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

[bmoses]

did anything change with the latest beta and displaying SNR while connected to LTE? i updated this morning and noticed that i'm not showing SNR anymore.

[floorguy]

The LG flash tool link you provided has the following disclaimer at the top: "Backup your data! This will format your internal storage, including user apps, SMS/MMS, Call Logs, Pictures etc. So please backup your data"

 

When you downgraded, your device was wiped.

 

-Mike

yea thats what i get for 

 

A. Rushing it

B. doing it while my head was exploding from an ear infection

C. just not reading it...

 

my own fault.....thanks though......

 

still makes me wonder why a handful of apps didnt erase????

[tommym65]

did anything change with the latest beta and displaying SNR while connected to LTE? i updated this morning and noticed that i'm not showing SNR anymore.

 

Ditto on SNR. 

[JossMan]

Ditto on SNR. 

+1

[JossMan]

 

still makes me wonder why a handful of apps didnt erase????

Bloatware?

[mikejeep]

did anything change with the latest beta and displaying SNR while connected to LTE? i updated this morning and noticed that i'm not showing SNR anymore.

 

Sort of.. I tweaked that area of the code to account for when RSRQ is invalid. My N5 doesn't report SNR so I certainly could have broken it and not immediately noticed. I will look into it early next week.. I'm out of state until Monday, so you will have to have a weekend with zero SNR.

 

-Mike

[mc_gusto]

How's Samsung faring in the new betas?

[Trip]

I have an S5 and the new beta has fixed the bug where Clear sites would show as Sprint sites and the bug where it would show "No connection" at times even though it was connected.

- Trip

[dedub]

Any chance we could get an 'overlay' mode, something like apparently the aquos crystal has?

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2703-network-visionlte-washington-dc-market/page-34&do=findComment&comment=389560

 

even if it requires root, that would be a pretty killer feature.

[kg4icg]

Any chance we could get an 'overlay' mode, something like apparently the aquos crystal has?

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2703-network-visionlte-washington-dc-market/page-34&do=findComment&comment=389560

 

even if it requires root, that would be a pretty killer feature.

It is the Aquos Crystals engineering screen. Something every one has, just that everyone can't do like sharp did it.

[dedub]

It is possible to create android app that can be 'always on top' or overlay other apps.

 

All that would need to be done is a simplified txt only view translucently overlayed over normal apps.

 

if you go into android settings > developer options > show cpu usage, you can see an example of what I mean (beyond the aquos example).

[jreuschl]

Also another idea.. Great that the band # will be in the status bar. Maybe make an option that the band # is the only thing showing for ease of readability away from the screen? Thanks, great work!

[mikejeep]

Any chance we could get an 'overlay' mode, something like apparently the aquos crystal has?

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2703-network-visionlte-washington-dc-market/page-34&do=findComment&comment=389560

 

even if it requires root, that would be a pretty killer feature.

 

Someone asked for that before; I looked into it briefly, and realized I would need to learn several new things before I could tackle it, so it moved down the priority list a bit. I definitely still plan on pursuing it, there are just some other things I'd like to tackle first. I'm literally learning java/Android coding as I go, so some things take me longer to implement than others. I'm also horribly uncreative when it comes to graphics/design if you couldn't tell!

 

Also another idea.. Great that the band # will be in the status bar. Maybe make an option that the band # is the only thing showing for ease of readability away from the screen? Thanks, great work!

 

Yep, that is already in beta testing.. selecting the "Network Type" status bar icon style will do it. For example, you will be able to see "LTE 41" or "LTE 2500" depending on your preference settings. There is not a lot of real estate in the notification bar, but I tried to maximize font size and clarity as much as I could. I did a LOT of testing with fonts and pixel densities for all of the new icons. I wanted it to be as readable as possible, and I wanted everything as consistent as possible. I didn't want "LTE 2500" to be in a completely different font than "1X" even though each piece of text takes up a very different amount of space. I'd post a screenshot but I don't have one saved right now, and it's tricky to get on another band where I am at the moment.

 

I am working on finishing up the last couple of new features (big strides for Samsung and LG phones, plus log import/export for everyone) and squashing bugs. Hopefully it will be through testing by early next week.

 

-Mike

[S4GRU]

One thing I noticed on Friday relating to the weird and seemingly errant PCI's appearing in the Neighboring Cells list...

 

Driving around my city, I often see glimpses of PCI's in my neighboring list that I don't know where they are. They are not in town sites. I have seen others say the similar things. And I have logged notes for every site for approximately 200 miles.

 

I have a TAC boundary at the county line, about 12 miles south of town. I drove across that boundary on Friday, and voila, suddenly several phantom neighboring cells with no notes or anything suddenly populated when I connected to a site with the adjacent TAC. And sites that were just showing notes back in my primary TAC area instantly went blank. Only Neighboring Cell notes of the current TAC were displayed.

 

Apparently, I have had all these sites saved with notes in SCP. But because I have been seeing them while not connected to their TAC, they appear with no notes. So they look like phantom signals or errant readings. Like a software problem.

