Sorry for the dumb question

[Lewinskys]

I recently have stumbled onto this website while looking for other unrelated info.
I am a CPAP user, 4 1/2 years now. 
I see this forum filled with info, questions, upgrades, that are being talked about in all these threads.

I go to bed, slip on the mask and go to sleep, I've never thought about the machine at all.
My ResMed A10 provides the air pressure and that is about all that I interact with it.


What are these "OTHER FEATURES" that people are trying to get with updates, and software hacks, etc.?
I am intrigued with the hacking of these machines, but not understanding why?
I know there is an SDCard slot on the side, probably it collects the same info that gets emailed to me, which I don't normally look at.
But as long as I wake up alive, then the machine is good. yes/no?

Can some one give me a low down on features, benefits or what ever these hacks would give me, and how do they help?

[LoudSnorer]

no question is stupid.

The purpose of the ApneaBoard is to to empower Sleep Apnea patients.
ApneaBoard hosts a software package OSCAR which analyze the data from common sleep apnea devices.

[staceyburke]

All resmed machines are the same hardware.  So we have the capability of a bipap, vauto, or any other machine that ResMed makes.  The difference is the software in the different models.  The normal cpap that ResMed sells is the lowest price and the more advanced software in the different machines cost as much as 2 or 3X the cost of the CPAP.  With that being said to try and hack the machine to me is not a good practice.  First it could turn it into a brick that is not usable and it is a type of theft.

2nd part is that the SD card has all of the info of each night of sleep.  The DME and probably the Dr only want to know 2 things.  If you have used it at least 4 hours per day (they don't even know if you were asleep or not) and if you AHI is less than 5 and with that they say you are doing fine.  Many people who have less than 5 AHI are not doing fine.  If you look through the posts you can see many many people who have AHI under 5 looking for help.  That is where OSCAR comes in.  It is totally free to download and use.  You can put up your charts and ask for any type of help to make pap therapy better for you.