garmin poi loader...what/where is it

[namiboy]

hey folks. like the subject says, what is this garmin poi loader i see people posting about? is it in mapsource, or is it a separate download? would i then have 3 icons on my desktop-web updater, mapsource, and poi loader? i've just upgraded from a blue legend so i have to learn all this stuff. i can load geocaches from garmin so is the poi loader different? as always, any help is appreciated.

[+Red90]

http://www.google.com/search?q=poi+loader

[GeoBobC]

POI Loader is a separate Garmin program that allows a user to place his own points-of-interest onto a GPS unit. The number of waypoints on a GPS unit is typically limited to something like 1,000, but with POIs there is essentially no limit.

[Junkman_05]

POI Loader is a separate Garmin program that allows a user to place his own points-of-interest onto a GPS unit. The number of waypoints on a GPS unit is typically limited to something like 1,000, but with POIs there is essentially no limit.

 

Can you delete the ones you don't want? Can you uninstall them too?

[rapriebe]

There are a couple of advantages to using POI Loader if you are using Garmin Nuvi or other automotive GPS. You can load more cache waypoints as a custom POI (most Nuvi's are limited to 500 in the Favorites file, custom POI's are only limited by the amount of available memory), and it's easier to delete the ones you've found or don't want any more. I don't see any real advantage to having POI Loader if you are only using an eTrex.

[GeoBobC]

"Can you delete the ones you don't want? Can you uninstall them too?"

 

You must resend a new set of POIs to the GPS. They will overwrite what is there. There is no way to selectively edit or delete them on the GPS.

 

You can essentially "uninstall" them by either sending a new file with no POIs, or by physically deleting the file on the GPS.

[+luckybobb]

POI loader also will not work on a GPS with out a memory card (one of the "X" models) so if you have just a Etrex or Legend (Yellow or blue) it won't work.

[+rll77]

What model Garmin are you using ?

[Junkman_05]

What model Garmin are you using ?

Brand new Vista HCx. After loading up several mapsets using mapinstall, all the POI's came with each set, loaded up my "find" page, with so many choices they overlap each other. I am showing airport Icons everywhere. I have adjusted the "least to most" and decluttered it, but too many icons.

 

Granted I can see the advantages of knowing where a gas station or really cool natural wonder is at, but I can use my cell phone or yellow pages to find most anything else. It doesn't appear that anyone has actually tried any of the data here, because when i looked up the data in my tiny town of 1750 people, it give me numbers and addresses of closed or non-existent places.

 

I used the poi loader to try and delete some of these, no good, it deleted everything. The file that comes offf my GPS is an "img" file. I contains the maps and poi data together, how can I separate these?

 

I read on another post about SD card tricks, and the maps load up quicker with a card reader, then put card back into GPS and reboot. I created the different folders, but am not sure how to get the separate files into these folders, any ideas?

I loaded up several geocaches between my home and old home town, about 60 miles apart and with the geocache icons and all the misc POI icons, you can't hardly see the roads. I've also used map setup to try and control these, but to no avail. There must be 40 small airports out here in a 40 mile radius, and my GPS shows an icon for each, boo!

Edited February 9, 2009 by Junkman_05

[Junkman_05]

What model Garmin are you using ?

Brand new Vista HCx. After loading up several mapsets using mapinstall, all the POI's came with each set, loaded up my "find" page, with so many choices they overlap each other. I am showing airport Icons everywhere. I have adjusted the "least to most" and decluttered it, but too many icons.

 

Granted I can see the advantages of knowing where a gas station or really cool natural wonder is at, but I can use my cell phone or yellow pages to find most anything else. It doesn't appear that anyone has actually tried any of the data here, because when i looked up the data in my tiny town of 1750 people, it give me numbers and addresses of closed or non-existent places.

 

I used the poi loader to try and delete some of these, no good, it deleted everything. The file that comes offf my GPS is an "img" file. I contains the maps and poi data together, how can I separate these?

 

I read on another post about SD card tricks, and the maps load up quicker with a card reader, then put card back into GPS and reboot. I created the different folders, but am not sure how to get the separate files into these folders, any ideas?

I loaded up several geocaches between my home and old home town, about 60 miles apart and with the geocache icons and all the misc POI icons, you can't hardly see the roads. I've also used map setup to try and control these, but to no avail. There must be 40 small airports out here in a 40 mile radius, and my GPS shows an icon for each, boo!

 

It appears that many of these poi's are included in the "City Nav. north am. NT 2008" map file. If I'm onlt showing my topo layer it's not too bad, but if I turn on the city map layer, my screen get so full of icons you can't see the roads! This is very frustrating. This is just a bunch of unneeded advertising being shoved down out throats!

[Junkman_05]

What model Garmin are you using ?

Brand new Vista HCx. After loading up several mapsets using mapinstall, all the POI's came with each set, loaded up my "find" page, with so many choices they overlap each other. I am showing airport Icons everywhere. I have adjusted the "least to most" and decluttered it, but too many icons.

 

Granted I can see the advantages of knowing where a gas station or really cool natural wonder is at, but I can use my cell phone or yellow pages to find most anything else. It doesn't appear that anyone has actually tried any of the data here, because when i looked up the data in my tiny town of 1750 people, it give me numbers and addresses of closed or non-existent places.

 

I used the poi loader to try and delete some of these, no good, it deleted everything. The file that comes offf my GPS is an "img" file. I contains the maps and poi data together, how can I separate these?

 

I read on another post about SD card tricks, and the maps load up quicker with a card reader, then put card back into GPS and reboot. I created the different folders, but am not sure how to get the separate files into these folders, any ideas?

I loaded up several geocaches between my home and old home town, about 60 miles apart and with the geocache icons and all the misc POI icons, you can't hardly see the roads. I've also used map setup to try and control these, but to no avail. There must be 40 small airports out here in a 40 mile radius, and my GPS shows an icon for each, boo!

 

It appears that many of these poi's are included in the "City Nav. north am. NT 2008" map file. If I'm onlt showing my topo layer it's not too bad, but if I turn on the city map layer, my screen get so full of icons you can't see the roads! This is very frustrating. This is just a bunch of unneeded advertising being shoved down out throats!

I might have found the problem, GSAK added by default, the airport icon to all waypoints. Airport is the first icon in their replacement icon area, so it defaulted the the first one.

 

I changed this setting to "white dot" and applied it, this cut down the airport icons to the real airports. As far as other useless data it has forced on me, i will deal with that another time. It's time to go geocaching

[+rll77]

If you re wanting to use it for caching, use poi loader . Its makes a new icon in your find menu called " custom POI s" you can load all caches into this folder and subcatorigize them into different folders. Then save them individually as you need them. The gps will automatically send them to your geocache list. All "custom POI s "are separated from all other pois. That way you can delete all regular poi s if you want to.

[+rll77]

When I say "folder", i mean in your gps ,not your pc. Dont know how else to describe it. sorry if its confusing.

[+Chuy!]

POI loader also will not work on a GPS with out a memory card (one of the "X" models) so if you have just a Etrex or Legend (Yellow or blue) it won't work.

Update 2.50 added POI funtionality to the Venture and Summit HCs. Neither use data cards.

Edited February 10, 2009 by Chuy!