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

[mikejeep]

Just a heads up, I updated to the Q Beta on my Pixel 2 XL and it broke SCP. It no longer shows the connected cell.

I learned a few years ago not to stress over Preview builds not working properly, because a lot of the stuff SCP uses gets overlooked in early builds. But please send me a diagnostic report when you have a chance so I can take a look at it.

-Mike

[mikejeep]

After looking at a handful of diagnostic and crash reports that I have received from Android Q Preview users, I can see that the connection data being reported by the OS is either missing or invalid on all devices so far. It's either broken or Android is taking a completely different approach and has not publicly shared that yet. Hopefully it's just broken, and they will resolve it in the next release.

Q users, please use whatever reporting channels are in place to report Preview bugs to inform them of this. You can mention that onSignalStrengthsChanged() is including header text with every value instead of just the raw data, and CellInfoLte.getCellIdentity() and related routines appear to be reporting no data.

-Mike

[jefbal99]

12 hours ago, mikejeep said:

After looking at a handful of diagnostic and crash reports that I have received from Android Q Preview users, I can see that the connection data being reported by the OS is either missing or invalid on all devices so far. It's either broken or Android is taking a completely different approach and has not publicly shared that yet. Hopefully it's just broken, and they will resolve it in the next release.

Q users, please use whatever reporting channels are in place to report Preview bugs to inform them of this. You can mention that onSignalStrengthsChanged() is including header text with every value instead of just the raw data, and CellInfoLte.getCellIdentity() and related routines appear to be reporting no data.

-Mike

Its on reddit now, please comment and upvote

https://www.reddit.com/r/android_beta/comments/b2n6z5/connection_data_not_being_reported_from_q/

[dkyeager]

To help fix issues with SCP on Android Q:

Please go and Star 

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/130132884

{credit JefBal99}

[mikejeep]

Just an update.. Android Q Beta 2 seems to improve things over the first Q release, and the beta version SCP in testing mostly works with it. Hope to have a public update out soon.. it'll be a good one..

-Mike

[mikejeep]

SignalCheck 4.52 is rolling out to the masses! It should be available on Google Play within the hour. Here are the highlights:

New options added:

• Added option to control display of horizontal signal meters on main screen.
• Added option to control logging of LTE sites if the TAC is missing/invalid.
   
• Added option to display LTE bandwidth on Android 9.0+ devices.
  This is nice, but not 100% reliable on most devices yet. Hopefully this improves over time.
   
• Added options to trigger Alerts based on specific LTE bands or plain-text strings.
  This is pretty cool.. you can choose LTE bands, and/or have the app alert on any text you want (or don't want, by using the "!" character). Set multiple alerts by separating strings with commas.

Notable bug fixes:

• Resolved issue with app failing to exit immediately in certain scenarios.
• Resolved issue with missing data on Android Q Beta devices.
• Resolved issue with missing PLMN ID in certain scenarios.
• Resolved issue with missing provider database on Android 9.0 devices.
   
• Resolved issue with Alerts preferences not working properly on Android 8.0+ devices.
  Most of the Alert preferences are now handled directly by the system.
   
• Resolved issue with missing WCDMA data on newer devices.
  Some of these items were a lot more work than a brief sentence might hint.. many were significant bugs, some users will see great improvements!

Other changes:

• Adjusted animated action bar tower icon colors when idle.
• Changed device location settings warning to reappear on every app update.
• Changed primary signal data source on Android 7.0+ devices.
   
• Disabled battery-related options for Location Service and Site Logger on Android 8.0+ devices; intend add back in a future update.
  Android no longer permits third-party apps to monitor power status changes; I am looking for an alternative method.
   
• Improved deployment process; releases will now be smaller, more optimized downloads.
  This is not a large app, but now it's approximately 30% smaller anyway.

 

Thanks for all of your support! Feel free to shout if you have any questions..

-Mike

[swintec]

what does the distance in feet mean for TA?  What does the TA value mean?

[mikejeep]

what does the distance in feet mean for TA?  What does the TA value mean?

Ahhh I forgot to add that one to the help screen didn't I! That is LTE timing advance.. the distance displayed is approximately how far you are from that cell. It is typically only measured when data is flowing, that's why you will see it appear/disappear.

-Mike

[mmark27]

Mike, this is a great update. I love the granularity of notifications now. This is excellent to track the issues going on with the S10 data dropping on certain bands.....You sir have created quite the app, thank you for your hard work!  

[chamb]

26 minutes ago, mikejeep said:

Ahhh I forgot to add that one to the help screen didn't I! That is LTE timing advance.. the distance displayed is approximately how far you are from that cell. It is typically only measured when data is flowing, that's why you will see it appear/disappear.

-Mike

Well Mike, I am actually about 16,000 feet from my cell site. The TA value is 33 (8451 feet)  Not very accurate is it?

