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[on:]

I have the following code, trying to calculate a distance between two geo-coordinates in meters:

Code:

#include <math.h>



void setup(){
            Serial.begin(4800);

            float lat_old = 49.66873;
            float lon_old = 7.98983;
            float lat= 49.66873;
            float lon = 7.98981;
            float dist = acos(sin(lat)*sin(lat_old)+cos(lat)*cos(lat_old)*cos(lon-lon_old))*6378000.0;
      
           Serial.print("Lat_old: ");
             serial_printFloat(lat_old);
             Serial.print("Lon_old: ");
             serial_printFloat(lon_old);
             Serial.print("Lat: ");
             serial_printFloat(lat);
             Serial.print("Lon: ");
             serial_printFloat(lon);
            
             Serial.print("Distance in meters: ");
             serial_printFloat(dist);
}

void loop(){
}

void serial_printFloat(float value) {
  //Check if negative value and print - sign

  if(value<0)
  {Serial.print("-");}
  //Print the number before the decimal point

  //We check if the number before the decimal point
  //is negative. If it is then we make it into a positive
  //number. So we don't get something like --10.286
  //As we already printed the negative sign (-)
  int temp0=(int)value;
  if(temp0<0){
    temp0=temp0-(temp0*2);
  }
  Serial.print(temp0);
  //Print decimal point
  Serial.print(".");
  //We insert the numbers after the deciaml (.) into temp
  //Using long as we can store more values
  //Add additional zeros (000) to 1000000 to increase degree of accuracy
  //beyond the decimal point
  long temp=long((value - (long)value) * 1000000);

  //If temp is negative we convert it to a positive number so we
  //don't get something like -0.-286

  if(temp<0){
    temp=temp-(temp*2);
   }

  Serial.println(temp);

  //And that's it. We're done :-)

}

The distance should yield to 1.48152 meters, however, the output via serial monitor always gives me the following output:

Code:

Lat_old: 49.668731
Lon_old: 7.989830
Lat: 49.668731
Lon: 7.989810
Distance in meters: 0.0

Does anybody see my mistake?

Thanks for any help.

[Reply #1 on:]

The trigonometric functions expects radians not degrees. You need to convert your lat/lon to radians before you use them in your calculations (deg*PI/180).

[Reply #2 on:]

I don't understand the formula for converting lat/long pairs to distance, so I don't know if that's right or wrong. You could add a Serial.print statement to see if the result is even close to right.

I have a question about the serial_printFloat funcction, though. I two places you have code like this:

Code:

temp0=temp0-(temp0*2);

Wouldn't "temp0 = -temp0;" be easier to understand, quicker to type, and faster to execute?

[Reply #3 on:]

When I convert the lat & lon values to radians I get the same result: distance = 0.0.
So this cannot be the problem, sorry.

Code:

#include <math.h>



void setup(){
            Serial.begin(4800);
            float Pi = 3.1415926535897932384626433;
            float lat_old = 49.66873;
            float lat_old_rad = lat_old* Pi/180.0;
            float lon_old = 7.98983;
            float lon_old_rad = lon_old* Pi/180.0;
            float lat = 49.66873;
            float lat_rad = lat* Pi/180.0;
            float lon = 7.98981;
            float lon_rad = lon* Pi/180.0;
            float dist = acos(sin(lat_rad)*sin(lat_old_rad)+cos(lat_rad)*cos(lat_old_rad)*cos(lon_rad-lon_old_rad))*6378000.0;
              
           Serial.print("Lat_old: ");
             serial_printFloat(lat_old);
             Serial.print("Lon_old: ");
             serial_printFloat(lon_old);
             Serial.print("Lat: ");
             serial_printFloat(lat);
             Serial.print("Lon: ");
             serial_printFloat(lon);
            
             Serial.print("Distance in meters: ");
             serial_printFloat(dist);
}

void loop(){
}

void serial_printFloat(float value) {
  //Check if negative value and print - sign

  if(value<0)
  {Serial.print("-");}
  //Print the number before the decimal point

  //We check if the number before the decimal point
  //is negative. If it is then we make it into a positive
  //number. So we don't get something like --10.286
  //As we already printed the negative sign (-)
  int temp0=(int)value;
  if(temp0<0){
    temp0=temp0-(temp0*2);
  }
  Serial.print(temp0);
  //Print decimal point
  Serial.print(".");
  //We insert the numbers after the deciaml (.) into temp
  //Using long as we can store more values
  //Add additional zeros (000) to 1000000 to increase degree of accuracy
  //beyond the decimal point
  long temp=long((value - (long)value) * 1000000);

  //If temp is negative we convert it to a positive number so we
  //don't get something like -0.-286

  if(temp<0){
    temp=temp-(temp*2);
   }

  Serial.println(temp);

  //And that's it. We're done :-)

}

[Reply #4 on:]

So this cannot be the problem, sorry.

Well -one error doesn't exclude another.

Here's working Arduino code for calculating distance between two points.

Code:

// calculate distance in rad between two points
float c_dist(float lat1,float lon1,float lat2,float lon2)
{
  // the standard version of formulae yields unacceptable precision
  // return acos(sin(lat1)*sin(lat2)+cos(lat1)*cos(lat2)*cos(lon2-lon1));
  // alternative formulae (haversine)
  const float two=2.0;
  return two*asin(sqrt(square(sin((lat1-lat2)/two)) +
         cos(lat1)*cos(lat2)*square(sin((lon2-lon1)/two))));
}/*c_dist*/

To get distance in meters you must multiply the returned value with earth's radius (#define EARTH_RADIUS 6371009.0).

[Reply #5 on:]

That did the trick! Thanks a lot!

[Reply #6 on:]

:S i do not understand ..
what is the final code for calculating distance then ?