| Versions |
  |
|
|
Note: You must be registered in order to post a reply.
To register, click here. Registration is FREE!
|
| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| jlg234 |
Posted - 17 déc. 2007 : 19:02:08
July 1-2008 added "PART 2" - displaying what can be achieved with little effort. Scroll down!
Oct 21 - 2008 I added a newly discovered procedure for dealing with complicated "Address" cells that display as multiple lines.
See "Dealing with multi-line cells"
Attention Grabber: Placing Multiple Categories into one POI file!
As this has been chosen to be used as a guide I have been proof reading it for errors and clarification. Note I cannot correct the "CVS" typo in the pictures it should be "CSV". Please feel free to email me should you have any questions reguarding this procedure. As I come across new steps to enhance the process I will add them to this post. Thank you for the recognition.
(ezeechair@rogers.com)
I believe that this will work across all the Magellan GPS units that use the Magellan "POI Editor" and are able to add user created POI's
I merged several post that I created in the Magellan AIO forum.
I'll pass on a bit of what I went through getting the external POI's working. I assume you have discovered the POI Index on this forum.
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56474
Select the ones you want and download them to your PC. I had set-up a folder for the downloads and then another for "work in progress" and then a folder for the finished product.
This procedure will allow you to create a "MY_POI" file that will contain multiple categories.
Benefits:
All categories within the file are available for searching.
If your unit supports Text to Speech(TTS) it will call out the catagory name as you approach the proximity of the POI and it's alarm has been turned on. - This can be used as a compliment to "Exit POIs" while on a motorway.
With my unit and "Enhanced POI" I can also change the angle of frontal search as well as the distance to 1st and 2nd alarm notification. This should be true for other units that support "Enhanced POI".
Limitations of the Magellan "POI Editor"
One POI file can only contain 10 Categories.
It only has 5 useful fields - Name, Latitude, Longtitude, Altitude and Description.
"Description" field is only useable within the POI Editor and does not display on the GPS
"Name" field required to be unique for each record or it will overlay the record.
Because of these limitations I use the following rules.
The POI name becomes the "Category Name"
The "Name" field will hold the POI's "Address". You can chain other information such as Phone number providing the address isn't too long. Truncation will occur if the info within the field is too long.
This information allows you to locate the POI visually. This is why it is necessary to massage the data before inputting it into the "POI Editor"
You do not need the "State/Province" "City" or "Country" names in the active fields because the GPS uses the Lat/Lon Co-ordinates when zeroing in on a POI. You can add this info to the "Description" field should you want to. I will not argue this need here as it is a space limitation of the program/GPS. We do not have the same luxury as the "Map Developers", sorry.
Preparing the CSV files for input into the POI Editor
The zipped files are generally in a ???.csv format. I found that when importing them into the POI editor that the the order of the data was not compliant to what I wanted as it was chopped up into too many pieces or had too much data for the main fields. You will know what I mean when you load some.
After you un-zip the files you can mass edit it in one of two ways before putting it into the POI editor.
1) If it is just a matter of exchanging " " or "," for a "-" you can use the "search and replace" fuction of "Notepad" to edit so as to have the data grouped as you want. To open the file in Notepad just rename the file and exchange the extension cvs for txt. Once you have massaged the data the way you like, just rename the extension back to csv and import it into the POI editor.
2) If you require to delete or move columns around then you will also need to load it into a spreadsheet program such as Excel so as to be able to re-order the columns. Excel also allows search and replace if you need to but to merge data lines it is better to do it in "Notepad".
Start of New procedure added Oct 21-2008
Dealing with Multi Line cells
This involves using Microsoft's Excel. I do not know if this option exists in other spreadsheet programs such as Open Office.
While working on a solution to someone else's issue I discovered that
there is an easy way to fix those address entries that appear on
different lines when you highlite the cell. (The entry appears like
an address lable entry that you would see on an envelope).
First open the CSV file in Excel. Then do a "Save As" and give it a
new name. I usually just add a number to the existing file name. This
allows one to back up a step in the event that you do something wrong
and mess up the file.
Do a "CNTRL END" to see how many rows are in the file. This is
important in making sure that your record alignment stay the same.
(1 row = 1 record).
Now we need to isolate the address column. This can be done by just
deleting all the other columns such as Lat, Lon, Name etc.
