With Proximity Alarms enabled, the handheld will make an audible tone and display a visual alert when you are within a predefined proximity of a specific Point of Interest (POI).

The information below will go over these alarms in detail.

Creating Proximity Alarms on an Outdoor Device

Proximity Alarms can be created for any POIs on an outdoor device using the Proximity Alarms App accessible from the Main Menu. The proximity of a waypoint can also be set by editing the waypoint through Waypoint Manager.

From Proximity Alarms App

Select Proximity Alarms from Main Menu
Select Create Alarm
Select a category
Select a POI
Select Use
Enter Radius in Miles
Note: Units are determined by system settings
Select Done

From Waypoint Manager

Select Waypoint Manager from Main Menu
Select a Waypoint
Press Menu
Select Set Proximity
Enter Radius in Miles
Note: Units are determined by system settings
Select Done

After a Proximity Alarm has been created for a POI, a circle is inscribed around the point on the map according to the radius setting.

Visual Example of Proximity Circle on Map

Image of POI Proximity Radius Circle on Map

Visual Example of Proximity Alarm Ringing

Image of Proximity Alarm Ringing

Note: On Garmin Outdoor devices, the Proximity Alarm will only alert if the moving speed of the device is above 5 MPH. Approaching and Leaving Alarms will still alert when moving below 5 MPH.

What are Approaching and Leaving Alarms?

Approaching and Leaving Alarms produce alerts on the device when entering and leaving the proximity area of a POI.

The distance when Approaching and Leaving Alarms are triggered is determined by the Proximity Radius setting of the Proximity Alarm.

Example: If the proximity radius for a waypoint is set to 300 feet, the Approaching Alarm will ring when your GPS position is within 300 feet of the waypoint. If you were to continue moving toward and past the waypoint until you reach the opposite side of the proximity radius, the Leaving Alarm will ring when you move more than 300 feet beyond the waypoint.

Visual Example of Approaching Alarm

Image of Approaching Alarm Near Proximity Point on Map

Visual Example of Leaving Alarm

Image of Leaving Alarm Proximity Point on Map

What is an Upcoming Speed Alarm?

An Upcoming Speed Alarm produces an alert when when the moving speed of the device exceeds the predefined speed for the alarm while within the proximity of the POI.

To get speed alerts, Custom POIs containing speed data should first be added to the device using Garmin POI Loader. Speed data is added to a Custom POI by including the speed number in the name of the individual POI file preceded by the "@" symbol.

Example: To create a speed alert for a POI named "SpeedTest" with a speed of 20 MPH, the location file should be named SpeedTest@20. When approaching this point of interest, the device would alert you that the speed limit is 20 MPH if you are moving faster than 20 MPH.

Visual Example of Custom POI with Speed Created in BaseCamp

Image of Speed Test POI 20 MPH BaseCamp

Note: Upcoming Speed Alarms on outdoor devices are only triggered when the device is moving faster than the predefined speed of the POI. If you are moving slower than the speed set for the POI, the Upcoming Speed Alarm will not go off.

Creating Proximity Alarms with Custom POIs (Points of Interest)

Proximity Alarms can also be used on outdoor handhelds by sending Custom POIs with proximity data to the device with Garmin POI Loader. The basic process is as follows:

A location file is created in GPX format using Garmin BaseCamp
Garmin POI Loader is used to add proximity and other alert data to the location file
The newly created Custom POI is transferred to the Garmin Device containing the necessary data to trigger proximity alarms device

Beyond using BaseCamp, there are other methods of creating Custom POIs including creating POIs in a text file or spreadsheet but are generally considered to be for advanced users only.

For more information on working with Custom POIs, see Related Content.

Additional helpful information about creating Custom POIs can be found by clicking Help in the Garmin POI Loader software.

Note: Custom POIs containing proximity data do not produce the inscribed circle on the map of the Garmin device by default. To produce a circle around the Custom POI on the map, the POI should first be saved as a waypoint then edited to include a Proximity Radius.