Beginners Exercise 5 - Adding Icons and Sounds
Once you are comfortable with POI Loader, you will probably want to add Icons for your POI files and perhaps get an audio alert when one is nearby.
Many longtime users will tell you that this is not as good as it first seems to be. To see the Icons, you have to be zoomed in pretty close. And, are you sure that you want to be notified every time a McDonalds is nearby? Many don’t, but knowing that a Rest Area is coming up in a couple of miles does give you enough time to decide if a pit stop is advisable, so many seem to employ that particular alert.
POI-Factory has lots of interesting and useful POI files - that you already know. The site also has various Icons and/or Sound files to go with them. And, you can make your own - more on that later.
Since the technique for downloading Icon and Sound files varies by the browser you use, we will use the example of downloading the Icon and Sound files for AAA. You might choose another POI than AAA or just follow along with this exercise.
An Icon file for AAA can be found at
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/11718
If you will hold the shift key when you click the link above, a new window will open so you can continue to read from this exercise as you work.
In most browsers, if you left click on AAA.bmp, you will be shown the Icon (on my PC, it open in MS Paint). It will appear very small and it is. That is why you have to be zoomed in so close on your GPS. The maximum Icon size seems to be 24 X 24 pixels.
To download the file in Internet Explorer, right click on AAA.bmp and then left click on ‘Save Target As..” to get the download dialog. From there, you can save the file wherever you want. NOTE you will need to save both the Icon and Sound files to the same folder in which you have saved the POI file.
To download the file in Firefox, right click on AAA.bmp and then left click on ‘Save Link As..” to get the download dialog.
To download the file in Opera, right click on AAA.bmp and then left click on ‘Save Linked Contents As..” to get the download dialog.
If you are using another browser, you may need to experiment to find the correct selection after the right click. You will recognize the correct selection because the download dialog will appear.
Note about sound files: Most new Garmin units do not have the ability to play mp3 files like the older units. If your units can not play mp3 files, you will have to use wav files instead. Usually, this will involve several additional steps. You will need to download a particular version of SOX.exe (http://www.poi-factory.com/images/csv/sox-14-0-1.zip) and place this in the folder which contains POI Loader. You will need to be able to convert mp3 files to wav files. Most of us use Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Or, you can make your own wav files at http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php
For the moment, we will assume that your unit plays mp3 files.
A sound file for AAA.MP3 can be found at
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/14333
If you right click on the file, it will be played for you. To download it, follow the same download procedure as for the Icon file.
Some GPS units do not have a MP3 player and the .mp3 file will need to be converted to a .wav file to get audio alerts. If you do not have the capability to play MP3s, then you will want to go to How do I get voice alerts using wav files for units without mp3 capability? by charlesd45. Find this tutorial at
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25730
Now that you have downloaded some Icon and Sound files, you will need to know how to use them in conjunction with the associated POI file. To find out how, look at How Do I Load BMP Icons into my Garmin GPSr?
by Motorcycle Mama
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4359
and then at How do I load custom alert sounds for POIs on my Garmin GPSr?by Motorcycle Mama
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4360
Just in case you want to make some alerts for a really “custom” POI file, you are directed to How do I make an MP3 Sound file? by RhythmTip
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10169
Updated 03/16/2012 Minor corrections for readability and reflect fact that aaa.wav was removed.
Updated 5/15/2012 to make note that new Garmin units do not support mp3
