nuvi 1690 issues with csv POI's

Are you using EPE to view the file and that is where you are seeing the information show up in the comment or description field? If that is the case, there are several things you need to do.

First off, the fourth field in a CSV file is for comments and descriptions. While it is most commonly used to hold the street address and other data it is still a comment or description field and that's the major drawback to a CSV file.

In order to get the elements to display correctly, they need to be identified to EPE and in the Texas de Brazil file, it is difficult because the information is not consistent. Some lines have phone numbers, some phone and fax and others don't have phones. However, they all contain a street address, city, state, and post code (zip).

You set up the M Column option in EPE to show Longitude, Latitude, POI Name, Address, city, state, post code and finally either comment or description. Save this then reload the file into EPE. If phone numbers are available, they will now display as comments or description and the other parts will also display correctly.

EPE has to be told how the source data is laid out so it can put the elements into the correct positions. Otherwise, you get a mish-mash as it tries to lump everything into the description field. Turbo does recognize some elements in the program, but it works much better when you tell the program what to expect.

I just used notepad to look at the csv's to see how the data was layed out. I used EPE to greate the one gpx file I attempted.

I'm seeing the address in the comment or description area on the 1690 after importing the csv's and gpx.

Now that you've pointed out the purpose of the 4th field in the csv, what I'm seeing makes sense. Does the csv have no place for the address, then?

As for EPE... if I create a new file, and fill in the name, address, city, state, phone in the form, and save as gpx, should that not cause this information to show up properly in the 1690?

When I looked at the gpx, the xml looked like the elements were in specific xml elements, but they just didn't show up in the gps correctly. The part that confuses me is that the wegmans.gpx file does get imported correctly, and I don't see a difference between that one's format and my new file.

The other thing I'm trying to figure out is how to add new POI icons to EPE. I downloaded a few from here that match some of the places in my custom POI's, but there's no option to go to disk for an icon.

As stated, I'm no expert on the file formats but what I have seen is the 4th field or column in a CSV has no structure and therefore is a comment or description for the latitude and longitude named point. Garmin states a CSV MUST contain the 1st 3 elements, lon, lat and name with the 4th field being optional. The advantage to CSV is that it is easily constructed and readable by humans. GPX files are not easily constructed or easily readable.

That's the general truth. Because I work with GPX files a lot, I have learned to keep the input data in a tabular file and then identify the location of the data to EPE and have it construct the GPX file. Most of the files I maintain are in Excel spreadsheets.

Like any computer language XML and GPX lack flexibility. Everything has to be in the correct place and all the tags written correctly or it doesn't work. The one instruction every programmer I've worked with wants is the DWIM - Do What I Mean. Programs such as EPE, EasyGPX and GeePeeX are what we used to refer to as interpreters. They take information and according to the rules programmed into them interpret the data being given and output it into the requested format.

I think what you are after here is something that is not supported in the manner you are looking for. The icon display field in the EPE editor can only work with the limited icons available from the reference library. Without having access to the library and being able to manipulate the images, you are limited to the same field used to display an external link for a sound file or image. That's one thing I have no experience with. I do know that a BMP file can be loaded in conjunction with the data file by POI Loader, but as the data in the GPI file can't be viewed we don't know how the external BMP icon and audio alert are linked. I assume it is using the same structure as for an external link.

Just for the heck of it, try making a gpx file in EPE with only one poi in it that has something entered in the address and phone fields (as well as two coords & a name!), then run it through poiloader and pick "Custom Folder" and save the compiled file on your hard drive. Then open notepad by itself (new file) and also open a file explorer window in the folder that your .gpi file is in on your pc.

Then drag the .gpi file into the empty notepad document and look through all of the gobbledy-gook to see if you recognize your address info in the .gpi characters. They should be near the end of the file.

If you see the info you typed in the gpi file characters, you should (probably) also see it on your unit when you put the gpi file in the Garmin/POI folder. I can't guess that the 1690 wouldn't display the info, but I own a 200 & a 765 myself.

