Extra_POI_Editor v5.0 beta (.gpi file creation only in this thread)

I tested on my 760 with 2 .gpi files made by Garmin to appear in the Where-To menu: only one appear!

If you put more than one file, only one Where-To logo will appear. When you click on it, you will see all your Custom POI categories, plus the categories belonging to the 2 Where-To files you made. Even the TourGuides appear in that list.

If the goal was to provide a quick access to the Custom POIs, then this is certainly one trick that works with the old GPS models like the 760.

On newer gps models like the 37xx, I was able to see correctly the 2 Garmin files with their respective logo. I added more, but only 2 logos were visible. Each logo had only its own POIs. No sign of the 3rd and 4th files. The Custom POIs were only accessible under Extra-Custom POI.

Transparency for the Where-To icons does not work with old GPS models even with the Garmin's files. Simply put a white or black background. It works fine with newer GPS model.

I like File-Export by Symbols

Proximity and speed alerts are not working for my 760 with EPE 5.08, The GPX file works with POI Loader 2.6

@Dave817: Looks like EPE 5.08 reverts the screen fonts back to the V4 ones. Personally, I like them too, except the V5 fonts looked better on the "More" screen.

@WAASup,

On my 760, when I click on the icon in Where-To and select one of the POI I wan to visit, the GPS displays the POI information. The first 2 lines after the POI name contains the alert information:

Distance: 1000m
Speed: 100 km/h
...

When you say it is not working, do you say you do not see these informations, or do you say the alert does not beep when you get in the range?

The info is displayed on my GPS just like yours, but there is no audible alert and no red speed warning on the top when simulation is run past the points.

EDIT: I've emailed the test file to you.

You are right. Alerts are no longer working. I see the information displayed on the GPS, but no alarm is raised.

At last! Here's the new version of EPE v5.09 beta with proximity and speed alert support. Yeah! Tested on both my 760 and 3750. That should cover most GPS.

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/file/detail/Extra_POI_Editor+...

Enjoy!

When I open a Speed Camera file gpx with US/Imperial speeds, e.g. Speed@45, EPE dis displays it as 28mph. Saving that file it saves that POI as Speed@28 and opening it again it shows 17mph.

You should not be doing any conversion of the "@nn" in a gpx file name. Perhaps the gpi needs to be metric, but I have not tested that part. You would need to know the users' input characteristics if the gpi saving requires a speed conversion.

Hi Dave,

EPE does not care about the GPX file name. If I did not change anything yet, only the @speed in the POI name has an effect.

I will have to change this. According to JD4x4, the @speed is "unit-less" even in the gpx file. This means EPE cannot know if the speed is mph or km/h. I may have to add a parameter in the Preferences or promt the user for each file. Bummer!

Thanks! Speed alerts work, proximity alerts with speed work. Proximity alerts with no speed (only distance) do not.

I may have something wrong, but retesting will wait til after the Super Bowl. Spent way too much time testing a file called EPEV5 SpeedProx.gpx and not getting expected results. Now what's wrong with that picture? LOL

Nuvi200
Speed alert work (Proximity and speed),default sound and visual warning.
Poi name: xxx@50 , show in gps as 50kmt (Correct for my nuvi settings)
Proximity work with default sound, but no visual warning.
Nuvi200 still only show 1 gpi file, the second do not show .

Well, it worked for me. I got a little sign with the POI name. Here's the strange thing: I have a 3 POIs: A, B and C. A and C have priximity and no speed. B has proximity and speed.

When starting from A, I have immediately an alert popup. Then I see the speed alert for B. When I arrive at C, no alert, but there is a sign I am arriving at C. When going back to A, I got all 3 alarms popup.

It seems weird to me that I have also a popup alert when arriving at A, but not when I am arriving at C.

If the Proximity in C start before you have passed the B with speed alert, then you won't get an proximity alert of C because the "speed alert" dont let proxemity audio alert work inside the speed alert distance.

If I use an ikon along with the gpx file, then
the Proximity work just fine, default sound and a
popup poiname.
Without ikon only default sound.

