Husband Points - Husbands Only

What a good idea foghorn.legghorn.I will have to try the Christmas one to make sure she knows what I want or maybe a little hint.

I love this thanks for sharing.

Miss POI

Cheater (

Incidentally, you try this on your husband, he'll likely ignore the message, but tear the car apart looking for the source. I warned you!

Maybe now she'll listen to me? Nah.

Just think of the flip side of this, your wife can nag you about driving and she doesn't even have to be in the car.

Working on a tourguide for our various special spots. Vacations, first date, first walk, etc.

Do keep in mind guys, SHE MAY NOT BE ALONE when these trip. Don't do anything to "creative" she'll have to explain to a boss or client. You'll get your points for remembering, but lose points for embarrassing. My wife drives a Suburban, so one day they chose her car to load up with teachers for a tour of the schools new district. Fortunately, I'm pretty tame, but when I think of some of the things I considered. THAT would have backfired!

How about a speed alert - "Slow Down! You always drive too fast!"

dobs108

Thanks. But it doesn't help me, as my SO is anti-GPS. Threatened perhaps. A wav file saying "We GPSes are stupid!" probably scores more points. Or "You are the queen of navigation, please guide us GPSes!"

How about "If you were paying attention to driving instead of looking at that girl you would drive better."

Wow.. Wish I would have thought of that... Oh wait!! I don't have a wife so of course I would never think of it!

Post alerts when your wife is near Malls, favortie shops, etc; that says...."All Credit cards are max'd out.......do not pull in !"

If only I could get my wife to use her GPSr. I would love to do this for her.

Now here's a husband whose using his noggin! That's a great suggestion foghorn, anything we, as husbands, can do to make our better halfs' day is alright in my books.

Awesome idea! Thanks for sharing

A very nice idea. However it will not work for me. My wife don't want to use a GPS although she does not have great sense of directions.

However my wife is in the same boat as many others here... not a gadget person.

However, there is a work-around. Modify one of the voices to include those cute phrases, etc. and choose that voice when you're together in the car!

You even get to observe the reactions.

Ok, I had a private request for my files and essentially a tutorial. I'll include it here, although there are WAY better tutorials elsewhere in these forums. Once you get POIs, this is easy. But, I included some ideas on some expansions I'm doing at the end. Have fun with this guys.

I only know Garmin. Magellans and TomToms have different processes, but poi-factory has lots of info on how to set up POI's.

In MY case:
First- Go here: http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html and determine the exact GPS coordinates. Enter in the address, then zoom in and place the X at the entrance to the driveway or other site you want to target. Then you click on the little red dot and the coordinates pop up. Note, the display opposite of what Garmin requires. The negative number (longitude) will need to be in the first column. Latitude in the second.

Open excel or other spreadsheet. You will be creating a spreadsheet and SAVE IT AS A CSV FILE. Ignore all the warnings about losing data and features. Anyway, in your new spreadsheet. No title row, no labels. JUST DATA. In column A, Row 1 paste the longitude, including the negative number. You may need to make the column wider to display all the numbers. Paste the latitude into cell B2. Again, make it wider if required. Now, in cell C1 you can type a BRIEF message. This is what displays on the screen. I can't tell you how long you're allowed, but it will truncate it. I do "I love you", "Have a great day", and "Almost home". I suspect the allowable length varies. She'll get the point. The fourth column is optional.

So, you've got a simple spreadsheet, Longitude in A1, Latitude in A2, Note in A3. Now, save as a CSV text file. Name it something meaningless because it will show up under custom POI's so you don't want to ruin the surprise and have her open it up wondering what "LoveNotePOI" is. Also, at least with Garmin, there are some codewords that you can and can't use that the system uses to determine the alert criteria. That's a whole 'nother post. BUT, you'll want to include at @0 in the filename on a Garmin. That tells it that there IS alert info and sets the alert speed at 0 (so it always alerts). So, I use poisystemfile@0.csv. Odds are, if she sees a poisystemfile she'll ignore it. If she opens it she could preview all your sites.

