Can't see schools in POI on Street Pilot c550

For what it's worth, I downloaded the northeast portion of the schools poi package to my nuvi 260w, and the schools in my area do show up in generally the correct areas. I'm not going to take the time to reposition the locations, so I'm satisfied with them at this point (no pun intended....).

In response to a suggestion from another Poi Factory poster, I downloaded the schools poi. He suggested I make them into a TourGuide so as to have them act as a school zone/speed warning. Do you know how to do that?

Unless you tell us what procedure you followed, we can't help you correct the procedure.

I suggest you start here: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721

Here's a recent discussion:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/39287

I offer a procedure (scroll to my first reply on 8/19/12) in this thread:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/37386

In any event, TourGuides can create several issues that cause them to fail above and beyond using regular POI files. It's probably a good idea before trying to load a TourGuide to be very familiar with custom POIs, custom icons and custom audio, as well as distance alerts on your nuvi.

The Garmin Faq area here at The Factory offers several faqs regarding TourGuides.

Let me clarify. I used to get an alert and a grey dot would show on the GPS screen when I drove by schools and now I do not get alerts or see the grey dot. This all took place when I updated the southeast schools poi. How can I get the alerts to show up on my GPS screen?
Thanks in advance

Check the name of the file matches any icon or sound file exactly AND be certain you assigned an alert distance.

I changed the name of my school file (I only d'loaded schools in the northeast segment of the file.), same for the bmp and the wav. I'll load w/ Poi Loader using manual setting and take your advice of the 600' proximity alert entry.

Also, thanks to Brent for opening this thread.

I am pretty sure that the files match. Just to clarify how do you check it? I am using Windows 7. Also I had set the proximity alert to 1300 ft so I will change it to 600 ft and see if that makes a difference.

As the files have to be loaded using POI Loader they should be in a folder on your computer. Use Explorer to see the contents of the folder. They won't work if you try putting the files into the C550 - they MUST be loaded using POI Loader.

I'm using a MacBook Pro and I have no knowledge of the in's and out's of doing these things w/ a PC. I read as much as I can on Poi Factory and look for answers to other ?'s on the web in general. I can "see" the particular poi on my nuvi 260w back up file on my mac, but I can't see them on the nuvi other than in the Extras portion of the device.

I check and double check to be sure the file names are identical. Are the files in the same font case, same underline, space, spelling, wording, etc. Typically the files "line up" in bmp, csv, wav order and I scan down the column numerous times to be sure each is exactly the same except for the file extensions.

I'm eager to give the schools poi TourGuide concept a drive by try out tomorrow. I am using the northeast segment of the poi files, and a bmp and wav 'loaded from the Factory

You say you see the Custom POIs in Extras which is good since we know you have loaded the custom POI.

Go to Extras, tap Custom POIs, then tap one of the custom POIs categories (e.g., Rest Areas Combined Ver.BA), then a specific POI (e.g., TURNOUT SB I-17 MM312) you've loaded in which you also have a custom icon or audio. Now rather than tapping the big green GO button, do this and post your answers:

Does the screen show a small green "Play audio" button? Is there some small black text like "Alert Information: Distance 2.8 mi"? Is there a blue "Show Map" button--if so, tap it--now on the map, do you see the bmp icon? If no icon, does it show a little dot? If a dot, if you zoom in on the map, do you eventually switch from the dot to the custom icon?

I don't have a 260W and there may be differences between our units that others will advise us on. But for me, the answers to the above first four questions are yes. If you are not answering yes, you may have loaded the custom POI but still haven't added the custom bmp and wav icon and audio that we need to figure out.

Lastly, if you tap the initial big green GO button, and travel to the POI as a final destination (either real time or in simulator mode), what do you see and hear when you arrive at the final destination?

Generally file names are the culprits. But in any case I recommend reading Gary Hayman's excellent website.
This link may be about your situation.
http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/pagepoi.03.htm

Personally I have created a school file for my city (Winnipeg MB CA) and it runs as a TourGuide in both my Nuvi 1350 and an Oregon 550.

Finding these little gremlins can be tedious.

I answer yes to all of the above. Ok I can see a particular school and even have an icon placed there, however the Garmin used to AUTOMATICALLY alert me when I was passing schools, kind of a reminder to slow down. I do not get this anymore. Am I doing something wrong? I changed the distance to 600 ft.

Wow, it sounds like you're almost there.

If using a custom audio file, is your custom audio file a wav or a mp3? Your C550 can play mp3 files loaded with POI Loader--and if you also have sox.exe in the POI Loader folder of your computer, the C550 can play wav files loaded with POI Loader as well. If you have no custom audio, you should get the default Garmin "boing" audio alert.

I can't explain why you used to get alerts but don't now, but do think that a switch to TourGuide is the way to go. I will say that your current situation of not getting alerts makes more sense to me than your earlier experience of receiving alerts because many schools locations in the schools.csv file are set back too far from the roadway to create an alert as you drive by.

