Jump to content

Garmin Streetpilot Csv Format


MDBCT

Recommended Posts

Hey.

just got the new Garmin StreetPilot c340 and tried to dump a bunch of geocaches and benchmarks in using GPSbabel to convert .loc to .csv then garmin's POIloader. it SAYS that it loaded 68 (or however many) POIs, and i see the folder names on the unit, but none of the actual locations made it in. i suspect it's the file format, but can't find specs telling me what it's looking for. the CSV file i have is just LAT, LONG, NAME.

any ideas?

 

(can't use easyGPS 'cause the c340 is a USB connection... i'll use that to get them into my (now old) eTrex as soon as i get a cable)

 

THANKS!

-Mike

Link to comment

Show me a file that POIloader will read. GPSBabel has a zillion CSV formats and the ability to create a bazillion more. The one GPSBabel calls "CSV" is exactly what you describe: a comma-space separated lat,lon,name triplet with the coords in signed decimal degrees.

 

Exhibit A:

 

$ gpsbabel -i geo -f geocaching.loc -o csv -F -

35.97203, -87.13470, Mountain Bike Heaven by susy1313

36.09068, -86.67955, The Troll by a182pilot & Family

35.99627, -86.62012, Dive Bomber by JoGPS & family

36.03848, -86.64862, FOSTER by JoGPS & Family

 

When you say it doesn't have locations, do you mean it read them as "0,0" or something?

Link to comment

well, that's the thing... i don't have anything i know it can read yet. i just got the unit and the POI loader is a bit less robust than i'd hoped -- i was thinking I'D be able to generate my own POI data (from maps, from a pull off my old eTrex, or even just hand-keying stuff). ohwell. anyway, yes, the file from gps babel looks exactly like your example. what i end up with in the streetpilot is two folders (i guess you'd call them) under "Custom POIs", Geocaches and Benchmarks (the names of the CSV files). Howver, when i open either one, there's nothing listed, and i get a "no matches found" message.

 

i tried stripping out the spaces, but that made no difference. each time i try it, it tells me that however many POIs were loaded, and the counts match the line counts in the files. so it THINKS it's doing something, i'm just not sure what.

 

if anybody's got a CSV file that they know works with the c340 (probably the same as the 320 and 330?), i think that may hold the key.

Link to comment

here in the uk we are using csv files for speed camera alerts and other stuff like shops etc...these csv files work well with the new i3 and other streetpilots..here's a link to the uk gps forum,have a read and it will probely help solve your problem..http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=96..

Link to comment

If we look carefully at a file picked at random from the linky link that scarey2004 posted (I chose http://www.maft.co.uk/garmin/download.htm) we see that it starts off:

 

Longitude,Latitude,Name

-5.66934,54.64596,KFC [bangor] Ring Road

-4.7561,55.94944,KFC Container Way

-4.59583,55.47915,KFC [Heathfield Industrial Estate] Liberator Dr

 

Note carefully that lat and lon are in the reverse order that you said above.

 

So is this format like PCX that reads the header (i.e. if you insert "Latitude, Longitude, Name" at the top of your file does it work) or is it like many other formats that ignores that first line and merely needs the two columns swapped.

 

I guess it's kind of academic. The file is easy to mimic even if the details don't matter. We just have to tell GPSBabel how to do this.

 

Create a file named "garmin_poi.style"

# gpsbabel XCSV style file
#
# Format: Garmin POI
# Author: Robert Lipe
#   Date: 10/07/2005
#
#
DESCRIPTION     Garmin POI database
SHORTLEN        8
#
#
# FILE LAYOUT DEFINITIIONS:
#
FIELD_DELIMITER         COMMA
RECORD_DELIMITER        NEWLINE
BADCHARS                COMMA
PROLOGUE        Longitude,Latitude,Name

#
# INDIVIDUAL DATA FIELDS, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:
#
IFIELD  LON_HUMAN_READABLE, "", "%08.5f"
IFIELD  LAT_HUMAN_READABLE, "", "%08.5f"
IFIELD  DESCRIPTION, "", "%s"

OFIELD  LON_DECIMAL, "", "%08.5f"
OFIELD  LAT_DECIMAL, "", "%08.5f"
OFIELD  DESCRIPTION, "", "%s"

