Laptop GPS World

Customs colours actually makes it more difficult because S&T assigns the colours it wants while importing. For the red and purple it assigns two colours depending if it is clicked on or not. I had to do a double scan for the two reds and two purples. To lessen the load on the CPU I assigned the POI Scanner to scan every seventh pixel. I made sure each flag has two seven pixels strings in them to be sure it isn't missed on the first try. When changing to night mode, again S&T sometimes modifies the custom colours. I was able to find two super colours that aren't modified ( the light yellow and orange). I had much trouble with aqua and green. The aqua was even assigned different colours between 2006 and 2008 in night mode.

I'll post a revised version tonight with an increased Sleep time and I'll assign the default distance to 250 meters instead of 500 meters. When a flag isn't used, setting it to 10 meters helps the CPU even more.

Yes, you absolutely need to use these new flags instead of the old ones (supplied by S&T). As long as they have been unzipped, you should be able to import them as custom pushpins from any folder.

Be sure to come back and get the next one I'll post tonight. It will be easier on the cpu usage.

edit: Below is the new one. I didn't change the number since only two persons downloaded the previous one.

toyfountain - downloaded latest version, imported custom symbols, tested(at desk) - everyhing works fine - i'll be taking it on the road in the next few days - i'll give it a good "real world" test and let you know how your "baby" works - thanks again for all your & marvins efforts - ray

I have a few custom push pins. Marvin made me think about this possibility.

With all of these you'll need the revised version 1.4.1 because I had to reduce the number of skipped pixels from 7 to 3 with these. 7 pixels with the flags is fine, but not with these. Sometimes it missed the push pins, so I reduced it. It should make the scanning of a large area a little slower, but not by very much.

Version 1.4.1 is needed with these custom pushpins.
They will not work with version 1.4.0

a few more

Version 1.4.1 is needed with these custom pushpins.
They will not work with version 1.4.0

Last for now



Different coloured frames around the police car sound off differently, same for the lights.

Version 1.4.1 is needed with these custom pushpins.
They will not work with version 1.4.0

Attached Images

pushpins.jpg (38.8 KB, 105 views)

POI Scanner 1.4.1 + all the custom pushpins

The revised version with a setting of 3 skipped pixels at a time for the scan.

I've included all the custom pushpins with the zip file.
When there are four of the same, choosing the name of the color will sound off differently.

For example

police car_red.bmp will play the ding.wav
police car_purple.bmp will play the chimes.wav
police car_yellow.bmp will play the notify.wav
police car_orange.bmp will play the chord.wav

Attached Images

custom pushpins.jpg (31.0 KB, 103 views)

POI Scanner 1.4.11 + all the custom pushpins

New settings are available in the version to accelerate the pixels scans.


A setting of 1 is the most reliable, but the slowest and the most CPU intensive. Some of the custom push pins I have created are reliable with a setting of up to 10 skipped pixels. The small red lights are up to 3 only. The colored pixel strings are only 4 pixels in length. If you wish to virtually turn off a color, you can set the skipped pixels to 20 with a scan area of 10 meters. This should reduce the chance of a warning sounding off to almost nothing since sometimes the area is smaller than 20 pixels in low zoom levels.


I've included all the custom push pins with the zip file. Added four new police cars. I've also tweaked them to be used with the new pixel search settings.
When there are four of the same, choosing the name of the color will sound off differently.

For example:
police car_red.bmp will play the ding.wav
police car_purple.bmp will play the chimes.wav
police car_yellow.bmp will play the notify.wav
police car_orange.bmp will play the chord.wav

Attached Images

settings.jpg (54.3 KB, 99 views)

POI Scanner 1.4.12 + even more custom pushpins

This version should fix a small bug that happenned when inserting a maroon tack (in effect the GPS icon) in the map with the zoom level below 50. At least that's the hope.

I'd like to know if anyone would like to be able to select their own wave file or MP3 files for the POI Scanner? To have speech files played instead of a beep, tada or chimes wave file. It is possible to make it, but if everyone is OK with the way it is, I might leave it like it is for a while.

toyfounatin - thanks for the reply - i now have a much better understanding of how the process works - as to adding the ability to play audio files related to custom symbols, i don't know about other users but i would probably never have enough symbols active at one time to cause me any confusion - however i have noticed that some user's like having things "verbalized" by the system - thanks again - hrp41

I've finally isolated my laptop problem and should become mobile again soon once I receive the part I need. I'll be able to try and replicate the problems on the road and see what tweaking the program needs.

I've tested the POI Scanner on the road for the first time today. I used the four flags for the pushpins and a skippixels setting of 1. They worked well, as expected. The only surprise was at 10 meters. It really is a virtual off switch. Just driving in by it didn't detect. From 250 meters to 2000 meters it worked well.

toyfountain, would you please test the following:

* Open new map (w/out any pushpins)
* Don't add any pushpins
* In Streets & Trips, go to Find Nearby Places => Add/Remove Places, and then select all possible POIs
* Set POI Scanner to its default settings
* Set your destination, and drive with your usual settings
* Observe for any false warnings (I get them in both full-screen mode, and windowed mode)

__________________
Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics

Marvin, are you getting more than one kind of alert or just the ding,ding,ding alert (for red)?

I just noticed the map's red POI changed color depending on the zoom level.
When they are little squares the code is FF0000, they change to FF0033 when they are full size on the map. FF0033 is one of the colors that is scanned. In the legends and overview menu, they remain FF0000 even at full size. It looks like I'll have to find another red or different color altogheter.

Disable the red scan by setting it at 10 meters or better yet, remove all the red POIs and see if it still declares false warnings.