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Topic: 67,342 POI's added to my GPS (Read 3 times) previous topic - next topic
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67,342 POI's added to my GPS
Yahoo Message Number: 99932
Whoo-hoo! I'm done for the night.
 Here is the correct page for downloading the POI-Loader.  The page I gave before was for Windows.  If you're Mac, choose it from here: http://tinyurl.com/2ylgaq

More tips - (what I think I've learned today):

1.   On the GPS Find > Extras are listed as various files.  They are named whatever name you saved them.  You can, when you save the files, name them whatever you want to call them, with .csv on the end of the file name.  (Sometimes, your computer is set so you cannot see the .csv on the name, so don't panic if you don't see it.  But if you can see all your file names, leave the .csv on there.)  
2.   Put all your .csv files to be downloaded to your GPS in one folder.  I named my folder "Download this to GPS" so when I browse for it using POI-Loader, I can find it.

3.   In your "Download this to GPS" folder, make sure you have your .csv files there, not your .xls (Excel) original files.  Put .xls files in a different folder elsewhere  
4.   When you load new POI's, the POI-Loader automatically erases all your previous POI's.  So make sure all your POI files that you want on your GPS are in that "Download this to GPS folder" so they can all be reloaded each time.

5.   Usually when you download from POI-Factory, the file is already in .csv format, so you don't need to convert it at all.  Great!

POI-Factory has 2 other nifty "extras" I added for the Walmarts:  
a.   The smiley face icon for each Walmart (.bmp):  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/8288  
b.   and a voice announcing "Walmart ahead" (.mp3).  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4470

A critical point:  rename the downloaded extras files the EXACT name as the .csv file name, except leave the ending (.bmp, csv, or .mp3) on the file name.  Make sure those little files are also in the "Download this to GPS" folder, along with your other POIs.csv files.  Here is a good explanation:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4359

Here are the POI files I loaded from POI-Factory:
 From POI-Factory, I also loaded all the Walmart/Sam's Club stores!  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/9268
 Rest Areas:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6643  They have put RV dump stations on there!  So I can see that Rest area on Southbound I-55 at Mile Marker 54 in Mississippi has 24 hour security and RV dump station, among other things!  We are not going to need all those books soon, we'll just use our GPS for info!  I love it!
 Offbeat Tourist Attractions-U.S.:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2661
 Camping World Stores:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2999 and CW icon:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/5456
 Look at all these icons you can download:  http://www.poi-factory.com/gps-icons  Then just associate them with the file you want to mark with them by naming it the exact same name (with .bmp file ending) and you're all set! Here are my favorite icons: Camping Trailer:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4794 Camper: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/9405
 Bank of America:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/7871 and their icon (a matching icon is going to be on the same page as the .csv download page, just scroll down to see it)
 Cracker Barrels: (they will let you overnight free with permission- we eat breakfast in the morn and make sure to thank them):  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/17225 and their icon
 Dump Stations in the U.S. http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6837 and an icon: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/7000
 Flying J's:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/491 and icon
 Love's Travel Stop and icon:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/769
 Lowe's http://www.poi-factory.com/node/276 and icon and Home Depot
 National Parks icon: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4789
 All KOA's and icon:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1498
 All Passport America's! http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1499 and icon- updated thru 2/21/2009 and incorporated website updates with printed material!  And a sound alert- Whoo-hooo!
 19 Escapee's RV Parks:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/12249
 All Good Sam's Cg's: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10120
 70 Jellystone Cg's:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/9476
 Travel America campgrounds with WIFI  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2443
 AAA U.S. offices:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/14341 and icon
 Canada-U.S. Border crossings:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/8973  and icon:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/14230
 I have loaded in 11,000 POI's now, since I have several files in my "Download this to GPS" folder.  How easy!
 I like having the files separate under "Extras" because I can focus in on what I want (State Park, Walmart, Rest Area) and get the closest ones with just one tap.
 There are more campground POI's under:  http://www.poi-factory.com/taxonomy/term/35
 It took a little while to rename all the cute icons to match the .csv file names.
 I also renamed file names with spaces to make them easier to read on the GPS.
 Finally, the download took about 10 seconds, rather than 1.  I loaded the POI's on both the Streetpilot 2720 and the Nuvi 650 without any GPS memory issues.  In fact, one time I loaded 72,225 POI's, but then I deleted a few files that seemed extraneous.  No problemo!
 I am just tickled over these!  Passport Americas on my GPS?  All the Camping Worlds?  Dump Stations!  wow

Hope that helps, Tessa in TX
67,342 POI's added to my GPS
Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 99956
Tessa and others,

For the record, the various POI lists that I combined and then culled through mostly came from this source.  I did only the public CG's - federal, state, county. City, TVA and some other public agencies.  So if you add some of these lists, you're likely to have duplicates.

Ted H.

There are more campground POI's under:
http://www.poi-factory.com/taxonomy/term/35> http://www.poi-factory.com/taxonomy/term/35

Tessa in TX

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67,342 POI's added to my GPS
Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 99968
Great point, Ted.  I did try to avoid most public lists, since I knew you'd have those cg's covered, but I didn't want to miss any.
 Do you remember if you culled from the following POI lists?  If so, I'll delete them, which is easy to do from my folder:
 All KOA's and icon: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1498
 All Passport America's: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1499
 19 Escapee's RV Parks: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/12249
 All Good Sam's Cg's: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10120
 70 Jellystone Cg's: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/9476

I have a few other lists on my GPS (added
67,342 POI's added to my GPS
Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 100018
Tessa,

As I recall, the lists that I used were:

TVA CG's: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4554

National Parks/Monuments/Rec Areas with developed RV campgrounds:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4082

Public Campgrounds: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/3910

US Federal & State Campgnds:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1183

Corps of Engineers: http://www.discoveryowners.com/COE.zip

If you merge these together, there are lots of duplicates; that was the major part of my project - culling out the duplicates.

Also, for everyone, I've posted new versions of the 3 files on my site, each with only one worksheet, which should eliminate that problem you and bumper encountered.

For folks wanting to avoid all the conversion issues, you can find POI lists already formatted for various systems at:

http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfolinks.htm

Glad you're having fun with all this POI stuff!

Ted H.

NE-12

@ Three Rivers SP, FL

Great point, Ted. I did try to avoid most public lists, since I knew you'd have those cg's covered, but I didn't want to miss any.
 Do you remember if you culled from the following POI lists? If so, I'll delete them, which is easy to do from my folder:

All KOA's and icon:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1498> http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1498

All Passport America's:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1499> http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1499

19 Escapee's RV Parks:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/12249> http://www.poi-factory.com/node/12249

All Good Sam's Cg's:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10120> http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10120

70 Jellystone Cg's:  http://www.poi-factory.com/node/9476> http://www.poi-factory.com/node/9476

I have a few other lists on my GPS (added in the frenzy):

Best Parks of America

Big Rig- EastRVParks

Campgrounds Public

Campgrounds_private

Campgrounds-RVparks

CampgroundsSW

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