Question to clear understanding on tour guides

Answer to question 1: YES

Answer to question 2: Yes, why not !

I do use The TourGuide format for directional POIs for rest areas. Amtrak stations for a 1 mile alert on ariving to station. and many more.

Personally, I would not want to have an alert and sound pop up everytime I drove by a McDonalds. I only set alerts for poi's that are important to me. My only alerts on my nuvi right now are for true tour guides so when I go on vacation and I am walking around, I have the alerts sets to play a pre-recorded guided tour of that POI for descriptions of say a museum, or house, monument etc...and a picture of the POI so I don't mistake it for the building next to it. If all poi's were submitted as tourguides with alerts, you would always be having an alert pop up unless you live in the middle of no where. Would you want the alert set at 1000feet or 5000feet?
Just my two cents.

H Hannah is it possible that the TourGuide format would work with units with out MP3'3 but would get the bong alert based on the radius?I don't know if I would ever use it but just curious.

Why not? .... because I don't want to be constantly alert for those things for which I might be within the radius but aren't necessarily going to go near and don't necessarily WANT to go near or be alerted to.

I'm with you!

I am no big fan of the alerts going off all the time either but some members are and they sometimes have good reasons.The member who wants to be alerted for the e85 special blend fuel is good example.These stations not located on every corner like regular gas so I to would want to get alerted until I got know where they are located at.

Maybe but it depends on the unit. There was some talk in the thread below that on nuvi 2xx series that do not have a mp3 player, you could possibly get wav files to play instead of mp3.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/13041

To that

I have been following that thread and that it what got me to ask Hannah the question.Don't want to play around when unit when someone knowledgable might have the answer.

Well, I understand tour guides better now.

I never did seen any benefit in tour guides until now. But, I am like some others in that I don't want an alert going off every 1,000 yards or so.

In all though, it is nice to know I can set up some things to alert that are not on my road... when I am traveling.

Thanks to all.

MM,

I am not suggesting nor have I ever suggested to use TourGuide for alerts for routine POIs. Such as WalMarts, StarBucks ect..... UNLESS THATS WHAT THEY WANT!!!!!!!! Their Choice!! I am only suggesting other options than the common ones stated by most here.

But what I am saying that I use them to make MY directional POIs, Amtrak station arrival POIs (these alert me 1 mile ahead of train pulling into station.), Real TourGuides (Fort Knox, East Jersey Olde Town, Speed Traps(always get a alert at a set distance not related to speed), School Zone(always get a alert at a set distance not related to speed)

All I am saying they can be used for other things besides TourGuides. This gives the user other options on how to set up His/Her alerts. THERE CHOICE!

As for the speed traps areas I actually use 2 POIs, 1 to set the actual mark where I am entering the speed trap area with a voice alert saying "Entering a 25mph speed zone". And another POI to alert me if I exceed the stated MPH of the zone.
By using TourGuides I am eliminating the:
"Prompt Distance = 36 seconds * Speed" and make sure that I am alerted WHERE I WANT to be alerted not where the GPS determins where to alert me.

See post above "WHY NOT - Its another OPTION"

Being I don't have a GPS that doesn't play mp3s, I can't really say.

But in reading some of the threads on here I would have to say it might work using .WAV files in place of mp3s.

This thread maybe of some help:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/13429

PS> TourGuide alerts can be set for:

1. AUTO PLAY
2. PROMPT
3. OFF

At: TOOLS >> SETTINGS >> PROXIMITY POINTS

Therefor you have some control over the TourGuide method.

I answered why not above. Some people it is good for, and yes, if someone want it that's fine and explain to them how to do it. But it is probably easier to submit gpx files without alerts than to try and remove only the unwanted alerts afterwards.

This would cover ALL the alerts on the system though so the ones I really want would NOT alert right? I think my and MM's points were that we would prefer that all POI were not created as alerts so we can choose which ones to load for alerts and not have to turn off ALL alerts when we do not want them.

