Error loading Red Light Cameras POI file (after conversion to GPX)

What does the error message say?

I did exactly what you described. I opened EPE; opened the Redlight-Camers.csv file; did a CNTL-R combination; pressed "P" untill "proximity" appeared in the Field Name box; entered 600 in the New Field Value box and clicked "Replace All"; I then saved the file as a .gpx file.

I fired up POI Loader and pointed to the test folder containing the .gpx file and it ran successfully.

Just interested - why are you wanting 600 feet?

Are you running POI Loader in express or manual?

Edit - never mind - after reading POI Loader help, proximity alert info in a .gpx file has the highest priority. It does not matter whether express or manual is used or whether redlight is in the filename or not.

The conclusion is there is something wrong when using EPE.

After you convert the .csv file to a .gpx, are both the old and new files still in the same folder or group of folders that POI Loader is looking at?

dobs108

After the POILOADER failed the first time, I mada a new folder, "test", and the Red Light Cameras was the only file in there.
For testing, I forst put "Red Light Cameras.csv" as the only file in "test." That worked. Then I ran EPE against the SAME .csv file, set the proximity to 600 feet, saved it as a .GPX file, and it failed.

Phil

What is the POI Loader error message, if any?

Was the .gpx file in a folder by itself?

I'm wondering what you have set your options at within EPE and which version of EPE you are using,

Under Preferences it should show the editor units are US/Imperial with the others left at Metric and same as CSV. The GPX output should be UTF-8.

You have to remember the program is written for metric units and all calculations regarding speed and distance are done in metric. The GPX format itself uses metric internally and not feet/inches and MPH.

Turbo did put in a routine to convert between the units of measure, but it really only works well converting from US measures to metric, not the other way around, 600 feet is about 183 meters.

I was never able to successfully load the RLC file as downloaded from the factory if I converted it from the .csv file to a .gpx file - until I stumbled across this circumvention:
I downloaded the latest RLC file (it's .csv, of course) then copied all 4000+ entries into another file. Note that I didn't copy the RLC FILE (I tried that and I got the same error), I copied all 4000+ lines in the RLC file into a new, empty file. I ran EPE against the new file, added the proximity alert, and saved it as a .gpx file. That worked. Go figure.
There must be something in the downloaded file that is not visible to the naked eye that gets corrected by copying the ENTRIES into a new file. Whatever it is seems to be unique to my environment since no one else seems to have experienced the problem.

Phil

That's strange as I have no problems with the file. I load it into EPE and do a CTL-R to bring up the replace function, press P 5 times to get to Proximity and key in my distance, select replace all and save as a GPX. I do make certain the file isn't saved with a double extension as the saved file name does default with a .csv to which the .gpx is appended.

What version of POI Loader are you running? Click on the Icon in the upper left of the dialog box - click on "About POI Loader..."

What version of EPE are you running? Click on Help, then About.

What does your POI Loader error message say?

I ask this because I tried to do exactly what you say you did and it worked fine for me.

The problem occurs with the older version of the Loader and the one that just came out. EPE is the latest and greatest version. And don't forget that all of my other .gpx files load and work just fine. It's only the RLC that gave me trouble.
Oh, and the error message says "unexpected error occurred."
I have a working circumvention so I'm not going to spend much time trying to figure out what the real problem is.

Any sound or icon files? That would be different from my testing. Always confuses us when something goes wrong that cannot be replicated.

Just curious: What did you use to copy the entries into the new, empty file? (Notepad? Excel? Something else?)

That is a good question. I don't know whether opening the file in Excel and closing it without modification would cause any trouble, but I always use Notepad to open POI files. Excel is complicated and too many things can go wrong.

dobs108

I used Notepad. I opened the .csv downloaded file using Notepad and CTRL+SHIFT/END to highlight the entire file then CTR+C to copy the data. I brought up a brand new Notepad page, then CTRL+V to paste the data into the Notepad file.
I ran EPE to set a proximity alert and saved the file as a .gpx. Everything worked.

Phil

Thanks, Phil. When you go to save the new file in Notepad do you see a drop-down list for "Encoding:" at the bottom of the "Save As" dialog, and is "UTF-8" the default value?

"Thanks, Phil. When you go to save the new file in Notepad do you see a drop-down list for "Encoding:" at the bottom of the "Save As" dialog, and is "UTF-8" the default value?"

Funny you should ask that question. This is almost too bizarre to tell. Since I finally got the RLC file to load as .gpx, EPE has stopped working. Yeah, it won't even start anymore. I click to start it; the small icon on the bottom of the screen shows it's active; but nothing, absolutely nothing happens. It just stopped working. I can't believe it. I changed absolutely nothing, and now EPE isn't working. If anyone out there in Factory-land can help me, it'd be much appreciated.
When EPE all of a sudden wouldn't start, in desperation I uninstalled it and reinstalled it - with exactly the same results. I promise I didn't change anything between the last time it worked, earlier today, until it didn't work, sometime this afternoon.

Phil

Re: Encoding in Notepad

I asked because I think it pertains to your original problem and can lead to a fix in the CSV file.

Re: EPE

Try holding down the [Shift] key while launching EPE. In the more recent versions that will reset the location of the main EPE window and can sometimes bring it back if it has "magically" disappeared.

When I had some issues with EPE, Turbo suggested that I clear the registry. To do this:

Do a Start > Run (or WindowsKey-R combination)
Type "cmd" in the box (without the quotes)
In the cmd.exe dialog that appears:
type "extra_poi_editor –reset" (without the quotes)
Enter

This will clear the registry of all EPE’S settings.

Thanks, VG, that worked. I would've never figured that one out. This site amazes me!

Phil

VersatileGuy suggested a change to the RLC to Jon. Jon implemented VG's suggestion and e-mailed me the RLC.csv file to test. I ran EPE against it, adding a proximity alert of 600 ft. and ran POILoader. I don't know what change was made, but I can now successfully load the RLC.gpx file into my Nuvi 1450. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in the solution (and to me for finding the problem in the first place )

Phil

Glad to hear that you got things sorted out.