Essential Applications for Garmin GPS

 

Just purchased a new PC and rather than reinstalling all the applications that I was so anxious to load when I first bought my Garmin nuvi 760, I thought to check with other users' experience.

What apps do you consider essential to have for Garmin units?

Thanks folks

X

As the suggestions have started trickling in, I thought to start a summary of what other users consider essential. So here we go:

Garmin's WebUpdater

Garmin's POI loader to load your own POI files or the ones you find here.

Garmin's "Mapsource" to plan routes and upload them to your GPS

Garmin's "Communicator" plugin for your browser to load map points to your GPS from websites (such as Google Maps)

GeePeeEx Editor written by another POI member Phil Hornby to build and edit your own POI files.

Audacity to edit sounds for alerts and convert *.wav to *.mp3

Paint.Net to create and modify vehicles and icons

SoX, to convert computer audio files in to other formats.

POI verifier II to check your Custom POI files before uploading.

POI Converter JavaScript for Garmin nuvi GPS devices to create multiple POIs using "My Maps" feature from Google Maps.

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Zeus

essential

zeus33 wrote:

What apps do you consider essential to have for Garmin units?

Garmin's POI loader
for those of us without mp3 playback capability, the correct version of the sox.exe program to go with it.

An absolute must

An absolute must is WebUpdater to make sure your firmware is up-to-date ! And also you can get the latest voices !

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MrKenFL- "Money can't buy you happiness .. But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery." NUVI 260, Nuvi 1490LMT & Nuvi 2595LMT all with 2014.4 maps !

essential apps

I loaded all I could find and they took almost no space on the hard drive. Unless you're working with solid state bubble storage, why not have all of them?

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nuvi 785 nuvi 350, nuvi 270, GTM 20, jag in dash, mercedes in dash.

zeus33 wrote: Just

zeus33 wrote:

Just purchased a new PC and rather than reinstalling all the applications that I was so anxious to load when I first bought my Garmin nuvi 760, I thought to check with other users' experience.

What apps do you consider essential to have for Garmin units?

Thanks folks

X

Just what you feel you need, nothing more. Unless you want to collect garbage on your computer.

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Using Android Based GPS.The above post and my sig reflects my own opinions, expressed for the purpose of informing or inspiring, not commanding. Naturally, you are free to reject or embrace whatever you read.

Poi Loader

Poi Loader is the one essential and even then only if you intend to load your own poi files. Garmin's "Mapsource" is indespensible if you intend to plan routes and upload them to your GPS.

A 'nice to have' item is Garmin's "Communicator" plugin for your browser that lets you load map points to your GPS from websites, sort of a 'do it yourself' way to create points of interest without having to type in individual destinations on the GPS screen.

Cheers

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Garmin GPS III, GPS V, StreetPilot 2610, Mobile 10, Nuvi 660, Nuvi 760

For graphics and sound manipulation

I strongly recommend Paint.Net and Audacity as a must.

With Paint.Net I can easily create and modify vehicles and icons, and with Audacity I can edit sounds for alerts and convert wav to mp3.

Both free, both great!

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GARMIN nuvi 760 sites.google.com/site/lschwabe/

Three!!!

InstallGarminCommunicatorPlugin_262.exe
POILoaderforWindows_253.exe &
WebUpdater_241.exe

Of course, SOX.exe would be icing on the cake!!

what does sox.exe do?

i know above it was said that for us without mp3 capability it was for us, but what does it do and how is it usefull? and where can i get the sox.exe and load it into the gps?

SOX

hlopez0 wrote:

i know above it was said that for us without mp3 capability it was for us, but what does it do and how is it usefull? and where can i get the sox.exe and load it into the gps?

It is used by POIloader when uploading POIs with custom audio alerts. Units with mp3 support can play custom mp3 sounds rather than the default ding. Turns out units without mp3 support can play custom wav files, but you need this program and the right version of it to load the wav file.

You do not install it on the gps, you put it in the POIloader directory on thee PC and POIloader uses it.

Sorry, I don't have the link handy, but if you search here you should find it.

SoX

hlopez0 wrote:

i know above it was said that for us without mp3 capability it was for us, but what does it do and how is it usefull? and where can i get the sox.exe and load it into the gps?

According to Eric Phelps' web site "SoX, is the swiss army knife of sound processing programs. SoX is a command line utility that can convert various formats of computer audio files in to other formats. It can also apply various effects to these sound files during the conversion."

The link to Eric Phelps' information is:

http://www.ericphelps.com/favorites/utilities.html

I have never used it myself, but it seems that a lot of other users here at the POI Factory have.

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Zeus

Hi, For details on sox.exe

Hi,
For details on sox.exe and how to use it check here:http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/pagepoi.02.htm#pagepoi02text

Cheers,
revengineet

Essential Applications for Garmin GPS

Happy New Year Evaryone,

I'm a new member with a new toy, Nuvi 760. I've always had TT's till now, I was wondering if there's an app like TT Home for Garmin?

I have so far on my lap, Garmin's Web Update, Communicator and POI Loader.

Love this site.

Thank you,
Lee

would add

I would add retired technicians POI verifier II. It easily allows you to sort a csv file by state, change some of the formatting and check for any errors. He only asks for a $10 donation. http://showcase.netins.net/web/notchfamily/

I also just have been testing the free poiconverter.js from LSchwabe http://sites.google.com/site/lschwabe/Home. It will allow you to convert from a gpx to csv. Very cool and works well.

Daniel

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Garmin StreetPilot c580 & Nuvi 760 - Member 32160 - Traveling in Kansas

more SOX information

More SOX.EXE information, plus a link to download it can be found here:

arrow http://www.poi-factory.com/node/16728

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

additional use for sox

while my 765T does indeed have mp3 playing ability, I discovered shortly after creating my first proximity alert, that if you are playing mp3's at the time that an mp3 based proximity alert attempts to play, you will have the following problems. First, the alert will try to play, and fail almost immediately. Second, the mp3 player will stop playing the current track and advance to the next one.

This is apparently a glitch that others have pointed out here, and I have read a thread about it, but don't have it at my fingertips. Also Garmin is apparently working on a fix.

The workaround is to use wav's instead of mp3's for the alert sounds.

Anyone know if Garmin has fixed the issue yet for any models?...in any firmware updates?

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— (Garmin nuvi 765T) — "people who say money can't buy happiness, don't know where to shop"