 

And tell GPSBabel to use it. Here's an example:

 

gpsbabel -i geo -f geocaching.loc -o xcsv,style=garmin_poi.style -F blah.txt

 

Now 'blah.txt' contains:

 

Longitude,Latitude,Name

-87.13470,35.97203,Mountain Bike Heaven by susy1313

-86.67955,36.09068,The Troll by a182pilot & Family

-86.62012,35.99627,Dive Bomber by JoGPS & family

-86.64862,36.03848,FOSTER by JoGPS & Family

-86.74177,36.11218,Logan Lighthouse by JoGps & Family

-86.79052,36.06408,Ganier Cache by Susy1313

-86.80973,36.08777,Shy's Hill by FireFighterEng33

-86.89200,36.05750,GittyUp by JoGPS / Warner Parks

-86.86728,36.08280,Inlighting by JoGPS / Warner Parks

 

Tell me that this works and I'll add it to the GPSBabel tree.

Link to comment

funny.. i was doing just that as you were posting your reply! i created test.csv like this:

 

-73.39972,41.46278,LX1905

-73.40083,41.46417,LX1906

 

(tried with and without headers.. didn't like the header at all)

 

i'll try the style file now & see hopw that works... back in a few...

Link to comment

worked great on the geocaching.loc file which looks like:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<loc version="1.0" src="Groundspeak">

<waypoint>

<name id="GCQ9E2"><![CDATA[Timber by glowstick]]></name>

<coord lat="41.46265" lon="-73.4023666666667"/>

<type>Geocache</type>

<link text="Cache Details">http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCQ9E2</link>

</waypoint>

...etc...

 

but didn't know WHAT to do with benchmark.loc which contains all sorts of crazy stuff i can't get pasted into here. for now i'll send it over to my AIX box and use sed/awk to swap it around. ;-)

 

..also, managed to find help in POI loader that says:

 

POI Loader accepts .csv files that contain longitude, latitude, and speed alert information. A .csv file can contain multiple POIs. POI Loader assumes a .csv file utilizes the following format for each POI (brackets [ ] denote optional text):

<Lon>,<Lat>,["]<Name>[@<Alert Speed>]["]

Longitude and latitude must appear in WGS84 decimal degrees format (ddd.ddddd; negative numbers indicate West and South).

The following are examples of Custom POIs in the proper format:

 

-94.81549,38.80390,Bonita

-94.79731,38.81099,Ridgeview@25

-94.74240,38.81952,Heritage Park

 

...my bad. didn't look hard enough the first time through.

 

thanks for all the help!!

Link to comment

Hmm.. OK. Turns out I had downloaded an older version (1.2.5), and saw that 1.3.7 added USB support for Garmin. I just installed that, and I still see only the serial ports as connect options. I looked through the help and clicked around through the menu options, but didn't see anything related to USB. This is probably going to be something simple (again), but... what am I missing?

Link to comment

The benchmark.loc files from this site use exactly the same format as the geocaching.loc files. Exhibit A:

 

$ gpsbabel -i geo -f /tmp/benchmark.loc -o xcsv,style=style/garmin_poi.style -F - | head

Longitude,Latitude,Name

-86.86417,35.92306,FD0485

-86.86833,35.92472,FD0486

-86.86861,35.92500,FD0487

-86.88222,35.87556,FD0488

-86.83917,35.91667,FD0528

-86.85583,35.91833,FD0529

-86.87833,35.88611,FD0659

-86.87824,35.88627,FD0660

-86.87833,35.88611,FD0661

 

My prediction is that you pulled benchmark.loc into EasyGPS and saved it as an EasyGPS file. If your file starts with something like "TerraByte Location File Copyright 2001 TopoGrafix" that's what you've done and you'll need to change the input file type from "geo" to "easygps".

 

GPSBabel should run on AIX, though it's been a while since I tested it.

 

Are you saying that the files from the referenced site won't work becuase they have a header? If that's the only problem, I'll drop the PROLOGUE line and add this to the GPSBabel tree.

 

(And you shouldn't need sed.)

