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


mikejeep

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The LTE sector IDs are available in the Jellybean 4.1.1 API. But according to what the devs at Sensorly say, so far there are few devices that populate it.

 

Technically, it was not released/supported until the Jelly Bean 4.2 API. However, like you said, not every device supports it.. I had tried to include LTE cell info in the last release of SignalCheck, but it was causing more force closes than anything, so I have removed it from the latest version. I intend to carry out more testing and bring the feature back in another version very soon.

 

-Mike

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Ec/Io is also missing a decimal point. Measurement lower limit is -31.5 dB.

 

AJ

 

Much appreciated.. is this true across the board? (1x, 3G, LTE, etc) The Android documentation isn't very thorough in this realm, so I've basically been flying by the seat of my pants. I need folks like you to steer me in the right direction! Let me know and I will fix it in the next release.

 

Thanks,

-Mike

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Worked the first time for me. Looked nice. Now crashes on my s3 every time. Even after a reboot.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

This is probably related to the LTE cell info that I was trying to provide. It has been removed from the latest version (2.09), please give that a shot and let me know.

 

Thanks,

-Mike

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This is a sweet start, and it's so clean. Does the API provide active and neighbor PN's for 1x and DO? If you can get them in there, I'd definitely get the full version.

 

Fill me in on what a PN is, and I will see what I can do! :)

 

-Mike

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I actually added LTE cell ID info to version 2.08, which I released late last night.. I suspect that is what is causing the crashes, since this is a brand new problem.

 

Any chance anyone with Jelly Bean got any cell ID info on LTE? Or anyone with Jelly Bean have it not crash while on LTE?

 

I also saw some crash reports come in for some of the shortcuts on the Advanced menu. I'll check everything out this afternoon.

i connected to 4G(Did airplain mode on/off) app stopped working and now it won't even open. galaxy 3 Jb 4.1.1 :P
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Updated to 2.09 this morning. The app promptly crashed on startup. My GS3 was getting 4G at the time -- I am right at the edge of 4G where I live, and it flickers in and out -- so I went to airplane mode and restarted. The app ran fine, showed blank bars for GSM (!! - I have a CDMA phone) and Wi-Fi, but showed a filled-in bar for LTE with RSSI -87, RSRP -118 (told you I was fringe). Exited airplane mode, app crashed. In a couple of minutes, my 4G dropped out, I restarted the app, and it ran fine. The next time 4G dropped back in, the app crashed.

 

[irrelevant aside: I don't know which is more frustrating: Living on the edge of 4G for 2 months while the Samsung contractors do other things instead of upgrading my local cell, or having a GS3 and playing with the Server Cell parameter trying to figure out which tower(s) I actually connect with, because I can't get to the cell ID parameter which shows the physical ID. (BTW, and also not actually relevant to this thread, but for those who understand LTE cell identifications: The sector ID's appear to not always be exactly offset by 169, at least where I am. There are only about 4, maybe 5, LTE cells detectable near me, yet I am getting about 8 or 9 variants of Server Cell on my GS3 debug screen, and some only vary by values of 3 or 4 or 5 from cell id's that I have previously seen. The parameter description in the API documentation seems to document some leeway in this regard.)]

 

Back on topic: Please keep trying. I know it's hard to debug for the GS3 when you don't have one.

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Fill me in on what a PN is' date=' and I will see what I can do! :)

 

-Mike[/quote']

 

A PN is the pilot number. Every CDMA sector broadcasts a PN, and it can be used to determine which sector you are on(active set) as well as which sectors your handset is in soft handoff with(neighbor set). It's really only useful to those of us who know which PNs correlate to which sectors, but it makes troubleshooting broken handoffs much easier.

 

 

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Much appreciated.. is this true across the board? (1x, 3G, LTE, etc)

 

For CDMA1X and EV-DO, yes. But Ec/Io does not apply to LTE.

 

I just flipped over to CDMA only mode to test EV-DO readout, as I do not have much non LTE coverage remaining in my area -- eat your heart out, folks. And EV-DO Ec/Io is also missing a decimal point.

 

Otherwise, everything else looks good. You got your negative signs, dBm units, and dB units in all the right places. Many other apps screw up one or more of those.

 

AJ

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Thanks for the report. It appears that many Samsung devices either do not have these screens, or do not allow access to these areas by third-party applications. I have improved the error-checking routines in the latest version (2.09, should be available on Google Play within the hour) to handle this.

 

Field Trial and EPST are diagnostic screens normally accessible by entering special dialer codes, at least on HTC devices.

 

Equivalent diagnostic screens are accessible on Samsung handsets, too, though the dialer codes are at least slightly different and require a standard passcode. Robert is the Samsung doyenne (I kid, I kid...), so I will let him fill in that info.

 

AJ

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Fill me in on what a PN is, and I will see what I can do! :)

 

Technically, it stands for Pseudo Noise, as a PN offset is a timing offset in the pseudo noise cyclical short code. Values should range from 1-512 (or 0-511). As Jeremy describes above, a PN offset (or PN for short) is a local identifier for the pilot signal. It basically makes each cell sector distinguishable from all other local cell sectors.

 

AJ

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Technically' date=' it stands for Pseudo Noise, as a PN offset is a timing offset in the pseudo noise cyclical short code. Values should range from 1-512 (or 0-511). As Jeremy describes above, a PN offset (or PN for short) is a local identifier for the pilot signal. It basically makes each cell sector distinguishable from all other local cell sectors.

