Converting coordinates to What 3 words

[Ian P]

Currently in an overcast Majorca. Would anyone be able to help in converting lat long coordinates into What 3 words please

I have tried the W3W website but whilst the location is on the island it is obviously not correct .

The cave in question is.

Cova des Genet

An understanding of how all this works would be great as I have other locations to sort out.

Thanks in anticipation.

Ian

 

[zzzzzzed]

You can use GPS coordinates in What3words https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/1522754 or download Locus maps or Outdooractive

 

[alanw]

Node: ‪Cova des Genet‬ (‪6368677066‬)

OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.

www.openstreetmap.org

Location: 39.5007891, 3.2965061

 

[Ian P]

I think I may have sorted it.
The coordinates in my original link must be incorrect, I have found different coordinates and these appear to be more realistic.
Thanks to AlanW for another alternative source

 

[alanw]

The Spanish IGN have an app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.orux.oruxmapsIGN

It has a most unintuitive interface, but clicking the "pin" icon at the top then "create waypoint" brings up a form. Tapping on the big bar 2/3 of the way down with lat/lon info and a cog to its right brings up another form "move the map to a point". tapping "UTM" for the coordinate system shows numbers similar to "525486 E, 4372398 N" in Ian's original link.

 

[alanw]

 

[ChrisB]

Another possibly is:

Redirect Notice

(Edit - on my phone that link shows as 'Redirect Notice ', I don't know why. It's safe to follow.)

First tap the red link "load calculator"
Then type in the UTM coordinates for GPS
Change the zone to 31, ignore the box N to W

Tap the button to "convert"
Then "show on Google maps"

That gave me a position close to the East coast, and near some places mentioned in your link.

 

[mikem]

Route description and entrance photo:

Cave: Cova des Genet / Porto Cristo

Quick info * Medium sized cave with many interesting rock formations * Entry by short rappel and exit by jugging * Easy approach hike that can be combined with visiting Cala Varques General Of the many bays of the Mallorcan east coasts Cala Varques (also spelled Cala Barques) might be one...

www.grime.cc

For another cave, but shows where it is:

Cova de Cala Varques (entrada C)

Community maintained database of all things cave and cave diving

www.cavedb.net

 

[mikem]

There definitely is something wrong with the given grid ref, as when you click on grottocenter or carte, point is south west of actual location:

Cova des Genet / Xenet / Xot - Grotto Map

Manacor (Llevant - ES). Nearby of Bessó, Drach, Hams, Polida, Coloms, Pouade, Fées, Leucate, Batterie, S.O.S.

grottomap.org

 

[Ed]

Just don't use W3W in the first place.

It isn't reliable

 

[ChrisB]

Just don't use W3W in the first place

It's a marketing success but not actually a good system. It would be especially poor if you needed help in a foreign country, as the three words are specific to the local language, ie, if you have the English version, the 3 words you see will be English words, the 3 words the Spanish authorities expect will be Spanish words (and not translations of the English).

 

[alanw]

Just don't use W3W in the first place.

It isn't reliable

A blog listing issues with What 3 Words: https://w3w.me.ss/

 

[mikem]

Would help if they put dates on the posts - FT says yesterday, but that was start of July last year.

Anyway the error here is nothing to do with w3w (the only problem with which, and it is a biggie, is that they haven't been selective enough with their word choices)

 

[Stuart France]

What's the simplest and quickest free way to convert W3W back to trad OS with a browser? I don't want any smartphone app. An http API would be great where you could visit say W3W2OS.co.uk/sixfigure/aced.zooms.steadier and get SN104456 back as text.

I've banned the use of W3W in my company but clients (almost all are in the UK) seem to love it and so the first thing we have to do is convert their W3W into the OS system and politely make sure that they never see W3W again in documentation. We avoid lat-long too because it is both inconvenient being in degrees, mixing up positive with negative numbers, and error prone through its sheer verbosity.

The OS system is simple, succinct, readable and mathematically intuitive for UK purposes: for example SN123456 is obviously "fairly near" SN104456 since we are in units of 100m, and it's obviously in Mid/West Wales if you live here and know what the SN square roughly covers. I live in SO, so I know straightaway that SN is ballpark 100kms/60miles away from home, or at worst 140kms along a map diagonal. Just compare that to 52.07708737136622,-4.767253634197883 or aced.zooms.steadier for clarity and usability.

 

[ChrisB]

What's the simplest and quickest free way to convert W3W back to trad OS with a browser

W3W have provided this. In the link below, the first part is for the app, so scroll down to there it refers to the online map

Can I use British National Grid coordinates with what3words?

Yes, you can use British National Grid coordinates in the what3words app and on our online map . How to view British National Grid references for a w...

support.what3words.com

52.07708737136622,-4.767253634197883

I agree that OS refs are more useful, but that's unnecessarily precise (about a hundredth of a micron). 52.077 is about the same as OS six figure.

 

[Stuart France]

Unfortunately the method shown at support.what3words.com to convert W3W into OS is very complicated, involving many clicks, and their online map still cannot display the OS coordinates alongside a what3words address at the same time, duh! But you can "choose to include the OS [grid reference] in a message when you share a location". I don't want to share a location on a map: what everyone in this dilemma needs is a direct W3W to OS converter tool i.e. you type in something like:

"unhelpful.unwanted.format"

and you get back:

"XY123456"

and so on. A free bulk converter that can convert a file full of "unwanted.this.that" one per line into a file of OS gridrefs would be even better.

 

[ChrisB]

their online map still cannot display the OS coordinates alongside a what3words address at the same time

Once you've customised the share settings (5 clicks) all you need to do is click the share button and it displays the 3 words and the OS ref below it. Any new location you click updates that.

But I don't know how to do it with a batch file, sorry.

 

[Tim Pickering]

It's a marketing success but not actually a good system. It would be especially poor if you needed help in a foreign country, as the three words are specific to the local language, ie, if you have the English version, the 3 words you see will be English words, the 3 words the Spanish authorities expect will be Spanish words (and not translations of the English).

Don't get me started n W3W! I hate it for many, many reasons such as errors associated with language barriers, mispronunciations, homophones, accents, and people with compromised literacy. I'm sure that's not an exhaustive list. We have a perfectly good system in the UK already, so I really don't understand it's ubiquity.

 

[mikem]

Well, it's the fact that those who don't understand grid refs far outnumber those who can't stand w3w...

There's also the slight problem that neither system can be used to map the entire planet!

 

[andrewmcleod]

The *concept* behind W3W is great; OS grid references are not robust to radio communications and typing errors. I once got a 9 figure grid reference on a SARCALL message and it's easy to get one digit wrong in a way that puts you a bit, but not a long way, wrong.


However, the execution of W3W is poor. Much better would be for someone to build an open source alternative (or even the government to fund it) with probably four simple words but with a very carefully chosen word list. The real success of W3W isn't technological, it's marketing...