Garmin 3970T and Custom POI's

 

I have read every thread and am still not understatnding why I cannot get any custom POI's to show on the map of my 3970T. Using POIloader I loaded 6 .CSV files. On the unit in the POI directory I have the GarminPOI.gpi, NJ Speed Traps.csv & NJ Speed Traps.bmp for the 24x24 Icon. This is repeated for the 5 others loaded.

Shouuld the Icon show on the map when the correct Long/Lat from the .CSV file hits? What am I missing?

I do see the Custom POI's listed in EXTRAS and I can navigate to them with no issue.

As a HAM Radio operator I have loaded the .CSV/BMP for NJ Repeaters. I was hoping as I drive to display a little Antenna Icon when ever in the area of one of the repeaters in the CSV file.

HELP!
Dikfer

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Everyone needs to beleive in something... I beleive I'll have another beer!

2 things

2 things that you need:

- the .bmp must be saved in 256 color in order to be visible

- the icons may only be visible if you zoom in.

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Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Check this thread

I concur.

Also check this thread for more info on how to get the right kind of bmp file:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/33693

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Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

zoom level

dikfer wrote:

I have read every thread and am still not understatnding why I cannot get any custom POI's to show on the map of my 3970T. Using POIloader I loaded 6 .CSV files. On the unit in the POI directory I have the GarminPOI.gpi, NJ Speed Traps.csv & NJ Speed Traps.bmp for the 24x24 Icon. This is repeated for the 5 others loaded.

Shouuld the Icon show on the map when the correct Long/Lat from the .CSV file hits? What am I missing?

I do see the Custom POI's listed in EXTRAS and I can navigate to them with no issue.

As a HAM Radio operator I have loaded the .CSV/BMP for NJ Repeaters. I was hoping as I drive to display a little Antenna Icon when ever in the area of one of the repeaters in the CSV file.

HELP!
Dikfer

In order to get "Icons" (from .bmp files) to display on your GPS, you must be zoomed in very close - say 200 ft.

On my 765T, it seems the default zoom is 0.2 mi. I need to zoom down to 200 ft (going through 800, 500, and 300 to get there). In my opinion this is far to much detail for navigating as it changes too quickly. As a pedestrian, it would be fine and orient me to places quickly.

Consider what would happen if you had Icons showing at the .2mi zoom level. You might have enough POIs such that all you would see would be a mass of overlapping Icons.

However, there may be another way for you to get an indication of your Repeaters. That would be TourGuide POI files. When you got within a certain radial distance (with your vehicle at the center of the circle) you can get an alert in the form of a black oval with the name of the repeater in white letters inside the oval.

I think you misstated what you did. .csv files and .bmp files reside on your computer. You point POILoader to the folder containing those files and POILoader uses them to create the .gpi file that is placed within the \Garmin\POI folder on your GPS. We would not expect there to be .csv or .bmp files on the GPS.

So, try zooming in as far as you can and see if the Icon shows up.

Even though you appear to have been a member here for over three years, I want to encourage you to make a complete backup of your 3970. If you are not familiar with how to do this, look at http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30394

Many Thanks!

Well problem #1 was BMP's where 16 color. Once I use POIloader I don't need to have the CSV and BMP files on the unit correct? That is what POIloader is in essence doing for me.

Thanks for the help. I will try it on the way home tonight.

--
Everyone needs to beleive in something... I beleive I'll have another beer!

@ dikfer

Because you will be zoomed in very close, why don't you stop safely on the side of the road every now and then and see what is around you.

100% Correct

Once I zoomed to 200ft, the icon(s) did appear. Basically useless IMHO.

I did try playing around with TourGuide GPX files. I followed the Ischwabe document and used this format and converted the txt file to a gpx file but POILoader would just give me an error.

-79.123456,43.654321,Name of waypoint one,Description of wp1,750,WpFolderA

I created the directory as POI\Data with a subfolder of WpFolderA

Got nothing! smile

--
Everyone needs to beleive in something... I beleive I'll have another beer!

Ok, look at this

dikfer wrote:

Once I zoomed to 200ft, the icon(s) did appear. Basically useless IMHO.

I did try playing around with TourGuide GPX files. I followed the Ischwabe document and used this format and converted the txt file to a gpx file but POILoader would just give me an error.

