Proximity Alarm

General talk
1

Hello peolpe,

I’ve trying to generate “Proximity Alarms” for Gamin devices for a long time and I couldn’t make it yet. I have the “.gpi” file which is read by my “Garmin nüvi 265w” but the alarm doesn’t work. I mean, when I pass trough the point where the POI is, no sound at all.

I wrote an entry in my diary, but I will reproduce the steps here because I think this is the correct place and I will delete that entry (http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Humitos/diary/37869):

  1. Download the data

    wget -c http://download.geofabrik.de/south-america/ecuador-latest.osm.bz2

  2. Uncompress the file

    bunzip ecuador-latest.osm.bz2

  3. Filter data to get only “traffic_calming=bump” (that’s what I’m interested in now):

    osmfilter ecuador-latest.osm --keep= --keep-nodes=“traffic_calming=bump” > ecuador-traffic_calming.osm

  4. Create “Proximity Alert” using GPSBabel:

    gpsbabel -i osm -f ecuador-traffic_calming.osm -o garmin_gpi,category=“Bumps”,alerts=1,proximity=500m -F ecuador-traffic_calming.gpi

  5. Copy this file into my Garmin device. It recognizes my file but when I pass trough the POIs it doesn’t generate the sound alarm.

Do you know what I’m doing wrong?

In fact, when I go to “Destiny → Extras → Custom POI → Bumps → osm-id -3999” (*) I can see on its description it says: “Alert information: Distance:0.5 km” which is correct but it doesn’t produce the sound.

Thanks a lot!

(*) it could be different, I translated to English from my Spanish device :smiley:

PS: in case you are interested in, I’m generating weekly maps for Perú (and Ecuador in the following months) here: http://argentinaenpython.com.ar/mapas-de-openstreetmap-para-garmin/

2

The issue is specific with the “garmin_gpi” file format from GPSBabel (I’m using v1.4.3); I tried by creating the “.gpi” file in another way and it just works. Let me explain a little more. Following these steps I can get Visual and Audio alarm in my Garmin device:

  1. Open JOSM in the area where you want to be alarmed

  2. Create some “traffic_calming=bump” points over some roads

  3. Save the file as “.osm”

  4. Convert the file to “.gpx” using GPSBabel

    gpsbabel -i osm -f traffic_calming.osm -o gpx -F traffic_calming.gpx

  5. Rename it with the suffix to “_speed_15” to be recognized by POILoader (official software from Garmin)

    mv traffic_calming.gpx traffic_calming_speed_15.gpx

  6. Open POILoader and load this file

  7. Copy this file into “POI” folder from your SD card used in the Garmin

  8. Simulate a route in your Garmin that goes through that point and you will be alerted

Thanks. I will keep researching. Please, if you have a hint let me know.