Faint POI icons on Garmin 2555LMT

 

Hi there! I just used the Garmin POI Loader to install some custom POIs [several .csv files and their respective .bmp icons] to my Garmin 2555LMT. Some of the icons display as expected, but some of them are faint, ghostly looking.

There appears to be no consistency to which ones appear normal and which ones appear faint. In some cases, all the icons within a .csv file appear normal. For other .csv files, some are normal and some are faint.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Bob in St. Paul

Which POIs?

None of my custom POIs appear ghostly looking on my 2595. Could you tell us the names of some of the ones you find faint, and perhaps someone can help more?

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Nüvi 2595LMT

Faint icons

All the POI files I'm using are from right here at the POI Factory.

So far the icons for the McDonalds POI .csv file have all appeared normally.

The other POI files all have some icons that appear normal and some that appear faint, and it's not even consistent - the same location/icon will sometimes appear normal and other times appear faint.

The other files I'm using are: White Castle, Burger King, Wells Fargo, Caribou Coffee.

Icons Faint

Are you sure it's not some sort of glare on the screen that is giving inconsistent results?

What brightness do you have the screene set to?
If not at 100% set it to that and see if that corrects the faint icons as a test.

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Nuvi 2460LMT 2 Units

Faint Icons

> Are you sure it's not some sort of glare on the screen that is giving inconsistent results?

Yes, I am 100% sure that it is not glare on the screen. On the same screen view there can be both normal and faint icons, regardless of lighting conditions or time of day.

Brightness & Zoom

cubfanbob wrote:

> Are you sure it's not some sort of glare on the screen that is giving inconsistent results?

Yes, I am 100% sure that it is not glare on the screen. On the same screen view there can be both normal and faint icons, regardless of lighting conditions or time of day.

What about the brightness, have you tried increasing that and also tried zooming in on the map?

They don't always appear faint in a certain area of the screen do they, if so perhaps the LCD panel could be at fault. I wouldn't think so since your map would also be affected in that case.

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Nuvi 2460LMT 2 Units

Faint Icons

It is NOT a physical issue with the LCD display. The problem occurs irrespective of where on the screen the faint icon(s) are displayed.

Transparency?

cubfanbob wrote:

It is NOT a physical issue with the LCD display. The problem occurs irrespective of where on the screen the faint icon(s) are displayed.

Could there be a transparency issue with the icons resulting in different appearances depending on whether the map behind the icon was dark or light?

Faint Icons

CraigW wrote:
cubfanbob wrote:

It is NOT a physical issue with the LCD display. The problem occurs irrespective of where on the screen the faint icon(s) are displayed.

Could there be a transparency issue with the icons resulting in different appearances depending on whether the map behind the icon was dark or light?

The same icons can appear both "normal" and faint on the same background at the same time. For example, the screen may display several Wells Fargo icons, some normal, some faint. Likewise with Caribou Coffee and Burger King.

The only constant seems to be that the McDonald's and Taco Bell icons are always normal, never faint.

It's very puzzling - I appreciate all the thoughts and ideas! smile

I beleive you also stated

I beleive you also stated that the faintness changes from poi to poi? If it is always the same pois that are faint I might check the poi file to see if there are double points in or almost ontop of oneanother.

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Nuvi 3790LMT, Nuvi 760 Lifetime map, Lifetime NavTraffic, Garmin E-Trex Legend Just because "Everyone" drives badly does not mean you have to.

Faint Icons

onestep wrote:

I beleive you also stated that the faintness changes from poi to poi? If it is always the same pois that are faint I might check the poi file to see if there are double points in or almost ontop of oneanother.

It is not always the same POIs that are faint - the icon for an individual POI will sometimes appears normal and other times will appear faint. And which POIs appear faint can vary from trip to trip.

The first l do when strange

The first I do when strange things happen is to do an reset of gps. My experiene is that strange behavior mostly come after firmware/map update.

have you tried deleting and

have you tried deleting and reinstalling the POIs

Faint Icons

jimsmith101 wrote:

have you tried deleting and reinstalling the POIs

Yes.

