GPS POIs

[pjweimer]

Recently bought a Garmin StreetPilot 2720. This quite an upgrade from my Megellan Color Meridian!

According to the manual custom points of interest (POIs) can be uploaded to the unit. I was wondering if anyone may know if such databases are available on the Internet for downloading. I've done a few Google searches and didn't find much. The 2720 comes with campgrounds loaded. Don't know yet how good this data is but will find out when we go out to AZ in January.

Wouldn't mind uploading WalMart locations to help with those quick overnights.

Paul

 

[joelmyer]

Paul,

Take a look at http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfo.htm

You have to poke around a bit but there is a Garmin format file available.

As a guess, based on our travels, the built in database is about 80% on commercial campgrounds.

Joel

 

[DougJ]

Joel, I have a Garmin 2610.  I went to the Discovery website where they explicitly name certain brands, but not Garmin.

Do you know if the file format of any of those named brands will work on the Garmin equipment?

Thanks and,

Ciao,

Doug

 

[pjweimer]

OK, I also went to the Discovery site and found that the databases were not in Garmin format.

Previously I downloaded from the Garmin site their POI Downloader. Reviewing the help file in POI Downloader you can see the format needed to upload custom POI's to Garmin units (Lon,Lat,Name). So I downloaded some of the databases from the Discovery site, selecting the MS Streets format. These are ZIP files which I extracted to the same folder (as suggested by Garmin). Next opened the file with MS Excel and striped any lines in the file that preceeded the first line that contained location data. Next I found that the first column of data was Lat, not Lon. So I inserted a column to the left of Lat, copied and pasted the Lon column into the inserted column and deleted the original Lon column. I then jumped to the bottom of the file and again deleted any lines that were not location data.

Saved the file in CSV format (as required by Garmin), connected my 2720 to my PC, fired up the POI Downloader software, waited until it saw my GPS, selected the folder where I stored the databases and uploaded them to my 2720.

It works, but it did indeed take some time to manipulate the data to the Garmin format.

Thanks Joel for the lead to these files.

Paul

 

[Ned]

We have been using the draw layers from the Discovery Owners site for years with Street Atlas.  Bob Cook and his volunteers have done an excellent job of compiling these very useful files.  The data are available for Street Atlas (all recent versions and most older versions), Street and Trips, and in generic form for use with any program that can import a text or CSV file.

 

[joelmyer]

OK, I also went to the Discovery site and found that the databases were not in Garmin format.



Paul

The Garmin file is at the bottom of this page: http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfolinks.htm

Thanks for the tip on the POI Lownloader.  I didn't know about that and have been unsuccessful in converting.

 

[pjweimer]

The Garmin file is at the bottom of this page: http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfolinks.htm

Joel... I took a look at the files in the Waypoint.zip file and it looks to me that they would require more manipulating. If you download the POI Downloader from Garmin go to the Help screens and you will see the required format. The data lines in the files from waypoint.zip has lines in the beginning with other data data in them and the compass points, i.e., N and W, are in the data lines. POI Downloaded wants the text string to look like "38.25454,-95.66421,WalMart" for example in a file named "dump.csv", or whatever, but a "csv" file extension is also required. From line 1 to the last line in the csv file to be sumitted to POI Downloader needs to have that format I think. At least that is what worked for me.

Good luck

 

[joelmyer]

Joel... I took a look at the files in the Waypoint.zip file and it looks to me that they would require more manipulating.

Paul,

Try Mapsource.zip, I downloaded, unzipped and opened in Map Source with no problems. They are gdb files directly digestable by MS.

I haven't played with POI Dowloader yet.

Joel

 

[Alaskansnowbirds]

Previously I downloaded from the Garmin site their POI Downloader.

Paul

Paul,

I can't find the POI Downloader on the Garmin site. Do they call it something else. I did a search of the site for POI downloader and came back with zero hits. Do you have a URL for the download page?

Thanks

 

[Ned]

It's called POI Loader and is only available for selected models.  Not the 2620 unfortunately   You can read all about it and see the supported models at http://www.garmin.com/products/poiloader/.