crazy POI

Try Dunkin' Donuts

If you had just turned the unit on and it had not yet acquired satellite signal, it may have looked in the area where you last used the GPS unit.

Both good suggestions.

It is also not necessary to spell out the whole name for a search. The more you type in, the more chance for a mistake.

On mine, wild cards are not needed; either Dunkin or Donuts would have found them all and maybe some other things too.

If the GPS said the one match was 227 miles away, then it probably knew (about) where it was.

And finally, POI listings are notoriouis for being incomplete and inaccurate. Just one of the reasons that this site has so many users !!

Not sure if you have loaded the POI from here, but they are listed as "DD-Town:ST".

Mahoney does a fine job of keeping it updated. I've seen a few corrections and the changes were made by the next day.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/5193

The OP was using the built-in POI, not Mahoney's file.

Using the built-in POI will mess you up. I have given up on using them, unless I go online to confirm that they are correct.

Just and FYI ...

If I select "Points of Interest/Food/Bagel or Donut" and then spell Dunkin Donuts it takes forever and finds just 1, a "Baskin Robbins & Dunkin Donuts" that is 241 miles away.

If I just select "Points of Interest" and then select the "Spell Name" icon, and enter "Dunkin Donuts" it easily finds all the Dunkin Donuts that are nearby and more.

It just means that Dunkin Donuts isn't under the "Bagel & Donut" category in the manufacturer's POI database. Who would have guessed that! I don't see any way to tell extactly what category it is under either. Doesn't really matter I guess if its not under the Bagel & Donut category.

So, for me, the lesson learned here when using Garmin's POIs is, if you know the name of what you are looking for then select "Point of Interest" and then immediately use the "Spell Name" Icon so it will search all categories.

BTW, I do use Mahoney's DD file, I like their coffee. I put a quarter mile alert that pipes up and says,"Do you need a coffee? Dunkin Donuts is ahead."

I would have made the same mistake, I'll keep that in mind for future reference. I would have guessed that all POIs of a certain type would belong in the same category, but apparently not.

My 255W built in poi comes up with only one Dunkin Donuts – 216 miles away in Cheyenne Wyoming.

But in my case that is probably right. I don’t think there are any Dunkin Donut locations in the whole state of South Dakota.

I am fairly close to the Wyoming border, but I don’t think there are very many in Wyoming either. The closest town of any size in Wyoming is Sundance (pop. 1,339, about 60 miles), and I am sure there is not one there.

We do have “Jerry’s Donuts” about 5 miles away and the coffee and donuts are so good that a lot of famous people go to the small shop when they come to town. Because of that – “we don’t need no stinkin’ Dunkin Donuts”.

Get Mahoney's DD file and you will know for sure if any are around. Just in case Jerry's is too busy with the stars to serve commoners like us.

I did that already out curiosity generated by this thread. There are none listed in that file either.

Also this source lists none for South Dakota: http://www.dunkindonutslocations.com/south-dakota-dunkin-don...

Don’t worry, Jerry is a not one to be “too busy with the stars to serve commoners like us”.

And what makes you think I am a commoner?

I guess I was assuming. Oh well, we all know what that now makes me.

It turns out you were right. I lived in an orphan's home and the USAF gave me a home for 4 years when I turned 17.

One cannot get much more commoner than that.

I was just razzing you.

.

I am going to download the DD POI. Got to have my DD coffee.

Thanks for the tips. I am downloading the DD POI file. I may even try to put in the alert. May need help with that though.

I have a Dunkin Donuts wav file for my alert that says, "Do you need a coffee? Dunkin Donuts ahead." If you would like it for your alert send me an email off my contact tab with you email address and I'll send it to you.

bear007

Went to DD today for the first time in awhile. Currently I have set my GPS to alert at 1000 feet, I think this might be a bit much for DD, especially in downtown Philly (and probably everywhere else). My alert is just a ding, don't believe it can be altered.

I'm not familiar with the StreetPilot C340. Doesn't it allow adding sounds to the alerts??

I have not seen or heard of a way to load .mp3 or .wav files onto it, do not believe it has the capability to do so. It does have a setting for Proximity Alarms (off, on). Don't really need more than that though, but it would be somewhat neat to customize what she says/does.

When I load POIs, I set it to alert at 1000 feet and it will ding within that range. I also see the logo for the POI on screen when driving down the road.

I sure hope I don't need to replace her in the near future, but I have dropped her numerous times and the sd card now pops out when dropped. Sometimes she doesn't recognize the card when inserted, but after a second try it will work. Had to hit the reset button twice yesterday, first time ever I believe. Still won't get rid of her, no matter how lost I get!

Have you tried to put a wav and bmp file of the same name in the same folder with the POI file before you run POILoader on it. Looking at the manual it looks like it should be able to speak the alert.