 

I can assure you in my case, I have now found the source of every bizarre neighboring cell PCI. Even though it would have been easy to conclude that there is a software or network problem, I have been able to find and catalog every bizarre neighboring cell PCI apparition I have ever seen driving around my city. Some have been over 30-40 air miles away.

 

So remember, when you find a strange glimpse of a signal in your neighboring list and you know you have added notes for every site within 40 miles, remember, it could be even farther away or possibly across a TAC boundary. Because SCP will only load notes for PCI's within the TAC you are currently connected to.

[Trip]

The beta has an option to ignore the TAC for neighbor cells and just get the nearest PCI match.

 

- Trip

[mikejeep]

...So remember, when you find a strange glimpse of a signal in your neighboring list and you know you have added notes for every site within 40 miles, remember, it could be even farther away or possibly across a TAC boundary. Because SCP will only load notes for PCI's within the TAC you are currently connected to.

Robert, update to the newest beta and try out Preferences > Display > Location Neighbor Notes. It will blow your mind.

 

-Mike

[S4GRU]

Robert, update to the newest beta and try out Preferences > Display > Location Neighbor Notes. It will blow your mind.

 

-Mike

 

As typical, I'm a day late and a dollar short.  

[jefbal99]

I'll just be happy when my S4T gets the 4.4.4 update and the PCI is displayed (hopefully), then Neighoring cells will start working

[bmoses]

speaking of "phantom" neighboring cell sites..... with the beta using locations now i went through my signal check database and added the exact coordinates for the tower locations to all my logged GCI/PCI entries along with a strongest signal of -40 so they wouldn't get overwritten. now when neighboring cells show it lists the site notes regardless of TAC and the distance and direction to the tower is accurate

 

so after doing that i caught an example of PCI's that don't belong to sprint towers.

 

 

the tower i'm connected to was about .3 miles from me and i was looking right at it when i took that screenshot. the 162 PCI is also an accurate PCI for a sprint tower. PCI 405 does not list a site note because its not a sprint site around me, plus look at that signal strength. the last PCI of 275 does list a site note, but as you can see the location it lists is in Boone and was 25.16 miles away from me, and with that signal strength i can say with certainty that it was also not coming from a sprint site.

 

i still continue to see the 233 PCI i posted about before when i'm at work, just waiting for my work verizon S4 and a coworkers USCC Note 2 to get updated so they display the PCI to see if its coming from those carriers or not. 

[mikejeep]

speaking of "phantom" neighboring cell sites..... with the beta using locations now i went through my signal check database and added the exact coordinates for the tower locations to all my logged GCI/PCI entries along with a strongest signal of -40 so they wouldn't get overwritten. now when neighboring cells show it lists the site notes regardless of TAC and the distance and direction to the tower is accurate

Wow, what a great idea! I hadn't even thought of that. I'd like to eventually implement some triangulation to better locate known sites, but your way is foolproof. Awesome use of creativity!

 

the tower i'm connected to was about .3 miles from me and i was looking right at it when i took that screenshot. the 162 PCI is also an accurate PCI for a sprint tower. PCI 405 does not list a site note because its not a sprint site around me, plus look at that signal strength. the last PCI of 275 does list a site note, but as you can see the location it lists is in Boone and was 25.16 miles away from me, and with that signal strength i can say with certainty that it was also not coming from a sprint site.

 

Curious -- are you in an area with former Clearwire sites? After doing a lot of drive testing and logging, I've noticed that when signal strength gets weak, my N5 seems to increase what it is scanning for. Even when on Sprint B25, Clear B41 PCIs start appearing. The newest beta option (No-PLMN Neighbor Notes) shows this very well so far for me.

 

This neighbor cell feature is becoming more and more entertaining to watch, especially in more populated areas! I've seen some new PCIs popping up near one of the last few non-LTE towers around here.. I'm hoping it's the new gear in testing. It would be pretty cool if that turned out to be a source of some of our phantom PCIs.

 

-Mike

[bmoses]

nope, no clearwire in my area, just 3 protection sites that are still only wimax and aren't anywhere close to where i was when the screenshot was taken.

 

in my area i'm down to 2 possibilities for the unknown PCI..... 1) the sprint sites are broadcasting some phantom/unused PCI that my phone sometimes sees 2) i'm picking up PCI from another carrier around here.

[JossMan]

Upon discovering my first active B41 site the other day I suspect that this phantom PCI of "336" is another new B41 site that just came online sometime this morning.  

 

 

[jefbal99]

Mike, what can you make of these?

 

[mikejeep]

Mike, what can you make of these?

 

I see "Searching for Service" in the system pulldown, which is indicative of no voice access (either no 1X connection or you are in LTE-only mode).. and SignalCheck seems to be confirming that. Send a diagnostic report if it's still happening and I can see what is going on behind the scenes.

 

-Mike

[darickster09]

Mike looks like you are getting close to release?  Seems you will be blowing alot of minds!  lol.