Newbe and my first GPS

Have fun. It is quite amazing what these little things can do, most importantly, get you where you need to go.

After driving for nearly 50 years, this is one add-on which really makes a difference. This site does a great job at organizing the POI's into very practically useful information which is easily used.

Fred

Welcome to the site. You came to the right place. Many in the forum are ready to answer all your questions. There are so many interesting POI files to download and we'll tell you how to load them into the nuvi.

dobs108 Syosset NY - nuvi 760

Welcome to the group. If you hang around with us you will see all the great POI files. The best one is the Red Light Camera POI. I have referred lots of friends with GPS's to this site just for that file. There is a FAQ online that will tell you the options for downloading that one. Stay around and contribute to the forum and it is free or pay up front and support Miss POI.

Bob

Welcome to the site. Stay and enjoy all that is here. There are not only great poi's, but also great forums. You can learn a lot (and not just on poi's).

Welcome to the site Ticmxman .Plenty of help here if you need it.

This is the only site I go to for POIs and advise. Go ahead and get POIloader, and get your flies here. My favs are interstate rest stops, and offbeat tourist attractions files. The toilet flush sound goes well with the rest stops POI.

You have a great unit. It has some warts, but overall I think you will be very pleased with it.

Welcome aboard. Have fun while you're learning.

Thanks, I sure hope so. So far no problems. Anything in particular I should be looking for while I'm in my return window?

I had a 855 and a 885t and loved them both and my son now has my old 885t and it still is working great for him.

Some of us 855 owners, even with the latest firmware and after multiple hard resets, have had issues with the GPS freezing or semi-random rebooting. Oftentimes, these issues are followed by the GPS reverting to Jill or American English (assuming you use and prefer a different voice like Karen or Jack, etc.) A couple folks have reported phantom turn ons that drain the battery which is a separate issue from the normal "855 is not off unless the battery's removed--it's either on or sleeping"--which is normal for the 8x5 series.

Others have their 855 work flawlessly, at least after the last firmware update. Let's hope you have one of the good ones.

Mine is one of the occasionally spastic ones. But mine generally works well and when it's working, I do prefer it over the backup 750 I have due to the 855's Lane Assist, etc.

One thing to know is that when revising your custom-loaded POI files, you will need to remove, then reinstall the battery to reboot the GPS so that the new files will be seen by your GPS.

After being on this site for 6+months, the best advise I did not take is to backup your data! Especially your custom POI's. I lost most of my data on my laptop when the hard drive crashed. I was abl to resurrect it but what a hassle.

How do you install icons and sound files to a GPS?

I just downloaded the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives POI file and was disappointed that I couldn't find a list of just the D3 restaurants on my GPS.

Thanks!

During my research it seemed that it was a bit of the luck of the draw, no matter what brand or model that you could get a bad one so here's hoping i got a good one. Thanks for the tip on the POI files

Welcome aboard!

The red light POI is enough of a reason to own a GPS.

this is the best place to really get "your feet wet" into the world of GPS. These are the most helpful group I've ever seen. Had a question, email'd him directly...and BAM! he got back to me with an answer...and it worked...have a good time here!!

I have a gps 855. I love it. I bought a mike for mine from Frys. Works perfect.

Hi, everyone. Just got a deal on a nüvi 1300 with lifetime maps, so here I am surfing around, checking out how the custom POI thing works. I can see where this could become addictive!

Welcome to the site! You will find no better GPS site to get your questions answered and to learn many things about your GPS. The POI and Red Light Camera files and awesome!

Enjoy!

I can say I was in your position about 6-8 months ago! This site is great!!!!!!, don't even look anywhere else, you won't find one better! And feel free to ask away if you have problems, there are a lot of great people on here that have "been there, done that" and are very helpful and friendly!

welcome to gps country. Since I got mine, I haven't been lost once. Enjoy the group and the holidays.