What has SUBMIT to do with a person building their own custom POIs for their own GPS.

There was no mention about submitting anything.

The only thing I am suggesting and have ever suggested is to be able to MAKE CUSTOM ALERTS FOR YOUR OWN GPS.

Just as I downloaded the rest area files and then I modified them to be DIRECTIONAL 1 mile alerts for MY own use (Using thE ToutGuide method).

This post or none of my original post has suggested anything other than that.

JUST OPTIONS FOR YOUR OWN ALERTS!!!!

I guess I missed the point of Question 2 in the begining. The "why not set up many POI's as tourguides". I was assuming this might have meant submitting POI's already with alerts.

I had many poi files that I created alerts for. Starbucks, Walmart, Target, CVS, Red Light Cameras, Rest Areas etc. I found it extremely frustrating listening to an alert ever couple miles. I had to reload all my files and now have just the Red Light Cameras with the alert. I was new to this whole thing and thought it would be a cool feature. Boy was I wrong and learned my lesson. I would strongly advise against having many of your files with alerts. Just alert the ones you really want. BTW since Starbucks announced it is closing 600 stores, is someone working on this yet?

I tried this. It is not the best option. It would have been better if I could shut off only some of the alerts not every alert. I do not want to have to touch the alert to turn it off each time either.

Am I correct that the NUVI 660 can not use Tour Guides??

Here Here !!!!

No, this is not correct. Units with an MP3 player in the firmware CAN use TourGuides.

H Hannah, when I responded, I was responding to the OP's question of why not set ALL (or many) POIs as TourGuides.

I thought you had to be able to do routes to do Tour Guides. The 660 only takes 1 via point. I hope I'm confused.

Tour guides are sound files turned on by a proximity radius. If your nuvi supports mp3 it will support tourguides. Routes are where you would make your own directions such as a scenic route through mapsource.

It is only necessary to include TourGuide in the title and then load manually? Thanks by the way for the information. I haven't understood this correctly.

Well I try it out.Put the TourGuide in the title of a test poi file and use express mode for poiloader and the bong alert worked.Try the wave file per instructions on the node but never got that to work.Use both mono and stero but no luck.Just curious if would work but at least I know if I want to increase the alert radius it is possible.

I was just wondering if my Nuvi 2699 will use tourguides like my Nuvi 660 did? If so, how to I create a TourGuide from a *.csv and *.wav file?

The quick answer is yes, your 2699 can use tour guide files. The way you create a TourGuide from a CSV and WAV file is a 2 step process.

1. In the file name and associated wave file name add the keyword TourGuide. The T and G MUST be uppercase.
2. During the load process, you must use the manual mode and specify a distance for the file. This creates a circular alert radius rather than an along-the-route rectangular alert.

Tour guide files are easier to create using a GPX file as the alert distance can be included in the file as an element of the file rather than having to specify it as an item during a manual load using POILoader. See my tutorial at http://www.poi-factory.com/node/41653 for help on this.

Absolutely it will work. And since you already know it works as a TourGuide with your old 660, it'll also work with your new 2699.

There is one change you likely need to make which you've already identified. Your old 660 could use mp3 audio alerts and if that's what you used, you now need to use wav files instead; and if using a PC as the computer, you need to install sox.exe version 14.0.1 to the folder containing the POILoader.exe file. If using a MAC, this sox requirement is not needed.

As you may remember, TourGuides only work when there's a custom audio alert (mp3 or wav for your old 660, and wav for the 2699). If the audio file doesn't work or if the 'wrong sox' or the 'right sox in the wrong location' prevents the audio file from loading, then the TourGuide POI alert will not work with the 2699. The solution in this case is to find out why the wav/sox is not working and correct the problem.

There are several FAQs here regarding TourGuides and FAQs on how to get custom alerts for devices that can not play mp3 audio including the download of the proper sox.exe file. If needed, shout back after checking these out.

I use TourGuide on POI's that have the capability of being too far from the road to 'pick up' using a regular POI.