I have not yet tried a reset of the 2555LMT - will give that a try.

Confirmed on 2595LMT

Hi,
I have a 2595 that also has "faint" POI icons. I assumed it was a feature.

Now we have 2. Who else

Now we have 2. Who else here owns a 2595lmt? Which poi icons do the fading trick? Which map mode are you using?

Time to take a look at the icon files closely.

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Nuvi 3790LMT, Nuvi 760 Lifetime map, Lifetime NavTraffic, Garmin E-Trex Legend Just because "Everyone" drives badly does not mean you have to.

OK...

I have now reset my Nuvi 2555LMT. I also took a look at the icon .bmp files themselves - some of them were already the recommended 256-color setting, others were 24-bit color. I changed all the 24-bit ones to 256-color and reloaded the POIs.

I'll report back after I test...

[update] Problem appears to be solved - every icon now appears with normal color intensity.

NOTE: The McDonald's icon is one that always appeared correctly, and it's one of the icons that already was set to 256-color... so I think the icon color level setting on the other icons was probably the culprit.

Intriguing

So the White Castle, Burger King, Wells Fargo, Caribou Coffee icons were 24-bit and a ghostly colour, and McDonalds was 8-bit and fine. Very strange effect! (although POI icons are supposed to be 256 colour - for more info see http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/pagepoi.07.htm)

Thanks for getting to the bottom of this unusual problem.

--
Nüvi 2595LMT

Thank you for sharing your

Thank you for sharing your lessons learned.

--
Nuvi 3790LMT, Nuvi 760 Lifetime map, Lifetime NavTraffic, Garmin E-Trex Legend Just because "Everyone" drives badly does not mean you have to.

Same Problem - Found a Workaround, Don't get excited though

2595LMT - Same issue, Tried Everything! Garmin says they have known about the issue since at least November 2012 and say they may or may not fix it. The only workaround that I have found is to save the POI's as waypoints with their own icons picked from the edit menu of each waypoint. It might not be the icon I want, but at least they show up. If you save the POI's as waypoints, however; they will not perform a proximity alert. So after you have saved all the POI's as waypoints (I used Basecamp for this and tediously typed each latitude and longitude in by hand), and then assigned them an icon from each waypoint's edit menu in the GPS, then use POI loader to load the csv file without any custom icon attached to set your alert distance, etc. Now when I come close to a red light camera or something, I will see the icon I picked in the GPS for the waypoint (I picked the police badge), a little black box icon underneath it for the POI, and it will "bing bing" and display the message when I'm a quarter mile away. It's a pain in the arse to do all this but at least I'll be satisfied until, if there ever is, an updated firmware fix for this comes out.

Just for Info:
All my POI custom icons were fading randomly, even the 256 color 8-bit ones that worked fine on my old Garmin 265. I used the same icons I always used from this website. My icons are 22x22 which is within the 24x24 limit. Fading was much worse in 3D mode but also appeared in 2D map modes. I'm using a Mac, don't know if that has anything to do with it but probably not.

UPDATE: OFFICIAL SOLUTION FOUND

The icons MUST without a doubt MUST be these constraints exactly! It must be 24x24 pixels (No more, No Less!). The icon MUST be 16 color Bitmap. Crack open your Microsoft Paint and make sure you save your 24x24 pixel icon as a 16 color bmp. If it pops up a message when saving about losing color information or something of the sorts then say that's ok because you MUST have a 16 color bmp file or else you risk ghosting icons. And Thus Spoke Zarathustra!

Tests!

celesguy wrote:

The icons MUST without a doubt MUST be these constraints exactly! It must be 24x24 pixels (No more, No Less!). The icon MUST be 16 color Bitmap. Crack open your Microsoft Paint and make sure you save your 24x24 pixel icon as a 16 color bmp. If it pops up a message when saving about losing color information or something of the sorts then say that's ok because you MUST have a 16 color bmp file or else you risk ghosting icons. And Thus Spoke Zarathustra!