Link to comment
Hmm.. OK. Turns out I had downloaded an older version (1.2.5), and saw that 1.3.7 added USB support for Garmin. I just installed that, and I still see only the serial ports as connect options. I looked through the help and clicked around through the menu options, but didn't see anything related to USB. This is probably going to be something simple (again), but... what am I missing?

You're missing that this is about the sixth time this week this has come up. :-) In fairness, though it is a FAQ on this forum, it's in the FAQ for a _different_ model of Garmin, so you can't be faulted for missing it. (Dan _really_ needs to address this...) Choose "garmin 60" in the EasyGPS setup and you'll get a "use usb" checkbox to appear. That box should be checked.

 

But since I (presumably) have your attention, I'm interested in hearing how well GPSBabel

works with c340 If it doesn't Just Work, please send the the output of

 

gpsbabel -D9 -i garmin -f usb:

 

to me privately so I can see what kind of protocol zanines these units have. If it does Just Work, please let me know.

Link to comment

If I look closer at that thread, I see that at least some models support four fields. It's a two line change to make the generated file look more like:

 

-87.13470,35.97203,GCEBB,Mountain Bike Heaven by susy1313

-86.67955,36.09068,GC1A37,The Troll by a182pilot & Family

-86.62012,35.99627,GC1C2B,Dive Bomber by JoGPS & family

-86.64862,36.03848,GC25A9,FOSTER by JoGPS & Family

-86.74177,36.11218,GC2723,Logan Lighthouse by JoGps & Family

 

if you're interested. Just tell me what works best.

Link to comment

OK..

hopefully my very last post on this topic:

 

you were absolutely correct.. when i read your message about saving in easyGPS i remembered doing that at some point. i went back to the benchmarking page, grabbed the file again, and it was fine. i can now translate stuff to csv just fine using that new style file.

 

i was also able to get a "USB" checkbox by selecting the 2650, and I can send & receive just fine between EasyGPS and my c340. BUT (and yeah, i know i'm being picky),when i sent the caches and benchmarks over via easygps, they all ended up under "favorites" instead of "Custom POIs". So, i just did the CSV thing and used POIloader to push them over. Now they're listed in two separate categories (Geocaching, Benchmarks) under Custom POIs. just kind of neater for big lists of similar stuff like that. (easygps may even let me do that, i'll RTFM sometime soon... i promise <_< )

 

SO, that's it. I've got GPSbabel creating CSVs that my c340 likes, EasyGPS is talking to it via USB, and everything looks great. When I get the cable for my eTrex, I'll load everything up over there also and head out to see what I can find.

 

Thanks again to everyone for your help getting all this working.

 

-Mike

 

PS-

Robert, if there was something else you want/wanted me to try with gpsbabel, just shoot me an e-mail.

Link to comment

[ mutter, mutter, can't edit old posts... ]

 

In the name of closure, here's the version that I'll add to the official tree. It adds shortname support and the four field variation.

 

# gpsbabel XCSV style file

#

# Format: Garmin POI

# Author: Robert Lipe

# Date: 10/07/2005

#

#

DESCRIPTION Garmin POI database

#

#

# FILE LAYOUT DEFINITIIONS:

#

FIELD_DELIMITER COMMA

RECORD_DELIMITER NEWLINE

BADCHARS COMMA

SHORTLEN 24

# PROLOGUE Longitude,Latitude,Name, comment

 

#

# INDIVIDUAL DATA FIELDS, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:

#

IFIELD LON_HUMAN_READABLE, "", "%08.5f"

IFIELD LAT_HUMAN_READABLE, "", "%08.5f"

IFIELD SHORTNAME, "", "%s"

IFIELD DESCRIPTION, "", "%s"

 

OFIELD LON_DECIMAL, "", "%08.5f"

OFIELD LAT_DECIMAL, "", "%08.5f"

OFIELD SHORTNAME, "", "%-.24s"

OFIELD DESCRIPTION, "", "%-.50s"

 

[/code[

Link to comment

So, if I understand what I have read in the forum about creating a CSV file with POIs, then I would enter known coordinates into MICROSOFT EXCEL exactly as below? And then SAVE AS: xxxx.CSV

 

1.jpg

 

If this is correct, then where can I obtain the LONGITUDE LATITUDE coordinates for FREE from: Google Earth, MapQuest?

 

Thanks for your help in advance!

Edited by peaynut
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...