Nubie needs some direction - POI help!

Welcome aboard!

Depending on what kind of info you are
looking for, the FAQ might be able to help.

http://www.poi-factory.com/faq

Mike

Think I can help a little. The POI's are loaded as a batch into the "Custom POI" area of the Extras on your Nuvi. You get them there with the use of a POI loader program from Garmin - FREE. Once the loader "sees" yor Nuvi connected via the USB cable, you simply grab the POI's from the POI Factory, and save them to a folder, put in several if you like. I have had no problems with .GPX files, and .CSV files. You can go to garmin website for the manual for the unit, and they seem pretty thorough. I had another GPS about 7 years ago, and CANNOT BELIEVE how much easier the Nuvi's are to use. They are a BLAST! You should also be using a Garmin "agent" program that "sees" your Nuvi, and communicates directly with it. Once this happens You can go to Google Maps, mark a spot then SEND it directly to the unit's favorites from the web. Just found this out this AM. If you are only interested in a couple of places at a time, this may be the way to go, but if you want all the MacDona;d's in Texas, for instance, the POI's are the way to go.
Hope this gets you to where you want to be.

In addition to reading the faqs as already suggested, note that getting school zones to alert is a bit tougher than some other tasks.

There is a full USA school zone POI:
http://www.poi-factory.com/poifiles/us/schools
This is the POI file that I use. The difficulty with it is that it identifies where the schools are, oftentimes set back many 10s of feet from the roadway you'll be travelling. Consequently, getting audible/visual alerts can be pretty tough since you're not passing close enough to the POI to sound an alert. The POI file identifies the schools, not the street crossings which is what we really want.

Note that in reading about the Rest Areas Combined file, it could have had a similar outcome if the Rest Area POI points were located at the Rest Area itself. To make the Rest Area POI file give audible/visual alerts, a heroic POI Factory member here changed the actual coordinates from the Rest Area to the offramp to the Rest Area. By changing to the offramp, alerts will work. This could be done for school zones, too, but it'd be a herculean task.

There is a way to get School Zones to give you alerts. It's not perfect but it works quite well. First, download the school zone POI file I've given you, above. Second, rename the file to include "TourGuide". So if the file was at first called schools.csv, rename it TourGuideschools.csv (keeping the T and G in capital letters). Now use POI Loader to load the renamed file to your nuvi in manual mode and set an alert distance. You may need to tinker with the distance settings. I use 550 feet. 550 feet doesn't give me as much notice as I'd like, but if I increase the value, I start getting false alerts for schools on streets parallel to the one I'm travelling along.

All in all, the highly desirable option of getting school zones to give you an alert is a bit more of a challenge than for use of most other POI files. I suggest your search this site for discussions of school zones, TourGuide mode, POI Loader, and Rest Areas (for its discussion of how the very similar non-alert issue was resolved).

Good luck.

PS--Remember that you can also download an icon and an alert sound for the school POI files but you will need to rename each so that the csv, bmp, and audio file have the same name--the faqs cover this well.

Glad to have you aboard and active.

There are several things about using your 265WT and cuatom POI. First off, the unit will NOT play MP3 sound files. It will play alert sounds, but those are loaded as WAV sounds.

Secondly, in order to hear a WAV sound, you need to have a program called SOX.EXE. This file is placed in the same folder in your program files folder as the one containing POILoader.exe.

Third, you did download and install POILoader and the Garmin Communicator packages didn't you? You need these to have your computer tell the Garmin you have goodies for it.

We'll worry about the finer points later, but you want the basics on installing POI.

1. Create a folder (mine is on my desktop) to house all your POI files.

2. Download the desired files from POI-Factory. These can be either CSV (comma separated variable) files or GPX (GPS Program Exchange) files. It makes no difference, but don't download the CSV and GPX version of the same file. One or the other, not both.

3. You will probably want an icon to display, so download the desired icon for your custom files as well. The same icon works for both CSV and GPX.

4. If you want a custom alert, download the WAV version of the alert sound. All these files go into the same poi folder your created in step 1.

5. Open the folder containing all your POI files, icons and sound files. Get ready to do a little file renaming.

Each file for a particular POI must have the exact same name except the extension. If you are using a PC, each file name can have only ONE period in the name. When you are done renaming files, you should have something like:

Wal-Mart_USA.csv
Wal-Mart_USA.bmp
Wal-Mart_USA.WAV

in the POI folder. The MOST common reason icons do not show up on the screen or alert sounds fail to play is you have a double extension - two periods in the name. Windows defaults to hiding the most common file extensions, so you need to check you can display the file extensions before troubleshooting. The second most common reason icons do not display is you are not zoomed in close enough.

Now that you have prepared all the files, run POILoader. After it finds your unit, it will ask if you want to load new POI and suggest using the EXPRESS mode. DO NOT use Express mode if you want alert sounds.

POILoader will ask you where are the files you want to load. Hit the browse button and point POILoader at the folder containing all your POI files.

POILoader will then read the list of file names and ask if you want to set an alert for each file. I strongly recommend you do not set audible alerts for all your files. It will drive you absolutely bonkers about the 4th time you pass one of the POI locations.

When you get done specifying the files to load, the system will start running and POILoader will convert the source files into one the GPS understands. When it is finished, it will tell you something like:

Congratulations! You have just loaded 3,947,873,492 POI. (Your number will probably be less.)

One final thing - the search box on POI-Factory is your friend. It can probably give you at least 20 answers to every question you have, so don't be afraid to do a search before posting a question. We're always glad to help, but if you learn it on your own, you retain it better.

