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

[mikejeep]

Mike, don't know if this is a known bug or maybe just my phone acting stupid but...when I go into SignalCheck and tap "Exit" the app wants to freeze up on me. I've tried this 5 times, out of the 5 times I tapped "Exit" it froze up 3 times.

I hadn't heard of that specific issue, but the freezing/crashing reports have been wildly inconsistent so it is probably all related. Did you have any alerts enabled? That seems to be the biggest culprit, but I'm not convinced it's the only one.

 

The version I have been testing the past couple of days suddenly seems stable.. not sure if it was something I did or something Google quietly fixed in the background, but it seems much better. Fingers crossed.. been spending hours and hours on this with little to show for it.

 

-Mike

[JossMan]

I hadn't heard of that specific issue, but the freezing/crashing reports have been wildly inconsistent so it is probably all related. Did you have any alerts enabled? That seems to be the biggest culprit, but I'm not convinced it's the only one.

 

The version I have been testing the past couple of days suddenly seems stable.. not sure if it was something I did or something Google quietly fixed in the background, but it seems much better. Fingers crossed.. been spending hours and hours on this with little to show for it.

 

-Mike

I disabled the alerts as you instructed me to do last week or so when the app was crashing every few days, since then the has been behaving.  Instead of hitting the back button to close the app to the background but actually tell the app to exit is when it has been crashing.  

[mikejeep]

I disabled the alerts as you instructed me to do last week or so when the app was crashing every few days, since then the has been behaving. Instead of hitting the back button to close the app to the background but actually tell the app to exit is when it has been crashing.

Got it.. are you able to see anything popping up in logcat when it happens? You can try going back into the app and sending me a diagnostic report right after, but it might clear out the log on a restart.

 

-Mike

[JossMan]

Got it.. are you able to see anything popping up in logcat when it happens? You can try going back into the app and sending me a diagnostic report right after, but it might clear out the log on a restart.

 

-Mike

I'll send a report when/if it happens again, I've tried exiting out of SignalCheck many times and it hasn't been freezing up lately.  It could have just been my phone acting quirky.   

[dkyeager]

Mike, did you see this post in the g2 section? http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4886-lg-g2-users-thread/page-159&do=findComment&comment=273586

 

That makes 02F and 00F for new york and columbus band 41.  Far to early to tell but maybe the third character can determine if it is band 41?

 

Also was curious if you have ever heard of a LTE GCI with this type of structure: LTE GCI of 8.22E+03 with a PCI of 270, and then I also got a LTE GCI of 8.22E+05 with a PCI of 275.  Remote location of course and not fully paying attention to this at the time.

 

Thanks

[mikejeep]

Mike, did you see this post in the g2 section? http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4886-lg-g2-users-thread/page-159&do=findComment&comment=273586

 

That makes 02F and 00F for new york and columbus band 41.  Far to early to tell but maybe the third character can determine if it is band 41?

 

Also was curious if you have ever heard of a LTE GCI with this type of structure: LTE GCI of 8.22E+03 with a PCI of 270, and then I also got a LTE GCI of 8.22E+05 with a PCI of 275.  Remote location of course and not fully paying attention to this at the time.

 

It is too early to tell, but it's something to keep an eye on. The MCC-MNC is a better indicator of band 41; it should be 311490 or 311870. I'm a bit concerned that it says 311870 on the engineering screen but 310120 in SignalCheck, which would indicate band 25 or 26. Perhaps it flipped back to band 25 before he caught that screenshot. Otherwise, the G2 is suffering from the same issue the new Samsung S4T has, it's not reporting the correct MCC-MNC to Android.

 

Those GCIs you mention appear to be decimal format, GCI is typically expressed in hexadecimal. From an iPhone user I'm guessing? In any case, they do not appear to translate into valid GCIs, unless I am interpreting them wrong. I believe that 8.22E+03 is 8220 (hex 201C) and 8.22E+05 is 822000 (hex C8AF0). As I noted in the other thread I just replied to you about, Sprint GCI and PCI values from the same site do not appear to have a recognizable correlation.

 

-Mike

[tommym65]

Mike, did you see this post in the g2 section? http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4886-lg-g2-users-thread/page-159&do=findComment&comment=273586

 

That makes 02F and 00F for new york and columbus band 41. Far to early to tell but maybe the third character can determine if it is band 41?

