Loading POIs into Magellan RoadMate 800

Some Magellan models come with "Magellan POI File Editor". You can open CSV POI files by using File/Open and changing the "files of type" to "Ascii Files".

After you select a file, the Import Wizard will start. Change the "Separator" setting to comma and then continue to the next screen to identify the fields. The 1st column is longitude, 2nd is latitude, and 3rd is name.

When you finish importing, you should change the default category name and alert settings. Then, you can save the data as a magellan POI file with File/Save.

Finally, use "Magellan RoadMate Tools" to load the .MGLN file into your GPS. On your GPS, you may need to enable the file using "Nav Options" / "Configuration" / "Custom POI's" / "Select a POI File".

Please share how it works for you.

JM

JM, I did everything you said to do. It worked unbelievably. Thanks for all your help. I have the alarms set to 150 feet for the first and 50 feet for the second. I may have to set them lower because there are lots of redlight cams in NYC, and it was going off pretty often. On one redlight it went off after I pass the camera; But, I am very satisfied with it. Thanks again for your help.

We're always looking for feedback on camera locations. If you happen to recall any intersections that seem to be off, please send us a note with the contact form.

As an alternative to shortening your alert distance, you might be able to reduce false alerts by narrowing your detection angle. This will tell your GPS to focus on POIs that are straight ahead and not alert you to ones that are left or right of your direction of travel (possibly on nearby side streets).

I think the default window is 90 degrees. Assuming the roads you drive on are pretty straight, you might be able to tighten the angle down to 60 or 50 degrees. You can find this setting in your GPS under Nav-Options / Configuration / Custom-POIs / Alert-Parameters.

JM

I set my detection angle to 50 degrees. I will let you know how it works, and I will keep and eye out for more cameras. NYC has lots of dummy cameras also. I dont know if they are on that list I downloaded. I guess its better to have it there than not have it. You never know if they will activate them. You can usually tell if they are real, because you will see the triggers on the ground just before the intersection.

Every time I try to import a poi file I get an error
lattitude and longitude are wrong

I have tried everything, I can not get my 760 to take any poi files. Had a friend use editor and change to Magellan format still will not take it.

A couple things to check --

Source files have Longitude before Latitude. Make sure they're not getting reversed when you're selecting fields with Magellan's import tool.

Also, the Magellan models I've worked with require that each POI have a unique name. (It discards any duplicates.) The red light cameras file includes a unique id in each name, but many of the other files on the site have duplicate name values. If you're handy with Excel, you can append a sequential number to the field before you attempt to import.

JM

To take it a step further....
The first 35 characters of the NAME need to be unique.

You also have to be sure that there are no commas (,) in your fields. The software will not complain until you try to create the MGLN file. Then it will complain about an invalid Latitude or Longitude point. Removing any commas in the field fixed most of the problems I had.

You really have to watch it for Quebec locations, they tend to put a comma after the number, before the street name.

My computer is not loading the poi's. I have a magellan roadmate 2200t. when I create poi the file using the roadmate editor everything is find up to that point.

I start having trouble when trying to load the file into the magellan roadmate tool. Software allows me to select the poi file but will not transfer to the gps. The software keeps telling me no unit detected.

I have checked and recheck to make sure that the unit is connected to the pc. The gps state that is is connected to the pc but it appears the pc / software is not picking up the gps. can you help me.

thanks

I've done as I'v read with no luck. It says on one site that I have to use one of those cards to put custom POIs on my GPS. Is this true? Also, I don't have "Nav Options" anywhere. ???

JM,

I'm using a Roadmate 700.
I have a few MGLN files send to me by another Roadmate 700 user. Can I just copy the MGLN file onto the 700's hard drive over USB? or is it necessary to use the Tools program (which I do not have)
I've recently upgraded to map version 6 and the Custom POI selections are in the Configuration menu, but I don't know what to do with the MGLN files.

Any help is appreicated. Thank you.

Jay

I have a 4040 and it has a slot on the left side for a SD card. I bought a couple of them, and using the Magellan POI file editor that is on the disk that came with it, you can create your own POI's, or download from a few sites and load them into the file editor and it creates mgln files that you can use on the SD Card. I don't believe there is a way of loading onto the drive of the unit itself.

Sure there is. You just have to watch the amount of free space on the internal drive. IIRC, it is the USR folder regardless of location.

I don't know, however, why you would really want to do that 'cause they seem to work exactly the same as they do on the SD card......and they might get in the way of future upgrades.

I to have a 700! I got the V6 update making it a 760! the books with it tells me HOW to make POIs but does not come with POI manager to do it with! Does ANYONE have the V5 update with the CD with the editor? I really would like to get a copy of that CD or get the software emailed to me! OR If anyone knows how to get the software some where! ANY HELP will be appreciated very very much!!!!