OK - Thanks for the comments. I have read the FAQ and all the comments - all very helpful. Yours was like leading me through by the hand. I tried what you said - but I screwed up. I downloaded MP3's instead of WAV. I am going to go back and correct them. I do have a couple of questions.
I downloaded SOX.exe into my PIO folder and unpacked the zipped file. The screen flashed for a second and it looked like a DOS file sort of - and I could see a bunch of writing but it dissapeared as quickly as it appeared. I have an SOX.EXE icon in my POI folder everytime I click it it opens - flashes some files on the screen and then is gone. Is that what it is suppose to do?

Second - I went to Best Buy today to pick up a screen protector and got into a conversation with some one there about POI's. He told me that I had to type in front of my file name "TourGuide" (w/o quotes) to get an audible warning. Is that true? I didn't see that in your instructions and I didn't want to put that in until I had a chance to ask you.

And last - I know when you do the Manual POI - you can select the Distance for the Audible Alarm. My question is can you put in multiple distances? Say you want a School Zone alarm at say 900ft and 500ft - is that possible? I would probably only use the two audibles for schools only. It's not a biggie - just wondering if that was possible.

I am going to download the correct WAV files and wait for your reply before I go changing any of my POI's that I downloaded.

I thank you for your help. I hope that one day I will be able to contribute half as much as you "oldtimers" do!

1.Here is how to do the wav files and the correct location to put the unzip file in.It appears by your post that you downloaded SOX.exe into your PIO folder

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. Wav files are also on site for download.
Select manual mode on poiloader to set speed or distance for alert.

Edit
2.You can put the word TourGuide in the file name and it will give you a 1/4 radius alert using express mode.Using piloader in manual mode without TourGuide in the file name you set the alert along the route by speed or distance.The alarm in this method will sound if the coordinates are within 50 ft of the road you are traveling on.
3.Using manual mode for poiloader you set the distance or speed for all of the custom pois not for each one.What you can do is load the csv file to Extra Poi editor and set a proximity alert for each one and save as a gpx file.

Forgot to ask - how do I make my own POI? Here is the situation. There is a stretch of road that I travel almost daily that is 45mph, except for about a mile it drops down to 35mph. You guessed it - that particular spot is a cop magnet. So how do I "mark" the coordinates going in both directions and set up an audible POI to warn me that I am about to enter a 35mph zone or "speed trap" area? I know there must be a way to mark it on your GPS as you drive - but I haven't gotten that far in the manual as yet.
Thanks again for everyone's help and assistance.

Making csv files with Excel

1.Pull up Excel sheet.
2.Column A put in Longitude. (6 decimal places)
3.Column B put in Latitude. (6 decimal places)
4.Column C put in Name.
5.Column D put in desc
6.After all data in completed for each row you will need to save as a csv file.
7.Go to file at top left of Excel sheet and click on it and select save as.
8.Under File name put the name of the file. Under Save as type click on down arrow and find CSV (Comma delimited). Now click save.
9.You now have a CSV file.

with tons of great information.

http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/index.html#page...

I have followed this by the letter. Loaded the SOX file and unzipped it. Picked out my POI file - (School Zones), my wav file and my bmp. I made a folder - named it Schools_Southeast. Renamed the POI file School_Southeast.csv, renamed the bmp to Schools_Southest.bmp and changed the wave file to Schools_Southeast.wav
I have the newest POI loader - opened it up - did all the stuff to get me to the upload. I choose the file folder Schools_Southeast (which includes all three files csv, bmp, wav - uploaded it manually - set the alert at 500feet. Got the message that I had loaded up "so many thousand" poi's. Disconnected my Nuvi from my computer, Got the message that new POI's were on my card - did I want to add them. I said yes. Went out to my car and put in a store about a mile from my house. I have to pass 2 schools on my way - I know for sure one has a school zone. Get my Garmin going - heading to the store - drive by the school NOTHING NADA ZIP- not a damn thing. No sound - no warning - no bmp NO POI. I make a u turn. I drive up the school drive way and all around the parking lot - STILL NOTHING!

OK Garmin Masters - tell the Nubie what he as done wrong? Can some one in the know just maybe email me directly and help me figure this out? If you have a 265 just like me that would be great too!
If you can my addy is sc_sweeper@comporium.net

HELP ME PLEASE!!!
Thanks

1. The most common reason alert sounds do not play is a double extension. If you are using windows, make certain when you use windows explorer that "Hide Known File Extensions" is not checked. If if is, uncheck it and look at the file names to see if there are double extensions (2 periods in the name).

2. Use Extra POI Editor and load the CSV file. Check where the trigger location for the schools are. If they are more than 50 feet from the road you travel, then no alert.

3. Check under settings and be certain proximity alerts is set for custom POI.

The biggest problems with the alerts and icons not working are the files not being named the same except for extensions and having double extensions. Double-check each of them. The best way to prevent double extensions is to go to your folder options in the control panel and click view then find hide extensions for known file types and remove the check mark. Click ok.

Edit.I looked at the school zones you downloaded and no built in alerts with them.You did run poiloader in manual mode and set a distance correct?

I see in you post something about a Garmin agent... What is that?? I'm a little new here also and haven't seen this mentioned before. I have all the other"tools" mentioned in this thread (POI Loader, Editor, etc.) but not sure about the agent...

Names are not the same. Also, the particular schools you are passing may not be in the POI file. Download GeePeeEx Editor trial version and load the file and view where the local schools are on the map.

Got you email and sent answered back on the problems with the double extension,bmp and wav not named the same as the csv file and no space after TourGuide.Good idea that you sent the files so I could see them.