garmin - too many poi? icons become black circles

[MikeToCache]

I've been puzzling over this for some time and have found no comments on this elsewhere so i'll toss it out here.

 

I have many POI, each in separate folders as GPX files which I load with POILoader. This all works fine and for some of the GPX files you can see a custom icon just fine on the GPS when all 170,000 POI are loaded. Some sets of GPX data seem to show up with a basic black circle (with white perimiter).

 

I believe i have all the lastest software, GPS is fully up to date. POI loader is 2.5.3.0 dates July 2008.

 

If I load the problematic GPX files alone with POI loader then my custom icons work fine and look excellent.

 

It seems that perhaps i have reached some limit on POI icons. If i load lots of POI then some of the icons revert to the black circle. If i load less POI then those same items show correctly with my nice icons.

 

Does anyone know more about this issue?

Or maybe know what the limit is?

 

If i knew what the limit was or a bit about how it all works i might be able to better plan my POI uploads.

 

Thanks!

[eaparks]

You may be charting unknown territory. I don't recall anyone posting that they have loaded 170,000 custom POIs. I assume you have checked to be sure you are not exceeding the available memory size of your memory card. On a 4Gb card I only get about 3.7Gb of available memory.

 

I'll be interested in hearing what the culprit is.

 

edited: to remove internal memory comment, since etrexes only store custom POIs on memory card

Edited September 23, 2009 by eaparks

[MikeToCache]

You may be charting unknown territory. I don't recall anyone posting that they have loaded 170,000 custom POIs. I assume you have checked to be sure you are not exceeding the available memory size of either your unit's internal memory or your memory card, whichever location you are loading them to. On a 4Gb card I only get about 3.7Gb of available memory.

 

I'll be interested in hearing what the culprit is.

 

Well the POI file is about 18mb only. I have a 2gb card and just under 1GB of maps on it so there is still lots of free space. AND the POI all still work, they are there and can be found and everything is fine about the POI except for the icons. So i suspect it is a limitation of the GPS somewhere but i've never seen any documentation on this limit.

 

Many maps incorporate a large number of POI, but they load them as part of maps rather than custom POI. Maybe there is some difference there. It seems to me that in general POI might be very large numbers, maybe more than i have, if they are for businesses for example.

 

I wonder if in my case there is a limit on ICON memory, perhaps a maximum number of different icons that can be loaded.

[+trimguy]

This may be a long shot. The icons that turn black, is it one particular icon or do several different types of icons turn black? If it's one particular icon then try assigning a different one as a test. If it's several different types turning black, can you temporarily change them one by one and reload the file inbetween each change?

 

I am suggesting this because I had a werid thing happen and the culprit turned out to be one particular bad icon - something that I thought was totally unrelated at the time.

[+ProsperoDK]

It seems that perhaps i have reached some limit on POI icons. If i load lots of POI then some of the icons revert to the black circle. If i load less POI then those same items show correctly with my nice icons.

 

Does anyone know more about this issue?

Or maybe know what the limit is?

I think that you have hit the limit on custom POI Bitmap that was added in Unit software 3.50

Changes made from version 3.30 to 3.50:

 

* Limit number of custom POI bitmaps to 64 to ensure enough memory resources.

So when you just use one GPX-file all works fine, but if you use all your files (> 64 Custom bitmaps) then you see the problem.

 

/René

[+agentmancuso]

I think that you have hit the limit on custom POI Bitmap that was added in Unit software 3.50

Changes made from version 3.30 to 3.50:

 

* Limit number of custom POI bitmaps to 64 to ensure enough memory resources.

So when you just use one GPX-file all works fine, but if you use all your files (> 64 Custom bitmaps) then you see the problem.

 

/René

 

Implying a de facto limit of 64 different POI classifications at any one time?

[+ProsperoDK]

Implying a de facto limit of 64 different POI classifications at any one time?

Not necessarily, if you can live with them having the same icon you can probably have more, but if you want them to each have its own icon then you have the limit at 64 custom icons.

 

/René

[+ProsperoDK]

I just realized that the version numbering that I gave where this took effect was in relation with a GPSmap 60 C(S)x not an eTrex Legend/Vista HCx. The correct version number for the HCx where this took effect is 2.40.

