BeaconDB has been a thing for a while now and there is a decent amount of data already… but ideally you’d want it to be reliable in as many places as possible.
You can also use it as your location provider with geoclue (default on heaps of Linux distros) and microG on Android which I find incredibly useful on my Laptop!
So please, if you have an Android phone, consider contributing. It literally takes seconds to set up and requires no account or API keys.
This section on the official website lists some awesome apps to use:
- user friendly app for easily submitting new coverage
- download on F-Droid or GitHub
- as of version 1.5.1, just click yes when prompted to set the endpoint to beaconDB
- for older versions: in Settings -> Endpoint -> Suggested services, select beaconDB to automatically apply the correct configuration
- long established app for collecting cell towers
- download on F-Droid or Google Play
- the latest versions of Tower Collector upload to beaconDB by default!
Network Survey new!
- robust tool for comprehensive local data collection
- download on F-Droid or Google Play
- on the main screen, under Upload to Database, open Upload Settings to enable submitting data to beaconDB
As a bonus, here are my current NeoStumbler stats after a few days of mapping here in the Frankfurt/Rhein-Main region in Germany :)
I’m doing my part for Vanuatu… Not sure if anyone will use it here, but I’m having fun!
I don’t understand what’s the purpose of this?
It’s a project to build a database of things that can be used to determine your location in the absence of GPS. E.g. if you know the locations of some wireless access points that your laptop can see, you can make an educated guess as to where you are. BeaconDB is a user contributed database of this information, to rival the closed services offered by commercial companies (like Google and Apple).
BeaconDB attempts to do all of this in a privacy preserving way.
This is important, thanks for sharing! I just installed NeoStumbler.
This is awesome. I tried WiGLE some years back and they wouldn’t let me pull much data out at all despite contributing so I’m into this.
Well to be fair, there’s no export feature on BeaconDB yet… But that’s being worked on, Joel, the dev, is still a little unsure about how that data should be handled in regards to AP owner and contributor privacy I think
Everything I can see about this project still puts it far ahead of WiGLE- using OSM and not an outdated API key for gmaps, a website developed in this century, etc
