Fire hydrant icon

If you're talking about the internal POIs that come with your nuvi 200, the answer is no. BMP icons downloaded from a site like this one can only be associated with custom POI files.

If you are talking about creating your own custom POI file with locations you find yourself for the hydrants, then the answer is yes. Just name the POI file the same as the hydrant BMP file (except for the file extension) on your PC.

Like this:

POIs (main POI filder)
>>>Hydrant Locations (sub-folder)
>>>Hydrants.csv
>>>Hydrants.bmp

Then when you run POI Loader, point it to the main POI folder. The program will find the sub-folder and the files in that sub-folder and load it to the nuvi.

EDIT: after my original post, I continued thinking about your question and tried to read between the lines of what you said.

I'm guessing you are a fire fighter. I have no idea how fire departments track or locate or map the locations of fire hydrants (aside from the blue reflectors in the road). But, what an absolute great application for a GPS and for what better cause!!! Anything to save a firefighter precious time in locating a hydrant on unfamiliar streets would be a great idea.

If I have guessed correctly and this is your goal, I applaud your effort

You are correct I am a Chief in Greenville county south carolina i wish there was a way to load the symbol in so while i am out i can plot the hydrants in the gps and give them the symbol then, but i guess I will have to figure out how to load them as pois. i still dont fully understand how that works/ how to do it...

I would drive around and put an address for each hydrant then go to google earth and put in each address then adjust the coord for the exact location of the hydrant. then you can load it and the icon and alert so you will know each time you are near one. It could be a little work depending on how big your area its but well worth the effort. I was wilth our small fire dept for awhile and know how much this would help. Good luck.

I was thinking it was going to be a rest area collection for your dog!

It will be a lot of work but what you can do is actually just go to each firehydrant location and save current location into favorites (just use a random internal symbol for now) then when you get all of them saved, just take your current.gpx file which is all of your favorites, open it in mapsource and you can rename and edit this file. Then use POI Loader like Gary said and load it with a .bmp hydrant and even a mp3 if you wish a unique sound. I would only do the mp3 if this was a permanent gps in the firetruck. (and give it a low prox alert).

That is a great tool for the fire department. Definately make copies of it so you can have back up files for other trucks and units.

Paul

If you are by the hydrant why not just capture the Lat/Long of the exact location instead of writting the address and then looking it up in Google?

To the OP, I'm sending a fire hydrant icon to Miss POI, but if there's no POI file on the site for it to go with, I might need to send it to you directly.

You can set the Custom Icon with your Custom POIs once you get the data together.

As mentioned above, you can't create Custom Waypoint Icons for use with your Favorites.

Dayhiker - you might want to check with the appropriate county department (water department?) to see if they have a database with fire hydrant locations. They must have some type of map with the locations listed.

If they do, then you can convert the locations to lat/long and import them as POIs. Much easier then driving to each actual hydrant.

we have this one on the site: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/14670

Miss POI

I will be adding MM's in the mornin.

Miss POI

Here is the icon that MM made http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15972

Miss POI

If your unit will show the lat/log when you touch the car icon onthe screen them you could possible use that but don't save it as it would go into your favorites. If there is a will there is a way it is just finding which works best for what you are trying to do.

Just a suggestion, what if you use a map of the hydrants marked, then use:

http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html

click on the location and get your coordinates to build your own POI file.

Ok thanks everyone for the input i went in to mapsource today after saving a hydrant. I first created a custom symbol in the map source program I then went to the waypoint properties and changed the symbol to the hydrant it shoed up on the map I then uploaded the info to the gps but the symbol didnt show up on the gps i am guessing this is not an option...

One more addition we are planning on mapping the hydrants as we do the maintence on them so we will be sitting within 3 feet of them when they are saved on the unit I just need a way to change there symbol...

Chief,

That is what I have been doing with my GPS. Now that I have located a hydrant icon, it will make it a lot easier. I'm a captain/paramedic with a department in Arkansas. Luckily our area isn't huge!!!

You can not change the internal icons. You can only add the hydrant icon afterwards when you load the gpx or csv file in the end. You just need to select one of the ones that are already there and use those until you get to the end. What you can do though is after a bunch have been saved, create the .gpx file and load them in and you could use that to see ones that have "already" been marked.

Ok is there a instruction sheet step by step on how to do this. Sorry but all these file extensions just dont make sense to me. I have saved the location in the unit what do i do to change the icon to a new one? Bear in mind I can work my way around a computer but "I AINT no GENUS"

Sounds good Brody Our area is approx 75 sq miles So it will help tremendously....

If you are saving these as favorites, you would just go back into the favorites section afterwards, click "edit" then you will see a change icon. Just select something that you would recognise easily later. (maybe the red dot or box). Make sure you type in "hydrant" for the name of each hydrant.

