Who do I believe? ???

Using Manual Mode on POI Loader

"If you need to customize speed information for your Custom POIs, use Manual mode. Manual mode allows you to specify the default speed and proximity alert information as needed for each data file you are loading. You can use Manual mode to override the default speed and proximity information included in the file names of the data files you are loading. For example, if you are loading a file named "Speed_30," but you want the default speed to be 25, you can enter a speed of 25 in Manual mode. See Understanding Speed and Proximity Alert Information for more information.

If you do not need to modify speed and proximity alert information for your data files, use Express mode.

To load POIs using Manual mode:

Turn on your Garmin GPS device and connect it to your computer. If you are using a card reader, connect it to your computer.

Open POI Loader and click Next.

Make sure the appropriate device appears in the Device field. If not, click Find Device. If you have multiple devices connected to your computer, select the device you want from the drop-down list.

Click Next.

Select "Install new custom POI's onto your device."

Select the directory where the data files can be found. POI Loader detects all .csv and .gpx data files within that directory. If you have data files saved in additional directories listed under the main directory, POI Loader creates subcategories for those Custom POI files when they are loaded onto your unit. For example, if the main directory contains additional directories called "Food", "Resorts", and "Stores", POI Loader creates subcategories called Food, Resorts, and Stores on your unit.

Select the appropriate units for distance and speed (Feet and MPH or Meters and KPH).

NOTE: POI Loader uses these units to interpret the data within the data files. If you select units that are different from the units used in the data files, your speed alerts will not be accurate.

Select Manual and then click Next.

Adjust the settings for each individual data file:

If you want to ignore certain files, check "Ignore this file?".

If the file contains proximity alert points, check the appropriate box.

Select alert settings:

To set a speed alert, click Alert when speed is greater than the Alert Speed and enter the speed at which you want to receive an alert.

To set a proximity alert, click Alert when you get close to a point and enter the distance you want.

Click Next.

Repeat Steps 8–9 for each data file you want to load. After you choose the alert settings for all data files, POI Loader installs the POIs on your device.

NOTE: This replaces any existing Custom POIs installed on your device.

Click Finish."

Garmin was correct in telling you that your unit doesn't support MP3 files for POI alerts. Your unit does not have a MP3 player. However what they didn't tell you is that there is a workaround using .WAV files and an audio conversion utility called SOX.EXE. See the writup on this FAQ: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25730

Alcohan,

It sounds like you're figuring things out from the two threads you've entered.

I think you'll find answers here more instructive over time than asking Garmin Tech Support. We won't have you on hold for 30 minutes, but then resolving some issues may involve back and forth messages here that could take more than a day to resolve...

Here's the link for adding audio alerts to your POIs, which for your GPS--as well as all new Garmin nuvi models--must be wav files, not mp3:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25730
(whoops, I see alandb beat me to this link)

It sounds as though you're also looking for notice of nearby locations (McD's or Wal-Marts) that are within a specific distance (radius) of your current location even when you're not actively on a route or if the desired POI is off your intended route by a street or two, etc. For this, you may want to look at TourGuides which can be used for radius alerts since they do exactly what you want:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/9251

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/8748

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/13958

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15028

PS--since your nuvi is new to you, you may want to download and save the Owners Manual:

http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/nuvi_30_40_50_EN_OM.pdf

No, Al, that is not how these units are supposed to work. Everyone will have a slightly different interpretation, I'm sure, but I bought my nuvi to 1. get me from point A to point B; 2. let me find a business when I need it's services (like auto repair). I did not get it so that I would be notified that I was within 2 miles of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, etc.

I would suggest that you think about being "alerted" (especially by a voice alert), every time you come within range of a POI during day to day driving. What are the odds that you will act upon that alert? Unless you respond something like more that 50% of the time, then I would think that you would quickly decide to turn them off.

Now, it might be different for being alerted while traveling on a trip. You would likely want to be alerted to upcoming rest areas. Maybe, like me, you would like to know about Cracker Barrels. When my kids were young, it would have been McDonalds.

