Garmin Needs and Questions
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15 years
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We just used our Garmin Nuvi 760 for the first time on a two-week trip. It was great. We used it rather than the GPS unit built into our car after a brief comparison of the two as we traveled the first 25 miles. The Custom POIs make the Garmin the unquestioned choice!
I do, however, have some questions and needs that do not seem to be handled by the 760.
1. Are there any makes of cars that have built-in GPS units that enable custom POIs to be imported?
2. Is there a Garmin unit that allows both Custom POIs and Garmin’s pre-loaded attractions to display on the map? Using Custom POIs seems to display only the Custom POIs, and we never found a way to have attractions appear on the map as we traveled.
3. Is there a Garmin unit that allows you to press on a Custom POI displayed on the map and have it display the description details?
4. Do any Garmin units allow Custom POI information fields to be expanded so that separate fields of address, city, state, zip, and phone could all display as an address block in the “description” place? Those of us who maintain databases keep that data in separate fields, and your system has only one field for 5 pieces of data that I like to have display in that spot.
5. Is there a Garmin unit that offers the ability to note that a Custom POI has been seen so it can be removed from a continuing display as you travel? This would make the Custom POI feature more valuable since a limited number of Custom POIs display.
6. Is there a Garmin unit that offers a greater number of Custom POIs to display as you travel? It seems to display only a few screens worth of Custom POIs.
7. Is there a limit on the number of Custom POIs that I can add to the 760? I saw some data online that said 500, but from reading the forum, that seems incorrect. I only have whatever came with the unit; do I need to buy another card to insert?
8. Is there a Garmin unit that offers a larger "Where am I" field?
9. Is there a Garmin settingt that tells you to hook a U-Turn rather than drive way out of the way?
10. It would be helpful if the voice of Garmin paused between words. She runs the words together, and it makes what she says a little hard to understand.
11. Is there a Garmin unit that offers the ability to download Garmin's pre-loaded attractions? If so, we could then choose the ones we want to have displayed along with our Custom POIs. In my opinion, the integration of Custom POIs with Garmin's pre-loaded data is a key to improving the benefit of the GPS units.
12. Is there a way to use Garmin as a Trip Logger? I have purchased a Sony unit for that purpose. It hangs from the strap of my digital camera. I turn it on every morning when I am out taking photographs, and it tracks my whereabouts throughout the day. At the end of the day, a simple procedure adds the GPS coordinates to the data files for each of my photos by matching time of day.
13. Do any Garmin units offer the ability to integrate the Custom POIs with Garmin's pre-loaded Points of Interest?
14. Is there any GPS unit that does a better job with POIs that the Garmin Nuvi 760?
Thanks a lot!
6, 7, 8, 9
It would be better if you asked prioritized questions 2-3 at a time over a period of a week or so. Not many people want to read or answer that much. I'll take a shot at four of them.
6. All nuvis, as far as I know, only display the closest 52 POI's, custom or built-in. They will change as you travel. If you want to see the closest 52 to another location, you can use the "NEAR" feature.
7. The 500 refers to Favorites. You can put in as many Custom POI's as memory allows. If you include built-in memory and SD cards, the number is almost unlimited. I have over 100,000 in my built-in memory.
8. I'm not sure what you are referring to here, probably a feature that my 200 doesn't have. I can find where I am, and save it, just by touching the vehicle icon.
9. Under settings, there is a feature that turns on or off U-turns. Remember, you are the driver, so you can still make U-turns even if the setting doesn't allow it.
nuvi 200 | lifetime maps
#4
I do, however, have some questions and needs that do not seem to be handled by the 760.
4. Do any Garmin units allow Custom POI information fields to be expanded so that separate fields of address, city, state, zip, and phone could all display as an address block in the “description” place? Those of us who maintain databases keep that data in separate fields, and your system has only one field for 5 pieces of data that I like to have display in that spot.The Zümo, Nüvi & StreetPilot C5xx ranges all do this. However, POILoader can only build such .GPI (ie Custom POI) files from gpx input, not .csv.
