GPS location for dive sites

[kbrunham]

What is the easiest way to enter the lat/lon coordinates for a particular dive site?

From the Garmin waypoint manager, I can copy and past data like:

W156 03 14.5

but somehow need to translate this into:

156°3'14.5"W

Short of the manually entering the ascii code for the degrees symbol (°), is there another way to enter it?

Also, as a feature request can I ask that diving log automatically translate the garmin format to the diving log (and google earth) format?

[divinglog]

On my (German) keyboard there is a key for the degree symbol in the upper left (beside the 1 key). Is this key missing on other keyboards?

I think I'll have to add some coordinate conversion utilities and want also to add direct GPS download functions in a future version. In the current version there is unfortunately no other way.

[kbrunham]

Hi Sven,

On The US 104 keyboards there is no degrees symbol.

As an addition (minor) request, can you look at the tab order of the fields on the location page? The current order is Name->Longitude->Latitude->Max Depth, but with the layout it seems the order should be Name->Latitude->Longitude->Max Depth.

[divinglog]

Thank you for the information. Then it's really difficult to enter the degree symbol. I'll add a better solution with the next update in a few days. I've fixed the tab order, thanks for the hint!

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day Sven,

Yes, entering co-ordinates into Diving Log using a US keyboard layout without a degree key is not so easy and is something that would be great to have a solution for.

It would also be great if Diving Log could handle the input of coordinates in the three different formats commonly used, that is

ddd.dddd - degrees and decimal degrees
ddd mm.mmmm - degrees minutes and decimal minutes
ddd mm ss.sssss - degrees minutes seconds and decimal seconds

Then we wouldn't have to convert from the format we have to what Diving Log currently needs.

Diving log should store the value in it's database in the one format, but be able to handle input in any of those three formats.

Then this could be extended by having a configuration preference value that lets users specify which format they want Diving Log to display the coordinates in, i.e. ddd.dddd, dd mm.mmmm or dd mm ss.ssss

These are all fairly minor changes that could be in the next update.

Also, right now, I have to make sure the coordinates use the WGS84 datum. But sometimes I'm given coordinates on the AUS66 datum or some other datum. I have to change them before putting them into Diving Log, which until recently I hadn't been able to figure out how to do.

So right now I have some coordinates for my dive sites using a different datum, but I can't tell which coordinates are using what datum when in Diving Log. It would be nice if we could tell Diving Log which datum was being used for each pair of coordinates. Then Diving Log could show this datum value when it displays the coordinates.

As this would require a database change, I guess it would be a v5 thing.

Best Regards, Lloyd Borrett.

[divinglog]

In v4.0.7 will be a first step to make coordinate handling better. In further versions I want to add more conversion utilities, and prefered display / enter possibilities and in v5.0 also a GPS downloader.

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day Sven,

You might also like to think about adding in support for a "Waypoint" field. That is waypoint marker value of up to 6 uppercase characters.

Plus you might like to add support for GPX (the GPS Exchange Format), which is a light-weight XML data format for the interchange of GPS data between applications and Web services on the Internet.

Best Regards, Lloyd Borrett.

[divinglog]

Hi Lloyd

OK, I'll consider this.

Best regards,
Sven

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day Sven,

In v4.0.8 you added in the ability for us to input coordinates more easily, if using the formats:

ddd.dddd - degrees and decimal degrees
or
ddd mm ss.sssss - degrees minutes seconds and decimal seconds

Unfortunately, I get most of my coordinates from people using a GPS in the form:

ddd mm.mmmm - degrees minutes and decimal minutes

Could you please make it possible to easily input coordinates using this format in the next version of Diving Log?

Best Regards, Lloyd Borrett.

[divinglog]

Hi Lloyd

I'll try to include this, but I can't promise it due to the bigger changes in profile display and the necessary changes in most import functions which is already a lot of work. But it is on the ToDo list for sure!

Best regards,
Sven

[No Waiting]

On The US 104 keyboards there is no degrees symbol.

Same on the UK keyboard, but...

Hold down ALT and on the numeric pad press 0 1 7 6 in turn, then let go of the ALT key and you get °

To find out more (on Windows XP), Start Button, All Programs, Acessories, System Tools, Character Map - Click on the symbol you want and the ALT code is shown bottom right - OK doesn't work for all symbols, but you soon get to know the codes for those you use a lot

[Inferno]

In this site: http://www.divinglocations.eu/

Lots of files exist with GPS coordinates for dive sites in the EU, however how get this data into divinglog?

The data is in the decimal format (I think)

Someone an idea?

[divinglog]

At the moment I think there is no easy way, but for the future a Google Earth import would be the easiest way and on this website all dive places are available as Google Earth file.

But at the moment you can import the file in Google Earth, double click on a placemark and copy / paste the coordinates into the Diving Log textfields. This format is supported and this way it should work for now.