Now do a "Save"
Now highlite the remaining column (the address column) by clicking on
the "A" at the top of the column. It should be an "A" column as all
the rest have been deleted. Now using your pointer select "Text to
Column" option found under the "Data" options. and follow the prompts
until you are left with your address now broken into several columns.
You should see the familliar "street address" in the fist column
followed by the "City" in the next Column, followed then by
the "Sate/Prov" in the next column ...etc. You may even have the
stores Phone Number as part of this grouping.
At this stage I usually get rid of the info I don't need such as
City, State and ZIP/Postal Code. This should leave you with 2
columns if the phone number was included as part of the grouping. If
not you should just have the one column left.
Let's say you have address and phone number columns. Now you want to
merge the data into one column. I achieve this by first doing
another "Save" - then do a "CNTRL END" and confirm that your record
entry numbers haven't changed. If eveything is all right exit Excel
and rename the file extention from CSV to TXT. Then open the file in
Note-Pad. You should see a file that has one line for each record
and there should be a "," separating the address from the Phone
number.
Now under "Edit" you will find the "Find and Replace" option.
put "," in the Find field and "-" in the Replace field. Then
hit "Replace All", Then close out the "Find and Replace". You should
now be left with each line having a "-" between the address entry and
the Phone number. Each combined entry should be on a separate line.
Now do a "Save" and exit "Note-Pad".
Now rename the extension of the file from TXT to CSV. Now when you re-
open this file in Excel you should see one column and the number of
records should match your original file.
Place your cusor on the "A" at the top of the column and do a right
click and select "Copy". Now open your original CSV file. Highlight
the "A" column in that and do a right click with your mouse. You
should see an option that states "Insert Copied Column" - select this
and you modified column should appear. Now check and make sure that
the new address column entries corespond to the old address column.
If everything is okay just delete all the other columns except the
Lat, Lon, New Address column. That is realy all you need. Now save
the file. Then open up Magellan's POI editor and import the new
file. Make sure that you lable the "address column as the "Name"
field. Then when all the records are in - modify the "Category" name
to reflect the subject name such as "Sam's Club". The rest you know
about.
End of new procedure
I worked on each POI file one at a time and then merged them in categories of 10 per "MY_POI" file after I was satisfied with each group. Afterward you just place your POI files into the root of the SD card and away you go. For the 2200T-NT or Crossover firmware ver 2.14 you can use the 3.50.90 version of the "Tools" program to place the file on the internal flash memory with-in the unit.
These POI files can only be accessed via the "enhance POI" function of the Navigator.
Creating the Multi Category File
3) The POI editor only allows 10 groups in one POI file. ie: Wal-Mart, Second-Cup, COS-Co... etc. So if you have more than ten groups save it and start a new POI file such as MYPOI-2.
CUT and Paste: 1st I created individual POI's (xxx.mgln) for eah CSV file where xxx is the name of the subject such as Canadian Tire. You load one POI file into the editor and save it back as "My_POI". Then you load up another one - here I believe it overwrites the prior file in the Editor. I highlighted the Category Name - right click "Copy" -reloaded the "MY-POI" file and did a paste in the Category area with my mouse and guest what appeared - two POI categories now. Do a "Save" as it is "MY_POI" that is up and repeat the process with another Category. I know it sounds
boring but it worked. When I went to add the 11th it stated only 10 categories are permitted in one "POI" file. So I created a second file "MY-POI-2" and started again. What I did do though is duplicate Speed Trap and Cameras to both as only one "My_POI" file can be active at a time on the GPS and I wanted the security of having them available in both files.
I hope I was clear enough - It's just standard windows cut and paste.
Here is another useful Category to add to your "MY_POI" file for you Geocachers that feel you need a different model of GPS in order to GEO-cache.
Note: This is not my idea but I cannot remember where I copied it from or the url would have been posted here instead.
=============== Start of Instructions for Geocache =============
GEOCASHING using POI editor as co-ordinate entry.
Yes, it can be done. It works. But, you cannot enter a waypoint in the conventional sense.
With your unit should have come a CD. On the CD is the Installation files for Magellan POI File Editor. Install this software on every computer you are likely to use to input waypoints. If you have not already done so, buy a Memory Card (SD) for the slot, you will prefer to use the memory card to store the POI's.
