Questions about custom POI alerts

 

Hi JM:
First of all, I want to thank you and Ms POI for working on red-light camera POI so tirelessly.

I have a Garmin c340. My questions are:

- What is the maximum distance you can set the red-light POIs to alert a driver? (Can the distance be 1 or 2 miles from the POI instead of 1,000 to 2,000 feet?)

- Today, I drove a long distance. I have the rest areas POI loaded in my c340. There were no alerts for the rest areas until I drove into the rest areas. That seem to defeat the purpose of this POI. Did I set the alert distance wrong?

alert distance

You can set POI Loader to use "Manual Mode" and specify the distance you'd like.

From what I recall from past discussions, some people have had problems with alerts not working if they use a very long distance.

I don't have any specifics for how well this works on c340.

JM

Speed zone alerts question

If you are traveling less than the speed of a speed zone alert is the alert still given? I am using a Nuvi 660.

--
Barry - Nuvi 660 and 2 Nuvi 765's

Needs to be directly on route

wingsang104 wrote:

- Today, I drove a long distance. I have the rest areas POI loaded in my c340. There were no alerts for the rest areas until I drove into the rest areas. That seem to defeat the purpose of this POI. Did I set the alert distance wrong?

POI needs to be directly on route. If the rest area gps location is off of the route by a certain distance, it will not go off. I can't speak for the particular rest area, but many times locations that are located in shopping malls are far enough off of the main route that they do not go off until you pull into the center (i.e. will not go off if on the main road and passing it).

--
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

Alerts

wingsang104 wrote:

Hi JM:
- What is the maximum distance you can set the red-light POIs to alert a driver? (Can the distance be 1 or 2 miles from the POI instead of 1,000 to 2,000 feet?)

- Today, I drove a long distance. I have the rest areas POI loaded in my c340. There were no alerts for the rest areas until I drove into the rest areas. That seem to defeat the purpose of this POI. Did I set the alert distance wrong?

First, like mkahn said the point that you're setting the alert for must be on the route you're travelling on for the alert to work properly. Rest areas and other things such as weigh stations are considered different roads so if the point in the poi file is in the rest area you won't get the alert unless you route yourself through the pickle park.

As a driver of a big truck, I created a file with some of the weigh and agricultural stations I go through. Wanting to be very accurate, I used Google Earth and set the waypoint right on top of the scale. I was disappointed when the alerts didn't work. Then I change the waypoint to the interstate right next to the weigh station and it works fine. I have the alert set for 15,000 feet so it gives me about a three mile warning in case I forget.

I don't think I would ever set alerts for anything other than safety type POIs like red light cameras or weigh stations. Even with rest areas, I would think it would be more useful just to be able to route to the nearest one when the call of nature strikes. And of course, you can do that with the files you download from here.

Imagine setting alerts for all the Starbucks. The darn dinger would never go off.

--
Gordon - Jacksonville, FL - Garmin Steetmap C550

What is maximum alert distance one can set for redlight camera?

Thanks everyone for clarifying the rest area issues.

What is the maximum distance one can set the red-light camera POIs to alert a driver? (Can the distance be 1 or 2 miles from the camera instead of 1,000 to 2,000 feet?)

experiment

wingsang104 wrote:

Thanks everyone for clarifying the rest area issues.

What is the maximum distance one can set the red-light camera POIs to alert a driver? (Can the distance be 1 or 2 miles from the camera instead of 1,000 to 2,000 feet?)

gbeyreis says he has the weigh station poi set at 15,000 ft.(2.84 mi) and works fine.

The trouble with having red light poi's set at a greater distance is you may have some camera locations that are close together. Perhaps like NYC or Philly. I have mine set at 1320ft (1/4 mi) and that works fine for me.

--
........Garmin StreetPilot c550 / Nüvi 765...........

"POI alert fatigue" syndrome

This past weekend, I was in Washington, DC. Just like a newbie, I loaded all Washington metro POIs, speed camera and the redlight camera etc. My c340 didn't cease to alert me. Next time I have to be more selective in loading POI's so I would not have "POI alert fatigue" syndrome. Well, live and learn.

I did find some good restaurants at DuPont Circle. They are Tomate and Pesce (both are Italian). Pesce is a fish place. Then there is Penang, a Malaysian place if you are into spicy food. All three were good and reasonably priced.