Odd Question Re: GPS Coordinates

[+MamaKatS]

So, I have been out of the loop on Geocaching for a few years and am getting back into it. I have my trusty Magellan hand-held GPS, which of course i know how to use pretty well. My problem is in actually getting to the general GPS location via my car's GPS (my car GPS is a fancy-shmancy Garmin). I try to put in the coordinates to get to the general location of geocache, but the car GPS has more spaces for numbers than the GPS coordinates posted have. for example, the geocaching coordinates will be something like, "W12.345" and my car gps has spaces for "W12.3456" - and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just throw in an extra zero or what, or if that would totally throw it off. I know this is a dumb question with probably (hopefully) a very simple answer, LOL...but I'm severely directionally challenged even on the best of days so..

 

Thanks in advance, y'all!

[RuideAlmeida]

So, I have been out of the loop on Geocaching for a few years and am getting back into it. I have my trusty Magellan hand-held GPS, which of course i know how to use pretty well. My problem is in actually getting to the general GPS location via my car's GPS (my car GPS is a fancy-shmancy Garmin). I try to put in the coordinates to get to the general location of geocache, but the car GPS has more spaces for numbers than the GPS coordinates posted have. for example, the geocaching coordinates will be something like, "W12.345" and my car gps has spaces for "W12.3456" - and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just throw in an extra zero or what, or if that would totally throw it off. I know this is a dumb question with probably (hopefully) a very simple answer, LOL...but I'm severely directionally challenged even on the best of days so..

 

Thanks in advance, y'all!

 

Seems that your car GPS have a different coordinates format... so maybe you can change them in the "Tools" or you have to convert a given coordinate prior to enter. You can use many sites and apps to converter, like this.

[+kunarion]

So, I have been out of the loop on Geocaching for a few years and am getting back into it. I have my trusty Magellan hand-held GPS, which of course i know how to use pretty well. My problem is in actually getting to the general GPS location via my car's GPS (my car GPS is a fancy-shmancy Garmin). I try to put in the coordinates to get to the general location of geocache, but the car GPS has more spaces for numbers than the GPS coordinates posted have. for example, the geocaching coordinates will be something like, "W12.345" and my car gps has spaces for "W12.3456" - and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just throw in an extra zero or what, or if that would totally throw it off. I know this is a dumb question with probably (hopefully) a very simple answer, LOL...but I'm severely directionally challenged even on the best of days so..

 

Thanks in advance, y'all!

 

Many Magellan GPSrs default to "Decimal Degrees", which is different from the format used by Geocaching.com & Garmin. The coordinates on a cache page are "Degrees, Decimal Minutes". It can be kinda confusing. But you definitely can't just plug in some extra "zeroes" or whatever. You must convert the coordinates into a format that your GPSr wants.

 

You can go here to perform some conversions, and see where it is on the map (so you know you're in the ballpark):

http://boulter.com/gps/

 

Here I copied coordinates from a cache page of a cache you found (Are you from Georgia? Cool!):

N 34° 06.162 W 084° 46.005

 

I pasted them into the "Enter Coordinates" box on the Boulter site and converted them into "Decimal Degrees" for a Magellan GPSr:

 

Latitude:

34.1027

 

Longitude:

-84.76675

 

Note that there is a minus sign in there, too. Those are the coords you enter into the Magellan. Well, I think they are . Give it a shot.

 

Edited April 11, 2017 by kunarion

[+MamaKatS]

Thank you, I sure will! Much appreciated!

So, I have been out of the loop on Geocaching for a few years and am getting back into it. I have my trusty Magellan hand-held GPS, which of course i know how to use pretty well. My problem is in actually getting to the general GPS location via my car's GPS (my car GPS is a fancy-shmancy Garmin). I try to put in the coordinates to get to the general location of geocache, but the car GPS has more spaces for numbers than the GPS coordinates posted have. for example, the geocaching coordinates will be something like, "W12.345" and my car gps has spaces for "W12.3456" - and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just throw in an extra zero or what, or if that would totally throw it off. I know this is a dumb question with probably (hopefully) a very simple answer, LOL...but I'm severely directionally challenged even on the best of days so..

 

Thanks in advance, y'all!

 

Many Magellan GPSrs default to "Decimal Degrees", which is different from the format used by Geocaching.com & Garmin. The coordinates on a cache page are "Degrees, Decimal Minutes". It can be kinda confusing. But you definitely can't just plug in some extra "zeroes" or whatever. You must convert the coordinates into a format that your GPSr wants.

 

You can go here to perform some conversions, and see where it is on the map (so you know you're in the ballpark):

http://boulter.com/gps/

 

Here I copied coordinates from a cache page of a cache you found (Are you from Georgia? Cool!):

N 34° 06.162 W 084° 46.005

 

I pasted them into the "Enter Coordinates" box on the Boulter site and converted them into "Decimal Degrees" for a Magellan GPSr:

 

Latitude:

34.1027

 

Longitude:

-84.76675

 

Note that there is a minus sign in there, too. Those are the coords you enter into the Magellan. Well, I think they are . Give it a shot.

 

[+JohnCNA]

There's no need to convert coordinates on a Garmin auto GPS. When you go to enter coordinates, there's a button at the bottom of the screen labelled "Format". Use that, and select Degrees, Decimal Minutes to match the coordinates used on the Geocaching web site. Going forward, your Nuvi will remember this setting.

[+kunarion]

Thank you, I sure will! Much appreciated!

As JohnCNA pointed out, you can enter the coords into the Garmin exactly as the site shows (assuming it's at the "Degrees Decimal Minutes" factory setting). If you want to convert coords shown on your Magellan for use on the Garmin, first convert the Magellan coords to "Decimal Degrees", then enter them.

 

But there's another option. There should be a setting on a Magellan handheld GPSr for a variety of coordinate formats. If so, change the Magellan to DDM, and you don't need to convert anything just to save cache info on your Magellan. Pocket Queries or single GPX files will still work just fine (if you use those). That could save you a lot of extra work later!

 

If you can't find the setting, let us know what model of Magellan handheld you have.

Edited April 11, 2017 by kunarion