New to creating POI's. Alert Setting question.

If you have selected go to the custom poi it will sound at distance you set in manual mode for poiloader.If you have not selectd go the alarm will only sound if the coordinates are not located more then 50 ft off the road of travel.

Check the coordinates of you house on google maps.Put latitude first then comma then longitude and search.

wow the info about selecting the POI as a destination is really interesting. IMHO, the "how to" on creating poi's needs some serious work as there are some big gaps. Perhaps I can help with that once I get a bit of a better grasp.

I know the "home" POI is at the correct coordinates, as the little gray POI icon is sitting exactly where it should. I was much closer than 50 feet though, and the driveway is also -much- shorter than 50 ft.

Is there a way in "manual mode" to set the distance for two POI's at different values?

Here is something on custom pois you may want to look at. http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721

If you set up files using gpx format you can set alert distance for each poi.Most of us use Extra Poi Editor for that.You can load a csv file to it.Once the locations come up double click on one of them and you will see diffrenr setting you can use such as proximity.Do one hit ok and go to next one and put different proximity in it.Also you can take one complete file and set distance for all in a couple of clicks.see http://www.poi-factory.com/node/28521 .

I gues that you are using the standard bong alert for your unit.You can get voice alerts using wav files since your unit will not play mp3 see http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25730 .

I have to disagree with your statement you need to route to the POI before an alert sounds. Otherwise your alerts for other items such as rest areas wouldn't work.

But Lost-Signal,

Charlie is correct about checking the coordinates. Actually, if it is your home you are setting, you are better off for security to select another point as "Home." Try an intersection you have to travel through. This will allow you to route home, but not reveal the actual location should your unit be purloined by some thief. One other thing about the accuracy. a lot depends on the number of satellites you unit can lock with. It takes a bare minimum of 2, and three to give you elevation. Most will lock with somewhere between 3 and 6. This should get the accuracy of your unit down to within 3 meters bur commonly expect an accuracy of 10 meters - that's a little over 30 feet.

What?If you have set up custom pois with alerts you don't have to select go to get alert if you are on the road of travel and the coordinates are not more then 50 ft off the road.

I do not need to have a route or select goto a POI for an alert. In the monitor mode when the unit is displaying just the map and you travel down the street alerts will sound if you meet the alert parameters. That's the way the camera alerts work and other alerts you have set up in the unit. If the coordinates are within approximately 50 feet on either side to the road you are traveling on, an alert will sound when you reach the trigger distance.

I think you need to read both sentences not just one that I stated above."If you have selected go to the custom poi it will sound at distance you set in manual mode for poiloader.If you have not selectd go the alarm will only sound if the coordinates are not located more then 50 ft off the road of travel."

For example.When coming down I95 I select Go for a Cracker Barrel located in Emporia VA.My alert is set for 8000 ft.I get the alert for Cracker Barrel while still on I95 because is along the go to route.Even though the Cracker Barrel is on US 58.Same example don't select go.I will not get alert until I get off I95 turn off on US 58.Once I turn on the road Cracker Barrel is located the alert will sound about 1/8 mile.Not the 8000 ft alert set for.

I can't comment on your particular example because I don't know how you have set up your POI.

I know I have alerts set on my unit for the cameras, one for speed using the @ symbol to trigger a speed alert, and one for distance for the RLC. They both work as detailed in the documentation. I get alerted for a speed camera when I am approximately 36 seconds away from the camera driving the alert speed and approximately 200 meters away from a RLC. I also get alerts for other points when I enter the "alert box" for the POI. This means I get alerts for some of my favorite gas stations, restaurants and stores when they are along my current route of travel. The alert distance does not change if I route to the POI or just drive by. It is always the same distance - but then I don't use TourGuide alerts either.

And yes, I convert many of the CSV files to GPX and set the proximity alert for distance so they can be loaded in the express mode.

All my custom pois I want alerts for except Redlight and Speed Cameras are gpx files set at 8000 ft using replace all in extra Poi Editor.I prefer express mode for poiloader.Done away with TourGuide.It triggers to many others locations to alert within the radius.One note the 50 ft off the road of travel does not apply when you select go to as my example of Cracker Barrel in Emporia when I get alert on I95.Without go to it has to be at somewhere around the 50 ft on the road of travel.

In manual mode you select how far from poi hope it works?

I think you guys may be saying the same thing in different languages. Let me ask a clarifying question and see if you both agree.