See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721 for custom pois.You will need sox.exe installed on your computer and wav files for voice alerts.

An another welcome from me.
Enjoy and keep up to date with POI factory !!
guy

For GPS units this is by far the best site to help you get the max out of your unit. In a few weeks you will be able to down load the red-light poi files for free, and currently more POIs than you can store in your unit.

Glad you joined our little community here. You can find just about any conceivable POI file here, and the folks are friendly and helpful. Welcome!

remember to have fun

I'd also recommend a visit to Tony's page on http://www.vehiclesforgarminnuvi.com/

564 different and great-looking car icons to choose from, all free. Just save the SRF file, and copy it on your Garmin under the VEHICLE folder. Bang, you're done.

Oh - before you tweak your device ? One word: BACKUP !

Just connect your device to your PC, select all files and directories, and copy them on your PC's hard disk under an aptly-named folder.

As you can tell you found a very friendly site, so if you have any problems dont be afraid to hollor...

Wow what a friendly bunch. I'm sure I'll need some help soon for now I'm reading up on all the tips found here and trying to get some hours on the 855 to make sure I have a good one.

Welcome to the crazy world of the GPS. Enjoy your unit, the more you use it, the easier it gets.

Have fun with your 855, I love mine. Few things to remember:
a) Essentially a gps is a really, really dumb, cheap computer, that does its assigned tasks quite well.

b) Like all computers if you ask it to do too much it may crash. I find it tends to happen when I'm playing a lot of mp3 files on "shuffle", using the 3D map with a lot of detail and also using voice commands. Sometimes holding the switch "off" for about 10 secs will work, other-times I've had to remove the battery and once I had to remove the sd card and the battery. I allowed it to re-boot prior to re-inserting the sd card.

c)The voice commands really do work, but you have practice what intonations to use in your voice. The range of commands is much greater than indicated in the manual, try experimenting. I find the built-in is OK, even when playing the radio. Note that I use my car radio as the play-back for the gps, using a converter in the tape slot.

d)Your 855 will plot a route from co-ordinates to co-ordinates. (lon/lat) Not from address to address. All gps units make assumptions about where a particular street number will be on a street.To be more specific <" The addresses are attributed to the lines by full potential postal ranges (as in 1-99 or 200-299 or in this case even as 1-20 or 21-39).
They are not geocoded by specific dwellings. It is meant to get you close, but it may not get you right to the exact driveway. There is averaging in the address attribution because of this...it just is the
way the vendors TYPICALLY gather this data (you'll find it all over the GPS world).
The longer the "block" of road the more apt you are to see some of this.
Now if you find it locates the address on a totally different block than it actually is on, that's something else...the road needs some re-ranging (say the 200 block shows where it is actually the 300 block for example). That's a different kettle of fish.
But there is some averaging. As an example, say the address you want is 51 and the potential address range on the road segment is 1-99. The software will average that out and put 51 roughly in the middle. That may not always be reality...51 might even be the first or last house on the block...but it is put in the middle of the line segment in the map.
As I say, the addressing in the software is meant to get you close...and hopefully will...but the addresses are not coded to homes specifically...they are averaged by full potential range along the road
segments.
With what I'm saying above, too, there is a difference between the actual address range and the potential address range...and the map vendors often geocode the addresses to the roads per the potential range and not necessarily the actual range and to specific houses and driveways.
On A Avenue, for instance, between 1st and 2nd street the potential range will be 100-199. There may not that many dwellings in there, but that is the potential and what is attributed to the line segment."> A long explanation, but some users are concerned about the apparent errors caused by this geocoding. I just accept it and reckon it gets me a lot closer than a street map. You'll find lots of posts on this problem.

e)The 855 does not always plot the fastest route when asked. What it will do is try routing you on expressways or other major highways. It will get you there, but an alternative route may be quicker. The 855 does understand the shortest route, sometimes to the extent of sending you onto the off-ramp and immediately back onto the on-ramp, or taking you down side streets.

f)I always check a larger scale map and use my common-sense whether to follow the plotted route or not. In fact I would say NEVER trust the gps over your common-sense.