Which units has this been tested on?
Lets start a list.

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Nuvi 3790LMT, Nuvi 760 Lifetime map, Lifetime NavTraffic, Garmin E-Trex Legend Just because "Everyone" drives badly does not mean you have to.

I spoke too soon...

Yep, I still have a few random ghostly icons on my 2555LMT.

I'll try the "must be 24 x 24 pixels" fix... but 16-color icons look like heck so I'm sticking with 256-color.

Ghosting POI's

I have a 3590LMT. Because of the higher pixel density on that screen and my ancient eyesight, I have set my POI's to 32 by 32 pixels in order for me to clearly see them. They are 256 color 8 bit images. Depending on the phase of the moon or what I had for breakfast or (?), the same POI's will sometimes appear ghosted while other times appear normal. I am talking about the same specific POI's. I will reload them in a 24 x 24 bit format and see if that makes any difference.

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The Ogre

I tested it on a 2595LMT

I tested it on a 2595LMT with an old Windows XP laptop. For some reason the units can't handle anything other than 16 color bmp's. Not a single one of my POI's are ghosting now. I am assuming the 2555LMT would be the same way since the two units use the same firmware (7.70 currently). Whether Garmin fixes the 256 color and higher bug, who knows but for now it's 16 color 24x24 or bust.

Gostly

I have the same issue on my 2595. Icons will be fine, then appear ghostly. Also I noticed that the icons will not appear if I drive past say a Bank of America going East, but will appear normal if I go west (example) I use Trapster, and some icons will be normal going one way, and ghostly coming back the same route. The next day they will all be normal.
I also also noticed that Outback will appear, then disappear, then reappear, and sometimes not appear at all. Same with Wing Stop, and ARCO and Wells Fargo. I never added any of those as custom POIs they just appear when they want. One icon I have noticed that always appears good is Walmart.
I would love to fix it, but have decided that it is what it is, and I should be lucky it appears when it does. It must be a Garmin thing.

More Ghosting Testing

theogre wrote:

I have a 3590LMT. Because of the higher pixel density on that screen and my ancient eyesight, I have set my POI's to 32 by 32 pixels in order for me to clearly see them. They are 256 color 8 bit images. Depending on the phase of the moon or what I had for breakfast or (?), the same POI's will sometimes appear ghosted while other times appear normal. I am talking about the same specific POI's. I will reload them in a 24 x 24 bit format and see if that makes any difference.

UPDATE: I reset the POI size to 24 by 24 and still observed sporadic ghosting. I ran a simulated route past three different Shell gas stations and back multiple times. I also observed that the direction of travel influenced the presentation of ghosting and it appeared that each time I passed the same spot, the icon got progressively dimmer. I don't think this is a user issue but a flaw in the operational software. Just going to have to live with it I'm afraid.

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The Ogre

Anything other than 16 color bmp WILL ghost!

theogre wrote:

UPDATE: I reset the POI size to 24 by 24 and still observed sporadic ghosting. I ran a simulated route past three different Shell gas stations and back multiple times. I also observed that the direction of travel influenced the presentation of ghosting and it appeared that each time I passed the same spot, the icon got progressively dimmer. I don't think this is a user issue but a flaw in the operational software. Just going to have to live with it I'm afraid.

Please believe me when I say if you are using 256 color, 16 bit, 24 bit icons they WILL ghost. They MUST be 16 color 24x24 bitmaps to not ghost at all. Anything other than 16 color bitmap and they WILL ghost. Honestly folks, with all respect, how many times do I need to post that before you all believe me.

