Lighthouse POI's (USA)

 

Hello

I am new to this site. Last year I bought the Garmin Streetpilot 2720. It's been great because I am terrible with directions and can't read a map to save me (& I have one in the car).

Usually when I go to the East Coast I don't venture more than 20 miles away from my Grandmothers but with my GPS I went everywhere last summer. I did get lost a few times even with the GPS but it was probably my fault.

I am very big into High End Digital Photography and LightHouses. I've taken pictures of about 80 of the 100 or so I've been to. I found several sites that have Lat/Long of LH's across the USA and beyond. I was hopeing someone had a CSV file or one that I can convert to a Garmin File.

I've mainly visited the LH's in MA, ME, NH, RI, MI and IN (Yes Indiana has 1 LH) I would also be interested in buying a CSV LH file as well if I have to.

Or can I just take the Lat/Lon points and make my own CSV file. If I did this I would want to break the Lighthoues into states.

Any help or thoughts would greatly be appreciated. If you have any recommendations for third party software to make this happen I would appreicate knowing about them. I have downloaded several programs already (GPSBabel V1.3.2, PoiEdit V4.5.1)

Thanks

Michael

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Garmin Nuvi 3597, Garmin StreetPilot 2720, Garmin 76CSx (Hand Held), Iphone 6S Plus

Lighthouse file

--
Nuvi 350

Thanks

Thanks for the information. Okay I downloaded the file but when I tried to converted it into a CSV file it shows:

LH001
LH002
LH003 and so on

as well as the Lat & Lon. It doesn't show you the name of the Lighthouse or where it's at. I do see a map though. Hmmm.

Michael

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Garmin Nuvi 3597, Garmin StreetPilot 2720, Garmin 76CSx (Hand Held), Iphone 6S Plus

Additional information on using .gpx file for lighthouses

MickeyMouse00
I also downloaded the lighthouse file to my Garmin c530 via the beta POI Loader from Garmin. Based on your posting, I checked the screen, and sure enough, they were listed as LH001, etc. Upon hitting selecting the LH001, I came to a screen with the name of the lighthouse (it did not have the state).

So, I went to POI Edit and opened up the .gpx file and the column data said in quotations, the state abbreviation and the name of the lighthouse separated by dashes. Not the same data that came over to my c530.
As a workaround, I saved the file within POI Edit as a Garmin .csv file and loaded that into the c530 and low and behold, it comes out correctly.

Does anyone know enough about the POI Loader system for loading a .gpx file to explain this? (Just interested, inquiring minds want to know).

Thanks

--
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

Thanks

I just installed the latest Firmware update to my 2720. After playing around with it for a few minutes I noticed that if you go to:

Where to Go
My Locations
Coordinates
Enter Position

I entered in:
East Pierhead Lighthouse, Michigan City, Indiana
N 41° 43.746 W 086° 54.672

This is the only LH for Indiana which I live. It's about 43 miles from me. Now my question is can someone be as so kind to me to help me set up a csv file where I can create my own file of Light Houses.

Then if anyone is interested in them I can upload them here. I found a fantastic site that has just about every US and more LH that gives a description as well as the Lat & Lon of each LH.

Here is the link: http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=bd6fee45...
This link will show the LH's in Alphabetical Order.

Also is there a way to download my favorites from my 2720 to a csv file back to my comptuer.

The manual omits a lot of things that you can do with this unit.

Thanks again for everyones help.

Michael

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Garmin Nuvi 3597, Garmin StreetPilot 2720, Garmin 76CSx (Hand Held), Iphone 6S Plus

More Info

I went to the FAQ area of this website and read the:
Creating POI files

The format is easy to understand but how do I write the Lat & Lon address in the csv file. I notice there are is a - negative sign in front of the numbers.

I noticed that all the Lat & Lon of the LH's use N & W is that true for all of these addresses. For example

So for the East Pierhead LH would I enter it as
-41 43.746, 086 54.672, "Pierhead LH MC IN"

This is probably wrong as I have spaces in the address but am I on the correct path. Also if I enter the address in for each LH will it stay in the other i typed them into the CSV file.

East Pierhead Lighthouse, Michigan City, Indiana
N 41° 43.746 W 086° 54.672

Holland Lighthouse, Holland MI
N 42° 46.360 W 086° 12.732

Point Iroquois Lighthouse,
N 46° 29.021 W 084° 37.541

Big Sable Point Lighthouse, Ludington, MI
N 44° 03.450 W 086° 30.842

Ludington North Breakwater Light, Ludington, Michigan
N 43° 57.216 W 086° 28.158

Little Sable Point Light, Mears, Michigan
N 43° 39.078 W 086° 32.364

White River Main Light, near Whitehall, Michigan
N 43° 22.488 W 086° 25.452

Muskegon Pierhead Light, Muskegon, Michigan
N 43° 13.602 W 086° 20.472

South Haven Pier Light, South Haven, Michigan
N 42° 24.084 W 086° 17.280

Wood Island Light, Biddeford Pool, ME
N 43° 27.416 W 070° 19.730

Thanks again

Michael

--
Garmin Nuvi 3597, Garmin StreetPilot 2720, Garmin 76CSx (Hand Held), Iphone 6S Plus

Degrees / Minutes vs Decimal Degrees

It looks like your coordinates are in Degrees / Minutes. You'll need to convert them to Decimal degrees to create a POI file.

You can use a tool like this one to make the conversion:

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html

JM

Hmmm

Thanks. It never seems to be easy.

