Official Magic Box discussion thread

[rudefyet]

On 9/8/2017 at 3:33 PM, derrph said:

I got the magic box last night and set up it and it's connected to whatever tower with CINR at 13.5. My only issue is my iPhone 6 is not connecting to it. The box says connected devices 0. Any idea as to why? Is there a period that goes by where it has to fully latch onto the network 

 

edit* my iPhone is connected to the box and now where I was getting  6 down tops without the box on b25 I am now getting 40 down and 8 up. I'm very impressed. 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How long did it take for your iPhone to connect to it?

[derrph]

After Like 4 hours and doing the ##update# on the phone. 

[rudefyet]

I’ll have to try again.

I’m on the iOS 11 beta so I’m wondering if I need a carrier update I’m not getting because of the beta. Good news is I’ll probably get one Tuesday. 

[shaferz]

I'm waiting on a new shipping label to send ours back.  We are iPhone users here and did not have a consistent experience with our MB.  Still waiting on an update on a replacement unit.

[dkyeager]

On Thursday the CFO stated at a conference that the Magic Box will go into mass production mode and they expect to have "hundreds of thousands" of them.

[radem]

I wonder if in a future software update will they allow Magic Boxes to daisy chain off each other in certain conditions to extend coverage out?  I believe the hardware has the capability of doing this.  

One of the conditions I am thinking of is when a Magic Box can see no macro band 41 and no macro band 25 but can see a signal from a functioning integrated into the network Magic Box. Another is when two or more magic boxes are located at the same address such as a large building and one gets a b41 signal but another can only get a b25 signal.  Another daisy chain possibility is when a LTE femtocell is present.

[lilotimz]

4 hours ago, radem said:

I wonder if in a future software update will they allow Magic Boxes to daisy chain off each other in certain conditions to extend coverage out?  I believe the hardware has the capability of doing this.  

One of the conditions I am thinking of is when a Magic Box can see no macro band 41 and no macro band 25 but can see a signal from a functioning integrated into the network Magic Box. Another is when two or more magic boxes are located at the same address such as a large building and one gets a b41 signal but another can only get a b25 signal.  Another daisy chain possibility is when a LTE femtocell is present.

Not likely. 

They only accept connections from macro class donors.  

[anthony.spina97]

We're an all iPhone household and all four of ours have had no issues connecting to our Magic Box. Two phones running iOS 11 beta and two phones on the most recent version of iOS 10. Glad I'm not having this issue like others are.

 

-Anthony

[shaferz]

4 hours ago, anthony.spina97 said:

We're an all iPhone household and all four of ours have had no issues connecting to our Magic Box. Two phones running iOS 11 beta and two phones on the most recent version of iOS 10. Glad I'm not having this issue like others are.

 

-Anthony

Thanks - that gives me some hope. 

[lilotimz]

25 minutes ago, shaferz said:

Thanks - that gives me some hope. 

What LTE band were your devices on if they wouldn't swap?

[jonathanm1978]

Sent email about business magic box Friday... Had some issues with request that we fixed via email.. Received email today saying order was placed and also received tracking info. Will have it on Wednesday according to UPS. The business unit has same model number as my personal unit... AU545

[ingenium]

27 minutes ago, jonathanm1978 said:

Sent email about business magic box Friday... Had some issues with request that we fixed via email.. Received email today saying order was placed and also received tracking info. Will have it on Wednesday according to UPS. The business unit has same model number as my personal unit... AU545

Is the business one tied to your account? 

[RightNow]

On 9/7/2017 at 9:45 PM, anthony.spina97 said:

You are in the same boat as Bill and I. Hopefully we can inform Sprint about this issue and get us some Magic Box love!

 

-Anthony

I had just about given up on the original box (I opened one of two received) after I had taken it a few places where I knew it should connect for sure. It finally got stuck in a boot loop. So letting its battery die and I'll send it back.

Tonight, Spectrum took a dump again so I said what the hell. Let's try the other one. I opened it and with no expectations of success it popped up a test. The first window was a 4. haha The second one was 24, third one and likely best was 36. I said I'll take it. It set up on that one.

Before:  DL: 0.93 UL: 0.60

After: DL: 12.81 UL: 0.48

While not the best I think this isn't too bad in my zip code/rural area. 27316. The upload speeds in the area are bad even if you're line of sight to tower on a nearby hill, so I hope there's something going on soon to help that out. At least I can use this as a hotspot on occasion now and hopefully it will only get better from here.

[travisc]

Is there anyway to see what tower the magic box is connected to?  I'm in a spot that is surrounded by towers, but they are not that close to me.  The only place i could get LTE was on my upper floor, band 25 at best. I got my magic box a few days ago and it wouldn't connect the first couple of days.  Then it finally latched onto a band 25 signal of about -117 on  my upper floor, which did give me some LTE on the main floor and basement.  Then I decided to move it out of the window and onto a shelf along an exterior wall, and bam, band 41, which I could never get on my phone.  It's a weak band 41 at -122, but now I get almost 20 down and 2 up all over the house and yard (1/2 an acre).  I'm curious as to which tower it's pulling the band 41 signal from.

