Brand New - learning the lingo

I know how you feel! There are some good forums with notes on the how to which are worth reading.

I've suggested to "Miss Poi" that there be an area with the information readily available.

Simple answer is to download any poi.csv file and open it with excel and then use POI Loader to upload to the GPS. I then tried unloading the poi file and made changes to the original. Learnt fairly quickly. Not to tough.

To change the coords to decimal take the seconds and divide by 60, add the minutes and divide the answer by 60 again. Add this answer to the degrees to get a decimal number.

I'm certainly no expert but it was fairly simple once I got over the idea of doing something wrong (one of my POI sites was the Indian Ocean until I corrected it!!

Believe me - we all started that way with our very first GPS device.
I think you will find that adding POI's is quite simple after you learn the basics which you can find here at POI factory !
Just do a search for threads covering finding, downloading and loading POIs with POI Loader from Garmin.
Even generating your own POIs becomes quite simple using EXCEL or equivalent or Text Editor or Notepad.
Good Luck

Yeah, I'm proof of that. With a few dumb questions and some great responses from members of this forum, I had my first POI's on with little trouble. It's nowhere near as hard as it first may seem.

You might want to look at the free download for Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/

It will help you with decimal coordinates. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be poi-ing (is that a word?) like a pro.

(The only dumb question is the one you should have asked, but didn't.)

I too was a little perplexed at how to load POIs. I spent a few hours on this link http://www.poi-factory.com/faq and most of my questions were answered. I have since loaded and unloaded POIs on my nuvi 650 about a dozen times. I even created my 1st 3 POI files from scratch and submitted them to poi-factory!

Good luck to you and oh yes, welcome to the "family"
dd

Thanks for all the kind advice. I will search out the recommended sites, and (I'm sure) ask dumb questions and give it a go. Are their any things to consider using a Mac as opposed to a PC? I have a Mac at home and a PC at the office, and it would be much more appropriate to do this at home rather than at the office.

I, also, purchased a Nuvi 680 if that has any bearing at all on the challenge ahead.

Thanks again. I'm sure I will get the hang of it in time.

Bruinboy

I'm new to POI'ing having just bought a Zumo 550 to use on my motorcycle. But I having a problem getting POI files into Mapsource recognizable format. The POI files work in my GPS but Mapsource will not open them for me to edit them, why? I have tried most of the conversion tools mentioned on this site and have found the site to be very helpful but none of the conversions will open in Mapsource. Thanks for any advice.

swj54
North Carolina

The first rule of thumb for POI file manipulations is:

Create a separate folder ( e.g. C:\POI_files ) on your PC to contain all of your POI data, bit-map graphic and sound files. It will make running POIloader ( http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99... ) much easier.

dd

MapSource will open GPX files but not CSV files. If you want to view POI files in MapSource, you will need to convert them.

POI Edit will convert between several formats. Be sure you save them as Garmin GPX.

I also have both puters. Right now it's still better to use the PC vs the MAC since POI Loader for the Mac hasn't allowed manual setting of proximity alerts . Also , Mapsource is not yet available for the Mac.
I have a Garmin unit and Garmin techs have been chipping away to achieve full compatibilty with Macs. I'm patient !

Various members here have solved the MAC at home vs. PC at work issue ( I'm one of them ) by adding a 1Gb or 2Gb SD card to the nuvi ( e.g. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/SanDisk-2GB-Memory-Stick-PRO-... )

After I connect the GPSr to my PC, the 650 shows up as E:\ and the SD card shows up as F:\

I can then store the "source" data files on the F: drive in F:\POI_files and let the POIloader gather them up from there and load them back into the Garmin at the E: location.

Of course, you'll have to install POIloader onto your PC and I know some businesses don't allow extra programs on their machines.

Clear as mud?

dd

Adding POI to your Garmin GPS using POI loader is easy once you understand the capabilities. This procedure has been tested with the Nuvi so there may be slight variations with other models. There are three basic parts:
The procedure assumes you want to have a POI segmented into categories like department stores and then have a sub menu like Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, etc.

I use the following categories so far:
Airports
Attractions (Museums, Tourist Guides, IMAX, Celeb Homes, etc)
Auto Parts
Breakfast & Coffee
Dept. Stores
Features (like lakes, parks, peaks, bridges, etc)
Gas & Truckstops
Grocery & Liquor
Hardware Stores
Lodging
Misc
Rest Areas
Restaurants
z Redlight

I arrange these this way because for example I look for a different type of restaurant for Breakfast than I do for dinner. This is only a suggestion and you may want to use different categories or even not have categories. The following information illustrates how to set up a category and sub categories structure.

