Creating Tour Guides

Though not sure about c550, but here are some free ones for nuvi and others:

http://www.travelbygps.com/TourGuide.php

I don't think the c550 is compatible with TourGuides.

Garmin TourGuide POIs are currently compatible with nüvis® with MP3 playback capability, zūmo™, and the StreetPilot® c550, 2730, 2820, 7200 and 7500.

http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/#tourguide

Thanks for that. I completely missed the 550 on that line.

FYI Tour Guides are also compatible with the C580 even though the web site doesn't mention it. My literature says it is...I haven't had a need for that so I can't tell you how well it works. I do like the C580 so far and the MSNdirect works well for me.

Ray

TourGuides are fairly easy to create and Indeed, are c550 friendly ...lol

Search this site for info.

anyone? so the tour guide is a gpx file, irght? does anyone have an example tag or syntax guide?

Well actually, you can build TourGuides from .csv input, but every POI in the file plays the same audio. This can have its uses - but not as a conventional "Tour Guide"!.

'Tour Guide audio' is generated when POI Loader sees the magic, case-sensitive phrase "TourGuide" in the associated .mp3 file. So, this could be found in the name of a single .mp3 file that 'matches' the .csv or .gpx file - thus applying to all POI's in the file.

But more commonly, the <link> parameter of a gpx file is used to set the association on a per-POI basis.

thank you so much, I have done like you say with same name cvs/mp3/bmp. I dont' really get what the difference between that and Tour Guide audio, is it processed or associated differenty by the poi loader? accessed or stored differently thought/by the device?

So I could link each waypoint to any sound or pic with gpx, something like this (assuming my jpg mp3 and bmp are in the same directory as the gpx) right? code tag will not work but you get the idea:

code>
wpt lat="45.4218" lon="-122.0840">
name>name here /name>
desc>description here desc>
ele>0.00 /ele>
time>what does this do? /time>
link href="example.jpg"/>
link href="example.mp3"/>
link href="example.bmp"/>
sym>why? I got jpg and bmp/sym>

extensions>
don't understand fully but I know address and phone go here

/extensions>
/wpt
/code>

It appears that in the examples they close the link tag within itself instead of like I would have.

Will img scr= work, probably not? also proximity must be assumed when not set or it was set by manual mode of the poi loader? Can you use a style sheets/css to set things that are the same for multiple gpx files?

OK thanks for pointing me the right way. I'll try some gpx and see what I can do. Thanks again

The sample .gpx you gave (while perfectly valid - I think) is not what POI Loader expects. It looks like it's come from Simon Slavin's website. Simon's gpi tool for Mac *does* understand that format. (Actually, I think I've seen it - incorrectly - repeated elsewhere on the web as well).

POI Loader only allows for a single <link> statement - if more than one type of 'enhancement' is required, the link has to point to a directory containing *all* of them.

Yes - all of the above! Tour Guide's have 'circular' proximity circles and the audio is 'controllable' Normal alerts are 'along road' and any audio plays once from start to end. On seeing the "TourGuide" in an .mp3 file, POI Loader sets an alert for the POI (for other mp3 files, it will ignore them, unless the alert is set some other way).

That looks like Simon's work to me - again perfectly legal, even desirable - but try telling Garmin that ... probably won't work with POI Loader.

I'll eat my hat, if they can

I'm not using a mac. Thank you so much for answering all my silly newbee questions. I've hard reset twice because I got it so wrong that was the easiest way to fix things. So for the poi loader to load it right it should be:

<link>link to enhancement or dir or all here</link> one time only, right?

I've had some limited success with my gpx files and I'll keep plugging away till I get it right. There is really no way to set things in an overarching way? Maybe not a style sheet, but something like that? Oh well, I can cut and paste. Some more trial and error and I think I can get it from here. Thanks again

Has anyone created a tour guide for the San Diego or Los Angeles areas they are willing to share?

Anyone getting gpx files to work with poiloader? A good sample ro two of the syntax would be great. ...on using audio, adding pictures. This could be handy for other things than 'tourguide'