mitiper

Update March 1, 06

Now it is not limited to Tomtom. but also Garmin, OCN, and mapopolis...

Now web version is 80% close to complete. And tomtom format can display the "call number" directly in tomtom now. I only tested it with tomtom since that is the only thing I have now. Please let me know if you have problems with other formats.


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Hi, I have writen a small utility that can automatically do google local search and generate personal POI for TomTom, Garmin (and others).

You can get more info from here:
http://www.poi2go.com/mypoi/

Added Feb 24th.
A web version is also implemented so you need not install anything and can get those POIs directly using PDA (with internet connection) when you on the road. (Isn't it cool?) .
Check it at:
http://www.poi2go.com/poi2go/


A short introduction:
Why do I want to use Poi2Go.com?

* You found that TomTom (and others)'s POI list is incomplete. For instance, I can not find chain stores like "best buy", "walmart" are listed. And you want to add new or personalalized POIs (around your local area or the place you are going to visit) into your GPS software.
* You are traveling to a new city and want to find out all good restaurants around, but the default POI of your GPS software is limited. So, you find a "wifi-spot", connecting to the internet, search and download "on the fly" POIs into your GPS software. Isn't that cool?
* Unique features: "phone number", and "people's ratings of the local restaurants" in your GPS Navigator. Represented as R(AverageRating/Total Reviewers). Isn't it very useful when you travel to a new city and want to find a place for dinner?
* A lot of others reasons... Perhaps you have one, too. ..

Let me know if you think it is helpful :)

Enjoy.

matthewp

Ooh, I'll try this out when I get home tonight. I don't have TomTom, but I've wanted to try another program -- POI Converter -- for some time now, see here:

http://rjdavies.users.btopenworld.co...converter.html

I just never had a good reason to try it until you came up with your cool-looking utility.

POI Converter should convert the TomTom POIs into other formats and might let others use your utility for several GPS mapping solutions. Mapopolis, for example, also allows you to import POIs in the form of maplets.

mitiper

The reason I write this one instead of using others (such as poiedit) is that I want to easily create any POIs I want from "google local search".. such as all "pizza" around my area or "best buy" around my area ..etc.,

It is really much more convinient and faster. Try it and you will understand what I mean..

Thanks

Originally Posted by matthewp

Ooh, I'll try this out when I get home tonight. I don't have TomTom, but I've wanted to try another program -- POI Converter -- for some time now, see here: http://rjdavies.users.btopenworld.co...converter.html I just never had a good reason to try it until you came up with your cool-looking utility. POI Converter should convert the TomTom POIs into other formats and might let others use your utility for several GPS mapping solutions. Mapopolis, for example, also allows you to import POIs in the form of maplets.

matthewp

Oh, yes, I understand exactly what you mean. The other programs that I linked will not accomplish the same task as your utility and are, therefore, not duplication. Until your utility, I knew no way to get a mass of customized data (like all the pizza places in a 30 mile radius) into a POI format unless somebody else already created it.

See, I don't use TomTom. What I'm suggesting is that maybe (I have to try it out later) I can (1) create a list of TomTom POIs using your utility, (2) use the resulting file and POI Converter to convert the file into a maplet, which I can use in my GPS Mapping program (Mapopolis).

The whole thing doesn't work unless you use MyPOI to gather and format the data in the first place.

raylo

Generating a MYPOI list from Yahoo and then converting it to one's nav s/w via POI Converter format sounds like a cool way to make custom POI lists. But from looking at the POI Converter website I gather that it doesn's support OCN POI format. :-(

Originally Posted by matthewp

Oh, yes, I understand exactly what you mean. The other programs that I linked will not accomplish the same task as your utility and are, therefore, not duplication. Until your utility, I knew no way to get a mass of customized data (like all the pizza places in a 30 mile radius) into a POI format unless somebody else already created it. See, I don't use TomTom. What I'm suggesting is that maybe (I have to try it out later) I can (1) create a list of TomTom POIs using your utility, (2) use the resulting file and POI Converter to convert the file into a maplet, which I can use in my GPS Mapping program (Mapopolis). The whole thing doesn't work unless you use MyPOI to gather and format the data in the first place.

mitiper

Do you have the data format of mapoloplis?
If you can point me to its data format, i can make one format for you pretty easily.

matthewp

Originally Posted by raylo

Generating a MYPOI list from Yahoo and then converting it to one's nav s/w via POI Converter format sounds like a cool way to make custom POI lists. But from looking at the POI Converter website I gather that it doesn's support OCN POI format. :-(

Well, I don't have any experience with OCN, however, it does look like it is possible to convert TomTom POIs to OCN using the tool described in this thread (look at the reply on 5/13):


http://www.oncoursenavigator.com/for...aspx?f=16&m=21

It looks like you can get the front-end .ov2 file using mitiper's utility.