Here are the steps you will use to create POI's.
1. Pick a cache you want to find from GC.Com
2. Using the coordinates you see for the cache, open Calculator on your computer. My input - see co-ordinate converter program after this section
3. The coordinates supplied for Geocaching.com are Degrees, minutes decimal. You will have to manually convert this to Degrees Decimal, for both the Lat and Lon. For instance, the listing will say 33 degrees 10.123 minutes. Take 10.123 on the calculator and divide it by 60. Round to the nearest 5 decimal places and add that to the degrees. You will end up with a number like... 33.01646. This is the number for POI editor.
4. Move to Magellan poi file editor, create a poi. Click the Plus Sign.
5. Enter the name of the cache, the Lat and Lon you found with calculator.
6. Pull the category to Drop down <New>. This will open another dialog box for Adding a Category.
7. Name the category whatever you want... I used Geocache.
8. Keep the image as the Purple Dot.
9. Leave the Display this category check box on.
10. I set Distance 1 to 100 feet.
11. I set distance 2 to 20 feet.
12. AND, Be sure you activate ALERTS for this category.
13. Click OK.
14. Be sure the Longitude is set for WEST as it defaults to East.
15. Click on OK.
16. You will notice you have created a Category on the left, and one POI in the middle part of the screen. You do not need to create a new category for every cache. So, all subsequent adds can be to this one category.
If you have the Magellan plugged into the USB port and turned on, when you SAVE, it will attempt to save it to the Card if you have one and the unit if you don't. I recommend the card.
When you are finished, unplug the USB without powering off the unit. Let it recycle, and then... Click on POI, selected a POI file, Select your file... This will "Activate" the file in the unit.
Search for nearest POI with the unit, select it and calculate the route. Go for it.
Once you discover the quirks of the unit (it will sometimes direct you to the closest place to a cache, but not necessarily to the best way to get the cache.) you will grow to enjoy using it. We kinda like it anyway. Plus we never accidentally miss caches if we are within 100 feet of it. It gongs at us.
You can circumvent a lot of this with GSAK, by the way, and a premium membership. The time I used to invest in loading one cache I can now load 100's at a time. Eventually, you will want a Palm (or pocket PC) and cachemate to go with it. We are nearly 100% paperless and don't miss but the hardest of finds.
As Searching4fun pointed out, if the cache is a distance from any roads, lakes, or identifying landmarks on the Unit, it can get you lost in a heartbeat. We always take a compass (or almost always), and the Garmin if we are going to be in serious isolation. Always carry a cell phone too, and never cache alone in the wilderness areas.
Don't trust your life to any electronic gizmo and you'll be fine.
================ end of instructions ============================
Note:
Another helpful hint is when you get to the cache site via the POI and it states you have arrived - switch your display to the "Current Location" screen. At the bottom of the display will be Latitude/Longtitude. You can now walk around a get your readings as you search. You may have to let the device settle down for a few minutes as they tend to overshoot.
A simple Stand Alone Co-ordinate Converter program
You might read about referals to GeoCalc well the name had to be changed. Runs as a standalone program on your PC.
Below use to be called GeoCalc. Freeware program for converting co-ordinate formats.
They had to change the name due to Copy Right Infringement.
http://www.fizzymagic.net/Geocaching/FizzyCalc/index.html#Introduction
Also a web version of GeoCalc co-ordinate converter
http://www.cosports.com/tools/gps_coords.htm
Picture Tutorial of POI editing
 
 
I had to edit this CSV using Notepad and Excel to remove commas and carriage return/linefeed aka "Enter" key. "Find and Replace All" saves alot
of time. Just make sure you keep a copy of the original file incase you screw up and have to start over.
Hint: I would save the file as a different name after several steps so I would not have to start at the beginning.
 
 
 
 
 
Part 2: Finished results:
What you can achieve: I have listed several POI files plus what the USA one contains.
 ]
I have chosen to use the "Kinkos" database to demonstrate what can be done when the "Name Field" holds only the address and Phone number.
I usually do not have User POI's turned on for general viewing with the exception of "Speed Traps" and "Red Light Cameras".
OK, maybe the odd coffee shop such as "Timmies" or "Star Bucks".
The rest I would generally use for looking up purposes only.
