Download and install Garmin POI Loader (Free Download) on your computer.
http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99...
Before downloading the POI (Point of Interest) files, make a folder called "Custom POIs" on the computer. Inside make a subfolder for each file, named Red Light Cameras, Speed Cameras, and Rest Areas.
Each subfolder will become a category inside the GPS menu, "Where to?/Extras/Custom POIs." Download the files from POI Factory and save each one in its own folder.
The Combined Rest Areas file is recommended, not individual states.
It is more up-to-date and hardly takes up any room in the GPS. To get started, you don't need icons or custom audio alerts. Just loading the POI files into the GPS will provide a chime and on-screen alert when you approach a POI. You can also see all the nearest locations any time you access the GPS "Custom POIs" menu, even from a long distance away.
Connect the GPS to a USB port on the computer and run POI Loader. It will find the GPS and recognize it. Then browse to the "Custom POIs"
folder, not the subfolders inside. You cannot see the files in the browse window. POI Loader will find and load all the subfolders and files.
You have a choice of running POI Loader in express or manual. In express, all proximity alerts default to 1320 feet (a quarter mile) and that is too long a distance for red light cameras and too short for rest areas. Running POI Loader in manual allows you to specify the alert distance for each file. You get successive screens, one for each file you are loading.
For red light cameras and rest areas, choose "alert whenever you get close to a point" and specify the distance you want for that file only. Specify 600 feet for red light cameras in urban areas with low speed limits and the short distance will clearly show which intersection has a camera. Out in the country with high speed limits, choose a longer distance such as 1000 feet. For rest areas use 11440 feet (two miles) to have plenty of time to decide whether to stop and to change lanes.
For speed cameras choose a speed alert and the default speed is zero.
Do not enter a number because the speed for each speed camera is inside the file and overrides the default zero on being loaded into the GPS.
After you get experience it is easy to run POI Loader again to change the distances. Remember that POI Loader is all-or-nothing. Every POI file is overwritten and reinstalled every time you run POI Loader.
That is why you leave your POI files in the same place in the subfolders inside the "Custom POIs" folder on the PC.
Once you make sure everything works this way, you can make improvements by loading an audio alert, special icon, or other POI files.
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