Red Light Camera Locations

Are you asking about music MP3s (songs) or alert MP3s?

Thanks NickJr for the great tip "and" the TTS site to get it done...

Regards,

Tailspin

--
Nuvi 670

I'm new to all this but I understood all the instructions about creating a custom voice to go along with the chime for approaching a redlight camera. But what's this about a custom bmp? For what are you displaying a picture?

It's not necessary but nice to look at. For example using the starbucks logo as a bmp for the starbucks locations or a traffic light or camera bmp for the redlight files. These bmps show up as you approach the specific location. If you understood the mp3 setup the bmp is the same only using the bmp extension.

POIcons

I think it would be fine to incorporate it into a single file of both Speed and redlight cameras.

The red light camera database is incredibly off, I am sorry to say.

-77.05139 38.79978 Red Light Camera .01zhm Alexandria VA poi-factory Jun01 07

That one, for certain, has been gone for years now. I pass through that intersection almost daily and they took it down almost 2 years ago along with the sign indicating it was there. Now, in downtown DC where my office is...that's another story. This is the city where they invented the red light and speeding camera...

Further, and correct me if something has changed lately that I am not aware of, but Virginia has removed ALL red light cameras - YEARS ago. The VA red light cameras were just a pilot program and the last I checked, back in 05 when the above mentioned camera was removed, VA ended the pilot program and refused to institute them statewide because they proved to increase accidents, not discourage them.

So again, unless I missed something recently, VA HAS NO RED LIGHT CAMERAS, and has not for almost 2 years. They are illegal in VA at the moment. There was a bill trying to bring back the ability for individual jurisdictions to install them, but I have not seen it signed into law, and if it were to be, they are not supposed to be able to install them for a couple months to come, yet.

VA has just started adding cameras again;) Trust me I would not put them in the database if I didn't think they were really there or that they would be put there in the near future. I spend lots of hours every week researching this data and I have hundreds of eyeballs out there looking out for us;)

Thanks for your concern though.

here is my ongoing chat about virginia cameras.... http://www.poi-factory.com/node/111

Miss Poi

Oh I know they plan to allow for them to come back, but I am saying with certainty that the location I noted is NOT there anymore. It was in a box on the southbound lane of Rte 1 in Old Town Alexandria just before I-95. It is no longer there and has been gone pretty much since the day they revoked the pilot program. I understand wanting to maintain a listing of where the cameras WERE for your own reference should you need to use it again, but to put them in there as positive locations of active red light cameras maybe isn't such a good idea. They may still have some of them up in certain areas, though not turned on, but in many other areas they are gone altogether. Maybe just hold off for positive confirmation that there is an active camera location and run it against the list. Else you get dud locations based on where a camera WAS...3 years ago...and may not return to that location.

On another note I can tell you where we used to have a bunch of Bob's Big Boys if anyone wants to make a BBB POI. They've been gone for 12 years

RangerRick
If a .bmp pops up on alert with the .mp3, can you do the same with a .jpg using the same filename?

I am new to gps. I am operating windows vista. I will tell you it was hard to download the traffic camera to my gps. I must have spent 5 hrs until I finally contacted poi-factory support. Thanks to Jonathan I am up and running. A BIG THANK YOU JONATHAN YOUR THE BEST.

That's pretty cool! But, of course, it would only display if there was a proximity alert on the Starbucks entry, right? If I am correct, is there some other mechanism that can flag POIs on the map as they come up? For example, the Nuvi has a list of all fueling stations in the built-in POI database. How can I get these to show on my map display?

You have to zoom in quite a bit to get the built in POI icons to show up on the map screen. On my Zumo, I have to be zoomed in to 300 feet or closer (which I almost never am) in order for them to show.

The Custom POI icons, however, show up when I'm zoomed in to 0.3 miles or closer. (Much better in my opinion.)

The custom bmps (or even the generic icon) will show up on the map screen for the Custom POIs whether or not there is a proximity alert set. (At least on mine they do.) I don't have alerts set for most of my Custom POIs but I can look at the map screen and see the icon for my Honda Dealers, boat ramps, etc.

Please see below link regarding Virginia cameras

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05...

I add the cameras into the database as I get reports of them. Sometimes there is a few months lag time between the report of the camera and the actual installment of the device. If I tried to keep track of all the new cameras and only wait until they got installed to put them into the database, a lot of them would slip through my fingers.I am not notified when these cameras are installed so I don't hold on to locations, I get them in so that you guys know where they will be.

