PoiEdit Tutorials

Garmin PoiLoader tutorial

Preface

This tutorial explains how to setup PoiEdit and PoiLoader 2400 (currently in Beta) to AutoUpdate your Garmin Device. After you have setup PoiEdit and PoiLoader, you will only need to click AutoUpdate from PoiEdit and everything will run automatically!

Step 1

If you haven't already done this download and install PoiEdit. You can download PoiEdit from the PoiEdit download page. To install it just doubleclick the exe you've downloaded and follow the onscreen instructions.

Step 2

Install PoiLoader 2004 Beta, you can find the download on the Garmin Website: http://www.garmin.com/software/POILoader_2400Beta.exe. Doubleclick this exe after download and follow the onscreen instructions. Remember where you installed PoiLoader because you're gonna need this location in the next step.

Step 3

Setup PoiEdit. Start up PoiEdit and open the AutoUpdate Manager. Go to the settings tab and check the option "After AutoUpdate start this application". Right below you will find a text box where you need to enter the location of the PoiLoader application, which you can specify using the little button inside the text box on the right. You then need to find PoiLoader.exe, in the folder where you installed Garmin. Click Open to insert the PoiLoader.exe in the text box. In the parameters box add the following string: /silent

Example of the settings inside the AutoUpdate Manager:

Step 4

Setup the poi items you want to synchronize from the Sites tab of the AutoUpdate Manager. Use the "Local" button to let PoiEdit update the items to a local file folder on your computer. I suggest you create a folder specially for your Garmin files, because PoiLoader will want to process entire folders when it is doing it's magic. As the file type you enter "Garmin Comma Separated (*.csv)". Example:

Step 5

Starting the first update. Click the AutoUpdate button from the AutoUpdate Manager. PoiEdit will download your poi's to the specified directory and then run PoiLoader. The first time you do this, PoiLoader will display it's wizard screen where you need to setup where PoiLoader can find the files to transfer to the Garmin device.

In the first screen of PoiLoader you need to specify the Garmin device using the Find Device and Device dropdownlist (in my case you'll see an USB stick, because I don't have an actual Garmin device a hand:

Step 6

Next choose next...

Step 7

Now enter the directory where PoiEdit synchronizes your poi's, as entered in Step 4.

Step 8

When you click Next, PoiLoader will transfer the poi's from you computer and to your device, resulting in the following screen.

Setup completed

You have now succesfully setup PoiEdit and PoiLoader. The next time you do an AutoUpdate from PoiEdit, the PoiLoader Wizard wil not be shown, instead you will see the following message if the AutoUpdate has succeeded (note that PoiEdit will not download poi's and won't run PoiLoader if it detects that the online poi's have not been changed since your last update):