Changes made from version 2.30 to 2.40:

 

* Limit number of custom POI bitmaps to 64 to ensure enough memory resources.

 

/René

[+agentmancuso]

Not necessarily, if you can live with them having the same icon you can probably have more, but if you want them to each have its own icon then you have the limit at 64 custom icons.

 

/René

 

Got it, thanks.

[MikeToCache]

Excellent solving there folks. I think it is the 64 custom icons limit. I had not seen that one before. I renamed several .bmp files to .bmx so that they would be ignored and now it seems to work!

 

So this leaves a follow on question.

I have downloaded many POI files from places like 'poifriend'. Most come with a nice icon for the place in question. For example i have selected several companies like gas stations, restaurants, coffee shops etc. I realize now that having the custom icon for each company is going to cause me trouble. So what to do.

 

1)

One idea would be to have a single icon for gas stations. In order to do this i'd make one icon and copy it several times, each time matching the name of one of the POI files, ie. esso.bmp, pioneer.bmp etc. The thing is i suspect that POI loader will not realize these are the same icon and so will load multiple copies of it and i will not really have accomplished anything.

 

2)

Another idea it to take all my POI and make a map from them. This should work nicely i guess but it is a lot of work to maintain. The POI files are updated all the time and so i'd have to go through the map making frequently, not really desireable.

 

3)

Combine several POI files into one, i guess this could be done, but again another step each time a revised POI files is downloaded.

 

So i'd be interested if any of you has another idea on how to do this, or maybe you have another clever way of using POI which i should consider?

[+agentmancuso]

I have downloaded many POI files from places like 'poifriend'.

 

There's some excellent stuff on that site

 

1)One idea would be to have a single icon for gas stations. In order to do this i'd make one icon and copy it several times, each time matching the name of one of the POI files, ie. esso.bmp, pioneer.bmp etc. The thing is i suspect that POI loader will not realize these are the same icon and so will load multiple copies of it and i will not really have accomplished anything.

 

If I understand ProsperoDK correctly, the POI loader will realise that these are the same icon. But it's possible to obtain the same end by a less laborious route. I'm having trouble finding a link I though I'd bookmarked, but from memory I think it works like this -

 

Let's call the folder where all your POI files are currently stored 'POI'. In 'POI' create a new folder called 'Gas Stations'. In this folder, place all your .csv POI files for Shell, BP, Esso, whatever. Place the generic 'Gas Stations.bmp' file in the main 'POI' folder. Running the POI loader should now give you sub sets of named gas stations all identified by the same icon on screen.

 

Give a try - if it works in principle, then you can do the same for all restaurants, hotels or whatever. If not, let me know & I'll try to sort it. (Though by that point someone will no doubt have corrected my patchy memory )

[MikeToCache]

Excellent, you got it exactly right agentmancuso, works perfectly - THANKS!

I didnt realize you could put icons for an entire folder like that, thought you could only put one icon per each POI file, this is a nice bonus.

[+hogrod]

Another option would be to buy a mapset that already has allot of the poi's you want. I think the new City Navigator has millions of POI's, then you wouldn't need to add 170,000 custom ones.

 

I think using so many Custom POI's is beyond what the intended purpose of loading Custom POI's. I have had as many as 40,000 custom POI's but even that slows down the units find functions and map scrolling.

[+agentmancuso]

Another option would be to buy a mapset that already has allot of the poi's you want. I think the new City Navigator has millions of POI's, then you wouldn't need to add 170,000 custom ones.

 

That would be paying good money for something you can get for free and taking all the fun out of it at the same time

 

I think using so many Custom POI's is beyond what the intended purpose of loading Custom POI's. I have had as many as 40,000 custom POI's but even that slows down the units find functions and map scrolling.

 

Can't say I've ever noticed. I generally have about 38k POIs at one time. Might depend on the mapping detail behind it I suppose.

[+agentmancuso]

Excellent, you got it exactly right agentmancuso, works perfectly - THANKS!

I didnt realize you could put icons for an entire folder like that, thought you could only put one icon per each POI file, this is a nice bonus.

 

Glad to hear it. 170,000 is the biggest number of POIs I've ever heard quoted - can anyone beat it?