Make sure the sox.exe is in the same folder as POILoader.exe

Hmm... never tried that, I'll give it a go and see what happens. I do have .bmp files loaded with my POIs, and they show up fine. Now I just need the .wav files to test.

Of course, it helps to remember where I put my GPS....

Use this link to make your wav file and to get the sox.exe file.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25730

I'll have to road test tomorrow, I've created a .wav file to use as a test. I really hope I left my GPS at work today, I don't recall bringing it home now that I think about it.

You can't always trust its internal database of POIs, especially for states like NY since things change frequently.

I created a test .wav file and renamed it to every POI I have, will find out if it works. I hope I didn't make a huge mistake by choosing the chorus line in Rebecca Black's song Friday to do the test.....

I'll find out after passing several dozen DDs

You might find that a little too much. The alert sound would probably be more useful if each of the POI files had there own sound or words.

My Dunkin Donuts file says, "Do you need a coffee? Dunkin Donuts ahead." 1/4 mile ahead along the route.

My Harley Davidson tourguide file says, "Harley Davidson nearby", inside a 2 mile radius.

Many of they POI files already have sound files on this site to download. The different alert sounds help identify the POI without having to look at the screen. Just a thought.

I'm currently testing it at the moment, I'll actually update with real files once I get it to work. Right now apparently I have a space issue, when I tried to load my POIs it said insufficient space. The .wav isn't very large, and I don't have too many POIs so I need to see what is eating up the extra space. Not sure at the moment if I can remove any voices that I don't use, have to look into that if possible. Its not like a nuvi where you can plug it into a PC and use it like a hard drive and access the data on it.

I'll try again tomorrow night when I get back from Charlottesville, too tired tonight.

I have the same problem. I knew there was a la madeleine near me. I use wildcards a lot. Spelled "mad" and nothing showed up. Went into eateries and couldn't find it there

Currently I have the sox.exe loaded into the same folder as the POI loader, and I would make the assumption that the .wav file has been uploaded (based on the disk space error I had received previously), however it does not play. I wonder if it makes a difference as to the bitrate on the .wav? I'll have to play later this weekend, another late night of traveling doesn't do too good for the mind.

On the C330 and c340 you have very limited disk space to the newer Nuvi's. If you have updated the map any, it also eats space and would be better on an SD card.

I would load sox again but not load all the pois. Just do one and then you can "simulate" your driving route for a test. Saves on gas... Just realize that you can't speed up the vehicle, so set the starting point close by.

Daniel

The Custom POIs that are loaded from this site do a far better job at finding what you are looking for than the built in ones - plus you can get up a listing of your Custom POIs and it will give you a list of the nearest Dunkin Donuts.

I gave up on typing a name to search the built in POIs as it just puts that darn hourglass on the screen and spins it around forever until it gives up.

You're not kidding about the limited space, I've given up on the sounds and just leaving the space for POIs instead. Doesn't appear to give you a choice as to where to save the POIs, but would prefer on the SD card.

Where are the POIs saved on the GPS?

You find them at Where to,extras and touch custom pois last.They are saved in the Garmin folder.Connect unit to gps,click on drive for gps,click Garmin folder,Poi folder and you will see the gpi extension with the name you gave it.Example My Pois.gpi.

The POI supplied by Garmin are part of the map data. Custom are as CharlesD45 stated.

I don't know where I would be without this site. I have learned so many things and keep on learning. Everyone is so helpful. I want to thank bear007 for going out of his way to help me with setting up the DD file.

As long as you get your alert for your coffee, that's what's important!

Enjoy,

Yes, the c3xx only would allow map data on the sd card. Poi info is only available on the unit itself. Pictures and regional sections of national files, csv instead of gpx are the way to go.

Daniel

Neither CSV or GPX files are on the unit. POI Loader reads them and creates a GPI file which is on the unit. The size of the GPI file is virtually the same if you use CSV exclusively or GPX or a combination.

I didn't realize this. In testing a couple years ago I thought I found that I was able to get more data on the unit by using csv files instead of the same data in some of the gpx I had made.

I meant to say earlier that no picture icons.

Daniel

I have about 30,000 poi's in my .gpi. The POI Loader compresses them to 2.3 megs.

The biggest advantages to a GPX over a CSV are the ability to have bluetooth dialable phone numbers and more control over how the information is displayed on the unit. Another big feature of a GPX is you can set proximity distances either bulk, for the entire file or individually.

As an example, I can set one alert distance for say a Wal-Mart, another if the Wal-Mart sell fuel. Both are in the same file, so I don't need to break out a portion. The other advantage of setting either proximity (and you can set speed as well) within the file is the ability to use POILoader in the express mode. It's kind of a "set it and forget it" way of doing your files until the next time it is updated.

it happens...just gotta use common sense...