SignalCheck - Android app to monitor your Wi-Fi/2G/3G/4G LTE/5G-NR signal strengths

[JDP121]

New SignalCheck Pro updates pushed out to Google Play for EVERYONE this afternoon! Will post full details tonight or tomorrow, check the website change log for a summary.. enjoy!

 

-Mike

 

Thanks Mike. Just updated SCP a bit ago hopefully will be able to see what towers in nTelos land has B41 some time in the coming weeks. 

[davidtm]

Thanks Mike. Just updated SCP a bit ago hopefully will be able to see what towers in nTelos land has B41 some time in the coming weeks.

Ditto! Better log data to send to flompholph et al for analysis!

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[Overstew]

Hello Mikejeep,

 

I updated today to the newest version of Signalcheck Pro but I am still not seeing a value for WCDMA or HSPA+ connections.

 

Just found out it's all 3G connections on the T-Mobile GS7, not just my at-work DAS.

[RyanThaDude]

I'm having a strange issue and I'm pretty sure this existed prior to the latest upgrade. The data on the SCP screen doesn't update. This is on my Nexus 6 running stock systemless rooted Marshmallow w/ March Update. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the app, along with restarting the phone and clearing cache.

 

 

[swintec]

Like the new look, thanks!  the neighboring cells area wont show which band / frequency they are correct?

[RyanThaDude]

Never mind my issue. It's my phone as every other app doing the same thing. I think it may be time to move on from my N6 as I've had nothing but problems with the radio. Complete loss of signal, LTE quits, constantly having to cycle airplane mode to even get it to connect, and now this.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[mikejeep]

I updated today to the newest version of Signalcheck Pro but I am still not seeing a value for WCDMA or HSPA+ connections.

 

Just found out it's all 3G connections on the T-Mobile GS7, not just my at-work DAS.

 

Hmm.. I was going to reach out to you in the hopes that it was resolved. Send me a diagnostic report next time you know you have a connection but the app says otherwise (About > Send Diagnostics). Include your username and a brief note about the issue so I don't forget what I'm looking for.

 

Like the new look, thanks!  the neighboring cells area wont show which band / frequency they are correct?

 

Not yet.. but that's in progress!

 

Never mind my issue. It's my phone as every other app doing the same thing. I think it may be time to move on from my N6 as I've had nothing but problems with the radio. Complete loss of signal, LTE quits, constantly having to cycle airplane mode to even get it to connect, and now this.

 

Try getting a new SIM before ditching the phone. It can't hurt.

 

-Mike

[mmark27]

Not sure if it was intentional, maybe related to the last bullet point in the changelog, but the notification behavior for hiding on the lock screen is fixed for the Note5 with this latest update!  Prior, it would respect the lock screen settings, but then not always remember it was supposed to be in the notification bar when unlocked....then would pop back up after a bit.  Regardless, it's operating as it should now.  So I've re-enabled the background process and startup at boot for SCP again.  Thanks Mike!  

[TheForce627]

Hey Mikejeep I have an idea. What about alerts for connecting to specific LTE bands? It would be helpful in spotting new LTE bands (I'm on the hunt for att band 30 in my area) or even an alert when connecting to a second or third carrier of a band. Just a thought

[mikejeep]

Hey Mikejeep I have an idea. What about alerts for connecting to specific LTE bands? It would be helpful in spotting new LTE bands (I'm on the hunt for att band 30 in my area) or even an alert when connecting to a second or third carrier of a band. Just a thought

 

This is on my priority list, it's just quite an involved implementation so I haven't had time to finish it yet. (Check the website for a full "wish list" of things I'm working on or plan to implement.) I am overhauling the overall way the Alerts work behind the scenes to make them more dynamic. In general, I try to balance new features with bugfixes based on the limited amount of time I have to work on the app. I wish I could devote 40+ hours a week to it, and I wish I was a programmer by trade (I'm self-teaching as I go), but unfortunately life gets in the way sometimes!

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

Here is a detailed change log for SignalCheck Pro 4.31, as promised! Those of you who have not updated should take a moment to do so, there are some bug fixes that impact a lot of users.
 