Miss Poi

bit dissapointed to see i have lost my active user status, shame for me i guess that work gets in the way of gps playtime.

I even sent you an updated redlight camera list for Houston Miss Poi just a couple of weeks ago, what do i need to do to get my status back?

Mantsimj,

I have looked at your history and it looks like you had activity in weeks 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 and then you disappeared until week 20 and then again in this week which is week 23. If you post again next week you will be qualified again for active member status on the 18th of this month.

Miss Poi

Thank you Miss Poi, attention to detail like this is what makes this site as good as it is..

I gave myself 50 lashings for not posting those weeks!!

JM was a genius when he came up with the way we get you all hooked and stuck to us;) Once we get our hands on your brains we are not going to let go.

Miss Poi

I feel hands on my brain. AAAAGGHH.

I followed the instructions for creating a custom voice to go with my proximity alert. Unfortunately, when I approach the speed trap it still only dinged. I took a closer look and realized that I downloaded the files as .gpx file, not a .cvs file. Althought the Nuvi accepts GPX format, does it need to be a CSV file for this feature to work?

How do I convert a GPX to a CSV? This would be necessary, independant of the above, if I want to edit the file anyway, correct?

Thanks!

...Jake

Your poi file can be csv or gpx format the most important thing is the bmp or mp3 file must be named exactly the same as the csv or gpx.

Example

Redlight_Camera.csv
Redlight_Camera.mp3
      
     OR

Redlight_Camera.gpx
Redlight_Camera.mp3

Will work correctly

However,

Redlight_camera.csv
Redlight_Camera.mp3
      
     OR

Redlight_Camera.gpx
Redlight_camera.mp3

Will not work correctly

If you'd like you can attach your file and mp3 and email it to me. I'd be happy to take a look.

Well I redownloaded it a a cvs file and now it worked! I'm sure that nothing else changed other than downloading it as cvs rather than gpx along with the same-named mp3 file.

Thanks for the help!

...Jake

You can use iTunes or similar software to convert .wav files to .mp3.

Ronc Nuvi360

You can use .mp3's with either GPX or CSV format. I use GPX and it works great. You can download a program to convert from GPX to CSV (or pretty much any other format) at the following link:

http://rjdavies.users.btopenworld.com/html/poiconverter.html

Ronc Nuvi360

when you use poiloader all the files get merged into one big file that is loaded onto your GPS unit

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has given their two cents worth on this subject and a few others. I now have a POI file (.csv) for the local red light camera's around my area and I have a custom picture and a voice prompt also. I would have never know to do this since I'm very new to the GPS side of life. So to all of you I say thank you!

The redlight notifications is really great, in that it makes me more attentive when I approach an intersection with a camera. Some yellow light intervals are very short; so I tend to be more ready to apply the brakes rather than accelerate.

Hey bestdad,
Sorry for the extremely late reply. I simply missed your question. If it's not already been answered... the image that will be on you display has to be a .bmp file, not a .jpg. It actually just sits on the map at the location (does not pop up).
The sound has to be a .mp3 file. Just create these files with the same, exact name (before the "dot"), in the same folder... and they will automatically be used by that file. My redlight folder looks like this:

redlight.csv
redlight.mp3
redlight.bmp

I've found that redlights and maybe school zones are the only ones I want an sound file attached to. And not too long ago I dropped the school zone sound file (at least for the summer) cause it was driving me crazy.

Are there plans in the works for a page with forms to upload coordinates, rather than bog you down with emails?

RangerRick56,

Just updated my Garmin nuvi and, according to Garmin, .jpg files are now supported for custom POI lists. Not sure yet what other models this covers, but I'll check it out and post it here.

Red Light Camera 6 BMP Icon
Traffic Camera 1 Alert sound

CLICK THIS LINK

Then scroll to the bottom and try using the ready mad iconds and sounds. Thats a good start! Red Light Camera BMP Icon's and Traffic Camera Alert sound. They workgreat
Monte

Interesting that jpg files are supported for POIs on the nuvi. Hope they can make the change to the Zumo too!

if you had put an icon file along with the redlight file, you will also see an icon on the screen.

Which Unit..?

Which Unit..?