Ghosting and Non-appearing stock icons

2BIT wrote:

I have the same issue on my 2595. Icons will be fine, then appear ghostly. Also I noticed that the icons will not appear if I drive past say a Bank of America going East, but will appear normal if I go west (example) I use Trapster, and some icons will be normal going one way, and ghostly coming back the same route. The next day they will all be normal.
I also also noticed that Outback will appear, then disappear, then reappear, and sometimes not appear at all. Same with Wing Stop, and ARCO and Wells Fargo. I never added any of those as custom POIs they just appear when they want. One icon I have noticed that always appears good is Walmart.
I would love to fix it, but have decided that it is what it is, and I should be lucky it appears when it does. It must be a Garmin thing.

Ghosting icons can be stopped if you use 16 color bitmaps that are 24x24 pixels in size. As for the stock icons not appearing, this is normal, if you zoom in and zoom out you will notice stock icons appear and disappear. This is to prevent your screen being so jumbled with icons when zoomed out that you can't even see roads. Walmart probably always appears because they are so large there really isn't much around them so a single icon isn't a bother.

YMMV

celesguy wrote:

Please believe me when I say if you are using 256 color, 16 bit, 24 bit icons they WILL ghost. They MUST be 16 color 24x24 bitmaps to not ghost at all. Anything other than 16 color bitmap and they WILL ghost. Honestly folks, with all respect, how many times do I need to post that before you all believe me.

None of my icons ghost. They are all different color schemes, bits, sizes and not all are rectangular.

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1490LMT 1450LMT 295w

Only a 2500 maybe 3500 series issue.

spokybob wrote:
celesguy wrote:

Please believe me when I say if you are using 256 color, 16 bit, 24 bit icons they WILL ghost. They MUST be 16 color 24x24 bitmaps to not ghost at all. Anything other than 16 color bitmap and they WILL ghost. Honestly folks, with all respect, how many times do I need to post that before you all believe me.

None of my icons ghost. They are all different color schemes, bits, sizes and not all are rectangular.

If you are using a 1490LMT then no they will not ghost. That's a different firmware version. This seems to only be applying to the 2500 series and possibly 3500 series units.

OK

Thanks

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1490LMT 1450LMT 295w

Still Ghosting

Please believe me that after CAREFULLY verifying that I have 24 x 24 bit 16 color bmp files, ghosting still occurs on my 3590. Moreover, as reported before, there are multiple levels of ghosting ranging from fairly transparent to just barely visible at all. End of testing on this end.

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The Ogre

Question

theogre wrote:

Please believe me that after CAREFULLY verifying that I have 24 x 24 bit 16 color bmp files, ghosting still occurs on my 3590. Moreover, as reported before, there are multiple levels of ghosting ranging from fairly transparent to just barely visible at all. End of testing on this end.

Did you remove the previous POI files first before you uploaded the new 16 color icons to your device?

Answer to Question

My POI's are kept on my SD card. Before each test, I reloaded the POI file to the SD card using POI Loader. I did assume that POI Loader completely overwrites the old POI file and didn't scrub the SD card clean before reloading.

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The Ogre

2nd Question

theogre wrote:

My POI's are kept on my SD card. Before each test, I reloaded the POI file to the SD card using POI Loader. I did assume that POI Loader completely overwrites the old POI file and didn't scrub the SD card clean before reloading.

Unless you use the remove function in POI Loader first, it will only add to the current POI file. I'd make a backup first before clearing it though. Could it be possible that because of this, the device is trying to display your previous 256 color icons that are still loaded along with your new 16 color ones resulting in the ghost error? I remove functioned all my poi's first before I readded them with the 16 color icons and they are working like a charm.

Icons

Couldn't you just go into the POI file, and erase the gpi file and do it that way? When it installs the new POI file it will be a blank slate

I was under the impression that you couldn't just add something to a POI folder without erasing everything els, that everything had to be in a folder because everytime you reinstall it overwrites the whole deal.

POI File

2BIT wrote:

Couldn't you just go into the POI file, and erase the gpi file and do it that way? When it installs the new POI file it will be a blank slate

I was under the impression that you couldn't just add something to a POI folder without erasing everything els, that everything had to be in a folder because everytime you reinstall it overwrites the whole deal.

