Tomtomgo How?excel to OV2

Andybecky · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 20, 2005 Posts: 8

I want to type in my own co-ordinates with a name and load into POI on Tomtomgo? I have managed to get the speed cams etc into tomtom but the speed cam database gives me a Bitmap and excel file and an OV2 file. I cannot open the OV2 files? Heeeeelp!!!
Andy

BoPeep · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 8:39 pm Post subject:

Hi Andy,

Make sure you have got a program like WinOV2 on your PC as you will need this to open .ov2 files and convert between .ov2 and .asc format.

Regards,

Bo Peep.
_________________
TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe)

Andybecky · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 20, 2005 Posts: 8

asc format? is that what excel does? thought it was xls?
all the files downloaded for tomtomgo were just an OV2 and BMP
but the gatso and other cameras were the above 2 PLUS and excel file?
Why is this?

Andy

BoPeep · Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 7:27 am Post subject:

Hi Andy,

First of all, don't panic. Thumbs Up

Secondly, let me say that I have no experience of TomTom GO as I use TomTom Navigator on a 2210 PDA. The information that I am about to give you about file types and their extensions is obviously standard across any system, but when it comes to what files you will need on your device, I am slightly less sure as I am working from my experience with an iPAQ 2210. If I am wrong, I'm sure that someone will step in and correct me. :-)

The Excel spreadsheet forms the basis for any POI, as this is where you put the information that you need - i.e. name of the camera, longitude and latitude. You do not need to put this in your TomTom GO, it is just part of the POI that can stay on your desktop PC and can be used for reference.

An .asc file is usually the middle stage of the POI. When you have gathered all of the required information and laid it out in Excel, you then copy and paste it into an .asc file (which can then be opened in Notepad) as this is the file which is read by the POI converter program. Basically, an .asc file is used to put all the information from your Excel spreadsheet into a format that a POI converter program will understand.

When you open an .asc file with a POI converter program such as WinOV2, it reads this information and converts it into a .ov2 file, which is your POI file containing all the data that will be read by and displayed on your GPS system. During this converstion, WinOV2 also creates a bitmap file for each POI. Don't worry about the .asc as this won't be included in any POI's that you download.

The reason that your other POI's only had the two files (.ov2 and .bmp) is simply because people who submit POI's to this website don't usually include their Excel spreadsheet as there is no need for it. The PGPSW database does, which is useful, but you don't need to worry about it unless you have a query with the accuracy of the data included in it.

The only files you need to transfer across to your GPS system are the .ov2 file and the .bmp file. (** This is the case with TomTom Navigator, but please check if it doesn't sound like this is the case for TomTom GO. **)

If you have any more questions just ask, but have a read of my Sticky Guide to Creating A POI in the POI-Sync forum as it may help you if you require any more information on file types, etc.

Hope all this helps. Thumbs Up

Regards,

Bo Peep.
_________________
TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe)

Andybecky · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 20, 2005 Posts: 8

Thank you so much for your efforts in typing out all the info, it is so much appreciated.
I put 3 lots of made up co-ordinates in excel and dragged it over the MAKEOV2 box and out popped my OV2 file! Smile

I opened a BMP and altered it to a rubbish BMP and saved with same file name, copies them both on tomtomgo SD card and it WORKS! 8O :D

So easy when you know how, thank you thank you thank you very much.
Made my day now! Never thought I would manage to do it.

endless possabilities now! Off to find prog or formula to put in excel now to convert OSGB to decimal long lat or something!!! Won`t hold my breath!

Thanks again, Andy

BoPeep · Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 5:09 pm Post subject:

Hi Andy,

Always pleased to be able to help. Thumbs Up

Regards,

Bo Peep.
_________________
TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe)

Oldboy · Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 4:42 pm Post subject:

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