Lets say I have a poi alert set up to alert at a distance of 2 miles. I am traveling down US 78 with no routing set in particular and I approach the aforementioned poi on US 78, will the alert sound within 2 miles?

If is on the road of travel and the coordinates are no more then 50 ft off the road of travel yes it will.Now lets say the location is off the road of travel you can use TourGuide in the file name.You now have changed the alert from along the road of travel to a radius alert.You can set something like a Cracker Barrel at a 2 mile radius and be alerted from interstate when just navigating.

You have to be careful on the coordinates some are set at the road and some at the exact loction of the structure.

I knew the answer because of a particular poi that I have been fighting with for a while now.

The "Tour Guide" interests me now that you bring it up. So, are you saying that all I have to do is enter TourGuide in the file name and it changes it to a radius? Will it affect anything else if I do that. Do I still upload to my GPS from POI uploader and still set proximity distance alerts?

IF the POI coordinates are within 50 feet approximately of the road you are currently driving on, then yes, if you have an alert set for 11,000 feet, you will be alerted.

If you use the keyword TourGuide (note no spaces) in the file name, icon name, and alert sound file you will be alerted when you are cross the circumference of a circle with the alert radius distance drawn around the coordinates.

As to normal alerts, I ask people to think of them as a box that extends the alert distance from the coordinates. When you enter the box, you receive an alert. If you stop while in that box and then start moving again, like for a stop sign or light, the alert will repeat.

Using TourGuide in the file name like I spelled it here doesn't change anything as far as running poiloader.Yes by adding TourGuide to the file name will give you a radius alert.Just using poiloader in express mode will give you automatic alert radius of 1/4 mile.Not much, but using manual mode for poiloader you can increase that radius based on distance you set.2 miles for interstate seem to work well.

You do have to change the name of the other files you have associated to it.Example of the most two used methods
TourGuide Cracker Barrel.csv
TourGuide Cracker Barrel.bmp
TourGuide Cracker Barrel.wav
Or
Cracker Barrel TourGuide.csv
Cracker Barrel TourGuide.bmp
Cracker Barrel TourGuide.wav

See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/13904 for lots of good information.Also on poiloader click on help and information there on alerts and TourGuide .Good info on key words for alerts in help also.

This is why I hate forums.......

walks away from hijacked thread and completely silly answers.

that was one unhappy customer

I am already doing what you are looking to do. I have various categories of POI's and I wanted different alerts distances for some of the categories.

Rest Areas was the first POI that I wanted alerts for and which got me started on figuring out how to this. For that, I wanted a one mile alert. For others, I have 1/4 and 1/2 mile alerts. Sorry if this seems a bit complicated. I am a computer programmer/consultant by trade and this is just natural for me:

1) Download the CSV version of the POI and open it with Excel. If Excel is not available, then see below.

2) Within Excel insert a new top row and place values in the first five cells of "lon", "lat", "name", "notes", "proximity".

3) In the "proximity" column, put in the value 1610 for one mile or any other value for your desired distance in meters.

4) Save the modified CSV and then get a copy of GPSBabel from http://www.gpsbabel.org/download.html. This is a very powerful free tool for converting between many different GPS file formats.

5) Run GPSBabel with the command line:

gpsbabel -i unicsv -o gdb "C:\mypoi.csv" "C:\mypoi.gdb"

6) Open the GDB file in MapSource to verify your POI's. If they are correct, do a "Save As" and select the GPX format.

7) Load the GPX file onto your GPS.

As I mentioned above, if you do not have Excel, then you will need to do some things a little differently.

1) Open the CSV file in a text file editor and insert the line "lon,lat,name,notes" at the top of the file and save it.

2) Run GPSBabel with the command line:

gpsbabel -i unicsv -o gdb "C:\mypoi.csv" "C:\mypoi.gdb"

3) Open the GDB with MapSource and select all the waypoints simultaneously and right-click for waypoint properties.

4) Within the waypoint properties, set the desired proximity value and save the changes as GPX.

5) Load the POI's onto your GPS.

I prefer to use Excel to insert the proximity column because MapSource can have difficulty selecting a large number of waypoints simultaneously and can also take its time doing it. It speeds up the process if I put the proximity in the file before converting it to GPX.

Have you tried Turbo's Extra POI Editor?

You can open the csv in EPE, hit the ALT-R key combo, press P until Proximity pops up, key in a distance, select Replace All and then OK. You can then save the file as a GPX ready for processing with POI Loader. Takes about 2 minutes or less regardless of the size of the CSV.