[dkyeager]

4 hours ago, travisc said:

Is there anyway to see what tower the magic box is connected to?   I'm curious as to which tower it's pulling the band 41 signal from.

Magic Boxes can draw in b41 through MIMO and then hold on to it because they are a constant connection.  From a cold start your phone will likely pickup that site GCI first before switching over to the MB (use SCP to see it).  Do the legwork yourself to find it (circle each nearby site to get three b41 GCI) or become a premier member and check the Minnesota premier thread.

[dkyeager]

Please post any new Magic Box  market GCIs (the first three characters).  Here is 0EE [credit BluesRulez]:

[shaferz]

7 hours ago, lilotimz said:

What LTE band were your devices on if they wouldn't swap?

B25, B26, and 3G.  It was like our phones just did not recognize the B41 from the MB at times.  Tech support said on their end, it looked like the MB was correctly 'tied' to the macro donor.  I wondered if the macro was still the issue, but the same issues happened at the campground (which was a different donor macro.). 

 

WHEN our phones would get on the MB, the experience was great, they just wouldn't latch onto it and stay hooked to it reliably.  Hopefully the replacement unit doesn't have the same issue.  

[jefbal99]

Still loving my MagicBox, at times my device prefers the Macro network, but it gets on the MB pretty consistently.  My Galaxy Tab E is still not connecting to it, trying to avoid the Factory reset that support has suggested.  MB support has indicated that the Tab E should connect to it.

Edit: Confusion between me and MB support, they wanted me to reset the MB and re-run the setup wizard, not my tablet.  I did that this morning and we'll see what happens.

[swintec]

Box came in a bit ago.  I got it to turn on.  I assume it pulled down a software update  and it rebooted itself but now it is stuck on "Please wait: booting..." for quite awhile now.  Any ideas?  No way to force a reboot it seems.

[nexgencpu]

13 minutes ago, swintec said:

Box came in a bit ago.  I got it to turn on.  I assume it pulled down a software update  and it rebooted itself but now it is stuck on "Please wait: booting..." for quite awhile now.  Any ideas?  No way to force a reboot it seems.

Id say wait for about another hour or so before rebooting it, if its still on the same screen, unplug it for about another hour (battery rated for an hour) you will notice it will probably still be on the booting screen, its because E-ink displays keep last image persistent (even if the actual battery is dead. which causes people to think its still powered on! haha) 

Then plug it back in, it should boot back up and the display should change.

[bill875]

On 9/7/2017 at 9:45 PM, anthony.spina97 said:

You are in the same boat as Bill and I. Hopefully we can inform Sprint about this issue and get us some Magic Box love!

 

-Anthony

My Magic Box finally connected today in Hickory, NC (Charlotte Market), however it would not connect just 6 miles away in Conover, NC as of Sunday.  Unfortunately, it does not extend the B41 signal far enough into the building for it to reach my work area.  Additionally, without the MB, where I used to receive a -94dBm B41 signal, I am now at -117dBm, I believe one of the sectors is offline or has been adjusted and no longer reaches the front of our building.  I believe that I am now connecting to a site that is further away and more congested.  Interestingly enough, it operates without GPS lock.

[swintec]

6 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

Id say wait for about another hour or so before rebooting it, if its still on the same screen, unplug it for about another hour (battery rated for an hour) you will notice it will probably still be on the booting screen, its because E-ink displays keep last image persistent (even if the actual battery is dead. which causes people to think its still powered on! haha) 

Then plug it back in, it should boot back up and the display should change.

thanks.  got further now.  problem is, initialization simply times out at this point in any window i try.

[RightNow]

56 minutes ago, swintec said:

thanks.  got further now.  problem is, initialization simply times out at this point in any window i try.

I'm going to ask for mine that did this to be returned. The other one worked as it should. So I think it's device specific,not necessarily market/tower specific in these cases. 

 

 

[swintec]

30 minutes ago, RightNow said:

I'm going to ask for mine that did this to be returned. The other one worked as it should. So I think it's device specific,not necessarily market/tower specific in these cases. 

 

 

i have another coming tomorrow (completely by chance) so we will see.  The one giving me problems I have completely put it outside at this point to see what happens.

[RightNow]

15 minutes ago, swintec said:

i have another coming tomorrow (completely by chance) so we will see.  The one giving me problems I have completely put it outside at this point to see what happens.

Haha I did that. I took it up on the roof. I took it to another town nearby that should have better signals based on maps and such. It either got stuck at 20% or came up on error messages and got stuck in a loop. It finally started a boot loop where it wouldn't even get past startup. Sprint logo, then a command line where it freezes.