Option to display LTE EARFCN and frequency data from the onboard modem if rooted.
This is the most significant improvement to SignalCheck since neighbor cells were added, but I wish root access wasn't required. Using a different approach that was recently discovered, the app can attempt to directly query your device's modem to get LTE EARFCN data. This allows the app to display the actual frequency of your connection, eliminating the need to rely on previously-identified GCI patterns for band identification. For now, EARFCN data is simply displayed and not used to set any band indicators, and neighbor cells do not display any EARFCN information. However, this is only the first release, and I intend to expand upon this. The only drawback is you need to determine the path of your device's modem in order for the app to communicate with it. The default is "smd11" which works on several devices; if you discover your device uses a different path, please let me know. I would like to have the app auto-configure itself based on what device is in use, but I need to know what each device actually uses to do this.

 

Resolved issue with missing LTE data and neighbor cells on some newer devices.

Many newer devices failed to show all available LTE data when simultaneous 1X+LTE connections were present. Other devices failed to show neighbor cells, or in some cases, any LTE data at all. Happy to finally have these issues resolved!

 

Additional indicators for nTelos LTE band 41 and T-Mobile LTE band 4; Added site note pairing for nTelos LTE bands 25 and 41.

These band indicators existed in the app previously, but new patterns have been identified so users should see better results. nTelos users will now enjoy synced B25/B41 site notes as native Sprint users do.

 

New indicators for AT&T LTE band 4 second carriers and band 30; Sprint LTE band 41 third carriers; Verizon LTE band 4 second carriers; nTelos LTE band 41 second carriers.

Lots of new data thanks to user reports, mostly from S4GRU!

 

Implemented Material design theme; Added option to allow users to set text color on main screen.

The ugliest app on Google Play now uses Material instead of Holo. Also, a new user option to set the color of the text on the main screen has been implemented. If there's a color you would like to see that is not there, let me know. My design skills are terrible, but this is a small step in the right direction!

 

New options to automatically enable/disable Location Service and/or Site Logger upon charging, unplugging, or low battery.

This is fairly self-explanatory; I have already received a few reports of some quirks with these features, so they will be further tweaked in upcoming releases. There are no major bugs, they just need a little more polish.

 

Added initial support for Wi-Fi Calling network type.

Some devices have been reporting a new network type related to Wi-Fi Calling; the app will now display this instead of "Unknown."

 

Added broadcast intents to toggle Background Service, Location Service, and Site Logger through third-party apps (i.e. Tasker).

This is an advanced feature that still needs some more work, but the basic functionality has been implemented. Using Tasker or similar methods, users can now send intents to SignalCheck to toggle the three main processes that can run behind-the-scenes. Using a broadcast intent, you can toggle these by using the intent "com.blueline.signalcheck.SetServices" along with the following Extras:

• LocationService:true (enables Location Service)
• LocationService:false (disables Location Service)
• SiteLogger:true (enables Site Logger)
• SiteLogger:false (disables Site Logger)
• BackgroundService:true (enables Location Service)
• BackgroundService:false (disables Location Service; see note below)

As of right now, there are some quirks that I intend to change. Most notably, *all* intents a user wishes to enable must be sent together; the app will disable any intents that are omitted. Also, the Background Service cannot be killed off automatically; the option will be disabled, but the Background Service will not actually terminate until the next time the app is opened and then sent to the background.

 

Resolved issue with notification icon(s) occasionally appearing as a blank square on Android 5+.

Android recently changed the way notification icons are displayed, eliminating all color; the default icon was incompatible with this, and would sometimes show a white square or nothing at all depending on the circumstances. Now you should see a monochrome version of the standard "tower" icon when no signal data is being received.

 

 

SignalCheck Lite will be updated with the pertinent changes as time allows. Thanks for all of your support, and keep the feedback coming! I sincerely appreciate it.

 

-Mike

[Tengen31]

Yes. Slowly but surely I am quietly squashing bugs, but I have not tackled this specific one yet.

 

I did, however, confirm this morning that I have resolved the issue with limited LTE information being displayed when 1X+LTE appear together on newer devices!

