Rest Area comments

It's pretty cool having this POI. I learned to be careful who I tell though. I told a co-worker and he asked why I had rest stops as a point of interest. I tried to explain but he dubbed me "Captain Glory Hole". I have to deal with that now. He's a friend though so it isn't bad.

Thanks for the inputs:
Corrections will be in next update to "Rest Area Combined" POI file which should be uploaded to POI Factory in 3-4 weeks.
Had eye surgery yesterday and will have the other one done in 2-3 weeks so my detail computer work will be on hold for a little bit. Does take a bit of detail work on the computer to get coordinates exactly right.
Thanks again !

Glad I could be of help. I guess you would not believe we took the trip to check out the file entries? Ha.

Have a swift and painless recovery from your surgeries.

Have a great day. H.

When you need to go it IS a point of interest.

Corrections made for ND & SD I-29 Rest Areas.
ND Rest Areas removed.

Not sure why the SD Rest area did not alert - I refined the coords a bit.
The Name in the POI file clearly says "Rest Area-Follow Signs" which indicates it is an off the highway rest area.

Will be in next update.

I have installed the Rest Area Combined file, set alerts, and it works GREAT! However, it will also sound an alert for a rest area that is on the other side of the Freeway. My GPS unit is a Magellan Maestro 3225. Is there a way to set the alerts such that an alert for a rest area will only sound if the rest area is in your direction of travel. i.e. if I am headed Southbound on I-75, I don't need to hear an alert for the Rest Areas for the Northbound lanes of I-75 as those rest areas won't do me any good!

Not that I'm aware of. That's why I put the direction of the rest area entrance in the "name" section.
I suppose you could if you lowered the alert proximity alert to a real low distance but that would defeat the purpose of the alerts - especially when travelling at 60-70 mph.
On the Garmins the message bar will read:
Rest Area NB I-75 MM.....
Unfortunately, if the center strip is not wide enough you will get an alert for entrances in the opposite direction.

With reference to "direction", in my Nuvi 250 the physically separate rest areas did not alarm. Coming from ND to SD on I-29 you pass a north bound rest area in ND then cross the border and a south bound rest area is in a couple of miles. My 250 alarmed only for the one on my side going south, then again on the north side on the return trip.

The next rest area, south of Sisseton, SD, is set up very much like the one off Exit 26 north of Sioux City and it alarmed. It is east of the freeway but accessible going both ways, and is so marked on the highway.

i downloaded the rest area combined on my nuvi 760 and would like to know if i need to do anything special to get an alert when i get close to the exit or is that already imbeded in the file
the folder is named "rest areas"

thanks in advance
mike

Regular POIs do NOT alert by default. You must set an alert in order for an alert to sound. Run POI Loader in Manual Mode instead of Express Mode in order to set alerts.

Here's some great information about alerts.

Hornbyp's guide to setting alerts with POI Loader
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6764

Modifying the REST AREAs

I live in Ky. So I down loaded the KY REST AREAS. I noticed that there were no alerts associated with them. I converted the CVS file to GPX and loaded them into MapSource and looked at them. I saw that the just showed the rest area only. So I used the following procedure to add directional voice alerts:
1. Double click the rest area waypoint and the click SHOW ON MAP
2. Place a 1 mile proximity parameter to the waypoint properties screen for that rest area location. Then close the waypoint property screen
3. Place a temp waypoint at the 1 mile mark where it intersects the approach lanes.
4. Copy the position coordinates using CTRL C, and then CANCEL the waypoint properties screen.
5. Reopen the original waypoint and paste (CTRL V) the position coordinates over the existing ones. That moves the waypoint to the new position.
6. Then replace the Proximity 1 mile value with .01 (approximately 53 ft.).
7. Then attach a MP3 voice recording announcing “Approaching a rest area in about 1 mile” .
8. Do all rest area waypoints using the above procedure
9. Then save as a TourGuide..

This places the POI on the road itself with about 53 fit priximity. With this system you only get a ALERT for the rest areas on your side of the Interstate or 4 lane divided highway that you have access too.