I really don't want to put any files in my 660 that are not factory installed, but instead just use SD cards. Question: Downloading the Red Light files and School Zone files onto a SD card(s), can one go back into the SD file and add Mp3 voice directly under each file and make it work without installing it in the GPS?

As a police officer in a metropolitan area where red light cameras are utilized I have never used my GPS while driving arround town. The other day whilke utilizing the GPS to weave my way through a myriad of road construction projects the red light alert came on and I nearly jumped out of my seat! I was not sure what had happened. Since I do not subscribe to a FM traffic service I was not prepared for the warning tone and the directional bar turning red. I thought it was cool also. Admittedly, I have driven through a red light camera on duty during a sleet storm at about 20 MPH. I am still waiting to hear about that. Even we have to pay those tickets!

you will see the icons and when you apoproach it should make the sound that you chiose for it. make sure you loaded the pic file and sound file with the redlight cam file. and also make sure that they all have the exact same file name.

I realize that some of the red light camera files are for planned installations but almost every time an alarm goes off in Dallas there is no camera. Either there is a lot of planned installations or the addresses are wrong. I don't have this problem in surrounding towns so I don't think it a problem with my unit or POI installation.

did you ever find the answer?

AFAIK, c340 doesn't have mp3 capability.

This post has a pretty good description of how alerts work on c340:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/5530

JM

There is a folder on your GPSR called mp3 is where the files are stored.

Will this work for the Megellan 3140. that is putting the mp3 file in with the .MGLN file?

The custom MP3 alerts work with newer Garmin models, but I haven't come across any Magellan models that support them.

With Magellan, I think your only choices are the built in alert sounds.

JM

Thanks for your tip. I demo'd two files and converted to mp3 and they worked great. Nice sound too.
1 for red light cameras
1 for speed light cameras

Thanks again. I would never have found the demo site and I wouldn't have thought of it either.

I've uploaded an mp3 here:
http://cid-22c623bcdea4a723.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Publ...

Same problem here in Albuquerque... the database has around 35 locations but only 20 are actually working redlight cameras in Albuquerque. It seems the database is based on research from local media which includes planned locations... not from the government source that is accountable for maintaining the functioning cameras. This isn't necessarily bad but it is most certainly isn't good for me.

When I continually get false alerts around town it tends to make me ignore the real ones because so many false ones are triggering. It reminds me of the complaint of radar detector users. So why don't we all help out Miss Poi and verify the database where you are located? I did it here for Albuquerque and sent it in so she has an accurate count of EXACTLY which cameras are working and in the process I found 3 new ones that weren't listed.

Armed with the new data I modified the portion of the NM database and reloaded my GPS so I have no more false triggers. Plus I had fun re-editing the descriptions to be more meaningful to me by adding the Street Intersection names. Life is good

I have found that there were a lot of cities that would post future locations and then not get them installed. So I have abandoned the idea of putting future locations in the file. This week I will be verifying the data that came in last week and dumping out the future locations that have not been installed yet.

I want the data to be accurate, so no more reporting future locations to Miss Poi, wait until you see them being installed please;)

Jon and I are talking about the red light camera submission process to see if any changes need to be made to it.

After a year of building this file I have come to the realization that we have most if not all the locations in existence. We will be looking for info on new locations from cities that are just starting their programs but we may start requiring a link to a news source along with your camera submission.

I have been getting a steady influx of traffic monitoring cameras due to the fact that the technology is changing and the cameras are all starting to look the same.

Part of what I do is read reports that are sent to me from other news and government sources and it gives me a good idea of what is going on where.

When I let myself get distracted by researching reported locations that turn out to be traffic monitoring cameras it takes my time away from other things that need to be accomplished on the site.

Miss Poi

I think you are doing an awesome job! I am not sure what the link to the news source does for you but I understand the problem. Our local media isn't very current in their reporting. Sept 5, 2006 was the last time the media reported the list of operational and future red light locations.

For one, I volunteer to be your local Albuquerque updater. It isn't that difficult for me to contact the Albuquerque Police to verify the info which is how I got you the latest info.

I was warned at one in Ventura the other day that looked like just a traffic monitoring camera to me. However at the next intersection I saw the same cameras in addition to a red-light camera for only one direction. I may have missed that on the other intersection. I'll pay more attention next time I'm through that intersection and see. Pretty easy to tell the Ventura ones since they put up warning signs at all of the intersections.