Convert Degrees, Minutes, Seconds to Decimal Degrees:

xxx xxx xxx Latitude xxx xxx xxx Longitude

My original number is:

East Pierhead Lighthouse, Michigan City, Indiana
N 41° 43.746 W 086° 54.672

so would I do:
41 43 746 Latitude 086 54 672 Longitude

I did this and it gave me.

Convert Decimal Degrees to Degrees, Minutes, Seconds:

41.923889 Latitude 87.086667 Longitude

When I did this and then converted it back to my original number it's different.

Sorry totally lost with Lat & Lon Numbers.

Michael

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Garmin Nuvi 3597, Garmin StreetPilot 2720, Garmin 76CSx (Hand Held), Iphone 6S Plus

Degree Minute Second to Decimal Equivalent

Maybe this will help:
60 minutes = 1 degree and 60 seconds = 1 minute.
Therefore, 30 minutes converted to decimal equivalent would be .5. 41 degrees, 30 minutes = 41.5 in decimal equivalent.

There are several converters online to go from one format to the other.

If you know the address of the lighthouse, you can go to http://gpsvisualizer.com/convert?form=address and get the location in either format.

--
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

Understand it a little!

Okay thanks again.

Can you look at some of my example LH Lat & Lon addresses above and show me in an example csv text file how I would set it up and convert the numbers over.

Why can't I enter the N 42° 46.360 W 086° 12.732 for example in a csv file it will take it on the 2720 if i manually type it in. Things where never ment to be easy.

In the 2720 it will let me enter the lat and long then edit the name. Once I do this is there a way to download that information back to the computer so I can edit it manually or am I asking for two much.

I will have to get my father involved with this since he is a transportation person.

Michael

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Garmin Nuvi 3597, Garmin StreetPilot 2720, Garmin 76CSx (Hand Held), Iphone 6S Plus

hey MM00

Just remember, everything has an order.
without getting too detailed
After you get your lat and lon converted to decimal and write your poi files and save as csv if that is your wish, follow the order below:

Longitude,Latitude,name,comment

-86.21220,42.77266,name of lighthouse,location etc

Check the Faq & Help tab on top of the page.
There is excellent info on csv file and format that you will need to know.

--
........Garmin StreetPilot c550 / Nüvi 765...........

Hmm, I'm not getting the descriptions with PoiEdit

Whoop - I wasn't getting the descriptions, until I found the setting under Preferences... File Importers... GPX, and checked off the right options to substitute fields.

This is my first GPS (TomTom Nav 6) and the first time I've been to the site, and I have to say this is pretty terrific - I'm going to Paypal donate for this stuff! smile

Now, if only I could figure out whether I can find and upload to my Nav6 PDA a special lighthouse icon for the lighthouses...

not sure

I made a couple of lighthouse bmp's that look ok on my c550. The night one looks the best. I can't help with the loading to the nav6. Just off hand, I'd think they'd have to be pretty small for a pda though.

ManchVegas wrote:

Now, if only I could figure out whether I can find and upload to my Nav6 PDA a special lighthouse icon for the lighthouses...

http://geocities.com/ls_monop/

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........Garmin StreetPilot c550 / Nüvi 765...........

Lighthouse POI

lsmonop,

Thanks for the information. The Lighthouse POI has all the Lighthouses that I have visited so far and all the ones that I want to check out as well.

I mainly changed the format around on the Lighthouse POI file on here some. I know in the file here it shows for example IN - LightHouse name, Shortcut name

I mainly have it like this: Lighthouse Name, MI That way i can see most of it on my screen. I don't no I guess I'm just a little picky.

I loved the file and was delighted to find it that I donated money to this site. It saved me a lot of time making one. Instead I can work on other projects.

Michael

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Garmin Nuvi 3597, Garmin StreetPilot 2720, Garmin 76CSx (Hand Held), Iphone 6S Plus

lighthouse poi

I posted a csv and gpx file of 1092 lighthouses in the US. please check it out . Ihave not been to all of them but please try it .It may help you.

--
JD

Lighthouse POI

You have to be careful with this file.

First, there are not 1092 "lighthouses" in the United States. Many in the list are automated navigational markers that do not actually qualify as lighthouses. One is actually a church ministry - Christian Lighthouse Alliance or something like that.

Second, many of the lighthouses are not accesible by car. Ferry Point Wharf Light in Portsmouth, VA for instance will take you into the middle of a cotton field. The "lighthouse" is remains unreachable and unseen from about 1000 ft. Tue Marshes Lighthouse is similar. Directions take you to a private driveway that has no admittance.

If you have trouble with the POI displaying the actual names, you can edit the file before downloading it at Geovative Solutions. You simply import the file after saving it to your computer and then make whatever changes you want (like deleting those that aren't really lighthouses, adding pictures, changing the names from LH001 to the actual name.) I like Geovative Solutions because it allows you to convert the file from a .gpx (which my Garmin would not read) to a .gpi (which my Garmin would read).

Indiana Lighthouses

Actually there are several lighthouses in Indiana. Six total. Three in Michigan City, essentially right beside each other. The East Pierhead Light is functional as well as the breakwater light to the left of the Pierhead, but the green building in the park is the old retired lighthouse. The breakwater light is not really that interesting an is more of what I would consider an automated navigational marker.

In Gary, there is the Gary Breakwater Light.

I don't know the location of the remaining two, but they are the Bluffington Breakwater and the Indiana East Breakwater.

See http://www.thelighthousepeople.com/indiana/index.html for more information.