When you have a bunch or are done mapping hydrant locations, hook up the nuvi to the computer and copy (or drag) the current.gpx file on your nuvi to you desk top. Drag and drop the current.gpx file into mapsource. (This is going to load ALL your favorites) Now go through the list and delete all the "non" hydrant labeled lines and they should be easy to spot since they will also be that red dot or box. Now click save as and change the name to hydrant.gpx. Use poi loader with the hydrant.gpx and the hydrant.bmp that they made for you on the factory and you will now have that hydrant loaded for all those locations you just maped out.

You could also do the Mapsource option of transfer, receive from device but personally I think the current.gpx file is easier.

(Just do not delete the current.gpx since that is your other favorites too) You will have to go back at some point though and delete out each hydrant favorite you created.

Hope this helps.

Curious, are you using the "Smokey" vehicle to get you to the locations?

http://www8.garmin.com/vehicles/product.html?vName=smokey

When you load your locations directly to the GPS via MapSource, they are going into your Favorites, aren't they? You cannot add custom icons to favorites even if they come in from MapSource. However, if you just take the hydrants listed in MapSource (however you get them there) and save them as a gpx-type POI file, you can then use whatever custom icon you want, and load with POI Loader.

BTW, if you look at the one supplied by Motorcycle Mama, you may not realize what is going on. The magenta color in the icon will be transparent on the GPS screen, so you should give it a try.

You are very close . . .

Actualy I am using the smokey vehicle I wish they had diffrent types of trucks but this one will do

Yahooooo i got it now i understand how to get it loaded it took a few failed attemps but I finaly figured it out now comes the fun part loading all the locations.....Thanks Everyone for all the help.....

I knew there would be plenty of helpful folks here to help you get going in the right direction. You're right though, now comes the not-so-fun part - building and maintaining your hydrant "database." But, just keep thinking what a great tool you will have when you are done!

If you run into any problems, be sure to post back.

Dayhicker, have you looked at the vehicles garmin has inthe garmin files. I was just looking and they have about six differnt ones under service vehicles I think it was. They do have a read fire truck.

Yeh i have seen those I just wish they had some diffrent types of fire trucks instead of a conventional cab a nice coustom cab would be nice.

We got a fire fighter over here who is looking for a customized fire truck to use as his vehicle icon.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Are there any custom vehicle icon guru's out there able & willing to help Dayhiker with a custom fire truck?

I've been thinking about trying to make custom vehicles, so this would be a worthy project.

Dayhiker, could you provide me with a picture of the type of fire trucks your department uses. Then I'll take a stab at this.

Here is one example

http://www.uscvfd.org/apparatus/photos/truck.jpg

That would make a great icon.
Dayhiker, you got me thinking of marking my hydrants as well. I have been a FF for 20 years and I still don't remember all of the locations in our town.

I went out last night and plotted 80 hydrants. Before I left the house, I hooked up the garmin to the computer and copied the "Current.GPX" to a folder that I named original gpx. This way, after I am done plotting hydrants, I can put the oringinal "Current.GPX" file back on the garmin saving me loads of manual deleting.
I pulled up to the hydrant and added to my favorites by touching the vehicle icon. For the name of the favorite, I named it according to the max flow (500gpm,1000gpm, 1500gpm,etc). The gps will automatically put sequence numbers after the second hydrant named the same (500gpm, 500gpm 001)so all you have to do is continue to label hydrants using the same name (500gpm, 500gpm, etc).
When I got home, I hooked up the gps and copied the current.gpx file to desktop and drug it into mapsource.
I started with the 500 gpm first. I deleted every waypoint listed that didn't have 500gpm,then saved this as 500gpm Hydrant.gpx. I did the exact same thing for the others flows by dragging the current.gpx file on the desktop back into Mapsource and deleting the appropriate files.
After all of that was done, I had 4 different files (500gpm, 1000gpm, 1500gpm, and Dead Hydrant).
I got the hydrant icon from here and opened it up in PS and made 4 new ones to match the flow (red 500gpm, orange 1000gpm, green 1500gpm, and black for dead) I named these the same as the gpx files,loaded them manually with a 150ft alert with POI loader, and voila.
If anybody uses color coded Hydrants and want to use the different color icons,let me know.

I am impressed!

I posted at the beginning of this topic what a great idea I thought this was - creating a custom POI file of fire hydrant locations.

What an important and worthwhile application for a GPSr.

Well done

Maybe the idea will catch on in more cities.

Congratulations MSU70.

I hope you have a way of communicating this use to all the FD's around the country -- after all, you are probably the leading authority on such usage.