You and several hunderd....maybe thousands....of other people!!

Maybe you should start a new thread just for that in the Magellan conference (are we there now?) with a descriptive title something like:700 upgraded to 760. Need POI manager.

Then that would be a better place to put the answer when it is found (think I've seen a link but can't remember where) so it would be easier for others to find.

Does the 700 have the same hardware as an "original" 760? Amount of internal memory? Connector and cable for connecting to PC? Card slot?

My first thought when I saw this problem posted was: Maybe the hardware is enough different that it won't work. I haven't seen a definite answer either way.......but I haven't been looking to close either since I don't have one.

Edit: After looking, there are several threads here about that already......and nobody seems to have the answer yet.
You might want to look here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/magellan-gps-users/

thanks ka1167! It did not get me the answer but it got me a new place to ask the question!! maybe Ill get there yet! thanks again for the help!!!

Is there a way to load new icon's into the Magellan POI Editor?

Apparently not. The unit defaults to a circle on
my 2200T and I cannot change it.

The POI Editor I got with the Maestro allows you to choose a new icon (from a built-in list) while you have the file open with the editor.

Right click on the category name (left col.), choose "modify" and look at "image".
No way to add your own, though.

I kept playing with the tools today and you can change the icon for the category. But the tool gives you a list of icons to choose from. You cannot add your own.
Now, I was trying to load multiple categories for one file. But, It seems you cannot do that.
Is that correct?

No, but it's not obvious how to do it.

Load a category, get everything set like you want it, then right click on the category and "CUT". This moves the entire file to a clipboard like memory.

Then without closing the editor, open a file with your second category. Polish it up, then right click on the category column and do "PASTE".

Voila! Now you have 2 categories loaded at the same time that you can save to a combined file.

Don't know for sure what the limit is on this as I have only done 2.

Thanks for the help.
That worked and I was able to load 3 categories.
I did some research and found that you can load up to 10 categories for one file.

Unless they have changed something, you are also limited to 1000 entries per category as well.

Can you set detection angle on a Nuvi 350? If so how.

i imported the csv file using MGLN POI File Editor, every thing worked fine, but when i save the file as a .MGLN it will save only the last line...

Help!

Make sure that the name is no more than 35 characters and each entry MUST be unique. Only 1000 entries per category and 10 categories per file. Also, make sure there are no commas within the individual fields. If you want to contact me via my contact tab, I can send you my email for you to send me the file and I could check it and and test it on my unit (RM860T).

Dom

Probably that you had same file names in every lines, try to have different file names might have solve your problems

JM, I was having all kinds of trouble trying to get POI's on to my GPS, also.
I followed your instructions and it worked like a charm, first time.
Thank you so much for the info.

I am a new owner of a Magellan Maestro 3140. Ihave spent quite a lot of time on custom POIs and I have not yet successfully used any customed POIs. Please explain step by step how to create a file that contains 10 categories (say 10 categories of fast food restaurants) and how it can be used in Magellan 3140, thanks.

Also, I downloaded the Hospital POIs and the McDonald POIs, both of them have over 10,000 POIs in .csv and I converted them to .gpx format with another POI editor. Why I converted the .csv format to .gpx format was I had hard times to import most .csv format files into the Magellan POI Manager and only .gpx files work. When I tried to import these big .gpx format files, the Magellan POI Manager said it could not handle more than 10,000 POIs. So I downloaded another program, xml editor from MS and split these 2 big .gpx files into 4. Magellan POI Manager can now import the 4 smaller .gpx files and saved as .MGLN files. Apparently, I still cannot use these 4 files in my 3140. Is it true I need to cut them into even smaller files to be able to use them?

I have not used my 860T much since "converting" to the Gamin 760. It has become my loaner unit.

The CSV file can have 6 fields:
NAME,DESCRIPTION,LATITUDE,LONGITUDE,ALTITUDE,CATEGORY
(Personally, I never used Altitude)

Maximum filed length that the editor reads is 35 and for the name, must be unique.

No more than 10 different categories and 1000 entries per category.

When you bring the file into the POI file editor, you must select which column is which using the drop down box at the top of each field.

The categories are listed as a field for each line (entry).

You can load all the files you wish using the loader, but only one is active at a time and is selected within the GPS itself.

At least that is how it worked for the 800 and 860T

Hope this helps a little. If you send me an email address that can accept attachments I can send you a sample file. You can send me an address using my contacts tab.

Dom

@Dom, I sent you an email. Thanks.

I have sent you a MGLN and CSV (for Magellan) of the "Costco CAN_USA". Keep in mind, these files may not be 100% up-to-date.