I will show you how to do this using Target stores as an example:

1. Create a folder on your computer called "My POI"
2. Under "My POI" create a folder for each category shown above using the category for the name of the folder.
3. Download the target_V.CSV file (_V= verified), the Target.BMP file for the logo, and the Target.Mp3 file for the "approaching target" sound.
4. Place the three Targets files in the folder for “Dept. Stores”
5. Rename each file so that the filename is exactly the same but with the appropriate extension IE; Target.CSV, Target.BMP, Target.MP3
6. Repeat steps 2-6 for any other POI that you want to include substituting the name of the POI file instead of target and using the appropriate category.
7. Run POI loader and select next at the welcome screen
8. Find your GPS or SD card (I use the GPS to store POI) (may need to hit find device first)
9. Select “Install New Custom POI”
10. Browse to find and select the “MY POI” folder
10. Select the units you want to use if using alerts
11. Choose manual mode instead of auto mode so you can set alerts
12 Select Next
SETTING ALERTS++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
13a. if you do not want an alert as you approach target stores on your route then uncheck “this file contains Proximity Alerts”
OR

13b. if you want the GPS to alert when you reach a certain distance from Targets stores that are on your route, check “this file contains proximity alert points” and set the distance of your choice under “Alert Settings” where it says “alert when you get close to a point”. I suggest at least 1000 ft because of the parking lot may be 1000 feet deep and no more 2600 feet

OR

13c. if you want an alert based upon speed instead of distance, then select speed alert and set a speed for miles per hour (KM/H). This is useful for school zones or speed traps but I never use for stores.

OR

13d If you did not want to load target stores in your POI check Skip this POI
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
14. Select Next
13. Repeat step 13 for each POI that is presented to you.
14. After the last POI, select Finished and wait 1-2 minutes while the POI files load.

That’s it. On the GPS select where to then extras, then custom POI (some models have different menus than shown here). Under the custom POI you will see the category for the POI like Dept. Stores and then when Dept. Stores is selected you will see Target and when Target is selected you will see each location listed starting with the closest store to your current GPS coordinates. If you had also repeated the steps for Wal-Mart stores, you will see Wal-Mart under Dept. Stores as a choice too.

Notes:
1. Each folder’s name under "MY POI" will be the category name when you select "custom POI" on the GPS receiver (GPSr).
2. POI loader will only load two levels of folders under the root folder (MY POI in example above). You can not have "my POI"/"Dept. Stores"/"Targets”/”MY City”. The MY city folder and POIs in it will be ignored.
4. If you wish to have the sound and logo grouped with a POI file, you have to put all three files in the same folder with exactly the same file name.
5. Sound files have to be a MP3 file and can not use a .WAV or .WMA file
6. There are special names you can add to a file name to have it automatically do a proximity alert. Redlight will give you an alert automatically at 1320 Feet. Adding SPECS will give you a speed alert. I do not use these as I like to set it myself using the procedure above.
7. I run POI loader and erase all POI each time before I add new POI. Otherwise you may get duplicate POI. I look at the POI on my computer as the clean copy anyway and I edit it and just erase the POI on the GPSr and reload.
8. You can only have 32 POI files in a Folder

Hope this helps save some reading!

Have you tried this one?

If that doesn't work, I'd like to hear about it ;-)

Thanks for the additional info ... I'll give it a try. I do appreciate everyone giving me a practical place to start.

Bruinboy

Suggest you note that GeePeeEx Editor is a Windows only application.

A really simple way to change from one coordinate system to another is to use this simple tool that geocachers often use. It's free. You just put in the coordinates you have and it converts them to a couple of other formats automagically.

GeoCalc can be found here:
http://www.fizzymagic.net/Geocaching/GeoCalc/GeoCalc.html

I've already posted a request for help earlier, but maybe one of you guys can help me. What is the secret about downloading csv files into my Nuvi 200 without getting the following error on my Garmin when I try to open the custom POI's: "No Matches Found"

Thanks

I too am brand new to GPS (Garmin Nuvi 360). While i have learned more from this site than any other out there, I am still trying to figure things out and would love to see a POI's for beginners section or something. Howerver, through trial and error I have figures a lot out from reading the posts on this site. Thanks to everyone here.

Instead of me retyping the how to's. Click on the getting started tab, then follow the appropriate links.

Yeap, I have learned a lot from this site as well. When I get into something, I study it, breath it, and love it.....at least for awhile...lol

It was poker, then radar detectors, and now GPS

Poker I never play, RDs I use on a daily basis, but not the forums everyday. Still excited about GPS

After working with many .csv files and file conversion programs for a month now, I found that some of the .csv files converted by GeePeeEx Editor to .gpx format still will not open in MapSource. However, if I open the same .csv files in GeePeeEx Editor and had it to view the POI's in Google Earth, have Google Earth to save them as a .kml file, open the .kml file in GeePeeEx Editor, then save as .gpx file, the new file will open in MapSource.

I may be taking the long way around and I could be missing something but that is the only method that I found that worked on certain .csv files.

I'd love to try this GeePeeEx program, but it's an .exe