Proximity alert on Nüvi 750

I'm a Nuvi 760 user. I've just loaded traffic light camera POI for 48 US states. I set my proximity to 1320 feet (roughly about 400 meters). The first day of test turned out fine. I was alerted within range, more or less. The second day, my Nuvi failed to alert me until I got to the intersection, stopped for a few seconds waiting to make a right turn. That's when I heard BONG BONG... coming out of my 760, alerting me that there are traffic cams.

Is it normal that GPS device occasionally 'forget' that it's approaching a POI? I don't know. I'm not an expert. Just want to post this reply to compare notes.

Btw, where does your 750 POI alert banner pop up? Mine pops up right below the top green bar. The background color is grayish (if I remember correctly).

Below the green bar, grayish background

In order to get an alert message, the POI has to be within 50 feet of the road on which you are travelling to. I've found that a lot of POI's are listed as off the roadway, so you don't get an alert.

For example, the POI might be listed as the front door to the building. If the building is set back from the road too far, your GPS won't alert. Hope this helps.

When I make my POI's, I make sure that they are centered on the roadway in front of the business/location, not in the parking lot.

chewbacca if your test involved the same intersection and in the same direction of travel for the alert then that is not normal.You should be alerted based on the distance you set the poiloader for.Do you have the coordinates for the intersection?Just curious why don't you use a mp3 file to get a voice alert instead of the bong?

I think it will depend on how you set the proximity alert distance. If you are using CSV files and letting the file name set the distance then it will vary all over the place. The distance will vary according to your speed (faster = farther, slower = shorter). If you use GPX files and the POI entry sets the distance then it should be a constant distance regardless of your speed. I've never used POI Loader to set the distance so I don't know how that behaves.

As for the number of POIs, that isn't the problem. I have over 50,000 on my 750 and I have not noticed any change in the behavior of my unit.

Jack j

geske,
Thanks for the confirmation.

Charlie,
It's the same intersection but different direction. Travelling North/South (either direction) seems to work fine. Nuvi fails to alert me while heading West. Btw, I kinda like the bong-bong sound. It's short and simple.

And mp3 alert will wreak havoc with mp3 books or songs.

Since you have chosen not to list your location in your profile, is that why you didn't answer Charlie's question about the coordinates? Sounds like the placement of the coordinates is not within 50 ft of the westbound lane.

I think you found the solution to the absent alert!

I actually had a second question, which tomkovacic answered indirectly: The "alert distance" is not a straight line but "distance on the road"? Correct??

yes, regular POI's use the distance on the road that you are travelling to.

If you want to get a distance off the road, then you have to use TourGuides. Then it is a radial distance from your location. So if you set a TourGuide at 1/2 mile, the POI could be up to 1/2 mile off the road, ie, perpendicular to your travel.

No, I don't know the coordinates. I got my traffic cam POI from another site, not from poi-factory. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention other site name here. I'm a new member of this site so I'm not allowed to get POI for traffic cam yet.

tomkovacic, see the following example. Does it make any sense to you?

The intersection that fails to alert me while I was heading West is: Normandie Ave and Artesia Blvd, CA 90248. Google map street view shows that there are 2 cameras and they're both installed on Normandie Ave. 1 of them is right by Sam's Club and the other is across the street, diagonal to the first camera, also on Normandie Ave.

Alert works fine when going North/South on Normandie Ave. Alert didn't go off when coming down Artesia Blvd towards Normandie Ave (from east to West). The alert went off when I arrived at the intersection.

How do I use TourGuides?

chewbacca.I agree with bentbiker the coordinates are off.Open up your file and find this intersection and change the coordinates to -118.298920 33.872817 and it will work.See the link below for street view.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=...

If I understand you correctly, you move the POI closer to the center of the intersection so that alerts work in any direction. Is that correct? I'll give that a try. Thanks.

I just went to Google earth and put the intersection in and got the coordinates at the center.Went back to Google maps and as you can see by the link and put the coordinates in to double check them.When you open the file to make the change note the coordinates that are now there and let us know what they are.I would like to put them in Google maps just to see what shows up.

Now, everything makes sense; we couldn't imagine such a thing happening here, because Miss POI is so good at her job. You can immediately download the enforcement camera file from here for $5, I believe. It might be questionable savings to use the "free" file if you end up paying $377 for a ticket.

I've noticed that the maps in Garmin GPS don't correspond exactly with Google Earth. So I always enter the Google Earth location in MapSource and then vary it slightly using the 2009 NA map. Then load it onto Garmin. I never checked how many feet they vary by, but I do see that they are different.

charlesd45,

I've just re-downloaded the POI file (in CSV format), let me say it again.. not from this site. There are 2 entries relating to the intersection in question. Here are their coordinates:
33.873409,-118.299022
33.872322,-118.298829

If you plug in those numbers in Google map, they're both placed on Normandie Ave. Is that why the alert works while I'm travelling on Normandie (North/South)? Btw, I just realized they're not even at the right spot.

