Cant find Proximity alert setting in Garmin c550

I don't want to offend you, but after you clicked on the wrench did you hit the down arrow on the bottom right? I have to do that to get to the Proximity Icon. I know I always forget that there are more icons than what show on the front page.

After checking to make sure that your alerts are set to sound on your GPSs, to ensure that alerts are set for the locations, you can run POI Loader in MANUAL Mode instead of Express Mode and you can set the alerts at whatever distance you want rather than the default.

Here is some detailed information from the POI Loader Help File.

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Speed Information

Speed information can be included in the file name or in the names of individual POIs within the file.

POI Loader determines speed information based on the following information, listed from highest to lowest priority:

Speed information included in the name of the individual Custom POI. For example, a POI named "SpeedZone@30" will have an alert speed of 30 regardless of the speed information specified in Manual mode or in the file name.

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Speed information entered in Manual mode.

Speed information included in the file name. POI Loader interprets any numbers in the file name as speed information.

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Proximity Alert Information

Proximity alert information can be calculated automatically based on speed information. It can also be included in .gpx data files or added in Manual mode.

POI Loader determines proximity alert information based on the following criteria, listed from highest to lowest priority:

Proximity alert information listed for individual POIs in a .gpx file. This information overrides all other proximity alert information.

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Proximity alert information entered in Manual mode.

Proximity alert distance calculated by POI Loader based on speed information in the file name or in individual POI names. This calculation uses the following formula:

Prompt Distance = 36 seconds * Speed.

A default proximity alert distance of 400 meters/0.25 miles if the file name contains the word "redlight."

If there is a TourGuide audio file attached and no other proximity alert information is available, POI Loader assigns a proximity alert distance of 0.25 miles.

POI Loader determines whether or not a file contains speed and proximity alert points based on specific criteria. Use the following information to help you create Custom POI files:

If a file name contains a valid speed number or if all records in a file have speed encoded in the name, then all records in the file will include speed and proximity alerts. For example, a data file with the file name "Speed_30" generates speed alerts of 30 mph (or kph, depending on the type of units selected in POI Loader) for each POI in the file.

If the file name contains "redlight", POI Loader assumes all records in the file have proximity alerts with a distance of 400m/0.25 miles.

If a file contains "GATSO," "mobile," "SPECS," "safety," "speed," or "camera," but does not have a speed, POI Loader uses a default alert speed of 0, which means you will always be alerted. You can override this default value by entering the speed in Manual mode.

You can also enter speeds for each POI individually by adding the @ symbol and a number after the name of the POI. For example, a Custom POI named "Ridgeview@25" would create a POI named "Ridgeview" with a 25 mph speed alert.

POI Loader calculates proximity alert distance based on speed. You can enter proximity alert distance for individual Custom POIs in a .gpx file. You can also enter proximity alert distance for all Custom POIs in a data file using Manual mode.

I downloaded a POI files to experiment.
I downloaed the KY rest areas from this site.
On my computer desktop I created a folder (POI). In this I sub files (Redlight) for Proximity and (Speed) for speed Files. I loaded rest areas under Redlight. BTW my proximity icon finaly lit up with this file installed. Proximity warning is on.
I drove south past the rest area, but nothing happened. Only if I hit the go button to that specific site would it alert me.
Tonight I reinsalled the POI under (Speed) folder, and installed manually into the unit. It prompted for a proximity warning set to 1976 feet. I attempted to try a simulated run on the GPS but it ignored the rest area. I'm working with CVS files only at this point. Appreciate the help. I'm sure its me and some quirk in the set up.

Are difficult to pin down.

I've played with a school POI file, and alerts and if the coordinates for the school are an address on a street you are traveling on, you get an alert. But if the recorded coordinates for the school are on the driveway, off the road - you can drive past the school and not get an alert, I suspect rest area alerts may be the same - so if the coordinates are set to the intersection of the exit ramp & the highway, you'll get an alert - but if they are set to the sidewalk in front of the building, you would not get an alert unless you took the ramp.

Try setting the alert at a greater distance. The actual location of the POI might be a little bit from the road in this instance. Take a look at the location on your GPSr and see exactly where it is located.

Also know that sometimes the alerts don't work properly in the SIM mode, but the same alerts work perfectly when actually driving along the road.

I created a "red Light" alert at 2 intersections near my home on a busy street using Google Earth coordinates and they worked perfectly, distance set at 1500 ft. I set the distance on the Rest Areas at 10,000 ft and the Schools at 5000 ft and neither works. Dunno.. Maybe its the files.
At least I got the alert to go off, I'm on the right track. Just havent perfected it yet. .
I noticed in an earlier thread about using gpx format. What are the advantages if any vs csv? I'm using POiEdit to convert KML files from Google earth to create the experimental file. Just seems odd the proximity alerts dont activate from even 10,000 feet. ??
Thanks

On your GPSr, see if you can take a look at EXACTLY where the POI location is situated in relationship to the road. The alert generally will NOT go off unless you are ON a road traveling toward the POI location (or sometimes on a road parallel if the distance is great enough). Try not to think of the alert distance as a "proximity circle" as it generally does not work that way.

GPX files can generally contain more data than CSV file (including having the phone number be dialable). CSV files can be easier to create and manage for data that comes in the form of a list of street addresses. GPX files can also be loaded into a variety of software programs that support that format including MapSource. So it just depends upon your use.

As I indicated, the alert distance is not linear. I've found that if I am driving on a road that is perpendicular to the road that the POI is on, it definitely will NOT alert. Are you having these non-alerts when you are actually driving by these locations or in SIM mode. SIM mode sometimes doesn't work properly for alerts.

I arrived at the rules the C5xx series uses (by experiment). The longer distances sometimes don't work at all the way you would expect. See THIS THREAD...

Seems many of the coordinates are not on the road per say but off the ramp. Some are on the buildings which may be 50 yards from the X-way.
At this point I'm not to sure the Alerts are worth much unless you hand build your own to trigger where you want them. You darn near have to run over the spot in the road to trigger it anyway. If I know where the school or rest area is I dont need an alert anyway.

Typically locations that were coded from street addresses will have the point on or very near the road. The alerts will typically work well for these types of POIs.

For others such as rest areas or parks that don't have street addresses and were coded some other way, the point is sometimes not right next to the road.

What I've done (I had to do it with rest areas for Virginia) is to convert the file to GPX and load the file into MapSource. Then I could move the point to right where I wanted it and the alerts worked fine.

How accurate is Google Earth. I can put a "pushPin" in an intersection and get the coordinates, Save as a *.KML file then use POIeditor to convert this to a *.cvs or even a *.gpx file.
I tried to put 5 in my GPS for local schools. I put the point about center in the road and set the proximity alert to 2500 ft. That way from either Direction I "should" get an alert. I put the poi's in a file POI/Redlight and imported into GPS manually. So far Each school shows a proximity distance under the "go" button but none has lit up red and alerted me yet. This realy is trial and error mostly error.. haha.

...you can use the 'Simulate driving this journey' function...

Instructions in THIS THREAD