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Coordinates miles out


Cache-in-a-box

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I recently placed 2 caches and when they were published the coordinates were miles out 

i cant alter it wth a note as they more than 161 mts away from the original

I have put the new coordinates in the description but this is not a good solution

 

Can i delete the cache and start again with new coordinates 

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You may ask the reviewer to correct it.  It would be good to disable the caches until the situation is corrected.  Here's information about how to fix coordinates: https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=38&pgid=61

 

You seem to use an unusual GPS coordinate format, and I'd suggest trying other ideas.  Using the Official Geocaching App, start navigation to any cache page and open the App's compass.  Hold the phone still and let it settle.  At the bottom is a set of coordinates at your location in the format that Geocaching.com uses.  You would need to save that waypoint or write it down at the spot.  I greatly prefer saving a bahzillion waypoints using my Garmin GPS and simply choosing the coordinates that are consistently closest to the cache location.  But for the iPhone, my compromise is the iPhone App "GPS Averaging" which can find an average of as many points over as many trips as you like (the more the better), and it also can show coordinates in Geocaching.com format with no converting necessary.  In any case, check that the coordinates as posted on your cache page lead you to the cache spot, before you submit the cache.

 

 

Edited by kunarion
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You are using DMS (Degrees/Minutes/Seconds) format, which is not accurate enough for geocaching. On my part of the globe, 1 second represents about 100 feet latitude and 76 feet longitude . That means your coordinates could indicate a spot anywhere within a 7,600 square foot area. Obviously, that lack of precision won't work for finding a geocache.

Geocaching.com uses the Degree/Decimal-Minutes format (DD° MM.mmm') as the standard. It's what virtually all GPS units come set to from the factory. It's precise to about 6 feet (or about a 36 square foot area). Converting from one format to another does not increase the precision. You just end up with bad coordinates in a different format. You need to check your device's settings, and change it to display in one of the three acceptable formats for Geocaching:

* DD° MM.mmm' - the Decimal Minutes format, showing Degrees, and Minutes to at least 3 decimal places.

* DD.ddddd° - the Decimal Degree format, showing Degrees to at least 5 decimal places.

* DD° MM' SS.ss" - the Decimal Second format, showing Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds to at least 2 decimal places.

 

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10 hours ago, Cache-in-a-box said:

I recently placed 2 caches and when they were published the coordinates were miles out 

i cant alter it wth a note as they more than 161 mts away from the original

I have put the new coordinates in the description but this is not a good solution

 

Can i delete the cache and start again with new coordinates 

This is why I recommend checking the map on the cache page before submitting it. It's a quick way to tell if there is something really wrong with the coordinates!

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Aloha !

 

I beg to differ :

On 5/26/2019 at 3:55 PM, Keystone said:

Geocaching.com uses the Degree/Decimal-Minutes format (DD° MM.mmm') as the standard. It's what virtually all GPS units come set to from the factory.

 

I have been using GPS coordinates loooooooooooooooooong before Geocaching was a thing and I have allways use FOUR minute-digits : DD° MM.mmmm'
Then I currently have a number of GPS devices, old and new, same story. Allways four digitis DD° MM.mmmm'

Even my cache program on my android phone, Locus Map (The best one EVER), uses DD° MM.mmmn'

 

I was a bit surprised that GeoCaching dropped this standard and made there own ??? 
I get it from a practical standpoint I mean... in a forest with a dense 
 leaftop or  on a lake with signal reflections the precision goes out the window.
But still... four digits is the normal standard so why mess with it ???

 


Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeers,

 

Jecepede

 

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47 minutes ago, jecepede said:

I currently have a number of GPS devices, old and new, same story. Allways four digitis DD° MM.mmmm'

 

I have two GPSr devices, both Garmin, an eTrex Legend and an Oregon 600.  Neither offer this format.  Maybe professional surveying equipment allows this precision...

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Aloha !