I'm only suggesting this because I think I understand you to say that you don't get the address info on your unit but you see the address info in the address fields when looking at the gpx file in EPE. Yes?

If you're looking at the gpx in notepad however, the address etc info needs to be surrounded by the proper tags like

[gpxx:Address]
[gpxx:StreetAddress]Any St[/gpxx:StreetAddress]
[gpxx:City]Any City[/gpxx:City]
[gpxx:State]State[/gpxx:State]
[gpxx:PostalCode]12345[/gpxx:PostalCode]
[/gpxx:Address]
or they are not in the right field(s).
(the actual code uses pointy brackets rather than square like above by the way)

I started cleaning up csv's and used the M column options to import, and things started working.

I'm now trying to determine why I'm not getting all 240 In-N-Out Burger locations imported. The csv and gpx files have them all, but the nuvi only has around half of them. Is there a limit on POI's in a single file?

i found that when this happens to me, i found that there was an error in the next poi following the last one that you in your nuvi

As to your question about a limitation on the number of entries in a single file, I don't think that's a problem. Some files have over 15,000 lines. There is a limit to the number of files though. POI Loader only handles about 32 files at a time - that is 32 files in a single directory. You can have multiple directories, but each directory can hold only about 32 files.

Using subdirectories is one way around the 32 limit, another is the renaming method where a file or group of files is run through POI Loader and the resulting POI.GPI file is renamed. Garmin allows multiple GPI files so if you have some files that don't change often they can be loaded separately and the POI.GPI file renamed to indicate the contents. This reduces the update time for subsequent reloads, but all the files MUST have the GPI extension.

Nuvi only displays the 50 closest to your location. If POI Loader said that it loaded 240 they should be loaded. You can change your location and search to get more.

Yes, that's what it was. Only the 50 closest show up. I had to change the current location to get to the ones I wanted.

Now I have another issue - they just keep coming .

When I look at my custom POI entries, and open one, I see the name and address info. Then I hit Save to store the entry as a favorite.

When I open the favorite, the address info is gone. So are comments/descriptions.

This is really, really annoying. I'm using a gpx file, so I thought the fields would all be imported.

Is this the way it's supposed to work?

You are right. I have never tried to save a custom poi as a favorite. I tried it and only the name is saved (if you have them, alert sound and distance is also saved). I also checked Recently Found with same results. You are limited to 500 to 1000 favorites. I guess you will just have to find entries in Custom POIs and not duplicate them in Favorites (do you want them in both locations?).

You could take source csv / gpx file and send individual poi(s) to favorites. Let us know if you need more info.

For some things I want to add a few of the custom POI entries as favorites then remove the custom POI file (I don't need to know where EVERY Lowes is).

I may hand edit my favorites file (gpx) to add the entries.

Why don't you edit the file you download with all the locations so it contains only the places you want?

That way you can still use POI files and group or even combine like stores into a single file.

(Edit- I reread your post and see that you are saying the address & phone info don't show up.. that tells me that maybe you actually have this info in either the comment or description fields. Address & phone SHOULD show in Favs, it's only Comment and/or Description that don't show until you set it as a destination.)

.............
I just recently noticed this Favorites 'anomoly' myself, but even though some of the info does not show when you view it under 'Favorites', the info is still in the Current.gpx file, and will show up if you set the Favorite as a destination.

The display (before pressing 'Go') is just different between viewing under 'Extras' and 'Favorites'. You should also be aware that there is a fixed number of Favs (1000 on a 1690) you can store, but you can edit the icon and some other info right on the unit. If you make edits, you can open Favs with EPE and then save as another gpx filename to mix, merge & load later.

I opened it after I added a favorite, and the info is actually NOT there and doesn't show up. Only the coordinates are there.

This is kinda lame. When you add a favorite from Mapquest or others it sends over the address. It would make more sense to copy the info from the custom POI's to Current.gpx.

Oh, well, I'll just have to edit such favorites on the PC, not on the device.

Maybe I just don't get what you're doing, or the 1690 IS way different.

