Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn't OSCAR support [insert obscure/new device] yet?

Plenty of reasons.. Pick your favourite:

  • • Because the 5 people who own one can't supply enough data to see all possible event codes?
  • • Because it doesn't feature a flow waveform and would be boring?
  • • Because one unpaid developer can only hack, create, and maintain so many importers before they go insane?
  • • Because to get it right takes a really, really big number of developer man-hours that would be better spent on other parts of the program?
  • • Because the build quality perhaps is garbage and nobody should own one?
  • • Because nobody else is interested in helping hack the formats?
  • • Because I prefer hands on and rarely get to play with/hack on the hardware directly?
  • Why doesn't OSCAR let me generate compliance reports?

    Mainly, to avoid attracting the lawsuits that would inevitably come from offering this capability. Here are the primary reasons why I'm dead against it:

  • • It's far too easy to change the source code to fake compliance reports.
  • • Do you like the idea of sharing the road with truck drivers with an untreated sleep disorder who faked compliance data?
  • • Data Formats of CPAP machines in OSCAR had to be reverse engineered because manufacturers don't release documentation, and accuracy can't be guaranteed.
  • • To do it would require closing the sourcecode and establishing a relationship with manufacturers who have proven they care very little about data access rights.
  • This stuff is also the reason I never bothered hacking CPAP data Checksums... If they were public knowledge, people could alter SD data card content, which would not be cool.