PoiLoader 2.6.1

Well I guess they do listen, sometimes.

Wow, thanks for the news. I've avoided the whole 2.6.0 issues by sticking with 2.5.4. So I guess I'm due to be a guinea pig for this one. Here I go to download and try it out. Wish me luck!

Good luck with that. It doesn't say anything about commas in the 3rd field (unless that is incorporated in the quote issue).

I get a note to the effect that since it cannot convert my files to the "proper" form, the sound file will not be transferred. I checked the unit. No sound file (.wav) was transferred and no image (.bmp) file was transferred.

It appears that we can only use version 2.6.1.0 for files that fit Garmin's imposed definition of what is "proper".

Guess I will stay with version 2.5.4.0 for loading my personal files.

Since you had successfully loaded wav audio with your POIs with POI Loader 2.5.4, it means that you installed sox.exe.

POI Loader 2.6.0 and 2.6.1 install on your computer to a different location than 2.5.4 did. So what you need to do is move sox.exe to the new folder on your computer. For Windows 7 users, the new POI Loader location is probably C:\Program Files (x86)\Garmin\POI Loader. Good luck. Go ahead and try 2.6.1 again with the newly relocated sox.

Thanks CraigW!

After adding sox.exe to the same file as version 2.6.1.0, all it well!

Thanks Vesten

Bummer. As much as I understand why it works this way, you can edit your post unless one of the following applies:

-For some reason, the first post in a thread can't be edited.
-once your message is "replied to" or "quoted," it also can not be edited.

So to be able to edit your message, you must not be the originator of a new topic and you need to run back and edit your post before someone replies to it.

What's really frustrating is when you go back and start to edit your earlier message but someone else replies to your message while you're editing a revision. Then after your extensive edit, you'll find that you can't post your revision. Also frustrating (when I make a mistake and wish to retract my whole post) is that we can never delete a message we post, even when we can edit it. So at times, you'll see a reply that has nothing but a "-" or something. Editing a message to nothing but a single character is the closest we can come to deleting something that we've written.

Works on my 25 poi files fine (some of them fail under 2.6.0). Loaded and display fine on my 765t

At least one comma is now allowed inside quotes in field 3 of .csv files to be transferred by PoiLoader 2.6.1.0. Haven't tried multiple commas, yet.

Just be sure you add sox.exe to the same file with the new version of PoiLoader so your .wav files will be transferred.

I have a Nuvi 660 and run poi-loader-2.5.3, everything works fine. It seems that you only need a newer poi-loader if you have a newer GPS. Any other reason to upgrade it?

A lot faster than 2.5.4.0

I agree. I didn't time it but 2.6.1 seems much faster at loading POIs, especially to my 750 which has a USB 1.1 connection to the PC.

On the other hand, maybe it just seems faster: 2.6.1 shows progress bars showing that something's going on. With 2.5.4, we had no indication of progress until the "Finished" window appeared

I may give 2.6.1 a try since it sounds like they got the "comma" problem fixed. I just have to remember to move sox.exe.

I avoided 2.6.0 because of the well-discussed problem.

anyone having issues with loader not recognizing sd card? I prefer to load on card rather than unit. New uploader doesn't give me option to load onto sd card as old uploader did.

It should give you the option to select GPS or computer. When you select computer then you browse to find your sd card

Old loader used to show sd card as a selection while in the garmin unit. New loader just shows the garmin unit. I can take the sd card out of the garmin and then download from computer to sd card then put back in garmin but now it's a 2 step process instead of simply 1 step

2.6.0 is giving me the option for loading to the card. Strange that yours is not.

So it shows the SD card as an option along with garmin when running loader? My laptop runs Win7 and it was recognizing sd card. My desktop runs XP and wasn't recognizing sd card. I'll update desktop and see what happens.

Yes, I use XP Pro and it does show as an option.

I thank you for the news. I'll download the file and try it out. Hopefully it works better than the last version.

Thought it might be interesting to test Garmin's second shot at it. Removed 2.5.4. Installed 2.6.1. Reran loading of the same set of POI's I successfully loaded to my micro SD card on my 350 after deleting the file from the 2.5.4 load.

Guess what! First it found an error on line 78 of Antique Shops. I pressed for it to continue. It got hung for 20 minutes while displaying "6% complete 10 minutes remaining."

I guess I'll stick with 2.5.4 until someone says unequivocably, that it works well. BTW, after I switched back to 2.5.4 to reload POI's, it took about 5 minutes to do that, albeit without the progress bar which was frozen anyway.

Garmin needs to check out their software much better than they do now.

Fred

FZbar, I see that records 78 through 81 look like this:

-93.97820,39.27840,
-93.88290,39.18550,
-93.88120,39.18540,
-94.07440,39.13070,

Apparently POI Loader does not like having nothing (other than hex 0D 0A) after the comma that terminates field two.

I would count that as a fault with the file rather than POI Loader.

EDIT: I see that there are at least three more records that have nothing after the field two comma.

need 2.5.4 could you send it to this email

werskine@myturbonet.com

thanks

There ya go...

On my Garmin, the POI files are copied to the GPS anyway. Why put them on the SD card? Unless your model works differently, you will still have the POI.gpi file on your GPS. Remove the SD card after the unit has booted up and see if it didn't copy the POI file over as part of the reboot.

