Garmin shuts off when selecting entry from Extra POI File
  15 years
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After some comparing of one of the files in question (Historical Naval Ships in GPX format), I discovered that the entries causing the shutdown had longer descriptive data listed. I converted the GPX file to CSV and found that My Garmin 1300 was shutting down abruptly when selecting certain entries listed in a POI File from my Custom POIs in the Extras option. I had used POI Loader V271 with Sox in its root folder. I don’t recall the problem having occurred using the older versions or it could be because of the recent update to V5.8 on my unit and performing a reset.
Character strings of the entries at fault proved to be up to 2000 characters with one entry that shut down my Garmin (USS Alabama) being over 1000 characters. In this format with the excessive characters, POI Loader bombed out on that file due to the long entries. I truncated all descriptors to 900 characters, saved the file in CSV format, ran POI Loader and consequently had no problems when selecting any of the choices from that file. I do not know what the maximum characters allowed is, but the point I am making is that the problem was related to the length of the descriptors (in column D), even in GPX format. I hope this information is helpful to anyone else having unexpected shutdowns when selecting an entry.
what field
What field in the GPX has those long entries? The only field that is not limited is the email field.
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What field in the GPX has those long entries?
If they're talking about the file here:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/31870
then it's a CSV file with the long(!) descriptions in column 4. My guess would be that it's winding up in the Address field.
the OP
stated it was the GPX version.
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The OP stated it was the GPX version.
True, but I searched for 'naval' and there ain't no GPX version here, just CSV.
BTW, when I opened that CSV file in EPE the long descriptions wound up in the Comments field, not the Address field. (I should have tried that first.) When EPE saved as GPX it kept all 3988 characters in the comment for "USS Alabama".
long descriptions
You can have long description entries in a CSV. If i remember correctly, somewhere around 4k characters. The issue is the GPS cuts off after a couple of hundred in that field. The email field in a GPX for some reason isn't limited so you can have multiple screens of description.
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FWIW I just checked the XML schema definition for GPX files...
http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd
...and the schema doesn't appear to specify any length restrictions on any of the text fields. They do have a note for the <name> field that says
The GPS name of the waypoint. This field will be transferred to and from the GPS. GPX does not place restrictions on the length of this field or the characters contained in it. It is up to the receiving application to validate the field before sending it to the GPS.
So, in the OP's case the POI Loader should have truncated the long description.
Hmmm, I guess that's sort of obvious isn't it? My point is that it's not the "fault" of EPE (or any other app that creates GPX files) if the GPX file contains a long description that causes problems for a particular GPS device.
with apologies to Herve
The issue is the GPS cuts off after a couple of hundred in that field.
The OS Boss, The OS
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I believe he might be
I believe he might be thinking of my file, Historic Vessels of the United States and Canada. Reason being it contains naval vessels, is in GPX and has descriptions in every entry. However, while I've been running it on my 1300 without difficulty I haven't attempted to transfer a new copy to the GPS using POI Loader 2.7.1.
There are very few files I know of with extensive descriptions of the various entries in the file, but from my experience working on Historic Vessels, CSV proved to not be an option because it wasn't flexible enough to handle the descriptions. In simpler language, it caused enough problems that I had to switch to GPX to make a viable file.
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