Cellhunter/OpenBmap

[Onen]

Hi,

very nice work! Thanks for taking the time of doing this.

Christian Gagneraud wrote:
> For OBM logger to be compatible with CH database, there's very few 
> data that need to be added to the OBM logger:
> - provider: the network operator, as reported by fso.GSM.Network.g 
> getStatus() or Status() signal

Would not be too difficult ;-)

> - arfcn: current channel number, as reported by 
> fso.GSM.Monitor.Get{Serving,Neighbour}CellInformation()

This will be in next version.

> And only one data is expressed in a different unit:
> - signal strength: OBM use dBm and CH use a scale as per %EM AT command 

The dBm is a direct formula out of the GSM spec. So you should be able 
to go from one to the other very easily.

> So finally, it would be ideal to enhance slightly the OBM logger, this 
> way it will be universal in regards to the 3 databases. And this will 
> give the user the complete freedom to upload his data to whatever 
> database he wants (for example i would like to upload data to CH 
> server for the fun and still contribute to OBM because i'm convinced 
> of the higher quality of their data).
> 

Well and what if cellhunter changes his API, and or the data it uploads? 
I fear having to follow every move of cellhunter to catch up with his 
modifications. In the end my app will be tagged as unstable/not working 
every time it does not succeed in uploading to ch.

Cellhunter does have rules for the game (uploaded online, offline, maybe 
depends of data) which leads to the number of points you get. I wonder 
if you would get all the points you should, with an obm (fairly) 
compatible logger.

Well if somebody feels like maintaining such a mechanism, he can get in 
touch with me.

> Some personal remarks (a bit OT):
> - It's a pity that CH use signal strength in GSM scale, FSO use 
> percent and OBM dBm. There's lot of wasted CPU (and battery) around...
> 

I try to think about cpu usage when building my application. But to be 
honest, once I talked with someone about this, and he made a good point:
this is absolutely nothing in comparison of using python instead of C, 
vala, etc.

Onen