Edit: Forget it, it is somthing else. Sometime I get an popup and sometime not. I've been doing both "save as" and "Export by category" , maybe its somthing there. I test some more

Yes, the @xx speed number is 'unit-less' when stored in a csv or gpx file. Proximity though is stored as metric in gpx. I've never looked into a gpi file to see what is written when compiled, mainly because I don't have a gpi decoder ring.

I know that once on the unit though, both speed and prox change when you change your unit preferences. So that means it (the unit) must need to know what/when to change to/from somehow.

If you need to ask when compiling the gpi file maybe you can change the EPE Units pref 'CSV File Save' to CSV/GPI File Save'?

I've found that speed-only alerts seem to follow the Garmin 'Prompt Distance = 36 seconds * Speed' rule (with a min of .25 mi or (3-400m)?), so that would also make your alert 'circle' bigger/smaller when you consider vestenfjell's (correct) info about the alerts being too close.

Afterthought.. I don't have one handy to check just now, but I seem to recall that my speed only alerts have a .25 mi proximity value shown when you look at them as stored on the nuvi. For what that's worth (maybe a .25mi default proximity when compiled?).

Turboccc, Arghh, I meant POI point names, not file name.
You should not be doing any conversion of the "@nn" in the individual POI point names when saving a GPX file.

Take a GPX file named speedtest.gpx that has a POI point named testPOIOne@45. EPE will display testPOIOne point as -

Speed: 28 mph.

Save speedtest.gpx.

Open speedtest.gpx in a text editor and see the POI point name has changed to testPOIOne@28. Open speedtest.gpx in EPE and observe that testPOIOne now shows -

Speed: 17 mph.

Sorry if my English is unclear, but I don't speak any other language fluently .

dave817-
Yes, you are correct. This has been an ongoing item for a little while now, but I think Turbo gets it?

At the time I first brought it up I think I pushed him over the edge a bit because there were other file format issues he corrected, so I 'backed off' to give his brain time to return to normal genius-programmer status.

Popup alert in Proximity.
I think I have found out when the popup alert do ,or do not appear. Issue in Poi name .
Poi name:001 Alert:Default sound and no popup
Poi name:01 Alert:Default sound and no popup
Poi name:1 Alert:Default sound and a popup alert
Poi name:Any text Alert:Default sound and a popup alert
I dont know if this is an EPE issue ,or a nuvi issue.

Yes, 0.25 mi (or 400m) is automatically added to any @speed limit. Everything is stored in metric in the .gpi file. Speed is converted to centimeter per second (cm/s). Proximity stays in meters. The GPS takes care of your GPS units. Still, EPE will need to be told if the @speed is Metric or US/Imperial.

Yes, I should change the @speed units to maybe use the CSV units. It is a quick thing to do. That should solve dave817's issue.

I noticed this morning that POI Loader 2.5.4 adds automatically 5km/h (or 3 mph) to any POI having only Proximity. I do not get that one. Proximity and speed are not reported the same way. Also, I am sure I did not see this before. Maybe it was with POI Loader v2.6.0. I need to recheck this.

I am also working on a POI Loader mode (in next release). It produces exactly the same as POI Loader and the POIs appear in the Extra/Custom POIs list rather than in the Where_To. I noticed as well there is a difference when there is a .BMP file for the map symbol. Maybe this makes a difference in the way the alerts are reported. Weird though.

I shall continue working on this. Thanks for the feedback.

Turbo

I think there was another change in the way speed only alerts worked which may have been in a unit update. Earlier, like last spring or early summer, speed only alerts didn't go off as early as they do now. If you had a 30 MPH speed alert you would get notified about a block before the point, now it's a quarter mile.

There's one stretch of road I frequent that has a 30 MPH camera and I used to get alerted about a block before the camera, plenty of time to verify I was below the trigger speed. Now I get notified a quarter mile away and I have to rely one the overspeed alert.

As previously discussed, we've already determined that the POI being in "Where To" is not compatible with the US nuvi 200W.

Maybe only 2 pages of "Where To" icons (6 icons on each page) are allowed on a US nuvi 200W and all 12 icons are already being used by default.
Therefore, maybe this device does not have the ability to add another page to fit another .gpi file icon.

