Another newbie with tons of questions

Read http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1631

Bentbiker,

That was one of the first pages I went to. From what I read I needed POI Loader and to pay for the Red Light fee. I did all that and loaded the files onto the 550. But they didn't come up with the other POIs. When I looked for them they appear to be an excel file.

Now I KNOW there MUST be something more to the page you directed me to. I just can't find what it is. What am I missing here that is obvious to everyone else but me?

I think the POIs that you created are Favorites and are saved in gpx folder as current.gpx. If you want to save these as Custom POIs, you can use POI Loader to convert this gpx file to Custom POIs with is saved in poi folder as poi.gpi.

I would think that your Red Light file is a csv file (if not, open in Excel and save as csv). POI loader must be used to create Custom POIs. Put all csv and gpx files in one POI folder, connect GPS to PC, and run POI Loader.

Hope this helps to get you started.

See if this helps.Go to the 5th one down.This something I typed out. http://www.poi-factory.com/node/17408

If you used POI Loader, the POIs will not show up under Favorites or the built-in POIs. They are listed under WhereTo/Extras/Custom-POIs on most units. Every time that you run POI Loader, it creates a file named POI.gpi and it orverwrites any earlier version of POI.gpi and thus wipes out previous loads. Thus, you must load all POI files at once.

If a Custom-POI file shows up under Favorites, it is usually because a gpx file was placed directly on the unit or the card without loading with POI Loader.

If you used POI Loader, the POIs will not show up under Favorites or the built-in POIs. They are listed under WhereTo/Extras/Custom-POIs on most units. Every time that you run POI Loader, it creates a file named POI.gpi and it orverwrites any earlier version of POI.gpi and thus wipes out previous loads. Thus, you must load all POI files at once.

If a Custom-POI file shows up under Favorites, it is usually because a gpx file was placed directly on the unit or the card without loading with POI Loader.

Edit: I failed to explain your interpretation that the POI file was downloaded as a Excel file. If you downloaded the file here, it will be either a csv or gpx file. If you are drawing the conclusion the file is "an Excel file", I would guess that is because it shows up in Explorer with the Excel icon. That just means that your system is set up to open the file (surely a csv) using Excel. This is controlled by associations which are set at MyComputer/Tools/FolderOptions/FileTypes. You can associate the cvs extension with any program you want -- the most logical would be a text editor like Notepad, or a spreadsheet program like Excel. A spreadsheet program lets you view the data more easily, in columnar format. None of this is important unless you want to view or edit the data within. POI Loader will handle the file as long as the extension is csv or gpx.

And yes, redlight files, by virtue of the "redlight" in the name will provide a proximity alert of 1/4 mile if loaded in Express mode.

Hawk I sent you an e-mail to your listed address.

Mark

Okay,

Following Hawks instruction I loaded the POIs into a separate subfolder and made sure they ended with a .csv. Then using Poi Loader I got them into the 550 using the Express mode for loading instead of Custom.

I checked favorites and only found the motorcycle dealerships and national parks I loaded. Following Bentbikers instruction I checked Where To/Extras/Custom POIs and found the Red Lights and Speed Camera. So they are indeed IN there. Do I need to activate anything to get it to warn me as I drive around, or will they just pop up and warn me like you said within 1/4 of a known location?

Mark

They will automatically activate and warn you via voice. There is nothing you need to do to activate them.

You may find you will need to adjust the 1300+ feet distance on the red-light if you live in a city. Being in NYC, I myself have it set to only 300 feet and that still generally will trip the alert about 1-1/2 blocks away.

jc

I'm getting the hang of this.
I may be slow, but I'm getting it.

You will need to add the mp3 file for the redlight and speed cameras to give you the voice alert.

Can we do that on 265WT? I never got an voice alert on mine...

No we can't use mp3 but we can do the same thing with wav files for voice alerts. you can make your own at http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php or convert the mp3 on site to wav they must be PCM, 44.100 kHZ., 16 bit, Mono.You also have to go to your Garmin folder on the computer and find the location of poiloader.Put a sox file in the same location.You can download that from http://rapidshare.com:80/files/139638423/sox.zip .It works great I have them for most of my custom pois.

More discussion at http://www.poi-factory.com/node/16728

Thanks a lot... I had given up on voice alert!!! Not any more...

Here is a little out line of how to do it.

a.Download the latest PoiLoader file at http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/ .
b.Download Sox Exe at http://rapidshare.com:80/files/139638423/sox.zip .
c.After un-zipping Sox Exe file place it in your Garmin folder where the PoiLoader exe file is located on the computer.
d.The wav file for alerts will be named the same as the CSV or GPX file except for the extensions.
e.You can make your own wav files by going to http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php and typing in what you want it to say or use a program to convert mp3 files to wav. When using the conversion it must be saved as PCM, 44.100 kHZ., 16 bit, Mono

If it was me, I would have given you COW and COY, right now!!! You are awesome, Dude! I was little , but now I am !!!

Thanks For help!!

Glad you got it.One user created some nice sound files with music background.The one he done for Cracker Barrel was great.I converted it to wav.We just got back from passing one and my wife couldn't get over it.

Where do I find the voice alert?
Do I just save it into my speed camera file, then open the Poi Loader and load it onto the 550 like the actual intersections?

You will find them under sounds at the top of the page. http://www.poi-factory.com/gps-sounds.Just add them to the folder you have the red light camera in and if you have speed cameras you do the same thing.Make sure you name the sounds the same as the csv file except for the extensions.Make sure not to get double extensions

Red Light cameras.csv
Red Light cameras.mp3
Speed cameras.csv
Speed cameras.mp3

Thanks,

I tried to add them to the folder but all I could seem to do was open and play them. When clicked on I could not get a "save" or "save as" option. How do I do it?

Mark

Right click on them.

It was a "save target as". So I did and made sure I added .mp3 to the end of the file.

And try it out. I'm guessing that the intersections are sure things, but radar and speed traps are not since they are manned and as such are subject to the movement and relocation of the enforcing officer.

Finally, how do I eject my 550 from my PC. I tried right clicking and selecting "eject" but it does not seem to be doing anything.

Offer an option of doing a simulated route? Place your location near a POI and choose a destination just past the POI.

Actually, if you are talking about the Speed Camera file, the locations are fixed camera locations, just like the red light cameras.

I downloaded the file and installed in on my 760 yesterday. Ran a simulation and the RLC points worked like a charm - it gave me a warning on the camera that caught me on the West Side Highway in NYC last month (before I got the 760...)