Rest Area Alert too late :(

The 3597 has a high resolution screen.

Numbers in file names will create a speed alert below a certain value, above that value they only serve as a flag when running POI Loader in manual mode. Gary Hayman did a writeup on this a few years back, and it's on his website.

Essentially, numbers below (IIRC) 240 produce a speed alert. The other numbers, such as you have, 15000 only serve to remind you that when running POI Loader in manual mode, you need to enter that value as an alert distance.

Proximity (distance) alerts can only be added in two ways, using keywords found in the POI Loader help screen or when using a GPX file. Within the GPX file you will need an entry like 1615.4
for each entry where the number value is the distance in meters.

Thanks for your reply. I guess I'm lazy since I'm loading up my GPS with a few dozen files since I'll be fulltiming it in my camper startng in a few months and I didn't want to do each file manually for proximity. But, sounds like that is the way to do it.
Thanks again.

The number is 125 when using U.S. Standard Units (feet, MPH) and 200 when using Metric Units (meters, KPH)

Proximity alerts can be added using .csv or .gpx POI files without keywords by running POI Loader in manual. For each POI file, click on "alert when you get close to a point" and enter the distance.

dobs108

TourGuide 2 Miles (10,560 feet) has worked great for me. It gives the occupants in the car enough time (~1.5 minutes) to decide whether to stop at the [alerted] rest stop, or not.

Hmmm ... I figure that to cover that distance in 1.5 minutes you have to be traveling 80 mph.

So at the end of the 1.5 minutes you will be at the exit and going 80 mph. If your occupants then yell STOP are you going to cram on the brakes, pop your drag chute and throw out an anchor?

Your corrections have been a major source of learning for not only me, but many others I'm sure.

You are welcome Box Car.

Thank you for your kind words - they mean a lot to me coming from someone that I know has much more knowledge of different Garmins and experience with EPE etc. than I do.

Hmmm Evert... Apparently you think it takes almost the full ~1.5 minutes (alert time to the Rest Stop) for a decision to be made on whether to stop. I guess you think there will be a rather lengthy back-and-forth discussion! In my experience - when the occupants are asked; "Does anyone need to stop at the upcoming Rest Stop?" - The answer is a quick YES or NO. Ten to 30 seconds should do it every time...

Just to recap on numbers, a number up to 124 in a File Name will act as a speed number if the units used are in feet (up to 199 if meters). Higher numbers are ignored.

THUS - we can use the fact that higher numbers are ignored for our own purposes. A number like 5000 could become part of the file name and used as a reminder that we have a Proximity Alert of 5000 feet, say, set.

This is especially useful when using .gpx files in order to use the "Express" mode of POI Loader. The next time this particular file has an update available, we would know that it needed to be run through Extra POI Editor (EPE) and a proximity distance of 5000 globally replaced (assuming "imperial" units). Knowing what the file is supposed to do just makes updating quicker and easier.

Using TourGuide for Rest Areas creates some interesting problems. Recall that a TourGuide will alert whenever the device enters a circle whose radius is the proximity distance and whose center point is the device itself. Thus, there will be alerts for rest areas which are on the other side of the highway that one can not easily get to. There is also the possibility that the alert would occur for a rest area on an entirely different highway. The upshot is that TourGuide will work but not they way one expects.

MrKenFL has worked hard to set the coordinates of rest areas such that they will alert only on the side of the highway on which the device is traveling. Whenever I find a situation where I am getting an alert for a rest area on the SB side when I am traveling NB (for instance), I make note of it and notify him of the problem. It turns out that some highways are such that the 30 meter side to side alert limit (from the traveling lane) can pick up the opposite side unless the coordinates on the entrance ramp are adjusted.

Just keep your eyes opened earlier next time:)

No, I was not even thinking about how long it might actually take to make to make the decision.

Since you said “It gives the occupants in the car enough time (~1.5 minutes)” it sounded to me like YOU were figuring on allowing up to and including the full 1.5 minutes.

But on the other hand, I bet a lot of folks will be envious of you for being able to get everyone to make a decision in under 30 seconds.

I see the the sign alerting me that there is a Rest Area ahead and let everyone know that it is potty time like it or not.

Haha ... I never said what my rest area's file name is. My file name for rest areas is titled 'Rest Area TourGuide'. It certainly is not 'TourGuide 2 Miles (10,560 feet)'! My rest area file's name (as noted) has no numbers in the name.

Very seldom have I found a rest area on just one side of an Interstate highway. In my travels I've found that 99% of the time there is a rest area on both sides of the Interstate. Also, I don't think I have ever had an alert for a rest area that was not on my travel highway.

Again, my rest area file setup as a TourGuide set for at 2 Miles (10,560 feet) has worked great.

I have had the same issues

A careful reading of my comments will show that I never never mentioned your TourGuide file at all.

I simply used your comments of the use of a TourGuide file as the basis for pointing out that a true TourGuide file - one that has alerts whenever one is within the radius distance specified - will alert to rest areas on either side of a highway as well as to rest areas on nearby highways.

While it is certainly common to have rest areas on both sides of a highway, I would suspect that such situations are not in the majority based on the fact that there are six (6) rest areas within 20 miles of me and all are on one side of the highway only. So, in the case of these six near me, I would get six true alerts and six spurious alerts as I navigated back and forth past them.

I would also point out that one almost always has a Rest Area when one enters a state from another state. I do not ever remember seeing a Rest Area on the other side of the highway in such situations.

At one time, I had a true TourGuide file for Rest Areas and I was getting alerted to a rest area when I was on an Interstate that terminated at a perpendicular Interstate. Of the three possible approaches - North, South, and East - that I might be traveling, only if I were traveling North would the alert be such that I could pull into the rest area. I quickly realized that TourGuide was not the way I wanted to go.

By the way, to create a real TourGuide one must have a sound file (for most units a .wav file) with the same character string to the left of the extension as the .csv/.gpx file for POI Loader to create a TourGuide that will alert whenever the device enters within the circle represented by the proximity distance. Without the sound file, even though the file name includes the character string "TourGuide", it is just another POI file that will alert "along the route" based on the proximity distance set in the .gpx file or by "Manual" mode of POI Loader

Once again, it was really not material what the name of your file was, or whether or not it had a number in the name (because 10560 would be disregarded anyway).

Not knowing for certain what specific post you were responding to, it would be helpful if you would expand on "the same issues".

Thanks

While driving along an interstate, I can view the upcoming Rest Area POIs which have been loaded as proximity alerts - in other words, along the road. What if all these POIs had been loaded as TourGuides? Can these be viewed beforehand?

dobs108

When using the POI installer, you can change the distance at which it alerts. I up'ed mine as it didn't alert to my liking.