Here is an example of an entry for a Kinkos outlet as it sits in my POI file as per the "POI Editor"
Category = Kinkos
Line entry = 1 Mifflin Pl (617) 497-0125 42.37349 -71.12190 0
I don't need to know the city or state and the name is provided by the "Category" field.
You will notice that the mapping system will supply the City and State Information on it's own as shown when I select "21617 Center Ridge".
 
 
You will notice that the "Center Ridge's entry has dropped the last digit in the phone number because the line was too long.
 
The Summer Street entry is perfect - no dropped characters.
This also allows you to search under "Area Code" Wow! Imagine that.
Just put the area code under the "Spell POI Name" and you will get all that reside under that code as well as any other hits that match.
Had I included the () around the 212 I could have avoided the other hits shown on the right.
 
Here is my GEOCACHE POI file for my area.
I downloaded some "Pocket Querries" from Geocache.com and imported these GPX files
into the POI Editor to create the following categories.
 ]
I even picked one "GCVNA7" to show how you can use vehicle Nav to drive close to your target
before switching to Outdoor App. The actual location for the Geocache is displayed by the icon (i).
 ]
As you can see the GPSr Navigates you using the know roads to the closest spot without
leaving the road. Whether you can park at this location is another issue for you to resolve.
 ]
It was posted once - What is the purpose of User POI's as you are already provided with a POI Database and the USER POI's don't show
any addresses in the display because of the restriction on the amount of data that can be entered per field?
As for the concept behind USER POI's - that's a personal thing.
Some people may add a subject that does not exist in the supplied POI's.
Some people like to add a Category because the supplied list is missing some of the
entries that the user accesses.
Some people do not create poi's but add entries to their Address Book instead to fill in these gaps.
The nice thing about "User POI's" though is you can have an unlimited number of POI files
sitting on your SD card and each file can house 10 Categories where as you only have
one copy of your Address Book on the SD card and it can only hold I believe 250 entires.
You could create POI files of your friends/relatives in various cities or for that matter
your enemies or places you never want to go to again, etc.
Enjoy the experience!
|
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Dusty716 |
Posted - 26 févr. 2012 : 11:13:32
Does anyone know if I can add custom POIs to my Magellan Roadmate 5045LM. I am new to this and would appreciate any info that can be shared.
Thanks in advance. 
Dusty |
| garygid |
Posted - 16 oct. 2009 : 05:08:30
The 1412 accepts multiple User-POI files (SomeName.mgln)
on the root of an external "blank" (FAT format) SD card.
Up to a 2GB SD card may be used, but a 4GB (non-SDHC)
was not recognized by the firmware 3.10 version.
If the POI files are written to the internal flash "TFAT", they
probably go into the USR/CPOI folder that is there, right?
If the external SD is a real "MAP" SD card, the User-POI files should be written to the same-named folder, or the Root? |
| garygid |
Posted - 13 oct. 2009 : 17:56:04
Do these MY_POI_NN.mgln user-POI files work when placed on the external SD of the "new" (has maps in internal flash) Roadmate 1412?
Any file name, or only one specific name?
I see no "choosing User-POI file name function on this GPS.
Does the file need to be in a special folder, or in the SD card root?
Thanks, I will start looking in the On-CD User Manual.
Continued : Oh, yes, I found that one can select user-POI files under Points Of Interest, My POIs, Change My POI file, Select a POI File.
Now, to insert an SD card and write some U-POI files to it.
|
| niks1 |
Posted - 05 sept. 2009 : 04:42:51
Maestro 4350/4370 does not come with POI editor, but you can install custom POI using "Content Manager", which can be downloaded from the Magellan site. I’ve just installed a set of POI in .klm format. |
| sstteevvee |
Posted - 11 juin 2009 : 19:48:25
very good post and i wanna try it out but need to get my hands on the poi manager.exe software first but don't know where to get it. can someone help me out thankx! |
| StadiumRocks |
Posted - 17 sept. 2008 : 12:56:57
jlg234,
Thanks for the info. I will try as you suggested. I do have card reader built in my PC. I didn't think that I shouldn't have connected the GPS directly to PC for this purpose.
