How to Create POIs - A series of posts

[GeePee]

Excellent indeed!
I just joined and posted on the (old) thread "reaching back a route after leaving it" (p17499).

As I mentioned there, I navigate on the basis of track-trips because that's the most accurate (you get what you see, and vice versa).
I create my routes in MRA routeplanner and export as tracks.
My Zumo 350 (or Basecamp) converts a track into a track-trip (tracks created myself on MRA and those received from another club member).
A track-trip does not indicate planned stops (coffee, lunch, gas,...), at least not on my Zumo 350.
I recently found out that I can use custom POIs for that!

Did some tests: works fine.
Just a detail: the magenta background of an icon displays, while it is supposed to be transparent (not to be displayed).
I read an older post of yours where you had this same "problem".
May be it is due to the image format? Apparently, you no longer have that problem anymore.

Thanks for all the useful information.

[jfheath]

Hmm - I don't seem to have taken a note of that. I've got the yellow dot though.

It was a BMP image file 36x36 and had only 16 colours with magenta being set as 255,0,255 (RGB) I have other icons that are larger or smaller. But all BMP. All 16 colours. Maybe that was the limitiation. I can't remember and I don't have a note of it (that I can find).

Attached

[GeePee]

Thanks for the icon jfheath. I downloaded it and will give it a try this weekend, testing detours too. (I am organizing tours for our club this year and want no GPS hick-ups along the road.)

The post where you mentioned that magenta is not transparent (as I experienced):
https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2770
Post by jfheath » Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:11 am:
"Magenta is supposed to be transparent, but it isn't. I made a 9 square icon with areas of all 8 combinations of Red Green Blue. eg 000000 Ff00FF. None were treated as transparent."

In fact, that's how I found this forum, and your posts, by Googling "garmin custom POI magenta transparent" or something like that.

I indeed suppose it's a question of color format.
I saved my icons using MS Paint in the .bmp 24 bits format, reasoning 24 bits is 3 x 8 bits, 8 bits defining a range 0-255 for each color.
But I realise that wasn't the right choice, should probably be .bmp 256 colors or 16 colors as your icon.

[Treve]

Great post and now I have 50 POI:s at the SD-card in my XT2 - including three nearby "test-POI". Me and my wife will have use of them during our big tour to "Nordkapp" - way up in the far north of Norway from the southern of Sweden with start the 10-th of july. A total of about 5400 km in three weeks. Sweden inland road up and the Norwegian coastline with Atlantic ocean and North see to our right on our way home with a bunch of ferries be twin al the islands and over fjords.

Own POI seams to work except for the mp3 sound.

- I get the announcement at the top of the screen.
- I have the yellow dots in right positions.
- But no "homemaid" mp3 sound - JUST the ordinary "XT2-ping" alert when announcement apers on the screen.

Maybe it have to do with how XT2 handle alerts and "Up Ahead Places" in "settings".
In my XT2 I find "Up Ahead Places" in: Setting->Mapviewing->Map Layers->Up Ahead Places
Checkbox are "ticked".

Under Driverassistent->Areaalarms->Varnings-> there are two checkboxes.
- Garmin-speedcamera - "ticked"
- Own POIs "ticked"

Under Driverassistans->Areaalarms->Sound I may chose:
- Singel tone - "ticked"
- Continuing tone
- Off

So it seems that XT2 don´t allows a "homemaid" mp3 to be an option as a alarm sound fore Own POIs.
Thanksful if someone have a hint if I have missed ore mixed something up.
Treve

[jfheath]

Own POI seams to work except for the mp3 sound.

- I get the announcement at the top of the screen.
- I have the yellow dots in right positions.
- But no "homemaid" mp3 sound - JUST the ordinary "XT2-ping" alert when announcement apers on the screen.

I have the opposite issue - On the XT2, my own sounds work perfecty well, but the icons do not show on the map.

I created my POIs for this last test using Basecamp.
I created a waypoint using the flag tool.
I set a proximity value in the route point properties dialogue box
In the notes section, I added two links - one to the mp3 file one to the icon.

I wonder if it is only picking up the first file link. My mp3 file link is first in the list.

Check in Settings -> Driver Assistance -> Proximity Alerts -> Alerts -> Custom POIs : that needs to be ticked.

[Treve]

Good morning.
That´s odd. Me - no sound. You - no icons.
In my folder with CustomPOIs on C:
- First = The "gpx"-files in a folder named "IndPoi-2"
- Second = The "bmp"-ile
- Third = The "mp3"-file
- Fourth =The "gpi"-file
CustomPOIs: ticked

I have made a folder for "gpx"-files named "IndPoi-2". In that folder there are:
- One gpx-file with al churches
- One gpx-file with al museums
- One gpx-file with al scenics
- One gpx-file with the three "test"-points
- One gpx-file with al zoo-related waypoints (Northern light aquarium)

POI-loader perfectly well accepted that configuration and in XT2 I find al 50 CustomPOI divided in those categories. To what purpose I don’t knew - yet. But the instruction at Garmin´s stated that POI may be organised in two levels - so I decided to try and it seams to work.

Just fore your knowledge
Treve

[Treve]

OK
I have not used the "How to create POI Tour Guides" guidelines - yet. So my mp3-file is not attached to every single waypoint.
Treve

[Treve]

And - I have only the "gpi"-file copied to SD-card folder Garmin->"POI"

[jfheath]

In my case my points worked with v5.40 of the software.
Not with v 6.10

At least that's what I reported to Garmin.

Edit

Ok - I have had another go. I Created a gpi file using 4 waypoints created in Basecamp, each with a proximity setting of 0.3 miles.

I have an mpr file, a bmp file. Note that the bitmap needs to be saved using 16 colours (4bit) and should be 24x24 - but other sizes have worked for me on the XT1 and also (ish) on the XT2 before v6.10 of the software was installed.

I cretaed the gpi using POI loader, and followed my own instructions posted at the start of this thread. Except I specified that there were announcements it made no idfference since I had already specified the proximity in BC.

The two files were the same name IndPOI3.gpx and IndPOI3.mp3

IndPOI3.gpi was created and placed in my Zumo XT2.

I got the same result. MP3 file plays but the POI icon is not displayed.

I wonder - I put the gpi file in a subfolder - which works normally and Whereto->Categries->Custom POIs finds it OK.

I have verified that the mpr file and the bmp files are both included in the GPX file. I can see the same pattern of code in a hex editor.

There must be something that we are doing different. I'm going to have a go at not including an MP3 file. See if that works.
edit: No it doesn't work. I get the banner and the standard bing bing alert sound, but no icon.

So this is on Version 6.10 of the XT2 software

[Treve]

OK - fore knowledge.
My XT2 still runs on Version 5.40 and map NTU2026.1 I noticed that I have program and map updates if I want. But I won´t mess with that before our NorthKapp tour. Everything works smooth for the moment. When I come back - early august - i will try how CustomPOIs works for me with V6.10.

Did You have banner, icon and Custom-alert when you ran V5.40?
Treve