 

AJ[/quote']

 

Thanks for the clarification. I'm many years removed from my days of CDMA theory. I knew it was an offset so that Walsh codes could be re-used on the neighboring sectors.

 

I still have yet to take in any LTE theory, but probably should in the not too distant future.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

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Samsung has the debug screens. They come from HiddenMenu.apk but the activities are not externalized where you can call the from a shortcut/activity.

 

The one app houses multiple screens and functions that are called from SecPhone but I haven't had a chance to take it apart yet to see how it calls them.

 

-- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

 

 

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Thanks for the report. It appears that many Samsung devices either do not have these screens, or do not allow access to these areas by third-party applications. I have improved the error-checking routines in the latest version (2.09, should be available on Google Play within the hour) to handle this.

 

Field Trial and EPST are diagnostic screens normally accessible by entering special dialer codes, at least on HTC devices. I intended to allow these shortcuts to save people the hassle of knowing the dialer codes, or possibly accessing these screens on devices without a dialer (such as a tablet). If the function is not supported by a device, there is not much I can do. This part of my app is meant to provide a shortcut to pre-existing screens, not create new functionality.

 

-Mike

 

Thanks Mike. I downloaded 2.09 this morning and tried things out again with no crashes. Got the message about those screens not supported on my device instead. No crashes so far, looking forward to testing it out when I get near some potentially live 4G towers this week.

 

- Michael

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I still have yet to take in any LTE theory, but probably should in the not too distant future.

 

Last summer, I wrote an article on The Wall here at S4GRU, covering a little bit of LTE theory.

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-308-rssi-vs-rsrp-a-brief-lte-signal-strength-primer/

 

AJ

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Very cool, bought the Pro version and so far (2.09) everything seems to be great - I'll have to try it out in an LTE area this week (south of Atlanta between I-75 & I-85 needs a lot more Sensorly mapping anyway).

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Equivalent diagnostic screens are accessible on Samsung handsets, too, though the dialer codes are at least slightly different and require a standard passcode. Robert is the Samsung doyenne (I kid, I kid...), so I will let him fill in that info.

 

AJ

Samsung has the debug screens. They come from HiddenMenu.apk but the activities are not externalized where you can call the from a shortcut/activity.

 

The one app houses multiple screens and functions that are called from SecPhone but I haven't had a chance to take it apart yet to see how it calls them.

 

Aha, I haven't used a Samsung device so I wasn't sure. My app does not "dial" the code, it calls the activity directly.. I'll have to figure out what Samsung names some of its activities and see if there is a way to call it. I have run into some trouble with this method; for example, I know how the name of the EPST activity on HTC devices, however it does not work because of a permissions problem.. I have yet to figure out which permission it requires. Wondering if it cannot be launched by an external app.

 

 

Technically, it stands for Pseudo Noise, as a PN offset is a timing offset in the pseudo noise cyclical short code. Values should range from 1-512 (or 0-511). As Jeremy describes above, a PN offset (or PN for short) is a local identifier for the pilot signal. It basically makes each cell sector distinguishable from all other local cell sectors.

 

AJ

 

Thanks for the info. I haven't seen that in anything that I've accessed so far, but then again, I wasn't looking for it.. :) I will see what I can come up with. As many of you know, it's not very straightforward to access a lot of this data, and it varies by device. Android 4.2 looks like it improves a lot of things, but I haven't gotten any of it to work yet.

 

-Mike

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I'm a little confused, the app is showing an LTE signal strength. My phones not showing any LTE signal.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Turn off your WiFi and the phone will use the LTE for data. As long as WiFi is connected, the phone will always use that over any cellular data.

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I'm a little confused, the app is showing an LTE signal strength. My phones not showing any LTE signal.

 

[image deleted for reply purposes]

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I have noticed that quite often myself.. I actually see that as a benefit of my app. I have *very* limited knowledge of cellular technology, but that seems to indicate to me that the phone's antenna is seeing LTE, but for some reason it won't switch over. Since I started using my app, I've always thought this could be a huge insight as to why many HTC EVO LTE owners have problems connecting or staying connected to LTE. My app seems to hint that it's not the phone's antenna that is at fault, rather some sort of handoff issue. I was really hoping that other people would see this and some of the skilled contributors to S4GRU could evalute/explain/fix what is happening. Interesting to see that it's happening on your GN. Any insight, cellular nerds?? :)

 

Turn off your WiFi and the phone will use the LTE for data. As long as WiFi is connected, the phone will always use that over any cellular data.

You are correct, but if you look at his screen, the phone is receiving an LTE signal, but showing that it is connected to eHRPD (3G).

 

-Mike

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Turn off your WiFi and the phone will use the LTE for data. As long as WiFi is connected, the phone will always use that over any cellular data.

Even with WiFi off it will only connect to eHRPD or EV-DO

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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Even with WiFi off it will only connect to eHRPD or EV-DO

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I'm not sure then... maybe it's indicative of an LTE tower that is configured to not accept connections yet?

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I'm not sure then... maybe it's indicative of an LTE tower that is configured to not accept connections yet?

Could be. I know work is underway in my area (Seattle). Haven't seen any live connections in my neighborhood yet though

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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  • mikejeep changed the title to SignalCheck - Android app to monitor your Wi-Fi/2G/3G/4G LTE/5G-NR signal strengths

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