Out of curiosity I would like to see the file so I can bring it up in Mapsource and be able to visualize the layout of the fire hydrants.

Would you be uploading to POI-Factory for others to see? the file will be of no help in other parts of the country but we could see how close the plotting is to the actual location.

I am also in the process of storing sutible landing zones for our meda vac helo to land and using the helo icon from the site it is slow going but i am having fun doing it.....

I could email it to you or upload it to Rapidshare if you want. I'm not completly finished yet.

If is not much trouble you can e-mail to me thru POI-Factory contact.

If you are making landing zones for MEDIVAC, I suggest you also make it in a excell type file. You should label each landing zone in the major formats. Our department posted the in the dispatch center in the decimal format only and the helo pilot wanted it in degrees and minutes. Caused a needless delay so we now have them all multi listed.

I can't send files through POI-Factory contact. You can contact me with an email address.

Rather than maintaining separate lists, why not just put the additional coordinate formats in the comment field for each location.

That way when the person on the ground pulls up a suitable landing site, all they need to do is hit the MORE button and they will see the comment screen which will show the degrees/minutes coordinates.

yes I have done that but the hard copy in dispatch didn't have it. I just didn't want to see someone else go through the issues we had.

*ps we have also have a web link to itouchmap.com/latlong so any location can be map quickly.

Good idea firenutts

why is it each time i add new hydrants and upload the icon for them the others dissapear

How are you adding them?

to maintain a file on the computer then upload. Once you up load go in and rename the file. ever time you use the poi loader it deletes the previous poi file, thats why you need to rename it after you upload. there are a couple of threads on how to do it. The file you need to rename is poi.gpi. you rename it hyrdants.gpi You will find its easier to maintain a excell file and update from their.

Sounds good if someone could point me to one of the threads...

We are all so eager to see you succeed with your project, that I feel we haven't given you the basic tools of searching for what you need. For instance, nobody is going to know the location of the threads you want, but I immediately pulled them up by searching for "renaming poi.gpi". I'm not trying to be critical, but I think you've been give the impression this info is at the fingertips of somebody when in fact that somebody is just doing the work for you. See:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/8779

The other thing is that although this technique will certainly work, it is NOT the method most people use. Most people keep their files in folders on the computer and then load all together into a single POI.gpi file whenever anything is changed or added. This was best explained by Motorcycle Mama:

You can have subfolders under your main folder, if you want. The folders will create categories. You can't have more than one level of subfolder. The files themselves will create the subcategory.

For example, it might look like this.

> My POI (Main folder)
>> IHOP (subfolder)
... IHOP.csv
... IHOP.bmp
>> National Parks (subfolder)
... National Parks.gpx
... National Monuments.gpx
... National Recreation areas.gpx
... National Parks.bmp
... National Monuments.bmp
etc.

In this example, IHOP and National Parks show up as categories and then under National Parks, the subcategories of National Parks, National Monuments, and National Recreation Areas show up.

Here are some screenshots of what it would look like.

This is a shot of the folder and files on my computer.
http://i18.tinypic.com/4q8bl8m.jpg

This is how the first level shows up on my Zumo.
http://i9.tinypic.com/4t6c8ye.jpg

When I select the National Parks category, this is what I get.
http://i2.tinypic.com/62qyi4z.jpg

Then if I select National Monuments, I get this.
http://i8.tinypic.com/4kbd8jc.jpg

Bentbiker, thanks for that link. I didn't know that you could have more than one gpi file on the SD card.

I finished plotting 156 hydrants using the method that I wrote about earlier. The only thing that I changed was the proximity alert was raised to 250ft.
My idea of saving the original "current.gpx" file and overwriting the new one (with all of the hydrants as favorites) didn't work the second time. So, I had a lot of favorites to delete. There must be a backup of that file that is created after some time. Maybe someone here knows were it's stored, because if you could replace that file, it would save a lot of work.

The Chief liked the idea enough that we ordered 2 gps's for the engines! We are now planning to go beyond our area of coverage, and plot the hydrants were we are called to offer mutual aid.

I just wanted to thank Dayhiker for coming up with this idea, Thanks!

This is a great thread, and thank you! I am a painting contractor and have been wanting to know how to make a custom POI with all the paint stores in my area. Now I know.

If I understand correctly, you don't realize that current.gpx is, itself, a copy or your Favorites -- it is not the actual database itself, which is totally inaccessible. And, if you are looking for a way to delete all your favorites, you can do a reset. As I understand it, if you do a reset wiping out all the favorites and then copy back a stored copy of you current.gpx, the unit will read that file back into the favorites database when you shut down. Test at your own peril or wait for confirmation from somebody who has actually done it.