This works for all roads the show on the GPS or MapSource as being divided.

I also use this for other Tour Guides where I want directional alerts.

H Hannah
Nuvi 750 and IQUE 3600

I use another approach to the proximity alerts for the rest areas .
I load the POI file to my GPSr using POI LOader in manual mode and just set the Proximity Alert distance to 5500 feet. That way I get an audible alert (ding-ding) and the alert bar on top of screen when I get to a little more than 1 mile from the start of the off ramp to the rest area !

To All,

MrKenLF.

Your approach would work ok. But My approach is to eliminate the rest areas that are on the other side of the road where you don't have access to them, thus not receiving there alerts.

This method make the alerte DIRECTIONAL

H Hannah
Nuvi 750 and IQUE 3600

Please be aware that the Rest Area POI files for individual States do not use the same coordinates as used in the "Rest Areas Combined" POI file.
In most cases, the individual State Rest Area files use the coordinates of the actual buildings within the rest area and sometimes are far enough off the highway for proximity alerts not to trigger.
The coordinates used in the "Rest Areas Combined" POI file are those at the "entrance" off the highway to the Rest Area buildings or parking area.

On a 5200 mile trip last Dec thru 14 states . I passed probably 175 Rest Area etc. - Only in 3-4 cases did proximity alerts fail to trigger and those locations have been corrected !

I have never knew why one would care about alerts on Rest Areas. It is nice to know where one is, if you need to use the restroom, but then one can just look it up at that time. In most cases, you will see a sign before a 1 mile alert. Maybe I just don't see the value of it yet.

You'll understand when you get a lot older Charley. (joke)

or ask Miss POI !

Asianfire, you said:

Maybe I just don't see the value of it yet.

You'll understand why it's nice to be able to see how far the next rest area is the next time you and the missus are on a trip together and it's been a whole seven minutes since she last went to the bathroom and now she has to go again. You can smile at her and say, "Honey, it's only 80 miles to the next rest area. Can you hold it that long?"

ummm... she has to go every 10 miles. so rest areas are useless for her...lol

I remember on I-10 in TX on our last trip having the Proximity Alert go ding-ding and the sign on the roadside said "Rest Area 1 Mile (next Rest Area 104 miles)"

Needless to say - we stopped !

There were some long ones on I-29 also. Not quite that long but I remember a 63 mile one and some over 30 miles.

Two things of note:
"Picnic Areas" with no plumbing could be hazardous to your health, especially if there are children in the group.
Highway #75 from Nebraska City to Topeka had no rest areas. There was a town on the route and a Casino though, if needed.

Just some trivia to keep you entertained. H.

On the subject of rest areas. My wife and I take our little Toyota RV on an extended trip each July. We've noticed more and more states setting up some of their rest areas with WIFI for checking email. Real handy when often camping at places without internet connections. Does anyone know if there is a source for the rest areas that offer this service. I didn't see an abreviation for WiFi in the list of the rest area services provided.

By the way, this is the first time I'm posting a message. Hope I did it right.

As I update the Rest Area files I will be checking (as best I can) the State DOT websites and include Wi-Fi capability in the remarks section of the POI as I find it. There are some in there now but not that many !

It simply shows up as WiFi

Thanks for the quick reply!

We've had our Garmin StreetPilot c330 for about a year now. Loved taking it out West last summer. But finding the poi-factory and seeing what else is possible really adds to the fun. I'm realizing the 330 doesn't do a lot of things that would be nice, but it's a good basic unit. (Wish I could use mpeg files though)

Since we travel all over the country, my favorite files so far are the rest areas, Christian radio stations, and the ham radio files. Trouble is, I put in so many files, I filled up the memory! So I modified the ham radio files and made each band a separate file. That way I only had to put in the bands I was interested in.

I asked MaryAnn if she thought others might be interested in the modified files. She thought they might, so I uploaded them last night. If anyone can use them I glad, because I have certainly benefited from the efforts of others on this site.

Darrell

Or take my wife along on the trip.