 

Also was curious if you have ever heard of a LTE GCI with this type of structure: LTE GCI of 8.22E+03 with a PCI of 270, and then I also got a LTE GCI of 8.22E+05 with a PCI of 275. Remote location of course and not fully paying attention to this at the time.

 

Thanks

I believe that B41 cell id's currently have 7 hexadecimal characters while B25 cell id's have 8. Examples from Chicago: 0B7E702 hex (12052226 decimal) is a B41 site on the northwest side of Chicago, while 07E46102 (132407554 decimal) is a B25 site slightly closer to the city. (Note also that the decimal B41 is 8 characters while the decimal B25 is 9.) This pattern holds for B41 sites that I have personally seen in Chicagoland, Minneapolis, and St. Louis, and I think for B25 sites all over (although I have to admit that I am now bored with tracking down B25 sites since there are so many in my area -- I think that I am satiated with them). The B41 market identifier ID is buried in the hex ID somewhere, but I am too lazy this late to drag myself over to my desktop PC to dig it out. I have figured out a complicated method to correlate B41 cell ID's with the Clearwire site identifier which I will publish in the Premier section as soon as the people I work for stop demanding that I actually work.

 

The PCI's are arbitrary sector ID codes that are assigned differently depending whether you are in a Samsung area, an Erickson area, or an Alcatel-Lucent area. Digiblur has talked about this in other threads, and has pinned them down in his New Orleans LTE charts, where A-L uses an offset of 169 or something close between sectors. In my world of Samsung, the offsets seem to be completely arbitrary.

[WiWavelength]

It is too early to tell, but it's something to keep an eye on. The MCC-MNC is a better indicator of band 41; it should be 311490 or 311870. I'm a bit concerned that it says 311870 on the engineering screen but 310120 in SignalCheck, which would indicate band 25 or 26. Perhaps it flipped back to band 25 before he caught that screenshot. Otherwise, the G2 is suffering from the same issue the new Samsung S4T has, it's not reporting the correct MCC-MNC to Android.

 

The SIM card also bears a native MCC-MNC.  I think that is the issue with Samsung "enginerring."

 

AJ

[mikejeep]

I believe that B41 cell id's currently have 7 hexadecimal characters while B25 cell id's have 8. Examples from Chicago: 0B7E702 hex (12052226 decimal) is a B41 site on the northwest side of Chicago, while 07E46102 (132407554 decimal) is a B25 site slightly closer to the city. (Note also that the decimal B41 is 8 characters while the decimal B25 is 9.) This pattern holds for B41 sites that I have personally seen in Chicagoland, Minneapolis, and St. Louis, and I think for B25 sites all over (although I have to admit that I am now bored with tracking down B25 sites since there are so many in my area -- I think that I am satiated with them). The B41 market identifier ID is buried in the hex ID somewhere, but I am too lazy this late to drag myself over to my desktop PC to dig it out.

 

It's not really more/less characters.. you're just dropping a leading zero. B7E702 == 0B7E702 == 00B7E702. SignalCheck should automatically pad GCIs to 8 characters, so if you're seeing one missing in the app, please let me know. They are likely very different because the B41 sites that are live were Clearwire sites, while the B25 sites have been Sprint's from day one.

 

EDIT: ALU PCI's in the Boston area appear to be arbitrary also; no 169-spacing that I have seen.

 

-Mike

[tommym65]

It's not really more/less characters.. you're just dropping a leading zero. B7E702 == 0B7E702 == 00B7E702. SignalCheck should automatically pad GCIs to 8 characters, so if you're seeing one missing in the app, please let me know. They are likely very different because the B41 sites that are live were Clearwire sites, while the B25 sites have been Sprint's from day one.

 

-Mike

Unfortunately, my GS3 doesn't give us LTE ID data, so I have had to use my hotspot for cell hunting. On the Zing, B41 and B25 actually do report different numbers of characters, at least in every market that I have been in, but they are decimal. I am inferring the hex number of characters from the different numbers of decimal characters. What we need you to do is write a Signal Check app for the hotspots! (I would insert an idiotic smiley here, but I am on an iPad and can never remember where the smileys are.)