No I haven't and to be honest I had not heard of it until now. I just Google'd it and I am impressed. I am downloading it now to play with.

Thanks for the tip!

UPDATE: I now have a new method for updating my POI's

Look, I'm not trying to come off as a jerk, but lets look at what happened here.

I asked two questions. One about alerts sounding at "X" distance when I specified "Y". The second about setting different alert distances for multiple POI's.

In return I get:

1) Wav vs MP3 "advice"
A: I stated that the alert is sounding so that's not the problem.

2) Verify the coordinates
A: I stated that the POI icon is in the correct spot on the map, This isn't a location / accuracy(-signal-) issue.

3) 50' from road bickering.
A: I stated that the POI is far less than 50' from the road. "This bickering is pointless"

4) Warning me not to set a "HOME" location
A: Thanks mom, I'll also button up my jacket before going out in the cold. How's that letter writing to all the GPS manufacturers who design specific "HOME" slots into their units?

5) More bickering between users.

6) Question about how far I set the POI alert in manual mode.
A: My original post states I set it for "1320 feet"

7) nobody addressed question 2
A: But I did find the answer -which turned out to be quite simple- on another POI page and sent the author a quick note of thanks

Most of that is off topic, none is helpful.
Why should it generate a positive reaction?

You lost much more than your signal.

You reaction to attempts to answer your questions is understandable. However, this is a common problem because few people are able to pose a question about POIs that is totally understandable.

The 50 feet answer was an attempt because the only way I know to get a "radius" alert is to use the "TourGuide" mechanism. A "radius" alert works regardless of where the GPS is in relation to the POI as long as the GPS is within the stated radius. Otherwise, think of a rectangle 50 feet wide by alert distance long where one edge of the long side alert distance of the rectangle is the road on which you are traveling.

Often, we do a lousy job of answering questions. Bear with us.

Lost-signal

Since you say that you got the answer to your second question, I am assuming that you found the Extra POI Editor and have created a GPX file with Tourguide proximity radius fields for your "home" POI and the grocery POIs. Is that true?

>> I am assuming that you found the Extra POI Editor ... Is that true?

Nosir,

To set two different alert distances, load your first POI file, view it with whatever file manager you use, and rename it from the default "poi." name, to whatever you like. For example my unit now has "Kroger.___", "Publix.___" "personal.___" (sorry I can't recall the file extension off hand .gpx?)

Now load your second, third, etc... POI files (and setting whatever alert settings you choose via manual mode) and renaming them in turn.

Since the POI loader will pull all POI files from a directory, I simply moved 1 POI file to the "install" directory at a time.

Does that help?

There are two different methods you can use without having to run POI Loader multiple times and then renaming files.

1. Put all the files into an input folder and then run POI Loader in Manual Mode. You will be asked if each file has alert information. You can assign a different proximity value to each file if desired.

2. Convert the CSV files to GPX using Extra_POI_Editor. While in the Editor, press the CTL-R key sequence and then the letter P until PROXIMITY is displayed. Key in the distance, select Replace All and confirm. Save the file as a GPX. This file can be loaded with POI Loader operating in Express Mode and will use the embedded proximity distance.

I load over 150,000 custom POI locations in the express mode after converting to GPX with both proximity and speed alerts set.

So if I open EPE as discribed, set my distance for 10,000 ft, DO NOT CHANGE filename to include TourGuide, run poi-loader in manual, I should get an alert as vehicle enters radius proximity?

e.g. driving down I-95 get alert for cracker barrel less than 2 miles off road.

Is that correct?

If you do not use TourGuide in the file name you will get along the road of travel alert for the 10,000 ft distance.Not a radius and I can tell you from experience you will not be alerted for most Cracker Barrels unless you put TourGuide in the file name to get alert from the interstate.

The advantage of EPE you have the alert distance built in so you can run poiloader in express mode not manual.

When you use EPE, make sure you save the file as .gpx. This is the file type that lets you use POI Loader express mode as several have already mentioned.

Hi..I have read thru this post and not being very technical I am having a problem with exactly what I do. Once I dl the POI file... I save it as RV Camprground.csv. I inserted one line and put in
lon lat name notes 3220

Having said that.. Converting using GPSBABEL.. I get lost... real lost..

Should I create a directory in my garmin folder ? Call it MYPOIS or ???

Any step by step procedure is welcomed.

Also I read their was an easier way of doing it.. So I am holding off.

HELP... lol

TIA

Here is the steps for custom pois http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721 .You will use wav file not mp3 for voice alerts if you want them for the 255.