 

29 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

I have two GPSr devices, both Garmin, an eTrex Legend and an Oregon 600.  Neither offer this format.  Maybe professional surveying equipment allows this precision...

Oh that is so cool ! I love the Oregon 600.

I just check both my TomToms and they too only have three digits.

 

Butl like I said. From a practical standpoint having 4 digits is not really usefull. When I am navigating in my car in a city with lots of highrise buildings,

I sometimes get an error margin of a car length. Goodbye precision...... and yet, I allways arrive at my destination.

 

By the way, I do not have professional stuff #TooExpensive. I did see some measuring devices that were able to measure with 7 (yes seven) digits.

But that equipement was used for tracking tectonic plate movement...

Sayyyyyy would that no be awesome ?!?!?!?!

         My cache is at :  N 51° 58.3802642' E 005° 31.8199275'

 

Oh wait, no it would not ?

 

 

Cheeeeeeeeeeers,

 

Jecepede

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2 hours ago, jecepede said:

Aloha !

 

I beg to differ :

 

I have been using GPS coordinates loooooooooooooooooong before Geocaching was a thing and I have allways use FOUR minute-digits : DD° MM.mmmm'
Then I currently have a number of GPS devices, old and new, same story. Allways four digitis DD° MM.mmmm'

Even my cache program on my android phone, Locus Map (The best one EVER), uses DD° MM.mmmn'

 

I was a bit surprised that GeoCaching dropped this standard and made there own ??? 
I get it from a practical standpoint I mean... in a forest with a dense 
 leaftop or  on a lake with signal reflections the precision goes out the window.
But still... four digits is the normal standard so why mess with it ???

 


Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeers,

 

Jecepede

 

mine goes to eleven ...

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2 hours ago, jecepede said:

Butl like I said. From a practical standpoint having 4 digits is not really usefull.

Yep. Three digits is precise enough to specify locations within about 2m/6ft. Under ideal conditions, consumer devices are accurate to about 3m/10ft, so three digits is more precision than most devices have accuracy.

 

And the devices I've used have had three digits too.

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4 hours ago, jecepede said:

Then I currently have a number of GPS devices, old and new, same story. Allways four digitis DD° MM.mmmm'

 I was a bit surprised that GeoCaching dropped this standard and made there own ??? 

 

That's odd, I only own three handheld GPSr models and two car nav models, but all came with 3 digit.  Funny, I thought it was the default format...

 But happy that we never had to touch any of that stuff to play in this hobby.   :)

Civilian GPS is "accurate" to around 10 feet, and that hasn't changed  (yet).

 

I'd bet that  Groundspeak  would like to be able to have enough clout to make manufacturer's products include their format.   :D

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19 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

I'd bet that  Groundspeak  would like to be able to have enough clout to make manufacturer's products include their format.   :D

I wish some organisations would use this format. I rang to report a small bushfire and gave the coordinates. The fire department didn't know how to use them. Keep asking the name of the road, which I didn't know. Later I realised my GPS map might have had the name, but still it was a long road out in the dark, night-time country with few cross roads and no house lights in view, and it would have taken time (while the fire burnt) for me to explore my map to find a cross road, and then hope it was named. Coordinates were so much easier to tell them.

Finally I asked them to bring up Google maps and type in what I told them. This worked and they could see where the fire was.

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On 6/22/2019 at 12:10 PM, jecepede said:

Then I currently have a number of GPS devices, old and new, same story. Allways four digitis DD° MM.mmmm'

Even my cache program on my android phone, Locus Map (The best one EVER), uses DD° MM.mmmn'

Amazing! Care to name those older (even pre-geocaching) devices? You know that at that time we had Selective Availability?

And not that I would do it but (as expected) I can not set the "Lat/Lon format" on my latest Locus Map (free) to four digits.

Edited by Hynz
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Aloha !

 

On 6/26/2019 at 1:17 PM, Hynz said:

Amazing! Care to name those older (even pre-geocaching) devices?

