a piece of paper if needs be.

 

[MongooseDownUnder]

Then if you want to calculate seconds you can multiply the decimal of the minutes by 60 also.

 

[biggles1024]

Multiply the decimal by 60 then you dont have to change anything? I only mention this because if you are somewhere which you dont have access to a calculator I think most people could manage to calculate with a pencil and a piece of paper if needs be.

If you're out in the bush, where are you going to get co-ords in decimal format? Your GPS or Smart phone are the only two possible sources that I know of, and the OP's Garmin 60csx can't handle decimals co-ordinates so it won't be from that.

 

[biggles1024]

Then if you want to calculate seconds you can multiply the decimal of the minutes by 60 also.

There are no seconds in the degrees and decimal minutes format. The decimal part of the minutes takes care of increments that are smaller than a minute so I don't know where you're going with this bit.

 

[MongooseDownUnder]

Well if you want the old format which you showed in your initial post, that is how you would calculate it. It is also helpful if you have the older format to convert to decimal minutes from seconds simply divide by 60 instead.


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[bazza 1]

thanks for the help biggles but sorry I don't get it mate

 

[biggles1024]

thanks for the help biggles but sorry I don't get it mate

You'll need to be more explicit than "I don't get it".

From your original post, it sounded like you know how to create a waypoint, that is a point that is defined by a set of co-ordinates. If that isn't the case, please describe what steps you took to determine that you had too many digits with the co-ords you used during your first attempt.

 

[sokorny]

This government website provides data conversion calculators for you

https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/calc/

Also geoscience provide a full range of conversion calculators too

http://www.ga.gov.au/nmd/geodesy/datums/redfearn_geo_to_grid.jsp

 

[Bloffy13]

To be honest, I never really understood degrees and minutes. Give me UTM any time. It's far simpler and widely used. For pilots and ships captains, degrees and minutes would be okay. Otherwise its UTM all the way.
Cheers
Bloffy