Extra POI Editor with a POI Loader mode option (POI listed in the Extra/Custom POIs list instead) hopefully will allow .gpi file use with this device using Extra POI Editor vs. the Garmin POI Loader.

Even though you haven't released a Extra POI Editor with a POI Loader mode option yet. I thought I'd try Extra POI Editor again with my nuvi 200W anyway, but this time with v5.09.
Although this may be preemptive, and based only on what a v5.09 created .gpi is doing now on my nuvi 200W, I may have a pre-bug report for you below...

Although v5.09 does not display/add another "Where To" icon" for the added POI .gpi file, it does "see" that there's a new POI .gpi file in the POI folder.
How, you ask?
If I have Proximity Alerts turned on for Custom POIs, I get a constant "Speed Alert: 0mph" screen as soon as I get a satellite lock and start traveling. Pressing the "OK" button does nothing and the device is stuck on the alert screen and just keeps repeating the alert tone.
OR
I get a "Variable Saftey Camera Zone" screen when "GPS Simulator" is turned on and you use "Set Loc" from a Favorite that is your current location, then set a destination to another Favorite. Again, pressing "OK" does nothing and the device is stuck on the "Variable Saftey Camera Zone" screen and just keeps repeating the alert tone. The end result is that I have to remove the .gpi file to be able to use the GPS at all again.

The strangest thing about this is that none of the locations in the .gpi file have any Proximity or Speed values set.
All the TourGuide Info fields were left blank.

According to my coding, the alert information is not added to the .gpi if the Speed or Proximity field is not set. I wonder why you get that 0mph speed alert.

The POI Loader mode is available. You should be able to have it in a short while. I was trying to correct the @speed conversion unit before releasing. Maybe tonight or tomorrow night.

Turbo

Is there a possibility to make GPI files with Speed or Proximity, without getting a popup
alarm on the display, or is this totally controlled by the nuvi.
The reason I ask about this is that I'm making a sort of directional speed traps
GPI files. This is something I've done for a while. What I do is to insert a poi with a wav file of silence, next to a speed trap poi with a custom wav file, on the side that should not have an alarm.
In this way you will not get a audio alarm the wrong way. This works pretty well.
The two files must be the same, same speed and proximity. Speed poi against speed poi and proximity poi against priximity poi.
But I still get this popup warning if I run the opposite direction.

There are a few bits I do not know. Maybe clearing them would cancel the pop-up...

ok, thanks for the reply

If you have some knowledge on how to use a Hex Editor, I can point you in the right direction and you can meke the test yourself. This would speed things up for you.

If you have some knowledge on how to use a Hex Editor, I can point you in the right direction and you can meke the test yourself. This would speed things up for you.

I guess that would really slow things down, I have never used one.

I just added a POI Loader emulation mode support in the Preferences. When checked, the .gpi file becomes a regular .gpi file and POIs will appear in the Extras/Custom POIs. When unchecked, it will create an icon in the Where-To menu like in previous EPE 5.0x versions.

I also started to change the @speed unit conversion, but I am not done yet. It is possible it does not work accurately for now. When done, the @speed units in GPX files will be decided by the settings in the Preferences and will follow the CSV units settings.

See post #1 for the list of features still not supported (WAV, MP3, ...).

Latest download link:

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/file/detail/Extra_POI_Editor+...

When you say "As previously discussed, we've already determined that the POI being in "Where To" is not compatible with the US nuvi 200W. "

Are you saying that any GPS in the 200 SERIES will not work, or just the 200W unit??

With EPE versions before v5.10 the "Where To" menu does not show an icon for the added EPE .gpi file with my 200W. I was not commenting on the 200 series.

I'm now happy to report that a .gpi file made with EPE v5.10 using POI Loader emulation mode, does work with my 200W and my POI categories now show under Extras>Custom POIs.

I still use the "Where To" menu option with a custom POI icon for my 255W and 775T units.

