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

[PedroDaGr8]

On 12/27/2020 at 1:46 PM, PedroDaGr8 said:

I can at least confirm the alternate PLMN displays 312-250. It triggered today for the first time when I drove by a "keep" tower. Thanks for adding this feature!

One request, albeit very minor, please have alerts follow the 'LTE/NR Cell ID format' setting. Currently, I have my Cell ID format set to Decimal with Sector but the alerts still report it in hex.

[mikejeep]

On 1/16/2021 at 4:01 PM, RegiOween said:

I installed the latest version (4.65), but my stalled information refresh problem remains the same.
What I really fail to understand, is that SCP is actually working while getting the information from my system, and the proof is that if I change the focus to another app or to home screen, and give focus back to SCP, all the info, like mobile data state, network type, signal strength, time stamp, etc. are refreshed accordingly.

There's something freakin' weird happening here, and I'm starting to think that my phone hates your app (brazilian black humour), unlike me, because I think your app is awesome, and I really wish it works as intended.

I sent you another diagnostic report in the new version, to help you "find a cure", and please, don't give up on me...

I haven't forgotten about you (and certainly haven't given up on you), still looking into your issue and trying to figure out what might be going on. I'll be in touch!

 

16 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

One request, albeit very minor, please have alerts follow the 'LTE/NR Cell ID format' setting. Currently, I have my Cell ID format set to Decimal with Sector but the alerts still report it in hex.

That's annoying and needs to be fixed -- thank you for the heads up, I'll work on it!

[mikejeep]

FYI ⚠️ I have received messages from several users with Samsung S20 and S21 devices reporting frequent SCP crashes. Unfortunately, none of my crash reporting or logging tools are capturing these incidents.. I am still looking into it. Presumably it's related to some sort of Samsung software update and hopefully they will correct it in a future update, but I am just speculating. If you experience an issue, please submit the Android crash report and send a diagnostic if you can, just in case it captures something. Thanks!

[mmark27]

On 2/6/2021 at 11:41 AM, mikejeep said:

FYI ⚠️ I have received messages from several users with Samsung S20 and S21 devices reporting frequent SCP crashes. Unfortunately, none of my crash reporting or logging tools are capturing these incidents.. I am still looking into it. Presumably it's related to some sort of Samsung software update and hopefully they will correct it in a future update, but I am just speculating. If you experience an issue, please submit the Android crash report and send a diagnostic if you can, just in case it captures something. Thanks!

My S21 Ultra has been doing just fine. I do know that the Optimize Battery Usage (Settings > Apps > three dots > Special Access > Optimize Battery Usage) is very aggressive on the newer One UI on my S20+ previously. SCP was dying on me frequently until I prevented it from Optimizing Battery Usage on the app. Not sure if this is related or helps anyone, but helped my issues. 

[mdob07]

4 hours ago, mmark27 said:

My S21 Ultra has been doing just fine. I do know that the Optimize Battery Usage (Settings > Apps > three dots > Special Access > Optimize Battery Usage) is very aggressive on the newer One UI on my S20+ previously. SCP was dying on me frequently until I prevented it from Optimizing Battery Usage on the app. Not sure if this is related or helps anyone, but helped my issues. 

I glad you pointed out the power settings, I know I had mine off before for both SCP and Cellmapper but I just double checked and both were set to on. I've been having constant crashing with SCP since my last Android update so we'll see if changing that helps. 

[mikejeep]

On 2/6/2021 at 12:41 PM, mikejeep said:

FYI ⚠️ I have received messages from several users with Samsung S20 and S21 devices reporting frequent SCP crashes. Unfortunately, none of my crash reporting or logging tools are capturing these incidents.. I am still looking into it. Presumably it's related to some sort of Samsung software update and hopefully they will correct it in a future update, but I am just speculating. If you experience an issue, please submit the Android crash report and send a diagnostic if you can, just in case it captures something. Thanks!

Those of you who are experiencing this issue -- is there a chance it is occurring when you are connecting to a non-LTE, non-CDMA cell such as HSDPA/HSPA/UMTS/etc?

[RegiOween]

Hello Mike & forum mates!

I have some other info that may or may not (again) help to solve that "mysterious" problem regarding the refreshing issue on my Android 7 device, described in the following steps:

1) Full system image backup using TWRP, just to make sure I could recover from the exactly same point I was before this test.

2) Clean install from the original system image (LineageOS 14.1 / Android 7.1)

3) Installation of SignalCheck Pro from Google Play Store without any other app installed, just to make sure another app could not be interfering in SCP functionality.

4) Wait for more than 10 minutes to signal strength icon refresh in status bar, to no available.

5) Installation of Cell Signal Monitor Free to check the same information in parallel with SCP.

6) Screenshot 40 minutes later, and SCP remais with the same timestamp and signal strength, while the signal strength changed several times between this period in the other app.

7) As a last information, the system network type icon always refresh real time in status bar, whenever it changes (LTE, H+, H, G, E, etc.), so I think this is an evidence there's not a problem with my system itself, but SCP isn't being able to keep the information reliable, for some reason that I'm really trying to help finding, since it managed to work perfectly for a little short time after the last update, but stopped working out of nothing...