On my 775T, the file is there, but only a few kilobytes, not megabytes. It all goes to the card.

didnt get it,

via

werskine@myturbonet.com

thanks again !!!!!

I had some fun working with PoiLoader 2.6.1.0 this afternoon.

Using a 4 field csv file with 5 entries on my Garmin 255, I found:

A. Multiple commas can now be used in a comma delimited field 3 of a .csv file; and,

B. If I purposely omitted the closing quotes at the end of field 4 (comments) on any one entry, only field 3 (name) of that entry would transfer but both the name and comments field of all other entries were fully transferred.

I am concerned that I got zero error reports from PoiLoader as to what or where the errors were located. I am not certain if it is an issue with my Garmin 255 or PoiLoader 2.6.1.0. Are any of you getting error reports as to what errors are located on which line?

The indications that I observed that let me know something was amiss were: (1) A file with a known error transferred much slower than a correctly entered file, and, (2) PoiLoader reported that I had successfully transferred 4 POIs but I knew there were 5 POIs in the file.

One other issue arose when I downloaded and tried to use PoiLoader 2.6.1.0 to transfer a file with 48 POIs. PoiLoader froze with O% of the file transferred. Hitting the “Cancel” button closed PoiLoader. (I checked the file and there were numerous apparent errors in several entries in the file. I will notify the member responsible for the file so the errors can be corrected.) I am wondering if this means that PoiLoader 2.6.1.0 will tend to “freeze up” whenever there are multiple errors in a file, while giving no indication of what those errors might be and where they can be found.

At any rate, I am happy that the field 3 comma issue appears to be solved!

2.5.4 can be downloaded from this site:

http://gawisp.com/perry/

It's the Oct 2009 version you want.

It may take a while to digest that 13 meg file... Or, it added me to spam. Or, it doesn't like the .exe format.

You can download it here:
http://www.gawisp.com/perry/

It is the one dated 14-Oct-2009 16:41

for uploading POI files to my nuvi 760. The previous version generated errors in several files and this one worked without a problem.

thanks

I tried using 2.5.4 to load the Antique Shop CSV file
and it reported an error on line 78, and that it had installed 77 Points of Interests. There are 3458 POIs in the file, so using 2.5.4 is not the solution to FZbar's problem trying to load them using 2.6.1.

Fixing the CSV file would fix the problem.

Whether POI Loader writes POI.gpi to an SD card or to your device, it is the same size. The only difference in my unit is that if POI Loader write it to the SD card, the GPS copies the same size file from the SD card to the GPS. You are not saving any space. The only place that a POI gpx or csv file is larger is on your PC, before POI Loader compiles it into a binary form.

My POI.gpi is not written to the unit, only the card. I've just checked to be 100% positive. Not quite sure why yours would.

Since the fields in a CSV files are separated by commas, there isn't anything to fix.

When you enclosed field 3 in quotes.

Version 2.6.0 required POI-Factory to alter its files to replace commas in field 3 with semicolons.

Now, if Miss Poi et al. so choose, we can again use a comma in a quotation mark delimited field 3.

Edit: For example: A name such as "County's Barbecue, Montgomery, AL" was permitted in field 3 by all versions of PoiLoader up to and including version 2.5.4. Because of a Garmin programming error, it was not permitted to use commas in the "name" field (field 3) in version 2.6.0. You had to write "Country's Barbecue; Montgomery; AL" in version 2.6.0. Now, the error has been fixed by Garmin and it is again permitted to use commas in such cases in version 2.6.1.

Because I keep the limited Nuvi 350 memory for map related things. Mp3's & POI's go to my micro SD card.

Fred

I think there may be something on your computer that is part of the problems you are having with both versions of POI Loader, especially in regard to the long delays.

I have tried both versions (2.5.4 and 2.6.1) and they both very quickly report an error on line 78 of the Antique Shops file and then very quickly reports that that 77 POIs have been installed.

The remaining several thousand pois were not installed by either version

In my case 2.5.4 worked fine & installed all my POI files. 2.6.1 locked up & installed none.

That's not what I call reliable software. Garmin should be ashamed of their performance.

Fred

Fred, there are other variables to the equation including, but not limited to, AV settings, FW settings, other anti-spyware programs, etc. not to mention OS configurations.

We can't blame Garmin for everything...

Just ran 2.6.1 with no problems, even got asked if I wanted to overwrite the file on the SD card. GPS is 250, Laptop with Win 7 pro 64 bit.

I guess I'll just wait for version 2.6.2 before I try again! And yes, we CAN blame Garmin for this one. Sorry to be so ornery.

Fred

Fred I went into the Antique shops csv file and repaired the records with no names and 2.6.1 created Antiques Shops.gpi in a blink of an eye, reporting 3458 POIs loaded.

I think if you wait til another version comes out you will still have problems because you are looking in the wrong place for the cause.

BTW I am curious as to what the size of the .gpi file POI Loader created from the Antiques Shop csv is on your card.

Ver 2.6.1 still shows up with an errors or two but it is certainly a step up from 2.6.0. I can live with it.

When I create a gpi file from ONLY the Antiques.cvs file (261,951) file, I get a gpi file of 269,949 bytes. I did not download a new version of Antiques.

Fred

I knew it was a bug... And a major one! This explains why they fixed it so fast.