Thank you turboccc

This is regarding the File>Export by>Category...>Save as type:>Garmin GPI (*.gpi) and/or the File>Export by>Symbol...>Save as type:>Garmin GPI (*.gpi) options.

With the File>Export by>Category...>Save as type:>Garmin GPI (*.gpi) option:
The default waypoint icon shows on my GPS instead of my custom map icon Symbols that I assigned.
Note: I've assigned different custom map icon Symbols to some POI's that are in the same Category (of a different name)... this should be OK, right?.

If I use the built-in EPE MapSource Symbol name choices (instead of adding my own custom map icon Symbol names/filenames), my custom map icon Symbols will show correctly on the GPS, but ONLY if the Category name IS THE SAME NAME as my custom map icon Symbol name/filename (minus the file extension of course).
Therefore, IF the custom map icon Symbol name/filename that I assign DOES NOT have the same name/filename as the Category name I assigned, I then get the default waypoint icon on the GPS instead.
Shouldn't I be able to assign different custom Symbol names/filenames to other POIs and still have them assigned to the same Category that has a different name?

With the File>Export by>Symbol...>Save as type:>Garmin GPI (*.gpi) option:
EPE creates a .gpi file that instead has the Category name on the GPS that is equal to the Symbol name that one assigns with EPE.
With this option, the POIs that have been assigned my custom map icon Symbols do appear correctly on the GPS then.
My dislike with using this option is that then I have to many Categories on my GPS that are not needed (This is also true with the using the Export by>Category option as I explained above... when the Category name is the same as my custom map icon Symbol name).
I want to have the POIs within those Categories (that have different custom symbol names/filenames) to all be in the same single Category of a different name (and still have different custom symbols/custom symbol filenames).

when i uploaded to garmin there are only two icons that show up in the where to screen even thou i have 4 gpi files ......it sorted them by state but not by cat or sysmble.... i would like to set it up like ....
>trk stops
>>pilot
>>petro
>>etc....

and is it only limited to two???????

I,ve played a little with a HexEditor and gpi files today.
I have the hexadecimal on the one side and the ACII on the other.
I think I can try to edit the GPI file if you guide me in the right direction.

Ok. Find the following byte sequence (in hex)

030000000C000000 PPPP SSSS 0001000101 010510

PPPP is the proximity distance in meters
SSSS is the speed in cm/sec

The last 6 digits can be 010510 or 010410. Other combination applies, but I think this is not what you are looking for.

Try to play with the bytes after the SSS and before the 010510.

Do only one change at a time and test. For example, you may change 01 by 00. Then save, copy on GPS and test. Put it back to 01 and change something else. If you do more than one change, you will be all confused very fast.

Ok, thanks.
I'l test.

on the link for Extra POI Editor my Internet Security throws me a popup window stating that this link is a "dangerous page" and not to open it. Any answers out there?

Regards,

Norm

Disregard any such warning by Micro Trends. It is a false positve.

Depending on your GPS, only 2 Where-To icons can be created. It is a GPS limitation. This is the reason why I released the POI Loader emulation mode sooner.

In the future, you will be able to create many more categories of file under the same Where-To icon. The goal is not to have many Where-To icon, but to have one where-to icon (like you have only one Extras/Custom POI icon), but many files divided in categories.

This will come later when I am done with the wav/audio alerts.

Yes, maybe I should give priority to the assigned symbols in the POI rather than giving priority to the external BMP symbol.

For now, it has to work that way. I found out how to put one symbol per POI. That will be great in the long run. I'll concentrate on making the existing stuff work correctly, but you can be sure I'll do it.

Right now, I can have only one sy,bol per category (or file). Here's how EPE resolves the map symbol priorities:

1- If there is a corresponding "symbol".bmp in the Where-To folder (as set in the Preferences), then I will use it. It gives you an override oin the default ones in EPE.

2- If the custom symbol described in -1- above is not found, I will use the default map symbol in EPE. If you do not want EPE to do that and use the file symbol described in -3- below, clear the Symbol field with the global Replace Field function.

3- Finally for all POI without any symbol, EPE will use the one specified by the "poi_file".bmp file.

I think this will be great. What do you think?

for the quick reply.

