POI Loader "The Whole Enchilada" again.

I don't know of any magical cure as long as you're using csv files, but here's what I do to make it a little easier.

I have a number as part of a file name, which designates an alert speed. Using a 36-second rule, the number translates to a percentage of one-mile alert distance.

So if I have a file named "File_100," the POI Loader gives the option of either the alert speed of 100 mph or the alert distance of 5280 feet.

Unfortunately, the default is the alert speed, so I have to load the files manually, and select the alert distance each time. But that's at least only one mouse click instead of typing in (or pasting) the number for each file.

Thank you, that was good info for me.
Gage

I found out I nees to load most of mine in the manual mode as the auto sometimes doesn't work or alerts to far away for me.

One must remember the Garmin POI loaded adds the contents of the entire CSV file. This means if a CSV file has 5 POIs in it and you load it twice, your GPS will 5 duplicate POIs. I assume you knew this and removed all custom POIs. So, in short, yes, you must re-enter the distance for each POI file again.

Hope this helps...

In your example the second loading will actually result in a new POI.gpi that overwrites the original; there will be no duplicates.

I do not know weather this will work or not since I did not experiment it yet. What I have in mind is to rename all the poi-files to include "redlight" in the file name.

For example: redlight-POI1, redlight-POI2, .... should produce that automatic alert. This might look ugly in the custom POI menu in your GPSr unit, but it should solve the cumbersome of entering proximities for many POI files.

There is only one Redlight file and it is named Redlight-Cameras.csv.

Are you confusing the individual locations with the filename?

Sorry, for not being clear in the previous post. What I meant is that if you have POI "files" with the names:
POI1.gpx
POI2.gpx
POI3.gpx
then if you renamed those files to:
redlight-POI1.gpx
redlight-POI2.gpx
redlight-POI3.gpx
This should produce an automatic proximity alert for those files and you do not need to set them yourself each time you use the POI loader since The word "redlight" in the filename will automatically produce a proximity alert of .25 miles..

I should have realized what you were saying -- it's late. As another alternative, you could try to get the file maintainers to supply the files in gpx format; distances other than 1/4 mile could then be built into the individual listings and there'd be no confusion caused by "redlight", "gatso", "specs", "mobile" or other keywords being used in the filename to trigger the alert. A side benefit would be the phone numbers becoming dialable (via BT).

If you put NUMBERS (1, 2, 3, etc) in your file name, POI Loader will interpret this as SPEED information so it's advisable not to do that unless that is your intention.

Take a look at Phil's great guide to alerts.

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

Yup, Garmins software user interface leaves a lot to be desired and this thread is only one example.

MM's Link appears to be all inclusive on the subject. I named a file Redlight@5280.csv and am alerted 1 mile before the redlight (Every Redlight in the file.So, I then converted to the manual mode and set the distance and removed #5280 from my tittle. I am still confused: can I put a number in column 3 or 4 of each entry in the file place speed inthe file name and have speed alerts for different rates of travel? It appearers all locations in the file must alert at same speed.

Did I miss something some where I though that POI's loaded using POILoader had to be in .csv format not gpx.

I believe they can be in either format !
I use .csv as I minimize the info on a "location"
and I find the .csv format uses less memory than the
.gpx format.

My personal choice - right or wrong !!!!!

Oh...well I was giving those as examples not as actual file names. Thanks for correcting that.

I use .gpx format with poi-loader because this format is supported by Mapsource.
This thread explains it:
CSV or GPX, Which do I need?
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6203

This is not quite correct...the "Redlight" keyword is a special case, that sets a 402m (1319') Proximity Alert that is not overridden by the presence of any numbers.

Additionally, in cases where numbers are honoured, the range is 1-124mph (or 1-200kph).

You can append an "@" and a numeric 'speed' to the name (in column 3), to produce a Speed alert for one or more POIs in a file. Each speed can be different, if required.

So I have been using geovative for my POI creations and they allow me to range from a couple of feet all the way out to X number of feet (or off) for each POI to create an alert or as a group. (Obviously that's customized) but can't you load a csv then rename it and load another one so at least each csv file has it's own set alert distance?

If there are only a dozen or so POI's you use regularly you might want to try the geovative.

I have been creating tour guides for cities and if the sites are close together I will put the alert number low but if it's in the middle of nowhere like Stonehenge, I will set it at a mile or two.

I have the POI's set up in 2 folders on my PC, one for POI's that I want alerts for, and one without. I load them into the GPSr separately using POI Loader. I only load the alert folder when I have updated one of the files in it. If I do that, it overwrites the non-alert folder, so I have to rename it in the unit ( I use poialert.gpi), then I reload the rest of the POI's in the second folder, and I leave that one as the default poi.gpi. Since most of the POI's that I change from time to time I don't set alerts for, I just load them using the express setting on the POI loader, and it doesn't affect the file with my alerts.

This way I can change the contents of my custom POI's as often as I want without having to bother with the tedious process of the manual option, and without having to worry about what names I give the individual POI files. It works pretty well for my needs.