Module: P.O.I.s

Customize your maps with numerous Points Of Interests from cities, airport, air navigation to custom ones.

GPS Pilot allows to import/export POIs from different sources:

1. On PDA device, create your own POIs books: request addresses location from web servers, capture locations while traveling, get locations through maps display,…
    
2. Upload FREE predefined databases such as world airports, US airports & runways, US cities, US navaid & frequencies (vor, ndb, ...) .
   Or, get up-to-date (updated every 28 days) U.S aviation waypoint databases from FAA and the Digitial Aviation Flight Information File, and some other countries, with GPS Pilot waypoints database generator.
    
3. Or reuse personal or external location database with Topographer. Our GPS Pilot POIs Management allows import/export way points data between hand held devices and work station.
   

POI details

A POI is defined by its category, its database name, a long name, a short name or label (8 characters max), its altitude, latitude, longitude, and its magnetic variation.

Two free zones enable to personalize a POI:

• A writing note area for textual input
• and the imaging area to enter hand-free comments
  Sony users can also link a png image here. Click on the thumbnail picture to get a full screen image, click on it, to go back to the POI screen.

The category of a POI determines its type on map display. There are four predefined categories: Landmarks, Airports, Cities, and Navaids (also called radio beacon).

The Airport category is special.
The airport label corresponds to its identifier, and the drawing area contains a map representing the runways location and name. This map is automatically created by the system, and only valid with US airports from the FREE predefined databases.
You can then create new airport POI, but no drawing is allowed on a airport POI.
 

POIs on maps

POIs are available by superimposition on maps to allow easy visual scanning of POIs that are in close proximity. The menu Option-Preferences allows to define map's display preferences such as no POIs superimposed, only POIs specific types, POIs label or icons, etc…

Selecting a POI icon on the map will bring up the POI contextual pop up menu that lists its label and other functions:

• The POI's label option enables to display the POI details screen
• The Center on option moves the POI to the center of the screen and re-centers the map around it.
  If the current POI is already in the center, you get the list of POIs.
• The Set to option sets the POI as the destination point in the navigational information panel. (available within the Tracking and Flying modules).
   

POIs list

POIs are also available on textual list form via the Center on option of the map's center popup menu.

The list of POIs are sorted by databases and then by longitude coordinates.

To search for a POI, first select its database by choosing it in the top right corner list. This list represents all the databases installed on your Palm device.

Then, either look up through the entire list - up/down buttons will scroll through the list-, or as the list of POIs within a database can be very large, enter part of the name or label, and click on the find button.

From the list of POIs, you have access to the menu Option List-Import that allows you to import directly on your PDA, POIs described in an ASCII format in POIs databases.

The POIs must be in the same ASCII format as described below and must be stored on external memory under the /GPSpilot/Points/ directory.

Apply the menu bar option List-Import and select the POIs file name and also the database category in which you want to transfer the new POIs.

POIs file format

Each line describes a POI record following this format :

Lat, Long, Alt, Variation, Date and Time

Lat is the Latitude of the track point in degrees with decimals format : dd.ddddd

Long is the Latitude of the track point in degrees with decimals format : dd.ddddd

Alt is the Altitude described in feet or meters

Variation is the magnetic variation degrees, positive for East negative for West. North / East is positive, South / West is negative

Date and Time and universal format and are readable by any spreadsheet.

Now, tracks Points from Tracker or TripPilot can be exported using the export function and be reused as regular POIs in any GPS Pilot application.

POI creation and edition

A new POI can be created by clicking the New button available via the List of POIs, or on maps view use the 4th hard key shortcut.

For easy creation, POI name is automatically initialized to time and date of creation, and geographic data, such as Latitude, Longitude, Variance and Altitude to the value of the map's center point. Note that if POI name and label fields are not entered, the POI is not created.

Geographic data, can be easily reset to your current GPS position, by clicking on the satellite icon. If no GPS is plugged in, the satellite icon is transformed into a cross icon and indicate the values of the map's center point. It is also possible to enter geographic value by hand.

POI database, for visual scanning on maps, is set through the drop down list available on the right top of the screen.

Textual comments can be input on the right hand side of the screen.

To access the imaging area to draw or link a image, apply the draw button.
 

POIs imaging area

On Sony Cliés, you will directly get access to the list of all png pictures that you took on your PDA. Select the appropriate one and click ok.

For other units, create your picture with the following tools: pen, eraser, rectangle and line.

For Airport POIs, the imaging area is not editable because the runways are vector data.

Beware that either the drawing or image picture will not appeared in the POI Edit screen, but will figure in the POI details screen.
 

POIs locating addresses

You can request addresses location from web servers, by creating or editing a POI and clicking on the “phone” icon.

Addresses can be entered from scratch or using addresses stored in your address book.

1. Enter a new address from scratch following the postal manner: You have 2 lines to enter your address following by the ISO country code (US, FR, etc...)
    
   [Number StreetName].......
   [City] [,State]........ [CountryCode]
   Note (1): to clear the Address field, tap on the "eraser" icon
   Note(2): [countryCode] follow the ISO standard. See between brackets in the available country list at the beginning of the document.
    
2. Get addresses directly from your address book
   Tap the “phone” icon and select the name-address entry you wish.
   Note: In the Phone book list, scroll and select the entry you wish. You can also enter (part of) the entry, and tap the “Find” button to restrict the list.
    

POIs management

To edit a POI, apply the menu Point-Edit.

To delete a POI, apply the menu Point-Delete. To delete a POIs database use a Palm file utility such as FileZ.

To backup POIs databases stored on RAM, apply the backup option within the preferences screen available via the menu Option-Preferences. Database stored on the Palm internal will be backed-up during the next Hot sync in the directory c:/Palm/<Palm user name>/backup/

To create a new POI database, select the New... options from the POIs databases dropdown list in the POI Edit screen. Then enter its name and its type. Another way to get a new category database is to download one of the specialized databases from our FREE predefined databases or from GPS Pilot waypoints database generator, or from Topographer.
 

GPS Pilot waypoints database generator

Get waypoint databases from FAA and the Digital Aviation Flight Information File sources (updated every 28 days) and converts them into a GPS Pilot Waypoint database. You can pick and choose the countries and/or states and provinces you want, and what types of waypoints and other information you want to include. Generate the database and load it onto your computer, and then use your hot sync utility to load it onto your PDA.

The generator attempts to put a cookie in your browser to remember the selections you make, so those selections will be selected the next time you come back with the same browser. If your browser is configured to reject cookies, you won't be able to take advantage of this feature.
 

Unit and display selection

To change POIs display preferences on maps use the menu Options-Preferences.
 

Hard key assignments

The PDA physical buttons are redefined as shortcut for GPS Pilot applications.

Hard Button 4, is the POI edition shortcut, Click once to create a POI, click another time to validate the creation.
 

Contextual help

A first-aid tutorial that answers to most common questions is available via the menu Option-Help.
 

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