Lat / Long Conversion to OSGB

[+SierraFive]

Very often when trying to find a cache to do, you'll often get in the decsriptions the Lat / Long co-ords for some feature, parking, starting place or deduce them from solving clues. However, getting to that location is then a different problem. Sure, if the location is within walking distance you can usually just follow the GPS receiver arrow but if the location is a car journey, just following a direction arrow will inevitably means wrong turns as you get towards your destination.

 

Do car GPS systems have the ability to enter a Lat / Lon co-ord as the destination for automatic routing? So that I could just jump in the car, enter the co-ords and drive to as close as possible to the location before resorting to my handheld. Or, are cachers entering the Lat ? long co-ords into their GPS, messing around with unit settings so that the unit will then display the co-ords in OSGB format and then refering to a map to get to the general area. I am currently doing the latter but it's a real pain. Is there an easier way???

Edited September 5, 2006 by SierraFive

[+The Bolas Heathens]

I can enter the co-ords for parking into my TomTom and it takes me straight there. Where there are no given parking co-ords, I usually use Fugawi to find the best place to park and take a reading of the co-ords from that to enter into the TomTom.

 

Sometimes I just let the TomTom take us to the place it thinks is nearest to the cache and then we look for the obvious PF or track from there. This usually works but sometimes the closest point on a road to the cache is not the place the track to the cache starts from.

[Icarus.]

I use Barry Davies' excellent OSGPS converter which creates a TomTom POI to navigate to....

 

http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/barrydavies/index.htm

[+Jonovich]

are cachers entering the Lat ? long co-ords into their GPS, messing around with unit settings so that the unit will then display the co-ords in OSGB format and then refering to a map to get to the general area.

 

I've been using Memory map on the PC and IPAQ and that switches between both the Geodetic and OSGB36 co-ordinate systems with ease.

 

Jon

[+SierraFive]

I can enter the co-ords for parking into my TomTom and it takes me straight there. Where there are no given parking co-ords, I usually use Fugawi to find the best place to park and take a reading of the co-ords from that to enter into the TomTom.

 

Sometimes I just let the TomTom take us to the place it thinks is nearest to the cache and then we look for the obvious PF or track from there. This usually works but sometimes the closest point on a road to the cache is not the place the track to the cache starts from.

 

When you enter the co-ord into the TomTom, is that is the Lat / Long format used on Geocaching.Com or some other format?

[+Learned Gerbil]

You choose.

Edited September 5, 2006 by Learned Gerbil

[+Learned Gerbil]

BTW - I am talking about TomTom v6 running on a TomTom Go. V5, the version currently available on Pocket PC does not have this ability which is where OSGPS Converter mentioned above comes in handy.

 

TomTom are meant to be releasing TT v6 for PPC this month and it should have the same features as the GO versin, but you can be sure it will be buggy as TT initial releases always are.

[+The Bolas Heathens]

I've got mine set to the same format as GC.com which makes it very easy to use

When you enter the co-ord into the TomTom, is that is the Lat / Long format used on Geocaching.Com or some other format?

[+purple_pineapple]

I don't know whether you have a car SatNav yet, so its worth noting that not ALL of them allow you to enter coords on the fly... I have a fairly cheap Garmin StreetPilot and to get cache coords on to that, I need to create a points of interest (POI) file through GSAK and then send that to the SatNav. This is fine if I know the coords in advance, but not so good if I've worked them out in the field!

 

The only way around that I think (never done it myself) is to look at a map, find the nearest street to the cache, and then enter that as the destination.

[+SierraFive]

I don't know whether you have a car SatNav yet, so its worth noting that not ALL of them allow you to enter coords on the fly... I have a fairly cheap Garmin StreetPilot and to get cache coords on to that, I need to create a points of interest (POI) file through GSAK and then send that to the SatNav. This is fine if I know the coords in advance, but not so good if I've worked them out in the field!

 

The only way around that I think (never done it myself) is to look at a map, find the nearest street to the cache, and then enter that as the destination.

 

Relating the Lat / Long co-ords to an OSGB map so you can enter the nearest street is not easy, although I did manage to buy on the internet a special scale (Similar to a ruler) that you can place on an OSGB map and enable you to convert OSGB grid references to Lat / Long and vice versa. That works okay except I was hoping I could find maybe a SatNav that I can just jump in the car, enter either OSGB or Lat / Long Co-ords, press go, and i'm off!!!!!!!

 

My Handheld Garmin CS60, enables me to enter lat/long co-ords and will route me there. However, I like to enter cor-ords as Lat/Long yet display data in OSGB for easy reference to the map but the CS60 will only let you enter in OSGB and display in Lat / Long the other way around!!!! To enter and display the way I like I have to constantly keep changing the units settings.It drives me mad.

 

I might invest in a satnav system for the car as long as I can be sure the one I get can handle the Lat/Long and OSGB input method as opposed to the usual postocde or street name!!!

[+Learned Gerbil]

TomTom v6 will allow the Lat/Long input but only in WGS84 Datum. I doubt you will ever get a car SatNav that will accept OSGB as the makers will not want ot regionalise them like that and the user base for such a feature is incredbly small. Also, if the OSGB point is not on a road the SatNav won;t get yo uthere anyway. It will only navigat to the nearest road.

 

If you really need to have OSGB navigation then TT5 or later running on a PPC using OSGPS Converter to create a TT POI for any OSGB coordinate you input.

 

What you originaly asked for was a SatNAv that wil lget you to a coordinate given in a cache description. TTv6 will do that. TT ONE which can be upgraded free to TT6 if it is not already running it can be obtained for about £180 all in.