 

EDIT: Also, the shorter B41 hex ID fits exactly into the site ID, where extra leading digits would not fit.

[mikejeep]

The SIM card also bears a native MCC-MNC. I think that is the issue with Samsung "enginerring."

Surprisingly, "enginerring" reports the proper current MCC-MNC on its native screen, but it doesn't report it to the Android telephony functions. Android provides access to 4 different MCC-MNC functions; I agree with you, it looks like the S4T reports the native one from the SIM to all of them.

 

-Mike

[tommym65]

Surprisingly, "enginerring" reports the proper current MCC-MNC on its native screen, but it doesn't report it to the Android telephony functions. Android provides access to 4 different MCC-MNC functions; I agree with you, it looks like the S4T reports the native one from the SIM to all of them.

-Mike

Oh, those Samsung enginerrs are more fun than a barrel of tower monkeys!

[mikejeep]

Unfortunately, my GS3 doesn't give us LTE ID data, so I have had to use my hotspot for cell hunting. On the Zing, B41 and B25 actually do report different numbers of characters, at least in every market that I have been in, but they are decimal. I am inferring the hex number of characters from the different numbers of decimal characters. What we need you to do is write a Signal Check app for the hotspots! (I would insert an idiotic smiley here, but I am on an iPad and can never remember where the smileys are.)

 

EDIT: Also, the shorter B41 hex ID fits exactly into the site ID, where extra leading digits would not fit.

 

Ah. Must just be a matter of display then, since with 0, 1, or 2 leading zeroes it's still the same decimal value. Band 25 in the Boston market only has 6 characters, so theoretically the Zing would only pad one zero onto it. I'd make a version for hotspots, but the Android version keeps me busy enough! Plus, I don't really know how that would work.. you can't load apps or additional modules to those, can you?

 

-Mike

[tommym65]

Ah. Must just be a matter of display then, since with 0, 1, or 2 leading zeroes it's still the same decimal value. Band 25 in the Boston market only has 6 characters, so theoretically the Zing would only pad one zero onto it. I'd make a version for hotspots, but the Android version keeps me busy enough! Plus, I don't really know how that would work.. you can't load apps or additional modules to those, can you?

 

-Mike

I was trying to joke (note missing idiotic smiley). The hotspots do have a browser-based interface, so it might be possible to create a custom browser-based app that would pluck out the numbers of interest. I'll have to think about that one.

 

I would also be curious to hear from any Boston-baked -- oops, I mean -based -- hot spot users regarding how many digits they see.

[mikejeep]

I was trying to joke (note missing idiotic smiley). The hotspots do have a browser-based interface, so it might be possible to create a custom browser-based app that would pluck out the numbers of interest. I'll have to think about that one.

 

I would also be curious to hear from any Boston-baked -- oops, I mean -based -- hot spot users regarding how many digits they see.

 

Oh I knew you were joking, but I would love to somehow get it on hotspots too. But I doubt they are running Android under the hood, there is no need for a full OS. Now you're making me hungry and I suddenly want to go cook up the infinite amount of beans the rest of the world assumes we keep in our cabinets..

 

-Mike

[JossMan]

Mike was looking at your Alpha testing list, can't wait to check out the new goodies you currently have!  Have to say I'm a little jealous   

[dmchssc]

 

I'm not sure if this has been reported before, but notice that the icon in the status bar says eHRPD even though the signal check app sees no EVDO connection. My phone is on CDMA (1x) only, so the app itself is correct.

[MacinJosh]

Oh I knew you were joking, but I would love to somehow get it on hotspots too. But I doubt they are running Android under the hood, there is no need for a full OS. Now you're making me hungry and I suddenly want to go cook up the infinite amount of beans the rest of the world assumes we keep in our cabinets..

 

-Mike

If only you knew how to do iOS apps so us jailbroke iPhone users had your awesome app to play with too.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

[mikejeep]

If only you knew how to do iOS apps so us jailbroke iPhone users had your awesome app to play with too.

 

I'm actually thankful that Apple's silly policies give me an excuse to not develop an iPhone app.. I hardly have time to develop and support one version, let alone two!

