After a bunch of investigation, learning curves and some frustrating moments I have finally figured this out. Being in sales I spend most of my days on the road from one end of the province to the other. I wanted to get all my customers loaded into my nav but there was no way in hell I was going to upload 135 addresses manually. So I set out to see if I could upload POI's to the 430 from a memory stick. Low and behold you can!!!
First you need to create a list of points of interest. I found numerous websites that offer this service for a fee, and found a few that will let you create lists but only up to a total of 50 points. Upon further investigation I found that you can actually create these lists in excel, save it as a .csv format then use Garmins own POI Uploader tool to do the conversion for you.
This is the website I use for creating POI's
http://www.poigenie.co.uk/poi_creator
I transfer the data from here to my excel spreadsheet.
This takes a little bit of effort to create the list and manually look up the lat. and long. but for me it was well worth the effort. Next save as a .csv or comma separated value.
Next download and install Garmins POI Loader software.
http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99999-12
Follow these instructions for naming and saving your custom POI's.
Step 1 - Download a POI database file from the web or create your own
Step 2 – Using POI Loader from Garmin (Garmin: POI Loader) create the POI.gpi file from the database file you have gotten from the web or created
Step 3 – Save the POI.gpi file to your computer as a file
Step 4 – You will now need a USB Stick to load the custom POI to so that it can be loaded to the vehicle system. Create a folder on a blank USB stick entitled Garmin, example; if your USB Stick is listed as drive D by your computer, then the folder would be D:\Garmin
Step 5 – Create a folder within the Garmin folder named Poi, example; if your USB Stick is listed as drive D by your computer, then the folder would be D:\Garmin\Poi
Step 6 – Copy the POI.gpi file to the Garmin\Poi folder on the USB Stick, example; if your USB Stick is listed as drive D by your computer, then the file location would be D:\Garmin\Poi\POI.gpi
Step 7 – Insert the USB Stick to the radio and the Garmin navigation application will display a message that the custom POIs are ready to be copied, select yes.
Step 8 – To view the custom POI list select WhereTo, Extras, Custom POIs and you will see the list.
Here is what the upload process looks like on our 430N.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBRg8y5GF_o
It's very simple once you get started, I'm looking into what else we can load into the Garmin system/manipulate data that is already there. As I learn more I'll post details.
If anyone has any questions shoot me a pm with your contact details and I'll be happy to help out.
Thanks to testdummy over at jeepforums for posting the Garmin instructions.
First you need to create a list of points of interest. I found numerous websites that offer this service for a fee, and found a few that will let you create lists but only up to a total of 50 points. Upon further investigation I found that you can actually create these lists in excel, save it as a .csv format then use Garmins own POI Uploader tool to do the conversion for you.
This is the website I use for creating POI's
http://www.poigenie.co.uk/poi_creator
I transfer the data from here to my excel spreadsheet.
This takes a little bit of effort to create the list and manually look up the lat. and long. but for me it was well worth the effort. Next save as a .csv or comma separated value.
Next download and install Garmins POI Loader software.
http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99999-12
Follow these instructions for naming and saving your custom POI's.
Step 1 - Download a POI database file from the web or create your own
Step 2 – Using POI Loader from Garmin (Garmin: POI Loader) create the POI.gpi file from the database file you have gotten from the web or created
Step 3 – Save the POI.gpi file to your computer as a file
Step 4 – You will now need a USB Stick to load the custom POI to so that it can be loaded to the vehicle system. Create a folder on a blank USB stick entitled Garmin, example; if your USB Stick is listed as drive D by your computer, then the folder would be D:\Garmin
Step 5 – Create a folder within the Garmin folder named Poi, example; if your USB Stick is listed as drive D by your computer, then the folder would be D:\Garmin\Poi
Step 6 – Copy the POI.gpi file to the Garmin\Poi folder on the USB Stick, example; if your USB Stick is listed as drive D by your computer, then the file location would be D:\Garmin\Poi\POI.gpi
Step 7 – Insert the USB Stick to the radio and the Garmin navigation application will display a message that the custom POIs are ready to be copied, select yes.
Step 8 – To view the custom POI list select WhereTo, Extras, Custom POIs and you will see the list.
Here is what the upload process looks like on our 430N.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBRg8y5GF_o
It's very simple once you get started, I'm looking into what else we can load into the Garmin system/manipulate data that is already there. As I learn more I'll post details.
If anyone has any questions shoot me a pm with your contact details and I'll be happy to help out.
Thanks to testdummy over at jeepforums for posting the Garmin instructions.