Navigation HELP! Input Coordinates

A position on earth is usually expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc east or west of the prime meridian and north or south of the equator. Sometimes the minutes and seconds are converted to decimal degrees. Sometimes N and S, and E and W, is expressed as - and +. Maybe Google Earth can do the conversion for you.

 

Punch it in as a destination. All you have to do is push the Destination button on the side of the MFD, pick the type of entry you want to make (in this case Lat/Lon), and enter the coordinates. Don't forget that many MFD screens have more than one page.

Tom

 

In Google Earth you can choose how coördinates are expressed in the preferences. If you then view the grid it will overlay coördinates on the surface view.

 

There's no major conversion needed here.
The Prius nav requires co-ordinates be inputted in the
deg* min' sec'' format.

Google Earth usually defaults to deg* min' sec'' also, but the seconds are displayed with .00 , or 1/10ths.

Drop the 1/10ths, or round up/down.

For example
N38* 22' 48.27'' would be N38* 22' 48'' in the Prius.

Does that make sense?

Some co-ordinates you will see are simply listed in 10ths of min. (not using seconds at all.) You just need to convert the 10th of min to a second.
Every 10th of min = 6 seconds Example:

N38* 22.50' would be N38* 22' 30'' Because .50' is 30''
(1/2 min = 30sec.)

If this doesn't make sense, What are the co-ordinates you need to input, and I'll give you the conversion.

 

No doubt the factory Nav is a huge disappointment, but that's another subject.

What you probably ran into was what Hikers and Geocachers use, a different type of co-ordinate system called
UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) system. Based on the NAD27 datem. These type co-ordinates must be converted via a computer program, or handheld GPS unit. What a pain, but necessary using the Prius Nav to navigate to hiking or caching spots.
Playing around with all this is quite fun, when you get the hang of it.
The co-ordinates would look like Easting 0766670 Northing3727921.
Google 'UTM converter' and download a simple program that will convert these to deg*min'sec'' format for you.

Google earth can convert these too, the setting is under tools-options-show lat/long.

 

My Prius and Satnav is just over a year now. I still find it painful that the Satnav won't accept longitude/latitude coordinates in decimal degrees (e.g. 53.12345,-6.12345) but rather insists on Babylonian format minutes/seconds (e.g. N53 13' 26" W6 13'26"). All my previous Garmins/Tomtoms allowed you to specify the preferred format.

Has this been enhanced in any recent versions ? I did try to send a query to the online assistance address, but they seem to answer all queries with a 'contact your local sales/service office'.

 

Some of the people in this 11 yo thread haven't been on PC in a while. Maybe ask your question in the Gen 4 Forums.

 

i've never heard of anyone using coordinates to navigate, is that a military thing?

 

Yes, at least in the latest Prius cars sold in Europe, for which the Navigation and Multimedia System Owner’s Manual (PDF) describes, on page 80, an option to switch between DMS and decimal formats.

That manual describes a system with different front panel buttons and a different user interface style than previous versions, however, so it may be more more than just a software update to get the new features. Assuming it’s compatible with older cars, the head unit might have to be exchanged, probably at great cost.

Land navigation with latitude and longitude—expressed directly or encoded in a coordinate system such as UTM or MGRS—is used not only by the military, but by anyone who needs to go or refer to places that do not have known or recognized street addresses.

In the U.S., it’s only been in the last few decades that communities have tried to assign a street address to every inhabited building in rural areas, often as part of Enhanced 9-1-1 implementation. Otherwise, unless the destination is in the points of interest file, the only alternative is to put in its coordinates.

 

how do you do that on a toyota?

 

For your car, see pages 40 and 41 of the navigation manual (PDF): Enter Destination > Advanced > Enter Geo-coordinates.

 

thanks! does this help @Tom Wade ?

 

No: he already knows how to enter coordinates, but the system won’t accept them in his preferred format.