-79.123456,43.654321,Name of waypoint one,Description of wp1,750,WpFolderA

I created the directory as POI\Data with a subfolder of WpFolderA

Got nothing! smile

We are going to attempt build a test .gpx file using your data.

To build our test POI file, we are going to use Extra POI Editor (EPE) which was written by Turbocc, one of out members. Get a copy of this program at:
http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/Extra_POI_Editor#toc5

Scroll down to the bottom of Turbocc’s webpage and download the latest “zip” file into a folder on your computer. Navigate to that folder and extract the files; then, run Extra_POI_Editor.exe.

What you will see will be four panels that are empty. Now to create your POI location.

At the bottom left of the upper left panel is the button “Add New POI” – click it.

Now you have a dialog box called POI Edit.

Now, enter the coordinates listed in the quote box above into the Long: and Lat: fields of the POI Edit dialog. What you will see is that the point is in the ocean.

Was that what you intended? Probably not.

Please give us one location near your home that you would like to have a TourGuide alert for. Maybe we can use EPE to get you a TourGuide file you can check out using simulation.

Thank for the info.....

I used Extra and created a test file with 5 waypoints. All of which I drive by everyday. I used Google Maps to get the LON/LAT. I set one for about 2 miles fromm at an intersection. First time I drive I get an alert .6 miles away. Grey area with the text I put in White. GREAT! Come back from the opposite direction, NOTHING. Of the other 4 I received one alert. Now oddly enough one of the waypoints I added to Favorites. That always shows on the map. I can zoom out to 5 miles and I still get it.

For what I am trying to get to see this seems perfect for me. Sure I will need to manually add 1500 favorites but hey, I got the time.

(Now I'd be willing to bet there is a Max number of Favorites allowed)

After 5 mins of research current.gpx is the favorites file. Tried it and it works like a charm!

--
Everyone needs to beleive in something... I beleive I'll have another beer!

Why favorites?

dikfer wrote:

I used Extra and created a test file with 5 waypoints. All of which I drive by everyday. I used Google Maps to get the LON/LAT. I set one for about 2 miles fromm at an intersection. First time I drive I get an alert .6 miles away. Grey area with the text I put in White. GREAT! Come back from the opposite direction, NOTHING. Of the other 4 I received one alert. Now oddly enough one of the waypoints I added to Favorites. That always shows on the map. I can zoom out to 5 miles and I still get it.

For what I am trying to get to see this seems perfect for me. Sure I will need to manually add 1500 favorites but hey, I got the time.

(Now I'd be willing to bet there is a Max number of Favorites allowed)

After 5 mins of research current.gpx is the favorites file. Tried it and it works like a charm!

You can have 1000 favorites/waypoints in your 3790

If you used EPE to create a .csv file which was then loaded to your GPS using POILoader, they are now in Custom POIs and can be navigated to by Where To > Extras > Custom POIs rather than Where To > Favorites.

You can get an "alert" for Custom POIs (assuming they are loaded to provide such and you have alerts turned on) but you do not get "alerts" for Favorites.

On the one (of five) POIs that got an "alert" one way but not the other, consider the description of "along the route" alerts recently given by Box Car in another thread.

Box Car wrote:

A standard proximity alert can be pictured as a box approximately 200 feet wide and as long as the alert distance. The POI location is in the middle of the back edge of this virtual box. Now, in order for an alert to trigger, the road you are driving on has to come inside the box. The other limitation to this virtual box is it only runs parallel to the closest road or street to the POI location.

You might go back to EPE and take a close look and see how your POI sits relative to the center of the roar you were traveling on.

Further the .6 versus 2 miles may be the difference between Imperial and metric.

When you use EPE, it is best to set Options > Preferences > Units to Imperial, Metric and Metric for the three lines in the Units box.

EPE should then show feet.

While this may not be your problem, bear in mind that a .gpx file has a line that gives a proximity distance BUT DOES NOT HAVE AN INDICATION OF WHAT UNIT THE USER INTENDED. POILoader just assumes that the distance within the .gpx file is in meters. 2 miles or 10560 feet is roughly 3200 meters and 3200 divided by 5280 is roughly .6. Could that have been your distance discrepancy?