To get alerts for schools, simply add the word TourGuide (mind the two uppercase!) to your current three computer-stored file names, then run POI Loader to replace your old POI with a new one. You will need to have a Custom audio file (mp3 or wav) for TourGuides to work.

If your current computer files are:

schools.csv
schools.bmp
schools.wav

just change them to:

TourGuide_schools.csv
TourGuide_schools.bmp
TourGuide_schools.wav

then load them with POI Loader in manual mode with a distance alert. Remember that TouGuides require an associated custom audio file for the TourGuide to work. You will have to experiment with distance settings. For schools, I've heard that folks use values between 550-1320 feet, I think. Let us know how that goes for you.

Small green button: No
Small black text Alert Info: Yes
Blue Map button: Yes
bmp icon: Yes
At destination: Checkered flag only, no sound

The good news is that the POI file has loaded and has alert info. As you travel or simulate a route, do you get visual alerts on your nuvi screen as you approach a POI location?

Getting alerts with the schools file can be a problem. Have you tried loading Rest Areas Combined with an icon and audio file? Rest Areas Combined will give alerts when you're on a route traveling a highway and go past a Rest Area. Even if you don't plan to keep or use Rest Areas Combined, loading it with an icon and audio, then driving or simulating a route past a rest area would be instructive for us in diagnosing your current issue.

Do you not get the default Garmin "boing" sound when you get a visual alert on your nuvi screen?

I wonder if the 260W needs to have a setting changed to enable audio alerts. Or maybe the 260W doesn't do audio alerts. Assuming that the 260W works like most nuvis, I offer the following as we wait for another 260W owner to add their own comments:

If your custom icon appears but you get no audio, there must be some issue with the wav file.

I don't think Macs need sox.exe to load custom audio, so I wonder about your wav file. How did you create or convert the wav file?

Hey folks, please check what I've recently written. I'm trying to keep thing straight but worry that I may be combining my responses to Brentr (Streetpilot C550 & Windows PC) and RobertFort (nuvi 260W and a Mac) and if I've confused myself while trying to respond to each, I may be giving incorrect info to them. The issues and solutions for these folks are quite different.

Hi Craig, I am wondering why I have to add TourGuide. My red light cameras automatically alert me and I do not have TourGuide in front of the files. I will experiment with it later tonite. Thanks

Non TourGuide POI files when set for an alert, will alert when the actual POI lat/long encoded into the file is within something like 50-75 feet of your route. (Someone correct me on the actual distance.) This is not a problem with redlight camera locations since the redlight is probably 0 feet (horizontally, not vertically) from the streets you're on, hence an alert will sound as you approach the redlight location. From what I've seen of the schools POI file here at The Factory, the encoded lat/long data points for each school are the actual building locations. A school building and POI data point 150 feet from the street you're traveling is outside of the "along the route" alert range and no alert will sound when you pass by, even if you set an "along the route" alert distance of 1000 feet. With the school POI file renamed to be a TourGuide, you now get an alert whenever you fall within the radius of the school's POI location, even when the school is on an adjacent parallel street to the one you're traveling, and that's why the alert distance should not be too large.

An alternative to using the "schools" file with a TourGuide radius alert set is to create your own "school zone" file where the csv or gpx file uses the actual school zone street location(s) rather than the building location set back from the street. If a school zone file is created with actual street locations, then TourGuide is not needed and the file will alert just as redlight, speed and RestAreasCombined POI files operate.

Clear as mud? If you want to confirm this, test the non TourGuide and the TourGuide files, one at a time, as you drive by or simulate routes past schools and see how many will alert. Yes, some schools will give an alert without TourGuides, but they won't be the ones with with large areas of lawn, playground, parking lots, etc. between the building and the street you're traveling.

A few more threads to read some day when you can't fall asleep and sheep-counting no longer works for you:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10163

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/24785

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/35141

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/37929

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/36292

At least after reading these threads, you'll know that many others have had similar "alert" issues but if you keep testing and coming back for clarification from folks here, you will get your alerts working.

I will test it out today

Your explanation describes exactly why school zones should be TourGuides, especially when you are driving in unfamiliar territory.

In towns near me, the schools are not near the highway, but the school zones are on the highway. Long/lat location of schools would not be of any value. A flashing yellow light alerts drivers during the hours when children will be crossing the highway.

Hi Craig, it works. I put in TourGuide and when I pass Schools I see the icon and it beeps at me. Now is there a way to have the icon to display on my screen all the time? ( I borrowed and old Sony GPS from a friend and he has a lot of various icons permanently displayed on his screen)
Thanks in advance

Great news. Just curious--what radius are you using?

On my schools TourGuide, the school icon seems to appear only when I'm within the TourGuide radius. I don't know if it's possible to have custom POI and custom TourGuide icons appear all the time. One thing you could try is to increase your nuvi's Map Detail to More or Most. If that works, let us know.

I have it set to most detail. I only see the icon when I am close to the zone. I also see the starbucks and walmart icon but it is not displayed permanently.