However, it seems to me that for alerts for multiple POIs to be active at the same time to be effective, they would have to be selectable - that is, able to be turned on and off by POI. I personally can stand rest areas and Cracker Barrels being active all the time. But I certainly would not like to know every time that I am within 2 miles of a BofA ATM.

In my thinking, this is also quite different from the redlight and speed camera alerts. With them you want to be notified so that you can take action. You may be driving with the flow of traffic and this may exceed the speed limit. Those speed cameras do not care about "flow" - they care about speed.

I think it is a shame that the help file for POI Loader has not been updated to reflect the fact that the newer nuvis do not have .mp3 players. As has been pointed out, you can use .wav files in place of .mp3s.

I want to thank everyone that replied. Yes, I have already read the manual and worked with the POIs and added distance in the manual mode.

Took the unit for a spin around town as I am getting the feel of it before taking on trips. No B of A ATMs listed but today it got 3 of 4 McDonalds, 2 In-N-Out's and a Costco. Not a word out of it, but it is working.

My plans are not to use it necessarily for around town driving except if I have an address to go to. It's for Summer highway use. Things like when driving, it will tell me if there is a Costco or Wal-Mart coming up, or food places, campgrounds and the like.

I can see where this thing will drive people crazy if they load up on all the POIs, but am interested in looking into "Tour Guides". Saw one paper on POI loader and how you have to use certain names in the file to get it to do reporting, but not sure if it applies.

I don't want to be a pest and have read FAQs but like I say conflicting answers or errors of omission. No one mentioned the WAV conversion and yes I did grab sox.exe before setting up the POIs thinking that would help.

The guy at Garmin said none of their units support .mp3 and I thought I read where the newer Garmin units only support .mp3 and you need sox.exe if adding a .wav file.

The thing I discovered today is that it missed an alert for McDonalds which was on an opposite corner of an intersection I was at. Apparently you have to be on the same road or it won't notify. I have to look into that.

Thanx again for all the help. I am curious. If Garmin doesn't support .mp3 than how come there are detailed instructions about downloading the .bmp, .csv and .mp3 and making sure they are all in the same sub directory *and* seen by Garmin's own POI loader?

Thanx.

There is a lot of information about MP3 because at one point all Nuvi models had MP3 support. That is no longer the case and now most (probably all) non discontinued models only support WAV files.

With your Nuvi 50 just install the sox.exe file as detailed here and then when you are reading and see reference to MP3, just replace that with WAV.

Another thing worth mentioning is by using .wav files and sox.exe, the POI will be recognized by all Nuvi's. As we know the older units are capable of playing mp3 files, however, they also will play .wav files that were created with POI loader using sox.exe. This way you don't have to create separate POI's should you have an older unit and a newer one restricted to .wav files.

You can also place the POI files on an SD card in a POI folder and use it on any Nuvi. I would suggest to buy a micro SD card and a adapter. The micro SD card works with the newer units, the micro card can be placed in the adapter so it will fit in older units using the standard SD slot.
The card and adapter are cheap and well worth the money. Below is a link for one on ebay that is quite reasonable. I only use Sandisk cards in my units.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sandisk-8GB-8-GB-Micro-SD-SDHC-UHS-I...

The SD card is a necessity for people who have Nuvi's with limited memory, the maps keep getting larger and won't fit the entire map on the Nuvi, with the SD card you can download the entire map.

There are two basic types of proximity or distance alerts the unit can generate, the most common being the "along the road" which requires the coordinates to be within approximately 20 meters of the street you are traveling along. This is what you get when you enter a distance into POI Loader for that particular file. The unit also does not just alert one time, but every time you stop and then start as long as that location is still "along your route," The second type of proximity alert is a radial alert which draws a circle around a point with its diameter equal to the alert distance. These are the "TourGuide" alerts that some also use. TourGuide alerts sound whenever you enter the circle and again repeat every time you start moving again after stopping while in the circle.

