Downloaded POI's

Using POI Loader to Put POI Files on a Garmin GPS

POI Loader automatically handles the Red Light & Speed Cameras file with its default settings. This means that your GPS will sound an alert and display a text message on the screen when your vehicle approaches a location in the file. But let’s say that you want to change the alert by loading a custom SOUND file - maybe one that screams “SLOW DOWN” at you. In that case you need to know a few more facts.

The following tutorial is something put together from FAQs and from posts by several other members, most notable a-user and charlesd45. It assumes you are a new user who knows only the basics about their computer and GPS.

STEP 1. Download and install the latest version of POI Loader from http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/. The POI Loader software will be how your PC will communicate with your GPS unit. Let’s assume you install this software into the directory C:\Garmin.

STEP 2. You will need to create a new Folder for your “Custom POI” files. For this tutorial, it is assumed that this Folder is “C:\My POI”. Open windows Explorer and left click on the “C:\” drive in the left pane. Move your cursor into the right pane and left click on a blank space. Select New > Folder and type in the name “My POI” (without the quotes”, then press enter to accept it.

STEP 3. Download a few POI files from POI Factory into the folder created in Step 2. POI files may be in either CSV or GPX format (that is, the three character extension following the name will be .csv or .gpx, respectively). Don’t go wild downloading right now; you can return for more files later.

STEP 4. Visit the “icons” page (see the Menu bar in upper right of POI-factory screen) and download an ICON file for each of your POI files. To see what the Icon might look like before you download it, left double click it. To download your choice, right click and choose “Save Target As…” Save the Icon into the folder created in Step 2.

STEP 5. Visit the “sounds” page (see the Menu bar in upper right of POI-factory screen) and download a SOUND file for each of your POI files. These are usually .mp3 files. Left double click the file to hear it. To download your choice, right click and choose “Save Target As…” Save the Icon into the folder created in Step 2.

NOTE: Nüvi 2XX and Nüvi 1XXX units will not play .mp3 files; they require WAV sound files. Using WAV files requires that you install a sound conversion program called SOX. To get it, follow this procedure
A. Download SOX.ZIP from http://rapidshare.com:80/files/139638423/sox.zip into the folder created in Step 1 above
B. Unzip the zip file containing SOX.EXE.
C. Check and be certain the folder contains BOTH POI Loader.EXE and SOX.EXE. If SOX.EXE is not in this folder, WAV sounds will not play on your GPS.

STEP 6. Open the folder containing the files to be loaded into your GPS. This is the C:\My POI folder created in Step 2 above. If you do not see extensions like .csv and .bmp, follow this procedure:
A. In the Menu bar, click on Tools > Folder Options… and then select the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box.
B. Uncheck the box next to “Hide extensions for known file types.” Click the radio button to select “Show hidden files and folders”
C. Click Apply at the bottom of the dialog box
D. Click the selection bar near the top of the dialog box that says “Apply to all Folders.”
E. Click Ok to accept your changes.
F. Verify that you now see the extensions (like .csv and .bmp) on EVERY file.
[*TIP*: POI Loader will only load a maximum of 32 POI files (not counting their icon and alert sound files) from a single folder.]

STEP 7. Rename each ICON file (.bmp) so it has the exactly the same name as the associated POI file. The file names of the POI file and the ICON must match exactly with the exception of the file extension. NOTE: there can only be one period in a file name. A period in a file name marks the beginning of the file extension. ICON file names can only end in .bmp. For example, if you have a file called Rest Areas Combined.csv, the ICON file would be renamed to be Rest Areas combined.bmp.

STEP 8. Rename each SOUND file (.mp3 or .wav) so it has exactly the same name as the associated POI file. The file names of the POI file and the SOUND file must match exactly with the exception of the file extension. NOTE: there can only be one period in a file name. A period in a file name marks the beginning of the file extension. SOUND file names can only end in .mp3 or .wav. If you are using any WAV files make certain you have followed the procedure in Step 5 above.

STEP 9. Connect your GPS to your computer using a USB cable. Wait for the GPS to show it is connected and ready to receive files (Black screen with an ICON at the bottom showing it is connected to the computer.) Your computer should alert you that it has found a new removable device.

STEP 10. Run POI Loader using this procedure:
A. Start POI Loader
B. On the opening screen, click “Next >”
C. Under “Save Options”, Select “Garmin Device” as where you would like to save your Points of Interest. Click “Next>”.
D. On the “Select the device…” screen, your GPS will be shown in the box labeled “Device”. Press “Next>”.
E. On the next screen, choose “Install new custom POIs on your device and click “Next>”.
F. POI Loader will ask you to select the directory of the files to be loaded. Use the BROWSE button and select the FOLDER containing the POI, ICON, and SOUND files.
G. Select the measurement units to be used by your GPS - either Feet and Miles per hour or Meters and Kilometers.
H. The POI Loader suggests running the program in Express mode. For BASIC file loading, this is sufficient. NOTE: The only two alert sounds that will play automatically are for Red Light and Speed cameras. For other alert sounds to play, you must select MANUAL and set either a distance or speed alert trigger. The default alert sound is a BONG or DING. [*TIP*: If a file name contains ANY numbers, POI Loader will assume it is a speed alert and play the sound file for that POI automatically. If you have set a speed alert and are traveling faster than the alert speed, the alert will continue to sound until you are at or below the alert speed.] Press “Next>”.
I. POI Loader will read and convert the POI files, ICON and SOUND files and load them to your GPS. If POI Loader encounters an error with a source file, it will tell you the name of the file POI file containing an error. When finished, POI Loader will tell you the number of POI successfully loaded to your GPS.

NOTE: Every time you run POI Loader, it creates a file called “poi,.gpi”, replacing any “poi.gpi” file on your GPS and you will loose any Custom POIs on your GPS not contained in your just chosen source Folder. Note that the built-in POIs on your GPS are not affected. Remember, all files you want as Custom POIs have to be present in that source Folder every time you run POI Loader UNLESS you decide to rename the file POI Loader just created. This is actually a good idea, so follow this procedure:
A. Go to Windows Explorer and select the Drive called “Garmin Nuvi”
B. In the left pane, left double click on the Garmin folder and then left double click on the POI folder.
C. In the right pane, right click on the file “poi.gpi”.
D. Select Rename and give the file a new name BUT leave the .gpi extension alone. It is useful to have a name that includes the date these POIs were loaded, but any valid name meaningful to you is OK.

NOTE: Once you use this renaming technique, you should always do a rename after each run of POI Loader. If you did a simple reloading of previous files, you would want to delete the file from the previous POI Loader run. If you added new files, you would rename “poi.gpi” to something meaningful to you.

STEP 11. Disconnect your GPS using the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in the System Tray.

STEP 12. Power up the GPS and select WHERE TO > EXTRAS (for some GPS units, this is WHERE TO > MY LOCATIONS) and see if CUSTOM POI is displayed. Press CUSTOM POI and you should see a list of all the POIs loaded.

STEP 13. Turn on Alerts on your GPS unit by Tools > Settings > Proximity Points > Proximity Alerts.

STEP 14. Go try it out.