matthewp

I don't have the data format for Mapopolis. I searched a bit last night, but I couldnt' find anything. I saw that you were working on Mapopolis support at gpspassion.com, and that would be great. In the interim, here is what I did:

- Download MyPOI, of course.
- Launch MyPOI and created my query. As an example, I searched on Best Buy. MyPOI returned about 25 results (don't remember for sure) in the Pittsburgh area. Nine of these were actually Best Buy stores, and it was easy to delete the non-relevant results in the MyPOI window.
- Save the results to TomTom format.
- I deleted the .bmp file because Mapoplis doesn't use it.
- I used POIConverter (link above) to open the .ov2 file.
- Using POIConverter again, I saved the file to Mapopolis .mlp format.
- I copied the .mlp file to my Pocket PC and loaded the maplet file in Mapopolis.

Now, this did place the POIs on the map and in the correct location at least for the Best Buys that I'm familiar with. However, the POI names were in a format that was something like BESTBUALI. Not sure exactly what it said, but there is a Best Buy on Alicia Drive here, so the derivation is apparent. This is not completely desirable, however, because Mapopolis' search function won't reliably find these results unless you always know to search on "BESTBU."

So, I tried it a little differen way:

- Create the .ov2 file using MyPOI.
- Open the .ov2 file in another program: EasyGPS, see link here:(http://www.easygps.com/default.asp)
- In EasyGPS, you can edit the individual waypoints. For Best Buy, I changed the waypoint name in each case from BESTBUALI to Best Buy.
- Save the resulting file in .gpx format.
- Use the gpxtomaplet program to convert the program to a maplet .mlp file. Using gpxtomaplet is an additional benefit because it allows you to choose the icon you'd like to use. Find gpxtomaplet here:
http://www.kudzumonthly.com/mapopolis/
- Copy the .mlp over to the PocketPC and load it up in Mapopolis.

This makes each POI appear as a Best Buy and enhances the searchability.

This process is easy if you have only a few dozen or so POIs, however, it would be cumbersome for the over 1,000 pizza hits that I had in a 30 mile radius of my house. Nonetheless, you can still easily dump the pizza places in using the first methodology that I described. It just isn't as pretty, but it is functional.

I'll be spending some time this weekend creating all kinds of new POIs, as this utility is great!

Thank-you for putting the time into creating MyPOI.

matthewp

Oh, I forgot. MyPOI also brings in the telephone number for each POI. Mapopolis' default POI set also includes telephone numbers and this is a feature I have always loved.

mitiper

:) It also brings in other people's rating on the restraunt you searched,
Check the features at:
For web version (poi2go):
http://www.poi2go.com/poi2go/

For application version (mypoi)
http://www.poi2go.com/mypoi


And Garmin CVS format is added. I am going to work on mapopolis format now.

thanks for your feedback!

Originally Posted by matthewp

Oh, I forgot. MyPOI also brings in the telephone number for each POI. Mapopolis' default POI set also includes telephone numbers and this is a feature I have always loved.

brobinson

There is a program call GPXtoMaplet that may give you some insight into the Mapopolis format. I use Mapopolis and would really like to be able to download POI's without having to do a bunch of conversions.

brobinson

I just went back to your site and see that you have added GPX in the last few hours. Did a query, downloaded the GPX file and ran it through GPXtoMaplet and it worked perfectly.

Thanks for the great utility!

raylo

Thanks, Matt. I'll give this a try!

Originally Posted by matthewp

Well, I don't have any experience with OCN, however, it does look like it is possible to convert TomTom POIs to OCN using the tool described in this thread (look at the reply on 5/13): http://www.oncoursenavigator.com/for...aspx?f=16&m=21 It looks like you can get the front-end .ov2 file using mitiper's utility.

raylo

Well, it looks like this might be possible but after going around in circles for awhile on the Navifriends German website all I can determine is I need to download 2 programs: (1) POI configurator and (2) POI Observer. But for the life of me I can't find the place to actually download these apps. All the links I click on just seem to jump to other threads on the Navifriends website and they are in German so aren't very helpful. Has anyone found and downloaded these 2 apps to enable adding POIs to OPCN5? Can you point me to the correct link?

Originally Posted by matthewp

Well, I don't have any experience with OCN, however, it does look like it is possible to convert TomTom POIs to OCN using the tool described in this thread (look at the reply on 5/13): http://www.oncoursenavigator.com/for...aspx?f=16&m=21 It looks like you can get the front-end .ov2 file using mitiper's utility.

matthewp

raylo,

Go check the POI2GO website as it now has direct output to OCN. Also, look at the following post in the forums:

http://www.poi2go.com:8080/jforum3/posts/list/35.page