It does not overwrite the whole deal, that's why POI loader will not let you reuse file names without erasing first. Once you've loaded something you've loaded it until it has been erased by the loader or manually by the user in some way. When you add a csv or gpx file you are doing just that, adding it. It will not remove previously loaded data unless you do the remove function first.

Not quite

celesguy wrote:
2BIT wrote:

Couldn't you just go into the POI file, and erase the gpi file and do it that way? When it installs the new POI file it will be a blank slate

I was under the impression that you couldn't just add something to a POI folder without erasing everything els, that everything had to be in a folder because everytime you reinstall it overwrites the whole deal.

It does not overwrite the whole deal, that's why POI loader will not let you reuse file names without erasing first. Once you've loaded something you've loaded it until it has been erased by the loader or manually by the user in some way. When you add a csv or gpx file you are doing just that, adding it. It will not remove previously loaded data unless you do the remove function first.

POI Loader can remove all the POI files (with certain exceptions for some factory installed files), This is an option available from the main screens. It will overwrite an existing file with a new file of the same name and provide a warning before overwiting or thirdly store another file with a different name that adds to the number of files. As long as the name of the input stays the same and you don't change where the file is stored, the old file is automatically deleted when you run POI Loader so there is no need to run the program twice or manually delete the POI file before updating.

--
Illiterate? Write for free help.

Erasing old POI files

celesguy wrote:
theogre wrote:

My POI's are kept on my SD card. Before each test, I reloaded the POI file to the SD card using POI Loader. I did assume that POI Loader completely overwrites the old POI file and didn't scrub the SD card clean before reloading.

Unless you use the remove function in POI Loader first, it will only add to the current POI file. I'd make a backup first before clearing it though. Could it be possible that because of this, the device is trying to display your previous 256 color icons that are still loaded along with your new 16 color ones resulting in the ghost error? I remove functioned all my poi's first before I readded them with the 16 color icons and they are working like a charm.

When I invoke POI Loader, I ask it to install files on an SD card (selecting "computer" instead of "Garmin Device"). That doesn't give me the option to do an erase before loading like loading into the Garmin does. I am keeping my POI's on the SD card and not allowing them to be loaded into internal Garmin memory. To make sure what you have suggested is not happening, I reformatted the SD card before reloading it to make sure it is empty of files. After then reloading the SD card and running my test route again, ghosting still appears. The source file directory on my computer only has one copy of the test file as well. Thanks for your help but I think I'm just going to live with it.

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The Ogre

Icons

I just bought a new 2595 LMT for the wife's car. I went through all the bmp icons I have in my files using paint and changed them all to 24x24 16 bit color like it says on here to do so they don't ghost.
When the Nuvi gets here I will install the file on the new gps and see if it works. Since it is brand new it has no previous files or anything to interfere. Will see if it works. If it does, then I will update my 2595 but since mine pretty much works as it is, I dont want to hose it up for no reason and have to change it all back if it don't work.

Faint ICONS

Maybe its his Eyes, if he is Old, his Eyes could be starting to go. Eyes are one of the first things to go, when you get Old. Old peoples Eyes are not as Strong as Younger peoples Eyes.

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Don Duke aka Joe Casino

16 bit vs 16 color (4 bit)

@2BIT:I see you wrote 16 bit color, remember that 16 bit bmp and 16 color (4bit) are not the same.
You maby just write it wrong.

faint POIs

I also notice some POI icons are faint only sometimes. One day my whataburger icon is faint, the next day it is fine. Sometimes it changes transparency during the drive. I also notice that some icons only show once in a while. The only ones that show up EVERY time is the Subway icons. I have 25 different POI icons set up and Subway is the only one that always shows. Even my McDonalds icons are not always there, although they are never faint.

Icons

I saved them as 16 color bitmap according to paint. That is the only 16 option there is.