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

[digiblur]

That's some awesome information. Is this something that you maintain seperate from Robert's Info? (Sorry If I'm off topic) I'd like to start one for the Florida Markets (As I don't see one there for Florida) or if there is maybe you could point me in the right direction. Would like to contribute information to the group as much as I can. :-D Any input would be appreciated, and you may PM me if you like. Or I can move to a different thread.

 

I'll PM you the info.. I have a template already since several other markets have also used it; Utah, Cen Iowa, Columbus, West IA, East IA, etc.

[COZisBack]

Hey Mike,

If you're taking feature requests, any chance of adding a "chime" for when loosing 800/LTE? Thanks!!

Patience is a virtue.

 

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[digiblur]

Hey Mike,

If you're taking feature requests, any chance of adding a "chime" for when loosing 800/LTE? Thanks!!

 

Loose? 

[KD8JBF]

I'll PM you the info.. I have a template already since several other markets have also used it; Utah, Cen Iowa, Columbus, West IA, East IA, etc.

 

 

Rockin! Thanks!!

[mikejeep]

If you're taking feature requests, any chance of adding a "chime" for when loosing 800/LTE? Thanks!!

 

I'm always taking feature requests!  Both of those were already on the list, and it's in the latest beta that my minions have been testing out for me (see http://www.bluelinepc.com/signalcheck/change-log/ for a preview).

 

I've been crazy-busy lately, but I have been sneaking a few minutes here and there to polish off an update.. it's coming soon.. maybe very soon.. 

 

-Mike

[enyce9]

When i make a call the lte signal goes blank and the 1x signal reappears

 

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[david279]

When i make a call the lte signal goes blank and the 1x signal reappears

 

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No SVLTE on the g2

 

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[Dkoellerwx]

No SVLTE on the g2

 

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That's been well documented for some time....

[david279]

That's been well documented for some time....

Yea I know...

 

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[ThomasM]

I'm always taking feature requests!  Both of those were already on the list, and it's in the latest beta that my minions have been testing out for me (see http://www.bluelinepc.com/signalcheck/change-log/ for a preview).

 

I've been crazy-busy lately, but I have been sneaking a few minutes here and there to polish off an update.. it's coming soon.. maybe very soon.. 

 

-Mike

 

I still can't believe signalcheck works so well on my ancient (non-4g) LG Optimus S!!  I have seen Android stop allowing signalcheck to update but I've noticed the LG Debug screen must somehow bypass Android as it ALWAYS shows the exact cell info in real time.  I sure hope you have logging of some sort in your new update which I noticed on your website was one of the requests.  Maybe just let us view the "cache" file of site street addresses which knows if a site has been looked up on the internet before because it displays the site address in lower case.

[IamMrFamous07]

I'm sure this question was asked 1000 times but when can we expect the signal check pro app to notify us if we are connected to lte 800 and 2600? *I know we need a triband phone*

[mikejeep]

I'm sure this question was asked 1000 times but when can we expect the signal check pro app to notify us if we are connected to lte 800 and 2600? *I know we need a triband phone*

 

It's something very high on my priority list.. but until we have some tri-band phones and networks to test on, it's hard to make any progress.  I think many Sprint geeks (certainly the S4GRU) would love to be able to monitor which band they are connected to.  Unfortunately, the folks with the first few G2's are having so many LTE issues right now that I'm not going to rely on any of them just yet.

 

There are no built-in Android routines to get band info (LTE or otherwise), so unless Sprint does something to identify the different bands on their end (as they did with the 22xxx BIDs for 1X 800), I'm going to have to hope I can come up with something by digging through source code and implementing manufacturer-specific (if not device-specific) code.  That will not be fun.  I believe I heard that the tri-band hotspots are seeing a different MCC/MNC when connecting to Band 41, so things might work out.

 

I wish there was a universal Android routine that would grab the frequency information, so this would work on any device, on any carrier.. but there isn't.

 

Theoretically, HTC devices should show the connected frequencies as they do now.. unless HTC changes something behind the scenes when they release their first tri-band device.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

I still can't believe signalcheck works so well on my ancient (non-4g) LG Optimus S!!  I have seen Android stop allowing signalcheck to update but I've noticed the LG Debug screen must somehow bypass Android as it ALWAYS shows the exact cell info in real time.  I sure hope you have logging of some sort in your new update which I noticed on your website was one of the requests.  Maybe just let us view the "cache" file of site street addresses which knows if a site has been looked up on the internet before because it displays the site address in lower case.

 

When you say "stop allowing SignalCheck to update", what do you mean?  The app stops working?  What happens if you exit the app and go back in?  Or is it just the icons stop updating?  Android handles memory management itself, so if it thinks it needs more memory for something, it will kill off older processes it thinks are less important.  This could certainly cause the SignalCheck background service to get killed, especially on older or lower-end devices with less memory to spare.  Going back into the app should kickstart everything again.

 

No logging ready to be released just yet; like I have said before, I prefer to get existing features running better before adding new ones.  Being able to view/edit/clear the cache file is something I've had on my mind as well.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

Is it the PLMN?

 

<edited out screenshot>

 

PLMN: 311870

Current Radio Band: LTE B41

 

This is very cool.. I knew I saw a screenshot like this somewhere, I just didn't realize it was right here!  That's showing your MCC/MNC.. often referred to as PLMN, although that's not 100% correct.  Technically, the PLMN is generated by doing math to the MCC and MNC, not just pushing them together.. but I see that a lot.

 

Going to slide this nice little bit of info into the next SignalCheck update, and see if anybody sees it pop up..

 

-Mike

[david279]

Anybody adb android savvy with a g2? Could you pull the Apn file from their device? It holds all the info for connecting to 41 and 26. The mcc and mnc are in that file.

