problem with csv tourguide

John,
I have a 350, sorry for your loss.

I don't believe you could damage your 350 with a csv file, something else happened. Sounds like Garmin rep gave bad advise, next time post your questions here.

As for the tourguide or csv file download. Using the Garmin poi-loader you can load any combination of your liking: csv only, csv w/bmp, csv w/mp3, csv w/bmp and mp3. It doesn't have to have the word TourGuide in the name. Name all files exactly same except for file extention. In poi-loader program select manual mode, select alert by distance, distance of about 1 mile (5260 ft) for mcdonalds.

If your wanting a "TourGuide" use Mapsource, save to gpx format. You can link descriptive info mp3's or photos to each poi point.

Edit: When you get your replacement, create a Garmin master folder on computer, create a back-up folder in that folder, link Garmin to computer, copy entire garmin drive to back-up folder. Now you have a back-up of the garmin drive.

On the Garmin, delete all the languages and help files you don't speak. Creates space for more poi's.

After updating or adding a lot of files, save your Garmin drive to another computer back-up folder.

Check this FAQ re TourGuides, it consolidates a bit of info from various threads.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15028

I still can not figure out tourguides for my 760. Some people say to just drag them into the folder on the unit. That just put them into my favorites. Then I tried using the POI loader, which put them into Custom POI folder but did not bring over the Pix or Audio.

Anyone have any advice on how to actually install these?

I have searched the forums, but not come up with any solid answers.

The files I am trying to upload are from http://www.travelbygps.com.

Thanks,
Chuck

These are likely to be 'proper' TourGuides, rather than the csv-based ones (which have unusual characteristics - ie the same audio for every POI).

Assuming they are supplied in .gpx format, there will be a <link> statement for each POI, that refers to the associated TourGuide audio. You have to build the same structure on your PC, so that these links are valid. The links may be relative filespecs, which will make the job easier. It is possible that they contain absolute filespecs though.

Edit: ... and I forgot to say, that the resulting file structure is then input to POILoader, to build into a .GPI file

Can you give a link to the ones you are trying to access?

So this could get really tricky...

I assume you load them when you do your other POI's otherwise it will wipe out custom POIs?

Then there is the directory structure I use...
Always pointing POI loader to my "POI" directory:
POI
--Fast Food
----McDonalds.csv
----etc.

A good example is the San Fran Tour:
http://www.travelbygps.com/guides/california/sanfrancisco.ph...

Thanks for the help!
Chuck

There's definitely a danger of that - because left to its own devices, POILoader creates POI.GPI - overwriting any existing file. If you don't load them all once, you need to ensure that this overwriting doesn't happen. There are several ways of doing this - choosing a different location (by using the 'Custom Folder (advanced) option is one).

The TourGuide you are trying to download is actually available as a ready made .GPI file that you can just copy to the \Garmin\POI directory. That would be the easiest solution. The GEOVATIVE.COM website - which is where the data is from, provides a range of options, one of which uses the Garmin Communicator to copy the GPI to the Nüvi for you.

If you have no desire to edit these files, I would suggest you use one of the 'ready-made' versions.

If you do download the complete zip file, you will have to extract it (as a tree) to the top-level 'POI' directory for it to work without modification, as part of your normal processing. It uses relative links to 'Data\LocationXXXX-Y'. POILoader takes this to be relative to the top of the tree it is processing not the location of the gpx file that refers to it.
So, if for example, you created a "My tour guides" sub-directory and extracted the whole zip file there, it would not work. You would get the POIs, but no audio, or jpegs. POILoader wouldn't give any error messages either

This is in fact true. The gpx poi is given a link, should you move the files to your own directory you will need to re-direct the link to the new location.

I've done one for Boston with photos, was going to create it with sound but found it bugged me with all the chatter. Yes every poi had its own sound bite.

My TourGuide looks like this one.
http://travelbygps.com/TourGuide.php

Dear PG,

Why "5260" instead of 5280?

david