 

-Mike

Was told by David, to remind you of this. It's still showing band 25 when on Clearwire. Yes I installed the update.

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Dkoellerwx]

Was told by David, to remind you of this. It's still showing band 25 when on Clearwire. Yes I installed the update.

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

Showing Band 25 when connected to Clear B41 while using *Boost*. You didn't mention that part.

[Tengen31]

Showing Band 25 when connected to Clear B41 while using *Boost*. You didn't mention that part.

Crap. Thanks David. I did forget.

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[mikejeep]

Was told by David, to remind you of this. It's still showing band 25 when on Clearwire. Yes I installed the update.

Showing Band 25 when connected to Clear B41 while using *Boost*. You didn't mention that part.

You were on my list of people to follow-up with today to check on the status of your bug. I don't think I knew you were on Boost, that makes a big difference! I will have to look into that.

 

-Mike

[Tengen31]

You were on my list of people to follow-up with today to check on the status of your bug. I don't think I knew you were on Boost, that makes a big difference! I will have to look into that.

 

-Mike

Sorry thought you knew that. Yeah I think it's just Boost.

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[jefbal99]

Love the B41 3rd carrier identification!!!

[dkyeager]

Mike, CGI sectors 06, 07, 08 are being used for B25 in the Columbus market  for a 10x10 second carrier.  GCI sectors 03, 04, 05 for second carrier 5x5 have been retired in Franklin county and the adjacent counties (the traditional Metro), however to the best of our knowledge they still exist in Chillicothe, OH. 

 

Currently, B25 sectors 06, 07, 08 only show up in SCP as LTE (not LTE 1900 or LTE B25).  We record these in our spreadsheet as #2-10 and in map info windows as GCI ^2-10.  My thinking is Sprint could have just used GCI sectors 03, 04, 05 if they did not want to differentiate the 10x10.  We still have GCI sectors 00, 01, 02 as B25 5x5.  The pace of change to this new arrangement is quite rapid so far.

[TheForce627]

Ran into a little issue connecting to band 30. The indicator in the status bar had this icon instead.

[kg4icg]

I've noticed something I've haven't seen before. Came as surprise. Notice the distance and direction.

 

Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk

[Trip]

It's been there for a while.  It uses the "strongest" latitude and longitude in your log to tell you the distance and direction. 

 

- Trip

[kg4icg]

It's been there for a while. It uses the "strongest" latitude and longitude in your log to tell you the distance and direction.

 

- Trip

Ah Trip but there's the catch, look at my post from last week acknowledging the up date and you notice no such indices and being virtually at the same position.

 

Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk

[Trip]

Did you have logging enabled?  Your older image is what I see when I see sites that are not in my log appear as neighbor cells, or when logging is not enabled.

 

- Trip

[kg4icg]

You can tell from the top of the app that i did. The only thing between now and the 10th was that i enabled developers mode on my phone and oem unlock

 

Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk

[mikejeep]

Mike, CGI sectors 06, 07, 08 are being used for B25 in the Columbus market  for a 10x10 second carrier.  GCI sectors 03, 04, 05 for second carrier 5x5 have been retired in Franklin county and the adjacent counties (the traditional Metro), however to the best of our knowledge they still exist in Chillicothe, OH.

 

Interesting. Until now 06/07/08 along with an 'odd' third GCI character indicated B41 third carrier. Can you confirm that you've only been seeing this with 'even' third characters?

 

Ran into a little issue connecting to band 30. The indicator in the status bar had this icon instead.

 

I saw your post the other day and have been looking into it -- I found the issue and it will be corrected in the next update. It's an issue with the B30 icons.. it won't impact anything else in the app, you'll just be stuck seeing the tower icon. I'm hoping to get a minor bugfix update pushed out in the next week or so.

 

I've noticed something I've haven't seen before. Came as surprise. Notice the distance and direction.

 

You see distance/direction but no note when a site has been recorded with the Site Logger but you didn't enter a Site Note for it. Distance/direction is missing on sites that the app hasn't seen before because it has no idea where they are.

 

-Mike