Now if you want to have it do an audible greeting or alert, you'll need to create a WAV file (or MP3 depending on your device capabilities. My Nuvi 1390 does WAV. I tried doing an actual voice recording, but didn't get anything I liked. You can use your own voice if you like. To my knowledge the only size limitation is your system's memory, but don't go nuts. I ended up using a computer generated message. Go here: http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php It will let you type in text, choose a voice you like, and generate a wav file. Super easy. Save the wav file as EXACTLY the same name as the csv file (before the period) so, save it as poisystemfile@0.wav There are other programs you can use to customize this wav with tones, bells, etc, but again, another lesson. Remember the GPS is talking, so if you're not using you're voice, make the message third party "Gerald is thinking of you and hopes you have a great day" for instance.

This sounds hard, but I do the whole thing in about 5 min. It's really easy.

Now, you've got a csv file and a wav file, with exactly the same names before the period.

Now you get into loading custom POI files. This is totally system dependent, although there are lots of tutorials on-line. In the case of Garmin, I use the POI-Loader application. You have to copy these two files to a folder on your PC that you use for POI files. All of your custom POI files will go in the same folder. Then you connect your GPS, start POI-Loader, and manual install. It will then give you the option of setting alerts for each CSV file it finds in that folder. In this case, I'm guessing this is the only one. Because of the @0 in the filename, it will default to speed. Instead select distance of say 500 feet. It doesn't really matter. The alert will then start when you get within 500 ft of the coordinates you chose. So, if you picked coordinates at the entrance to her work parking lot, when she's 500' away, a small screen will pop up on her GPS with your message "Have a great day" and your wav file will begin playing. It will brighten her day. I PROMISE she'll be bragging about you to her co-workers. At first she'll wonder what it said. Maybe not say anything on day one, but she'll pay attention on day two. My wife lists it as the BEST thing I've ever done for her. So much for kids, house, car, vacations, and some other things I thought had been a lot of fun over 25 years, but anyway you get the point. I use 500' because she has a small parking lot. 500' means she never leaves the "zone" so it doesn't alert when she leaves (my message is specific to her morning). But, you can use less if you like, it will just alert when she leaves. All depends on the message.

Obviously, I do a couple of test runs with another location and message. I started playing with an alert about a neighborhood road that was closed, so I could easily test it. That just reminded her not to go that way. Then I struck on this idea and have been having a lot of fun with it. You'll need to read about custom POI alerts for your specific GPS. I'll do what I can to help you. But, let me know how it goes. I'm sure she'll love it.

Now, that's a single site, single message. To do other special places is a little different. It's one audio file per csv file so it's a little difficult to do an audio file for each special location, unless you make it a reminds me of you message. If you have special spots, you can make a csv file and wav file for each one and put them all into your CustomPOI folder. When you do POI-Loader, it will ask about each one. POI's do need to be within 50' of roadways, so don't put coordinates out in the middle of a park, pick them by the roadway. (Search on TourGuide if you've got a Garmin).

If you want to start a list of special spots, just start a new CSV file. Coordinates in columns A & B, then message in Column C like "First date", "First walk", "First Kiss", "First I Love You", etc. DO NOT SCREW THIS UP! Make SURE these are all WITH YOUR WIFE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE if you mess this up! I don't THINK column D displays, but it depends on GPS. I use it for dates or notes. You can list hundreds of spots in these files. One per row. You can just keep adding to it. Go worldwide for that matter. She going out of town? Leave her a reminder as she leaves airport, nears hotel, etc. What will happen as she approaches these locations, she'll just get a DING on the GPS and a small text box with your message. She'll be impressed IF you remember these special spots and she'll love seeing "Wish I were there" pop up as she approaches her hotel for a business trip.

If you do this right, you'll thank me. If you get your spots crossed, you'll hunt me down I'm afraid.

I'm having a lot of fun dropping messages for her. When she pulls into Quik Trip - "Diet Dr Pepper Please" pops up on her screen. Her running park - "Wow, you look great." Highway exit - "Yea, you're almost home." So on and so forth. There are also ways to customize each entry for a different alert, but I just leave mine at 50'. That covers the ramp she's on, without alerting on the highway itself. You'll get the hang of it.