Loading custom POIs into a Garmin GPSMap 62s

Just to be thorough, I decided to load the newly minted poi.gpi file into my GPSMap 62s to see if it would work. So I plug in the 62s with the mini-USB cable, fire up POIloader and use express install. For some reason, my first attempt failed. POI loader did not recognize the sdcard as a device because I had not given the card a name. So I had to install the POI file using the Computer option. I pointed it to the SDCARD/Garmin directory. At that time, I had not yet created the SDCARD/Garmin/POI directory. I then manually moved the poi.gpi file into the correct directory. Bad idea. Nothing showed up on the 62s.

So I retraced my steps. First I gave the card a proper name. Then I erased the poi.gpi file in SDCARD/Garmin/POI. Fired up POIloader again. This time, the SDCARD showed up as a device. I chose this and express install. Now, the Extras item appears when I hit the FIND button on the 62s. Hurray!

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Garmin custom POIs on a Mac - revisited

Take a look at http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/creating_custom_poi_files.jsp#mapsource.

Look at the section describing custom POI and MapSource. You can use the same method with BaseCamp. This is yet another way to do it. The good thing about this method is that you can use BaseCamp to organize your custom POI's. The downside is that you will have to assign icons and audio files upfront, when you are creating the POI's. This could potentially be a problem when trying to change proximity or speed alert parameters for a large number of POI's.

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Garmin custom POIs on a Mac

After a recent road trip up North I realized I wasn't all that familiar with my Nuvi 1490T and it's capabilities. Then I came across custom POIs while searching the web for Nuvi related articles. Here are a few useful links:

• Gary Hayman's Garmin GPS, Tricks, Tips, Work Arounds, Secrets and Ideas
• Dave Brillhart's GARMIN GPSCustom POI Alerts & TourGuides
• Garmin's POIloader utility

The CSV method is simple and works nicely but it doesn't allow one to specify both speed and proximity parameters simultaneously when installing into your Nuvi with POI loader in express mode. Preparing CSV files mean having to cut and paste coordinate parameters from Google Earth or Basecamp or some other program.

So here's my preferred approach for generating POI files right now (only good for small lists):

STEP 1: Create and export waypoints in BaseCamp
Fire up BaseCamp on your Mac. Load your map (see previous articles). If you wish to create a waypoint by browsing the map and dropping a pin, select a waypoint tool. Keep things a little better organized by creating a new list under "My Collections". Let's call it MyPOI. Now go to File > Export "MyPOI" and give it a path to save the GPX file. Now you have the GPX "source" file.

STEP 2: Edit and rename the exported waypoint GPX file
There are several methods you can use. Here are several examples:

1. Rename the GPX into a XXX_redlight.gpx file. This will turn all your waypoints into proximity alerts. If you specified a proximity radius while creating your waypoint, that will be the distance used. Otherwise it will default to 400m (assuming you select the metric option in POIloader).
2. Rename the GPX into XXX_speed_NN.gpx file, where NN is the speed. That will turn all your waypoints into speed alerts.
3. Rename the GPX into a XXX_speed.gpx file and include "@NN" at the end of your waypoint name. This allows you to set different speed alerts for POI's in the same file. However, this is probably of limited use since the POI icon and sound file are associated with a single file name -- which means you cannot represent the alerts with different speed icons.

Other than renaming the file, you can also delete portions of it. For example, if you are preparing a speed alert POI file, keep all the speed alert waypoint instances, but delete all the proximity alert instances.

STEP 3: Load POI file into your Nuvi with POIloader
FIre up POIloader and follow on screen instructions. Make sure you have your Nuvi connected.

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Problem communicating with the Garmin device

Got this error message this morning when I started BaseCamp and plugged in my 1490T. A quick search on Google revealed the possibility of a corrupt .GPX file. In this case, I had to remove the current.gpx file from my 1490T. Everything worked nicely after that. Strange. Here's a forum post on the topic: http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=22672.

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Installing MalSingMap into Garmin BaseCamp on a Mac

Having only used MapSource on a PC, I was not familiar with the BaseCamp equivalent on a Mac. I had just tried loading maps into BaseCamp (Mac version) by plugging in my GPSr only to discover that it would not detect MalSingMap that was installed on a uSD card.

I came across an article in the MalSingMaps Forums with a brief but incomplete description of the process. So here's my idiot's guide version to getting all this to work on a Mac. I really should get around to including some screenshots. But that's a labour intensive task that will have to wait until I retire or feel industrious. Hopefully this plain text version will get you started for now.

STEP 1 - Install VirtualBox and XP
You are going to need a Windows machine. Or a functioning instance of Windows running in a Virtual Machine on a Mac. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Download VirtualBox from Oracle and install. Start VirtualBox, insert your XP disk and follow instructions. Boot XP and Install all service packs.

STEP 2 - Install mapconverter
You will need to install Garmin's mapconverter utility. Get this from http://www.garmin.com/mapconverter. Do this in your Windows XP virtual machine. I had a problem getting this to install. Windows complained that the program could not run because of a configuration error. Fortunately, there's a workaround. Download and install a copy of WinRAR. Then right click on the mapconverter installer icon and select the extract to here option. Double click on the setup.exe file and follow onscreen instructions.

STEP 3 - Download MapSource version of MSM
Download a copy of the MapSource version of MalSingMap from http://malsingmaps.com. Do this in your Windows XP virtual machine. The file comes in the form of an executable. Double click to run it. Follow on screen instructions and allow the map to install into the default location (unless you really want it to go somewhere else).

STEP 4 - Convert the map
Run the Garmin mapconverter utility. Do this in your Windows XP virtual machine. Follow onscreen instructions and select the map you wish to convert. It finds the maps automatically. At least it did for me. That's why you should let the map install into a default location in STEP 3.

STEP 5 - Move the converted map to Mac filesystem
Set up a shared folder in VirtualBox. This will appear as a network drive in your VirtualBox XP file explorer. Move the *.gmapi file into this folder so it becomes accessible in your native Mac OS X filesystem.

STEP 6 - Download and install Garmin MapManager
You can download and install this Garmin utility from the Mac AppStore. Search for Garmin and it will appear as one of the items.

STEP 7 - Install your newly minted *.gmapi
Now fire up MapManager and use it to install your *.gmapi file. You'll need to tell the program where your *.gmapi file is located. And you are done! Congratulations. Give yourself a pat on the back.

Start BaseCamp and look under the Maps drop down menu. You should find your MSM map listed as one of the available maps. Click to select. Enjoy. Thanks to all the fine folks at MalSingMaps for their labour of love.

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MFM and MSM and Garmin BaseCamp on Mac OS X Lion

Sorry about the clumsy blog title, but I can't think of something else that clearly captures the essence of this post.

This may sound silly, but I had been wondering how to load maps into BaseCamp running on Mac OS X Lion. It turns out that all you have to do is plug in your Garmin GPS receiver (GPSr) via the USB cable and fire up BaseCamp. Wait awhile for the GPSr to boot and BaseCamp will detect and cache any maps it finds in your GPSr (it works with Nuvi and the 62s). The available map titles are displayed at the top of the left hand panel. Click on the map you wish to display and that's it! The maps take some time to load the first time around but are cached so it's really quick after the first time. You may wish to go to BaseCamp > Preferences > Advanced to allocate more disk cache.

Just when everything seemed to be working, I realized that BaseCamp was only detecting the NT North America and MalFreeMap (MFM)but not MalSingMap (MSM). I reinstalled BaseCamp and tried another GPSr to no avail. So it was time to figure out how to install MSM into BaseCamp on a Mac.

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