Regards,

Norm

I can see the advantage of the way it is now for others, but obviously (if given a choice) I'd prefer the 1st option instead.
The ideal solution would be if you could add another Preferences GPI Output check-box option to give priority to "custom" assigned map symbols vs. the external BMP symbol, if that's possible in a future release.... GREAT!

I wasn't sure that you would understand what I was trying to explain, but I think you do.
I'd like the GPS to display the custom map Symbol assigned when that POI is in the same Category as other POIs that are assigned other custom map Symbols.
Basically, multiple custom map symbols per Category (or Category file) and the GPS displaying all those custom map Symbols is the goal.

Currently, EPE will LET me assign the same custom symbol to several POIs along with other custom symbols to other POIs, AND have them all grouped in the SAME Category.
But the problem is that when doing this, the GPS does not display ANY of those custom symbols for ALL of those POIs that are in that Category.

Another current side-effect of my POIs symbol assignments being configured the way I've done, is using the "Next POI" button (and this occurs with ANY verion of EPE).
When using the "Next POI" button, eventually EPE will crash and give me a "Run-time error '380": Invalid property value".
What's strange, is that it happens at different times, depending on how their sorted and not always on the same POI.
But eventually it WILL ALWAYS happen the SECOND time I get to the NEXT custom symbol assigned POI.

I think I know why. It may be because of a different Category or Symbol name that is not in the current list. I will check tonight if this makes sense.

Yes... but it's ONLY because of the 2ND different custom map Symbol name that causes the crash though.

I discovered this problem a long time ago when using pre-v5.XX versions, but until now I didn't know why it occured... because when it got to the 1st one, it didn't crash EPE. Back then, I never was able to tie the problem to the custom map Symbol names because that.

I CAN have ONE custom map Symbol name (that's NOT on the EPE current list) and several different custom Category names and it won't crash.

If my custom map Symbol name is the SAME NAME as one that's on the CURRENT EPE map Symbol list, it's OK though. I do that so I can use the updated MapSource map Symbol icons with v5.XX (instead of the old MapSource ones that EPE still uses)

Yes, it is pre-5.xx. It has nothing to do with the .gpi implementation, but now that you are adding a symbol name in the Symbol field, you can reproduce the problem easily.

It should be easily fixed tonight.

Hi WknThDg,

If I remembered your email correctly, I sent you a version that should fix the symbol issue. Not sure it was your email or WAASup's...

Find the following byte sequence (in hex)

030000000C000000 PPPP SSSS 0001000101 010510

PPPP is the proximity distance in meters
SSSS is the speed in cm/sec

The last 6 digits can be 010510 or 010410.
[/quote]
The bytes "04" and "05" encode the identity number of the sound file which is played for that alert.

Sound files are store in sound records which start like this (in hex):

12 00 08 00 5b 67 02 00 03 00 00 00 07

The last byte "07" encodes the identity number of the sound. This example was taken from Stonepages.gpi, which is a good source to study the linking between alert records and sound records.

Yes, you are correct however for this to work you have to replace the last "10" in the 03000000 dataset to "20".

I worked on other stuff this week-end so I did not added audio alerts using sox.exe. Maybe I can do a compromise and just enable wav files with the right format and ignore the others. It will be better than nothing.

Interesting, so far I have only found the last byte of a 03000000 record to be either 00 or 20. What is the difference between 10 and 20?

While further investigating the sound record it turns out that there is a byte which is 00 for WAV and 01 for MP3. Here is an example:

12 00 08 00 0d d8 01 00 03 00 00 00 09 20 01

The last byte in this example indicates the format of the (multi language) sound files to follow.

[quote=gymkskiInteresting, so far I have only found the last byte of a 03000000 record to be either 00 or 20. What is the difference between 10 and 20?

You may wonna poke into this http://garminych.ru/products_docs/karabin201006.gpi or that http://89.108.119.33/mapcam201011.gpi. The latter also contains "1B 00 00 00" records extending the alert records. I have never seen these records elsewhere and I'm wondering if they are incarnations of that mythical directional alerts.