They don't display in the 'description place' though - the description displays there! They have their own, pre-allocated display areas.
See my signature line for more info!
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ---------------------- http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy »
Garmin
4. Four fields are read. The first two are the coordinates, the third is the name of the POI, the forth is the description. The fields are separated by commas. If you put quotation marks around your forth field you can put as much data as you want, including commas. The amount of data shown will be according to your screen size. with the 760 you can have quite a bit of info.
13. No
14. No
I'll try a few
5. No.
8. The only one might be the 5000. It has a larger screen.
10. Choose a different voice until you find the one you like.
12. Your 760 is a trip logger. It maintains a track of your ventures while you drive. Using MapSource, you can view this track. You can also view it on your unit by unhiding tracks.
Glenn - Southern MD; SP C330 / Nuvi 750 / Nuvi 265WT
unhide
12. Your 760 is a trip logger. It maintains a track of your ventures while you drive. Using MapSource, you can view this track. You can also view it on your unit by unhiding tracks.
How exactly do you "unhide" a track? I'd like to play around with my 760 to see where I've been without using MapSource.
If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.
Show/Hide Track log
How exactly do you "unhide" a track? I'd like to play around with my 760 to see where I've been without using MapSource.
Tools/Settings/Map/Trip Log (Show/Hide). You probably want to clear your old tracks first, otherwise you will see lots of overlapping lines radiating outward from your home. It saves a track log every time you use it or set a new Where To. It's quite useful with MapSource because it will import the tracks and you can delete the ones that you are not interested in.
GeePeeEx is great!
I do, however, have some questions and needs that do not seem to be handled by the 760.
4. Do any Garmin units allow Custom POI information fields to be expanded so that separate fields of address, city, state, zip, and phone could all display as an address block in the “description” place? Those of us who maintain databases keep that data in separate fields, and your system has only one field for 5 pieces of data that I like to have display in that spot.The Zümo, Nüvi & StreetPilot C5xx ranges all do this. However, POILoader can only build such .GPI (ie Custom POI) files from gpx input, not .csv.
They don't display in the 'description place' though - the description displays there! They have their own, pre-allocated display areas.
See my signature line for more info!
Your GeePeEx editor is great, Phil! Thanks so much! It makes Custom POIs what they should be!!!!
New nuvi680
I have been learning things about my nuvi680 by reading from this site for a couple weeks now.
I have had trouble downloading poi (Smoky Mountains) and getting this data into my unit. I just found out the Garmin has a "POI Loader" application!! I have installed and will begin trying it.
I tried to use MapSource on my new notebook PC but I get this error message: "Mapsoure could not find any installed MapSource map products. Please install one or more MapSource map products at start MapSource again."
To work around this, I used the POI file I downloaded from this site, and instead, used my desktop Dell to transfer the file using MapSource. Since I had Garmin BlueChart products installed on the desktop PC, I avoided the error. However, I still did NOT expect that much trouble. Is MapSource intended to be bought and loaded on one PC? I was assuming MapSource was a free Garmin "tool"? .....
I hope I have more luck with the POI Loader! But what format do I download the poi data in? The Smoky Mountain data is available in a gpx format, and several csv formats...... which do I want. It is confusing?
By the way, I think the Garmin operator's manual for my unit is a joke. I have had to read tons of faqs to work through many issues that had me stopped cold......
.
Your 680 question is a little off-topic. This discussion is about the Nuvi 760.
I've responded in http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15364
Nüvi 2595LMT
POIs
I do, however, have some questions and needs that do not seem to be handled by the 760.
1. Are there any makes of cars that have built-in GPS units that enable custom POIs to be imported?
I don't believe there are, because most of these units run directly from a DVD that is loaded in the unit itself. I have the Honda Navi system, to which nothing can be added. You just buy an updated DVD ($185 plus shipping and tax), and get whatever it contains.
Joel
"Sometimes, when I look at my children, I wish I had remained a virgin". Lillian Carter (Mother of Jimmy Carter)