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

I'm not sure if this has been reported before, but notice that the icon in the status bar says eHRPD even though the signal check app sees no EVDO connection. My phone is on CDMA (1x) only, so the app itself is correct.

 

Hmm.. if it happens again, please hit About > Send Diagnostics and mention the issue in the comments. I'd have to see what's going on behind the scenes to know why that's happening.

 

-Mike

[ericdabbs]

Hmm.. if it happens again, please hit About > Send Diagnostics and mention the issue in the comments. I'd have to see what's going on behind the scenes to know why that's happening.

 

-Mike

 

Hey Mike.  I remember our little discussion this morning about sending diagnostic information to you to help you isolate the MNC-MCC issue and something dawned on me.  I have never used the Send Diagnostics button before so  I couldn't find the stinking "Send Diagnostics" button until I hit the "About SignalCheck" menu.  

 

I think to me the "Send Diagnostics" button needs to be more transparent so I guess my suggestion maybe for a future version is to move the "Send Diagnostics" option from the About SignalCheck window TO an option called Send Diagnostics in the same area where it has About SignalCheck, Help, Preferences, Reset Data Connection, System Shortcuts, Exit.

 

This is your app so I'll leave that up to you.  Just passing on a suggestion that I just noticed today.

[mikejeep]

Hey Mike.  I remember our little discussion this morning about sending diagnostic information to you to help you isolate the MNC-MCC issue and something dawned on me.  I have never used the Send Diagnostics button before so  I couldn't find the stinking "Send Diagnostics" button until I hit the "About SignalCheck" menu.  

 

I think to me the "Send Diagnostics" button needs to be more transparent so I guess my suggestion maybe for a future version is to move the "Send Diagnostics" option from the About SignalCheck window TO an option called Send Diagnostics in the same area where it has About SignalCheck, Help, Preferences, Reset Data Connection, System Shortcuts, Exit.

 

Sorry, usually when I ask for diagnostics from specific people, I point them in the right direction.. my bad!

 

I could move it, but I have it semi-buried for a reason. Most of the time, it's only useful in conjunction with other information -- a bug I'm working on with someone, or a specific scenario I'm asking people to look for. Almost always something I'm already communicating about.

 

It's not designed to be a tool to file initial problem reports.. that's why it's "Send Diagnostics" and not "Ask for Help". There isn't enough room to put detailed information on that popup screen, and a LOT of people submit reports from just a name -- I have no way of knowing how to get back to someone who only puts down "Bob". I already get about 20 random reports a day from people with no name or description, most likely just hitting the button out of curiosity.. I don't need to encourage more of that!

 

-Mike

[ericdabbs]

Sorry, usually when I ask for diagnostics from specific people, I point them in the right direction.. my bad!

 

I could move it, but I have it semi-buried for a reason. Most of the time, it's only useful in conjunction with other information -- a bug I'm working on with someone, or a specific scenario I'm asking people to look for. Almost always something I'm already communicating about.

 

It's not designed to be a tool to file initial problem reports.. that's why it's "Send Diagnostics" and not "Ask for Help". There isn't enough room to put detailed information on that popup screen, and a LOT of people submit reports from just a name -- I have no way of knowing how to get back to someone who only puts down "Bob". I already get about 20 random reports a day from people with no name or description, most likely just hitting the button out of curiosity.. I don't need to encourage more of that!

 

-Mike

 

Ok that makes sense.  I guess its not used that often.

[WiWavelength]

Mike, could you add Wi-Fi band or even channel to the SignalCheck Pro readouts?  I know that this info is accessible from other Wi-Fi specific apps that I use, but I do like SignalCheck Pro as my one stop signal metric shop whenever possible.

 

AJ

[mikejeep]

Mike, could you add Wi-Fi band or even channel to the SignalCheck Pro readouts?  I know that this info is accessible from other Wi-Fi specific apps that I use, but I do like SignalCheck Pro as my one stop signal metric shop whenever possible.

 

I thought about adding that stuff, as well as letting the Wi-Fi info update independently (currently, it only updates when a cellular metric updates), but nobody ever asks about Wi-Fi, so I put it on the back burner. I'll see what I can do, should be fairly minimal to get in there.

 

-Mike