 

Run in the command prop with adb in the path

adb pull /system/etc/apn-conf.xml

 

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[lilg740]

This is very cool.. I knew I saw a screenshot like this somewhere, I just didn't realize it was right here!  That's showing your MCC/MNC.. often referred to as PLMN, although that's not 100% correct.  Technically, the PLMN is generated by doing math to the MCC and MNC, not just pushing them together.. but I see that a lot.

 

Going to slide this nice little bit of info into the next SignalCheck update, and see if anybody sees it pop up..

 

-Mike

That screen was from a Zing btw. I didn't know if you saw that or not.

[mikejeep]

That screen was from a Zing btw. I didn't know if you saw that or not.

Yep, I saw that.. but as long as it was a Zing connected to Sprint, it should be helpful. How about this -- next time its connected to old school Band 25 LTE, can you note what the PLMN field displays? See if its 310120..

 

-Mike

[lilg740]

Yep, I saw that.. but as long as it was a Zing connected to Sprint, it should be helpful. How about this -- next time its connected to old school Band 25 LTE, can you note what the PLMN field displays? See if its 310120..

 

-Mike

I was only borrowing the Zing for a few weeks. No longer have it. The PLMN ID on shots from the HTC One I am using is 310120 on B25 and B41 on the Zing was 311870.

[WiWavelength]

Yep, I saw that.. but as long as it was a Zing connected to Sprint, it should be helpful. How about this -- next time its connected to old school Band 25 LTE, can you note what the PLMN field displays? See if its 310120..

 

It will be 310-120.  All Sprint band 25 LTE 1900 deployment thus far uses that MCC-MNC.  In Denver, Robert encountered band 41 TD-LTE 2600 under 311-490.

 

Below is the expected pool of MCC-MNCs:

 

310-120 Sprintcom

311-490 Sprintcom

311-870 Sprintcom

311-880 Sprintcom

311-940 Clearwire

316-010 Nextel

 

AJ

[lilg740]

Yep, I saw that.. but as long as it was a Zing connected to Sprint, it should be helpful. How about this -- next time its connected to old school Band 25 LTE, can you note what the PLMN field displays? See if its 310120..

 

-Mike

Actually I forgot i saved all of these on my phone. Here's B25 from the Zing.

[mikejeep]

It will be 310-120. All Sprint band 25 LTE 1900 deployment thus far uses that MCC-MNC. In Denver, Robert encountered band 41 TD-LTE 2600 under 311-490.

 

Below is the expected pool of MCC-MNCs:

 

310-120 Sprintcom

311-490 Sprintcom

311-870 Sprintcom

311-880 Sprintcom

311-940 Clearwire

316-010 Nextel

Thanks AJ, that is what I expected.. but in the slight chance the Sprint put hotspots on a different MCC/MNC for some reason, I just wanted to confirm. I have the same list already in the database. Thanks for the heads up about Robert's experience, hadn't seen that.

 

-Mike

[WiWavelength]

Thanks AJ, that is what I expected.. but in the slight chance the Sprint put hotspots on a different MCC/MNC for some reason, I just wanted to confirm.

 

As far as what the network broadcasts, there should be only one MCC-MNC per site.  And that is what we see on the engineering screens.  So, there should be no difference between handsets and mobile hotspots if both are on the same band.  But from what I understand, the UEs themselves may use a different MCC-MNC.  I read that in regard to VZW -- one MCC-MNC for the network, another MCC-MNC for the UEs.  The purpose of that?  I have no idea.  I do not understand why the UEs (or, more accurately, their SIM cards) need to be assigned an MCC-MNC.

 

AJ

[david279]

Airraives broadcast the same mcc-mnc's as a tower right? I ask because Verizon recently started using different mcc-mnc when connected to their network extenders. I hope sprint doesn't do the same... Some code in Android aosp had to be changed because of this and it caused a bit of a headache.

 

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[WiWavelength]

Airraives broadcast the same mcc-mnc's as a tower right? I ask because Verizon recently started using different mcc-mnc when connected to their network extenders. I hope sprint doesn't do the same... Some code in Android aosp had to be changed because of this and it caused a bit of a headache.

 

No, an MCC-MNC has nothing to do with CDMA1X nor EV-DO.

 

AJ

[ThomasM]

When you say "stop allowing SignalCheck to update", what do you mean?  The app stops working?  What happens if you exit the app and go back in?  Or is it just the icons stop updating?  Android handles memory management itself, so if it thinks it needs more memory for something, it will kill off older processes it thinks are less important.  This could certainly cause the SignalCheck background service to get killed, especially on older or lower-end devices with less memory to spare.  Going back into the app should kickstart everything again.

 

No logging ready to be released just yet; like I have said before, I prefer to get existing features running better before adding new ones.  Being able to view/edit/clear the cache file is something I've had on my mind as well.

 

-Mike

 

The SignalCheck app is still running and the icons in the task bar still accurately show the signal levels.  Exiting the app and restarting it make no difference.  The SITE INFO (Base ID, Street Address, etc.) stops updating.  Memory isn't an issue as I have learned how the kooky memory management feature of Android works.  That is why I shut the phone off and turn it on when I am going to be taking a drive and monitoring sites without loading any other apps.  And it isn't the app "falling asleep" either as I use the SignalCheck feature to not let the screen go off when the app is in the foreground.

 

This same phenomenon does exactly the same thing when using CDMA Field Test Drive, another site monitoring app.  That program does do logging and after 10 or 15 minutes of no updates they suddenly begin again.....just like SignalCheck.  Since the LG debug screen doesn't suffer from the lapse in updating, I can only assume it is Android refusing to update the app.