You've picked the right brand and the right site for your GPS.

I've had a GPS since Garmin was making the iQue 3600 years ago, and currently have a 205W. BUT, I didn't find this place until today. Very much looking forward to the world of custom POIs.

I really like this website. It is the best I have found for POIs and also has the most on changing the nuvi commands. I have this website also useful:

http://www.gpspassion.com/FORUMSEN/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=172

One of the best things on the gpspassion website is the GPX program that lets you convert a route on Google to a nuvi route you can upload and install in your nuvi.

I have a 760 in my SUV and a 885t in my bimmer convertible. The 885t does more minorly annoying things but also takes voice commands which is handy and sometimes impresses a passenger. The MSN is neat - I will miss it after 2011.

Jim

I am new to this site and the whole POI thing but learned a lot from this site over the weekend. I got a new zumo 660 and downloaded a few of the POIs, rest stops, Harley dealers, covered bridges, etc. I set proximity alerts for the rest stops and the Harley dealers with voice and bmp files for the fun of it. Thanks to everyone, I read a lot of threads. I went from, "What's a POI?" to loading anything I want with the POILoader.

I am currently trying to get my 1 free map update from the Garmin site but I am having all kinds of problems just connecting to the site. I have been keeping my wife and daughter's nuvi 765wt units up to date and never had problems with Garmin's website before. Anyone know what's up?

I got a new zumo 660 a week ago and learned a lot from this site over the weekend about POIs, proximity alerts w/ voice prompts and bmp files, and using the PoiLoader. It all works as just like the users said and the POPI files are great.

Thanks to all,

I was also trying to get my 1 free map update from Garmin over the weekend and again today but the MyGarmin website keeps crashing. Anyone know what's going? I never had this problem updating my wife and daughters Nuvi 765wt units.

This is only a guess but given the number of new nuvis in users' hands that were given as Christmas gifts--and most with a free map update due them, I assume it to be server overload on Garmin's site as everyone tries to get the latest map at the same time. My suggestion is to wait a few days or maybe try a wee-hours-of-the-morning update if you want it done soon.

Yep, the Garmin site is running a little better today.

I live next to the following Rest Stop in PA and it has been closed for a couple of years. I'm new to POI Factory and I don't know who to let know so the following line can be removed from the 'Rest Stops Combined files". I imagine its in the PA state file too.

-80.197847, 40.744065, SERVICE PLAZA EB I-70/I-76

I've also had a problem, but was able to successfully download. Suspect it's because of Christmas.

In general, go to the POI file page and see if you can contact the "Submitted by" user:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6643

In this case, go to his page:

http://www.poi-factory.com/user/8068

then click the "Contact" tab.

Enjoy your unit and be sure to post any trips to the forum so you get your windmill.

Taken care of ... Thanks

Being a newbe to POIs this last weekend I learned about POIs, how to load them, how to set alerts and how to give the alerts sound, all thanks to the users at this site.

Now I guess I have to read on to figure out what a windmill is

I had the same question when I first joined the website.

A "windmill" on here means the user has accumulated 6 weeks of activity on this site by posting responses to the various forum topics here.

Additionally, there is a POI file here that I update that has POI's on the old style Holland "windmills" located throughout the country.

Okay, I can handle that. I'll be here much longer than that. There is way too much info continuously coming in to not keep reading.

One of these days I might even be creative enough to find a subject/locations to create a POI file that hasn't been done.

Active member status gets you the windmill. Its made easy by posting in the forum. Even posting a "hi" in the chit chat thread gets counted.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/262

I found this site last night - thank you for all the great info!! I feel like this is GPS thing is going to be yet another obsession of mine...

I finally created two poi files. It was fun.