For Example: Cracker Barrel stores can exceed the distance from the road, and be missed. (I forgot the distance limitation) So I use TourGuide, and I increase distance to 12000 feet.

For Example: Rest Areas with Bathrooms can also exceed the distance from the road, and be missed. In this one, I also increase distance to 12000 feet, but here I do it because I want the POI to Alert me BEFORE the Road Signs Do!!!

Also: I use same POI's on my 660 and 2689, but store them in two separate folders.... So I can have larger Logo's and WAV's on the folder for 2689, and smaller Logo's and MP3's for the 660
It necessitates me keeping two separate folders, but when it comes time to update the POI's I've got everything needed for each GPS, that needs different file types.

Yes, I understand your desire for TourGuides with Cracker Barrel. For older devices that do not offer school zone alerts, using The Factory's 'schools' POI file as a TourGuide gives a fair representation of a School Zone alert for the same reason that you use TourGuides for Cracker Barrel.

But for Rest Areas (if using mahoney's Rest Areas Combined USA with or without restrooms), a TourGuide is not necessary as mahoney (and the originator of the file, MrKenFL) set the locations to be the exit ramp for the rest area rather than the rest area building or parking lot). If setting either of mahoney's rest area files as a TourGuide, you will get false positive alerts for rest areas within the alert radius that are not along your roadway and also alerts for rest areas on divided highways in your opposite lane. Therefore it's best to set up Rest Area alerts as regular POIs and not TourGuides. Using the Rest Areas Combined USA file with a 16,000' alert distance, I'm correctly alerted to upcoming rest areas about three miles before the exit ramp which is about two miles before seeing the first Rest Area - One Mile ahead sign.

I will assert that a TourGuide for Rest Areas is NOT what anyone wants to do. As Craig has pointed out, one will get alerts for Rest Areas that are on the other side of divided highways and would take you miles out of the way should you "have to go".

It would be helpful for all members to take note of any Rest Areas that happen to alert but you find are on the other side of a divided highway (without easy off and back on access). Notify Mahoney and he will be able to tweak the coordinates so that a 30 meter circle around the entrance ramp for the Rest Area on the other side of the divided highway does not include the roadway for the direction of travel which incorrectly has alerted.

Thanks so much for everyone's help. I have loaded the Sox file a while back to get wave files to work. So I do not have to worry about that one.

I have added the words "TourGuide to the items that I want proximity alerts for. I will try them out as soon as I update the Garmin.

I really appreciate everyone's help.

Ok, I created a TourGuide from "Offbeat Tourist Attractions" and ran a simulated route past an attraction. Everything worked great!

Thanks everyone for giving me another great feature to my GPS that I had not used before on this new Garmin.

I have posted a few times how I have used TourGuide with my 1490. My previous Prius did not have a dash GPS in it so I planned my route and then took the REST AREA file and put it in an EXCEL file sorted by states and then deleted the states I would not be in. I then deleted the Kybo rest areas. I then saved it as a GPX and KML file named Rest areas XYZ trip TourGuide.gpx. I then made a wave file Rest areas XYZ trip TourGuide.wave where it read out "rest area ahead 2 miles" which lets me get into the right lane. I then put the KML file into Google Earth to see which rest areas are on my route. Then with EPE I locate the rest stop and put the wave file in link. The in the map I go about 2 miles away and in your direction of travel move the red marker to that spot. In the Proximity box enter about 40 feet and make sure it covers only your direction of travel. This way it would only read it on your side of the highway.
This methode can be used for any TourGuide. How many people travel through Iowa on I80 and by Casey, Jesse James just south robbed the first train in the west and north Bonnie and Clyde held up a bank.
My new Prius has dash GPS and it shows the rest areas comming up at a much further distance so I no longer have to do the above.

That is some good ideas. Currently I made TourGuides of attractions such as Lighthouses, covered bridges, etc. I love finding these items that I did not know existed.