If you press Where To, Extras, Custom POIs, All Categories, and look at the entries listed.. do any of them show the name on the first line of the bars and the street address just below it?

If yes...when you press the bar for that POI, do you then see a screen with more address info (state, etc) and 'Back', 'Map', 'Save', and 'More' buttons at the bottom?

Then, when you press 'Save' and save it as a Favorite..Are you saying that when viewing it under Favorites you are NOT seeing the address info that you saw when viewing the same POI under Extras?

If you don't see the street info on the second line of the POI list 'bars' when you look at them under Extras\Custom POIs then your files don't have the address info in the correct gpx file fields.

Email me if you like.

Yes, when I do where to, extras, custom POI's, All Categories, all show the name and the address.

Yes, when I press the bar I see all the info and the buttons.

And yes, if I save at that point as a favorite, the address info is not saved in the custom.gpx file. I checked the file itself to be sure.

I used EPE to build the gpx files, and since they show up properly under Custom POI's, how can they not be in the correct gpx file fields?

I can only guess that the 1690 must operate differently than my 765T or 200W then. I wouldn't necessarily be shocked by that either, I suppose.

I was making the distinction about where the street name showed up (on the 'list bar' under the name) because I know that on some screens you can have the address info in the description and/or comment fields and at first glance they look like they are 'in the right place'. (see http://www.poi-factory.com/node/21274 for display examples).

Any other 1690 users out there that are experiencing the same missing address in Favorites but not in Extras??

"Real" addresses show up above that bar. When I send a location from Mapquest as a favorate, for instance, an address shows there.

I tried using EPE to put addresses both in the proper address field as well as in the comment and the description fields to see if any of them would come over when I added the favorite from the custom POI. Nope, didn't work.

It looks so far like I'm stuck hand-editing the favorites if I use a custom POI file.

This device seems to work differently than others. None of the icons I put into the POI folder seem to be uploaded with the custom POI's (yes, file name is same, extensions are different, icons are bmp 24x24 or a little less.

Here's the procedure for insuring you don't have hidden extensions.

20. If you do not see a custom icon or hear the custom alert sound for a Custom POI that successfully loaded, it is most likely because you have a double file extension (two periods in one or more of the file names.)

21. Open Windows Explorer. Select TOOLS. Select Folder Options. Select VIEW. Under FILES AND FOLDERS uncheck the box that states: Hide extensions for known file types.

22. Using Windows Explorer, open the FOLDER containing the custom POI files, icons, and alert files. Verify each file name has only ONE period just before the 3 character file extension. Rename any files containing more than one period so the file contains only ONE period.

As far as getting icons to show, I'm pretty certain that navigating to a favorite will not display a custom icon. It will display a photo, but not an icon. One other thing to be certain you are aware of, and that is the current.gpx file. That file is an output file and is not read by the unit's software. It's a copy of what it has in the hidden file the unit OS maintains. My suspicion is that the OS will check for the existence of the current.gpx file and if one is not found it will look for temp.gpx and read this file into the memory space used for favorites. But again, that's a guess on my part.

a_user- Are you saying this based on experience with a 1690 or another unit? I'm interested for a couple of reasons. First of which is that I see the 1xxx series are using some new display methods (different style 'list' bar?, a different 'Go' screen layout, etc) and I'm thinking that some of the 'old' rules might not work with them?

But secondly, my 765T reads my current.gpx file for sure. If I connect (usb) and edit it directly in EPE, any changes are immediately reflected as soon as the unit reboots after disconnecting. Temp.gpx file entries are also 'appended' into existing Favorites. And, when editing either of them if I assign a display symbol/icon (built-ins by name. haven't tried custom bmps yet) in EPE or add a category (even a new one) these changes take effect on reboot and the symbol shows on the map.

Does your 885T not act this way?
(Sorry to hijack your 1690 topic sspotts. I'll take it elsewhere after a_user replies, if need be.)

That's been my experience on the 885 and 200 I had. Changes to current weren't read, and if a temp file was there and modified the mods didn't seem to be read.

But to borrow a tag line from another forum:
But i could be wrong...