Again, thank you. |
| jlg234 |
Posted - 17 sept. 2008 : 05:56:47
StadiumRocks - you do not have to connect you GPSr to your PC in order to transfer data to and from the PC and GPSr. Just buy a multimedia card reader/writer that connects to your PC's USB port. Most of todays pc's come with these already built in. Then you just move your data back and forth using the card reader/writer.
You could get version 3.50.90 of the Magellan Tools that work with the new 2.14 firmware upgrade. I believe if you do a search here you should find a link to it.
John |
| StadiumRocks |
Posted - 30 août 2008 : 05:41:34
Hi,
I cannot transfer POI from PC to my Magellan Roadmate 2200T (has been upgraded to crossover 2500NA)using POI editor, I always get this warning "no device detected". Windows does detect the device though. And the Gps' screen shows "USB connected".
Any way to fix this. Thank you....
|
| 2200T_0616 |
Posted - 19 juin 2008 : 00:39:53
Thanks for the reply, this is what I thought. If there is any interest, I will be glad to make mine available when they are done.
I am working on the following companies:
Shopping
Bed, Bath, and Beyond
Kinkos
Auto Parts
Advance Auto Parts
Books
Barnes & Nobles
Borders
Clothing
JC Penny
Ross
Electronics
Best Buy
Circuit City
Radio Shack
Gas
Costco with Gas
Shell
General Merchandise
Costco
Sams Club
Sears
Target
Wal Mart
Hardware
Home Depot
Lowes
Tools
Harbor Freight
Restaurant
Famous Daves
Outback
Ruby Tuesday
The format I'm using for the "Name" field is to put the name of the store with the city if the city was present. For multiple same name cities, if there is no address listed in the CSV file, I used <store name><city>1, 2, 3, etc. For example:
Target Podunk
Target Miami 1
If the address is present for same name cities I used the street location. For example:
Target Miami Biscayne Bv
Kinko's NYC 1400 Broadway
Address data if present is being placed in "Description". If other data such as state, ZIP, phone # is in another field it was merged with the address using the find & replace to delete the commas (as you noted in the first post).
I'm also retired- good thing, because this is pretty time consuming to get it the way I want it.
Thanks again for showing how to do this.
|
| jlg234 |
Posted - 18 juin 2008 : 23:14:28
The xxx.mgln files are created by the "POI Editor". I am not aware of anyone making them available on the Internet. People have made CSV and GPX files available because they can be used across different vendors. As you are probably aware of there is a grouping of these POI files on this forum site as well as a few others sites across the Net.
John |
| 2200T_0616 |
Posted - 18 juin 2008 : 22:51:35
I searched for MGLN on Google and didn't find any files. Is there a repository of these specific files anywhere (US Versions)?
I am working on a few CSV files & the POI editor to use with my 2200T, very time consuming to get the proper format. Thanks for the great post. |
| jlg234 |
Posted - 13 mai 2008 : 02:03:31
What I mean by two is two POI files - all with Canadian Content. |
| jlg234 |
Posted - 13 mai 2008 : 00:01:06
Email me and I can attach 2 - you can then edit them through your "POI editor". I also don't gaurantee their accuracy as they were all obtained from others on this site.
Ezeechair |
| crs |
Posted - 12 mai 2008 : 23:38:21
quote:
Originally posted by jlg234
I am not exactly sure what you are asking. If you are asking whether the xxx.mgln file that I create on my pc can be downloaded to an sd card for your GPS then the answer is yes. The content of the categories doesn't matter the file system is the same whether USA or Canada or anywhere in the world. It is the Lat/Long co-ordinates that determine where the location will be shown on the map.
Yup that's what I was thinking. Anyone have a canadian content xxx.mgln file that they'd like to share? Maybe we can have a single working copy that we can each help build/maintain. |
| jlg234 |
Posted - 12 mai 2008 : 23:34:48
I am not exactly sure what you are asking. If you are asking whether the xxx.mgln file that I create on my pc can be downloaded to an sd card for your GPS then the answer is yes. The content of the categories doesn't matter the file system is the same whether USA or Canada or anywhere in the world. It is the Lat/Long co-ordinates that determine where the location will be shown on the map.
By the way you will find all kinds of POI's for the Canadian side of the border. These are posted in the POI part of this GPSpassion web site. I believe I posted a link in the Tutorial above. |
|
|
| This page was generated in 0,52 seconds. |
 |
|
- 
- 