Well for example, I had a piece of software for Windows CE5 calles Free Navigator (or Navigator Free) whitch I used for water navigation.
I think I also had a Garmin with 4 digits, one of the early ones. Later I got a Nuvi 670 and that had gone back from 4 to 3 digits.
Come to think of it, even TomTom 5 had 4 digitis but I do not cross my heart for that...

 

 

On 6/26/2019 at 1:17 PM, Hynz said:

I can not set the "Lat/Lon format" on my latest Locus Map (free) to four digits.

Weird. My Locus Map standard has 4 digits ? That is, not when showing (it will leave out the trailing zero) 
but if you enter new waypoints or changes coords, it is allways 4 digits ?

See the attachement, I just clicked on the map, added a new waypoint and voila, four digits.

 

 

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeers

 

Jecepede

 

2019-06-30 20.34.50.jpg

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2 hours ago, jecepede said:

I think I also had a Garmin with 4 digits, one of the early ones. Later I got a Nuvi 670 and that had gone back from 4 to 3 digits.
Come to think of it, even TomTom 5 had 4 digitis but I do not cross my heart for that...

 

Wow.  That must have been years before you started this hobby, huh ?    :)

 

When we started in '04, we bought Garmin blue legends ,and they had 3 from the factory.

A year later in '05, we "upgraded" to 60csx  , and they had 3 too.

I've had two different Nuvi models, and the newest is a still-working-fine 660. 

The other 2/3rds has had numerous "wrist" models, a Garmin Quest, a Tom Tom , and a few different Nuvi models,  all with 3.

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19 hours ago, jecepede said:

I think I also had a Garmin with 4 digits, one of the early ones.

 

Not calling you a liar, but you may be misremembering.  I was given a Garmin GPS12 in 1999 or 2000, in fact, I used it when we first started caching in 2007 (though not for long).  I remember it using the MM DD.DDD format, and this photo from the interwebs confirms.

 

listing_pic_1538810_1527341437.jpeg

 

You could change the format to DD MM SS.S or to MGRS, but I do not recall an option for DD MM.MMMM.

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Could it be that some of those earlier devices were using decimal degrees and only had 4 decimal digits (ie. DD.dddd)? The 4th digit gives a resolution of about 20-40 feet, which may have been deemed good enough back then.

 

Considering that even modern devices are only just getting to the point of having a meaningful 4th "degrees, decimal minutes" digit, it just doesn't sound right that a 20 year old device would have been designed to show that level of precision.

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1 hour ago, The A-Team said:

Could it be that some of those earlier devices were using decimal degrees and only had 4 decimal digits (ie. DD.dddd)? The 4th digit gives a resolution of about 20-40 feet, which may have been deemed good enough back then.

 

Considering that even modern devices are only just getting to the point of having a meaningful 4th "degrees, decimal minutes" digit, it just doesn't sound right that a 20 year old device would have been designed to show that level of precision.

Exactly correct, I'm sure. I'll try to fire up my old blue Magellan, anf set to DD.dddd and see if that checks out.

Edited by K13
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I still have my Garmin 45XL... works, but is a pain to try geocaching with, although I did until 2010... when I got a Map60cx.

Most we had at the SAR hall only had  DD MM.mmm.    The 45XL only had DD MM.mm and we used it under SA... really hard to pinpoint...

But prior to the dropping of SA, the US govt would only allow indicators to show about the same accuracy as a topo map... as I recall...

And that was long before WAAS and no one had Glonass either....

I do agree that his image shows 4 decimal places after the minutes...  Wonder if where he bought that phone they didn't have to deal with US rules...

or if it uses one of the other geosat systems... like the Chinese one...

One thing though... having that 4 decimal place would have driven me crazy... the third one keeps moving around as it is...  newer multi system receivers and  correction systems might have slowed that down... but when there were fewer satellites, the calculations were always changing...

 

 

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