Garmin Nuvi 300

What is it?

It's a run-of-the-mill satellite navigation unit with no outstanding features whatsoever.

Why do you have a page for it then?

Because you can create your own custom points of interest (POIs) and upload them to the Nuvi. Using Garmin's POI Loader software, you can load the contents of a CSV file onto your GPS for easy access at a later date. There are a few pieces of software that will help you create a CSV file in the correct format, but I thought I would write another one - the snappily titled "ottaky.com Garmin POI CSV creator"

How do I use it?

It should be fairly obvious, but in case it's not, here are some pointers.

Click here to open the ottaky.com Garmin POI CSV creator in a new window or tab.

Type an address, location or postcode into the text box below the map and click on "lookup address". The POI creator will try to find the address using Google's geocoder API in the first instance and then fall back to Yahoo!'s API if Google fails to find anything (e.g., you try to lookup a full UK postcode which Google cannot find). Using Google and Yahoo! means that most searches will succeed providing you supply enough clues in the text box. N.B., the Yahoo! API is a little slow because I have to query it through a proxy script, so be patient.

When an address lookup is successful, the map will centre on the appropriate location. The marker indicates the centre of the map and corresponds to the values displayed against "Longitude" and "Latitude" below the address text box. You can double-click on the map to centre it and zoom in, or drag the map manually. The marker will continue to indicate the centre of the map for precise positioning.

When you've centred the map to your liking, click on "copy coords" to copy the latitude and longitude to the text boxes to the right of the map, type a name and click "save point".

Repeat as necessary.

When you're done, click "download CSV" to download the points to your PC so that you can use Garmin's POI loader to upload the file to your Nuvi.

You can upload the same file at a later date by clicking on the "upload CSV" button, add more points, delete or amend existing points, and then download the file again.

I've tested this in Firefox 2 in Linux, and IE 7 in XP and it seems to work fine. If it doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll see what I can do to fix the problem .. resources and time permitting.

NB:

• For full UK postcodes (e.g., KT7 0SR), removing the space gives a more accurate response from Yahoo!