Should I remove one of the entries and update the other using the new coordinates you posted earlier?

Even Google Earth and Google Maps don't agree. The difference is sometimes enough to confuse people if you tell them to go to XXX and it is half way between two close, parallel streets.

I'm not a fan of MapSource, but you may have just given me an example of a place where it works well.

When I looked at the City Navigator North America NT 2009, both of these points are about 30-40 feet off of the Normandie Road. The first one to the west, and the bottom one east of the road.

Going E/W on Artesia, the points are about 150-200 feet from the roadway. I'm surprised that it went off at all.

Yes use the new coordinates 118.298920 33.872817 and they should alert you in either direction.

Correct but I think both are on the wrong side of Normandie. I'll double check where the real cameras are located when I pass that intersection later today.

I don't know how you come up with those numbers but I believe you. Anyway, the alert went off when my car stopped at the intersection of (westbound) Artesia and Normandie, waiting to make a right turn onto (northbound) Normandie.

Would that be -118.298920 and +33.872817? Does that mean the POI coordinates does not have to be exactly where the cameras are located?

Thanks to all of you for your replies. It helps a lot.

Chewbacca,

Are you certain that the cameras at this intersection are covering all four directions? The other site's use of two separate locations have both seemingly precisely placed to cover only the North and Southbound lanes. Does Torrance require signs at camera locations -- there are none visible on the street level view in Google Maps, but the cameras might well have been erected after the filming.

The reason it went off at the intersection is that at that point you are on BOTH streets. If you had not stopped, it probably would not have alerted.

The POI coordinates have nothing to do with the physical location of the cameras. Think of it as a reference point from which you want to be alerted of cameras. Nothing more. Careful placement can get an alert for one direction of a divided highway, for example.

Yes -118.298920 and 33.872817. Don't put the + sign in for latitude.My mistake on the -.Left it off when I pasted it back on other reply.

If the coordinates are more then 50 ft off the road that you are traveling on you will not get the alert.If you want to fine tune it to each camera location you will either need to go to the exact locations and get them or pull them up on Google maps or Google Earth and get the coordinates.Center of the road will make sure you are alerted in any direction.If the entire intersection is covered with cameras just leave it at the center as I posted.

I'll double check on the exact location of the cameras (and how many of them) later today. Btw, if you drop google street view "person" icon onto Artesia Blvd eastbound (around 1416 Artesia Blvd), to the west of Normandie Ave, you'll see a traffic camera sign. If you don't, move back a few feet. See it?

Nice tips charlesd45. I'll have to play around with it some more. This stuff is new to me.

Getting the coordinates in the correct location is the most important.I would not recommend TourGuide for camera alerts.They are not needed especially for the redlight and speed cameras Miss Poi does on here.I have found them in the areas I travel to be accurate and other members have reported the same for other locations.Putting TourGuide in a file name will give you a radius alert.Using on the wrong files especially in town may result in alerts you don't want.

Now that you tell me where to look, I found them both -- east and westbound on Artesia. I'm used to seeing them on the traffic light itself down here in OC. It's almost like they don't want you to see these signs.

Anyway, that answers the question of whether the other file knew something we didn't. It makes no sense for them to have set it up the way they did. BTW, our file should work fine, I believe.

I've double checked the cameras at the intersection of Normandie and Artesia. Looks like there are 4 cameras; 1 at each corner. The POI that I'm using only plotted 2 of them but missed the other 2.

All 4 cameras are installed along Normandie Ave. 2 of them are closer to the corner of the junction and the other 2 are farther away from the corner.

There are no cameras mounted along Artesia Blvd. This might explain why I alerts didn't go off when I travelled along Artesia Blvd.

If you don't mind, could you post poi-factory coordinates for this intersection? How many are there at that intersection?

Thanks.

Chewie,
As I tried to point out before, the physical number and location of the cameras is totally immaterial. If all 4 directions are covered by cameras, a single POI located in the center of the intersection will alert you, regardless of the direction from which you approach; there is no interaction between those cameras and your gps.

Charlie gave you coordinates for the center of the intersection and they should work fine.

I got it, bentbiker. Out of curiosity, where does poi-factory plot the coordinate(s) for this intersection? Thanks again for your help.

Just like Bentbiker states use the coordinates for the center of the intersection I gave you.You only need to cover the intersection not 4 different points or cameras since they are all at the same intersection.

Coordinates are essentially the same as Charlie's -- right in the center of the intersection.

I've done some reading on this site regarding RLC alerts. I'm beginning to understand it more. I know there's a lot more to learn/read.

I'll stop messing up geske's post right here (sorry geske). I'll start my own post if I have more questions. Thanks much to you all.

If you do decide to do any TourGuide files look at this post http://www.poi-factory.com/node/7043 .It shows you how to set alerts from 1/4 mile to 1 1/4 using express mode.

I read that yesterday. Told ya I've been doing some reading Thanks anyway. No, I'm not going to use TourGuide to get RLC alerts.