PS: All the relative information are highlighted in RED on the screenshot attached.

I hope it helps, and thanks in advance!

[mikejeep]

4 hours ago, RegiOween said:

I have some other info that may or may not (again) help to solve that "mysterious" problem regarding the refreshing issue on my Android 7 device, described in the following steps:

1) Full system image backup using TWRP, just to make sure I could recover from the exactly same point I was before this test.

2) Clean install from the original system image (LineageOS 14.1 / Android 7.1)

3) Installation of SignalCheck Pro from Google Play Store without any other app installed, just to make sure another app could not be interfering in SCP functionality.

4) Wait for more than 10 minutes to signal strength icon refresh in status bar, to no available.

5) Installation of Cell Signal Monitor Free to check the same information in parallel with SCP.

6) Screenshot 40 minutes later, and SCP remais with the same timestamp and signal strength, while the signal strength changed several times between this period in the other app.

7) As a last information, the system network type icon always refresh real time in status bar, whenever it changes (LTE, H+, H, G, E, etc.), so I think this is an evidence there's not a problem with my system itself, but SCP isn't being able to keep the information reliable, for some reason that I'm really trying to help finding, since it managed to work perfectly for a little short time after the last update, but stopped working out of nothing...

That is solid troubleshooting, thank you very much! I am still perplexed as to what is causing this. Have you tried disabling the battery optimization option for SignalCheck in your system settings?

[RegiOween]

6 hours ago, mikejeep said:

That is solid troubleshooting, thank you very much! I am still perplexed as to what is causing this. Have you tried disabling the battery optimization option for SignalCheck in your system settings?

Things I tried so far:

- Disable battery optimization
- Enable Status Service accessibility
- Grant root permission
- Clean system/app install

I know my phone is an old device (2015) as well as Android 7 is an old system (2016), but I tested Android 8, 9 and 10 on it, and didn't work so well, probably due to hardware limitations, and me being a poor broken fucked up brazilian unemployed IT professional/current Uber driver, buying a new phone is out of my possibilities, at least by now...

[mikejeep]

On 2/11/2021 at 1:16 PM, RegiOween said:

I know my phone is an old device (2015) as well as Android 7 is an old system (2016), but I tested Android 8, 9 and 10 on it, and didn't work so well, probably due to hardware limitations, and me being a poor broken fucked up brazilian unemployed IT professional/current Uber driver, buying a new phone is out of my possibilities, at least by now...

Android 7 is old, but it employs less aggressive power-saving measures so I don't think your issue is related to that particular factor. Not all devices reported full LTE info on Android 7, but if you're seeing all the information then you shouldn't have too many significant concerns.

I sent you an e-mail about this: have you tried enabling the "Use Stale Data Workaround" option under Preferences > General?

[RegiOween]

21 hours ago, mikejeep said:

Android 7 is old, but it employs less aggressive power-saving measures so I don't think your issue is related to that particular factor. Not all devices reported full LTE info on Android 7, but if you're seeing all the information then you shouldn't have too many significant concerns.

I sent you an e-mail about this: have you tried enabling the "Use Stale Data Workaround" option under Preferences > General?

[Have you tried enabling the "Use Stale Data Workaround" option under Preferences > General?]

Yeah, but didn't solve the stale refreshing data anyway, unless I change focus from SCP to another app or home screen, and get focus back to SCP, no matter this option is checked or not.

I found what I can call a "middle-of-the-road-workaround" using the great 'Flat Style Bar Indicators' app to customize my status bar, showing the network type in real time, but there's 3 major drawbacks:

1. It requires Xposed Framework
2. It shows signal strength in 44 different graphics in status bar, but there's no option to show the info as dBm values
3. I still have to use "Cell Signal Monitor" app to show signal strength in dBm values in status bar, but the characters are very small

SignalCheck Pro has all those features in one single app without the need of a module manager running as root in background, despite not working in real time in my device/OS, for some very unknown reasons.

Besides, I think the suggestion I gave some days ago to have an option to display simultaneously 'network type' and 'signal strength' in separate icons on status bar could be very useful for me and also for current or potential future users, since both informations are already managed in SCP, and are very important for monitoring network quality in real time without having to open the app main screen, specially for users who work driving, like me.

Thanks in advance!

Edited February 14, 2021 by RegiOween

[stlman314]

Mike,

 

As of lately SCP has been crashing on me. Not sure if it is sending the report to you and it isn't letting me send a report either. I have a S20+.

[mikejeep]

2 hours ago, stlman314 said:

As of lately SCP has been crashing on me. Not sure if it is sending the report to you and it isn't letting me send a report either. I have a S20+.

Others are having issues with recent S20 updates and SCP as well. Unfortunately I'm not getting any crash reports at all about it. If you disable battery optimization for SCP, others have said that resolves it. Have you tried that?

What error does it show when you try sending a report?

[jasonsteele]

PSA, after installing the Android 11 update last week on my S10+, SCP beta was giving me my actual home address every time I clicked “here” to get locations for notes (no matter where I was). A reboot fixed that.