As jgermann stated, be very prudent about the alerts you enable. Remember if you have a 2 mile along the route alert for say McDonalds you will get the alert repeating at every stop for a traffic light, stop sign or even just heavy traffic. If you stop, the unit will sound off with all the alert information for locations it has found each and every time you start moving. The alerts going off do interfere with the driving directions so you will more than likely miss several turns because "the darn thing wouldn't shut up." One final thing on alerts, the correct use is TourGuide - with no spaces and the exact capitalization. The icon and sound file have to have the exact same name like Costco TourGuide.xxx where xxx is the file type.

Here I have to differ. Sox has been mentioned in most of the guides and tutorials except for a very few and dated ones. The last units to have MP3 players were the three digit models with the notable exception of the 2XX series. SOX, and only one older version of SOX has been in almost every version of a tutorial written in the years I have been on this board (and it's a lot more than my profile indicates), in fact, one of our Canadian members threatened to rename me SOX Car because of my warnings.

Garmin got this one right. And yes, SOX is required if you are adding a wav file. SOX does not enable an MP3 file, so all your alert sounds will have to be loaded from your computer as .wav. That means you will need to convert any MP3 files before using POI Loader. There are several free programs available to convert to/from MP3 to wav, the one I use is Audacity.

Again, the unit didn't "miss the McDonalds," the coordinates weren't within 20 meters of the street you were on so it didn't meet the requirements.

When writing a FAQ or guide on handling POI and getting alerts to function, you have to cover as many different cases as possible. There is no difference between the alert sounds and how they are handled once they have been processed. If I speak of only MP3 sounds and then tell you the same applies to WAV sounds with two exceptions am I wrong? MP3 files have to be converted to WAV and you need to have the correct version of SOX installed. Other than those two differences, there is no difference in how the unit and POI Loader function. It just so happens my primary unit is one of the MP3 units but i have converted all my sound files to WAV as I do load the same POI into units that do not support MP3. My daughter has my old Nuvi 200 and my backup is a 255WT that was offered only for 2 years by Best Buy. Neither support MP3 but all the alerts work.

Quote Boxcar

My McDonalds TourGuide sounds off multiple times only when I start & stop the engine. Not sure why mine are different.

>>but today it got 3 of 4 McDonalds, 2 In-N-Out's and a Costco

Oh man, not to derail the thread ... but if I lived close to 2 In-n-Out's, I would think I'd died and gone to heaven.

I'd weigh 400 pounds and probably have heart disease ... but man, if your GPS is finding those In-N-Out french fries ... what else would you need?

Are you stating that with your unit it doesn't repeat the alert after every stop? Or is your vehicle one of those that shuts the engine off when you are stopped for more than a few seconds? In any event, isn't the alert repeated when you start moving again?

Alerts do not repeat when stopping and starting while inside the circle. Only when the Garmin shuts off & reboots.
I do have a wav and a bmp associated with each TourGuide.
My alerts are set globally at 600 feet, and then I edit my local McD to 100 feet, using EPE.

That's a difference in the newer units from my 885. It repeats every time I stop no matter the if it is a standard or TourGuide alert.

I live just 1 mile from one and only have been there one time when it first opened.

Ditto for me with Five Guys. Once was enough. Oh, for a Culver's up here in northern AZ!

Can you say "Butter Burgers?"

Yes I can--in addition to "North Atlantic Cod Filet Sandwiches" and turtle sundaes! Darn, now I need an excuse to drive to Phoenix.

I don't use TourGuide, and my alerts sound off multiple times only if I stop & start.

Me too, brother. Red Robin also has great fries.

For onion rings, no one beats Sonic.

Oh man, I was driving around the city to check out the unit. In actual use, it will be for the Highway and probably TourGuides enabled once I learn them.

In-n-out is good here in Bakersfield, CA but I cook much better at home!

I can see where these units can drive your nuts if driving locally with too many POIs, but I was trying to make the point that an audio alert (once) is safer and better for me than to hear a "ding" and have to look over at it.

Al

When faced with the dilemma of who to believe between Garmen "help" desk and anyone else, go with anyone else.