Let me know if this helps.

Dom

Dom,

Thanks for the 2 Costco files.

The .MGLN immediately work in my 3140 SD card root and I was able to select the nearest Costco with your file in the Enhanced POI.

After opening your .csv file, I know now that I have a lot of work ahead to edit those .csv files downloaded from here in order to categories them to be of any use.

Maybe Garmin was a lot easier.

One major problem I have with the Garmin was once I borrowed a Garmin from a firend, that I could not input an address in New York City, say, I could not find Elmhurst, Fresh Meadows, nor Queens, no zip code input!

Regards,

I created some excel spreadsheets and I have a tab for each format (GPX, GARMIN-CSV and MAGELLAN-CSV). I go to each tab and save them as CSV.

Don't forget that you need the file editor, not the loader, to create the MGLN files.

Good luck
Dom

Dom,

Thanks again.

I was unable to locate the file editor you mentioned. Would you send me a copy to my e-mail, thanks.

I did the .csv files edit with excel but I only know some basic excel editing that used a lot of time ( some 4 hours just to get the name change to unique ones for Hardees in North Carolina, Geogia, and Virginia to get it saved as .MGLN).

By comparing your files and those I downloaded Hospital.csv and McDonald's.csv, that converted to .gpx (splitted to less than 10,000 entries) files did work on my 3140 after converted to .MGLN. One thing that I found last night that as long as the entries are less than 10,000, the converted .MGLN worked fine. There is no limitation for one category to within 1000 entries. You can have 2 categories for a total of 9999 entries.

The editor I am talking about is the tool that converts to MGLN. It is included with your unit and can't be found or downloaded anywhere. Goo d luck in trying to get Magellan to even try to send you a copy.

Dom

Can you use the file editor program to load on to your gps or microsd card and where do I load the red light camera file.

I think the number of entries has increased if you are using the latest POI File Editor (ver. 4.1.1.0). I had a .mgln file with almost 10,000 entries, all in one category. I was even able to combine two old .mgln files that I had to split in two with my old (not sure which ver.#) POI File Editor.

Could be, but Magellan in its infinite wisdom does not make upgrades available in any way shape or form. I tried to get them to even sell me an update and they simply said NOPE.

They don't care about customers......

How do I load Custom POI Files to my RoadMate 800 if Magellan POI File Editor is not loaded on my GPS?

The software is not on your GPS. It is on your TOOLS CD that came with the unit. You need to install the it on your computer. This software will/should allow you to see your GPS to be able to send the file(s) to it. If you don't have the CD, that is where your problem will start since it is not available for download from Magellan. Since it is copyrighted software it is not legal to make it available for download either.

Can I update/add more POIs to my GPS? There seem to be alot of very helpful POIs available here, including the redlight cameras, etc. that I'd like to make use of. Something tells me that I don't see the editor software on my cd that I'm in the same boat at the 800 user.

Can someone please put a copy of the Magellan RoadMate Tools here? Maybe an ISO CD or something, I have been looking for this since I lost mine and can't find it anywhere.

I Have a Magellan RoadMate 1412

Thank you very much for the help in advance!

@ ka1167

I must say that your post regarding multiple categories in the Magellan POI Editor was a lifesaver. I had been trying to have both the Red Lite POI File and Speed CAM POI files active in my Maestro 4250 and could not figure it out. For it to be so simple, yet not documented is just a travesty.

Thanks again, a very valuable post and should possibly be documented someplace easier to find, if I may make a suggestion being so new!!

Glad I could help.
I believe it is mentioned in another thread somewhere on here. I agree that it would be a good thing to add the the Magellan FAQ.
Did you look at the FAQ?
I don't remember what's in there.

EDIT: One of the FAQ categories takes you there.

ka1167,
Can you send me what you want posted and where you want it in the FAQ and I will get it up for you.

Miss POI

Also a Magellan owner. Any luck with loading 3200 POI's? Where did you find them? Need to install Red light & Camera alerts. Preciate the help!

I have a 4250...can someone please lead me by the hand in regards to how to do this? I have a garmin zumo 550 and it's as easy as pie being poi factory is set up for garmin...magellan is a bit different...I'm sometimes a bit computer challenged...please help...

Thanks..

Yes but not right now.

First, read the Magellan FAQs. Keep in mind that the 4250 is a little different than some of the older models in that you need a memory card for it to work.....I think.

You need to get the POI Editor off your Magellan CD and you need to be able to "see" the Magellan as an external drive when you connect it to your computer via a USB cable.

It's been about a year since I've loaded POIs on my 4250 and, to be honest, haven't actually USED any of them for about that long either. I find the built-in POI's and AAA listings to be more than enough......for me.