[stlman314]

4 hours ago, mikejeep said:

Others are having issues with recent S20 updates and SCP as well. Unfortunately I'm not getting any crash reports at all about it. If you disable battery optimization for SCP, others have said that resolves it. Have you tried that?

What error does it show when you try sending a report?

I just changed. I'll let you know if I have anymore trouble. 

[mikejeep]

On 3/3/2021 at 10:29 AM, jasonsteele said:

PSA, after installing the Android 11 update last week on my S10+, SCP beta was giving me my actual home address every time I clicked “here” to get locations for notes (no matter where I was). A reboot fixed that.

Interesting.. the location is provided by an API that shares device location information between all apps that request it. What are your location settings in SignalCheck? Did you happen to try opening another app that uses location features (Google Maps, Waze, etc) when you were having that issue?

[mikejeep]

28 minutes ago, mdob07 said:

I've had that issue too, I think that's what's caused some of my logging issues when the trail logger first came out. I had Google maps and Cell mapper running also. It was like the app didn't realize I had moved after being home for hours and start updating the location data again. I'm not sure if its still an issue for me though, its been awhile since I noticed it last. Usually I see it when I go to add a new site note and tap Here and it gives me my home address instead of where I'm at. Exiting and restarting the app fixed it. 

Thinking a little more about this -- the geocoding feature that translates coordinates to a street address is separate from the actual location service that gets the coordinates. There are limits on geocoding requests (the specifics are not published), but I had never run into them and I expect if that was the issue, it would display an error instead of an address.

Having one address constantly returned makes me think your coordinates are not changing, so the geocoder is working but not getting any new information. If it happens to pop up again, and you have the coordinates displayed on the main screen, try driving around to see if they change or if they are frozen.

There are some minor improvements coming to the location service in the next update; not sure if it would be something that corrected an issue like this though.

[jasonsteele]

58 minutes ago, mikejeep said:

Interesting.. the location is provided by an API that shares device location information between all apps that request it. What are your location settings in SignalCheck? Did you happen to try opening another app that uses location features (Google Maps, Waze, etc) when you were having that issue?

 

9 minutes ago, mikejeep said:

Thinking a little more about this -- the geocoding feature that translates coordinates to a street address is separate from the actual location service that gets the coordinates. There are limits on geocoding requests (the specifics are not published), but I had never run into them and I expect if that was the issue, it would display an error instead of an address.

Having one address constantly returned makes me think your coordinates are not changing, so the geocoder is working but not getting any new information. If it happens to pop up again, and you have the coordinates displayed on the main screen, try driving around to see if they change or if they are frozen.

There are some minor improvements coming to the location service in the next update; not sure if it would be something that corrected an issue like this though.

Waze was running during the issues. I let it go for two days before I rebooted. Once done, no more issues. SCP location service at high accuracy, update interval 4000. So far so good, it was the first reboot after Android 11 update...I’m not that technical, maybe the phone was stuck on stupid and had to reset.

[mikejeep]

55 minutes ago, jasonsteele said:

Waze was running during the issues. I let it go for two days before I rebooted. Once done, no more issues. SCP location service at high accuracy, update interval 4000. So far so good, it was the first reboot after Android 11 update...I’m not that technical, maybe the phone was stuck on stupid and had to reset.

Interesting. Certainly could be an Android 11 hiccup.. please keep me updated if it keeps happening. Rebooting is always the quickest and most likely resolution when things are stuck on stupid!

[PedroDaGr8]

Hi Mike, is there any way to disable the buttons (Location, Site Logger, etc.) at the top of the main screen or at least a way to make them not buttons? On a curved display, the location button in particular falls right on the edge. I have accidentally turned Location off more times than I can count at this point. 

[mikejeep]

On 3/16/2021 at 3:26 PM, PedroDaGr8 said:

Hi Mike, is there any way to disable the buttons (Location, Site Logger, etc.) at the top of the main screen or at least a way to make them not buttons? On a curved display, the location button in particular falls right on the edge. I have accidentally turned Location off more times than I can count at this point. 

Sure! Sorry that feature made it worse for you.. didn't think of potential issues with curved screens.

I'd like feedback from anyone interested: Would be appropriate to integrate it with the existing option that locks site notes (so accidental touches don't open the note prompt)? Or would it be better if locking out the buttons was separate? I try to keep it simple, but perhaps there's a case to be made for keeping the options separated.

EDIT: In the meantime, you can add edge padding to (temporarily) resolve it now if you want.. see Preferences > Colors and Styles > Main Screen Layout Padding.

[Trip]

I prefer separate options, but you know me--I love options. 

- Trip

 

[mdob07]

Honestly I never realized those were buttons, I just thought they randomly turned off from time to time 😆. I always use the menu to turn it back on. Now I know. 

[mikejeep]

20 minutes ago, mdob07 said:

Honestly I never realized those were buttons, I just thought they randomly turned off from time to time 😆. I always use the menu to turn it back on. Now I know. 

It's new in this beta round.. just realized this isn't the beta thread.. oops. Coming soon for everyone else! 😁

[stlman314]

Mike,

SCP is crashing again. I verified that battery optimizing is turned off. It was good for a minute but started back crashing again this past week.