 

[mdob07]

5 minutes ago, chamb said:

Well Mike, I am actually about 16,000 feet from my cell site. The TA value is 33 (8451 feet)  Not very accurate is it?

 

It has been extremely accurate in my testing on both AT&T and Verizon. It's more reliable than RSRP value alone for identifying cell sites for me.

[ingenium]

Well Mike, I am actually about 16,000 feet from my cell site. The TA value is 33 (8451 feet)  Not very accurate is it?
 

Mike can only really report the value that the OS returns. The modem uses it to calculate when to send data, so that the eNB will receive it at the right/assigned time. The timing advance is basically an estimate of how much of a delay there will be from when it's transmitted until it's received. Or at least that's my understanding. From the time delay, if you multiply it by the speed of light (in air), you get an approximate distance.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[mikejeep]

Working on adding bandwidth and carrier aggregation features to SCP.. but a lot of the data being reported by devices is inaccurate. Not sure if it's an Android issue or a vendor issue, but please help bring it to the Android engineers' attention by marking it with a 'star' if you don't mind! It's the best way to get bugs escalated.. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/131532224

Thanks,
-Mike

[alphaalphagamma]

Signal check doesn't seem to like the new magic box voice amp...

 

Can't edit the site notes...bad data! 

 

[ingenium]

Signal check doesn't seem to like the new magic box voice amp...

 
Can't edit the site notes...bad data! 
 

I can confirm that you can't edit the site notes for it in the most recent beta. I receive the same error.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[mikejeep]

The latest update to SignalCheck Pro will be available on Google Play within the hour! As always, some much needed bugfixes and a few new features. Here is the full changelog with some details:

• Added ability to look up network registrant by clicking on IP address.
  This is kind of cool -- if you have the mobile IP address display enabled (which constantly uses small bits of data to anonymously ping a public server -- so there may be a battery impact, however minimal, if you keep this on 24/7), if you click on it you'll get a popup showing the owner of record for your IP.
   
• Added option to display carrier aggregation info on Android 9.0+ devices [BETA].
  This is cool but very unreliable at this point. This is a newer Android function that needs further improvements by device manufacturers. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes it's not -- SCP will report whatever your OS is reporting. Unfortunately I cannot do much more to improve this functionality until vendors/manufacturers fix things on their end.
   
• Added indicators for Sprint Airave 4 CDMA/LTE connections.
• Resolved issue with CDMA site notes and logging not working when connected to Sprint Airave 4.
  These changes should provide full compatibility for users connecting to Sprint's brand new Airave 4. Thanks to your diagnostic reports I was able to tackle this shortly after the device began shipping!
   
• Resolved issue with no signal alerts not triggering.
  This alert probably never worked for most users -- but nobody mentioned it! Should be fixed now. I personally find this alert extremely useful.
   
• Added additional information to Logger Statistics screen.
  Hope to add more stuff like this in the future, stats and data are cool.
   
• Added option to apply a correction factor to LTE timing advance (TA) value.
  Some devices report LTE TA as approximately one-half of the actual value. Enable this option to manually apply a correction. If device manufacturers correct this in the future, simply disable the option.. and hopefully someday it can be removed completely.
   
• Removed option to exclude logcat output from diagnostic reports.
  This option was needed in early (4+ years ago) versions due to issues with force closes. This is no longer an issue and only provides confusion -- and less information to help me diagnose crashes. The only logcat output included in diagnostic reports is whatever SCP generates, and all reports are completely anonymous unless you provide identifying information.
   
• Resolved force closes when permissions were denied/revoked.
• Resolved internal exception when installing version 4.52.
• Resolved issue with EARFCN values off by 1 for some LTE band 66 and 71 cells.
• Resolved issue with missing LTE data on some Android 7+ devices.
• Resolved issue with missing popup when permissions were denied.
• Updated help screen.
  All should be self-explanatory. Squashing bugs never ends!

 

As always, I sincerely appreciate everyone's support and please let me know of any issues! More new stuff in the pipeline..

Thanks,
-Mike

[L31FY]

I can't seem to get the Carrier Aggregation or Bandwidth to display for some reason. I have a Galaxy S9 and I've got the check boxes selected but nothing appears as far as those things go. 

[lilotimz]

I can't seem to get the Carrier Aggregation or Bandwidth to display for some reason. I have a Galaxy S9 and I've got the check boxes selected but nothing appears as far as those things go. 

It takes ages to show and is not reliable.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[mdob07]

1 hour ago, L31FY said:

I can't seem to get the Carrier Aggregation or Bandwidth to display for some reason. I have a Galaxy S9 and I've got the check boxes selected but nothing appears as far as those things go. 

I haven't seen it on my S9 plus either. Samsung will have to include those bits of code that pull that information in their Android build. We may not see it until Android Q. Hopefully we see it soon than later but we'll see. Even on the phones that have been passing that info its been wildly inconsistent. Hopefully in future releases Google will get that issue sorted out.

[chamb]

5 hours ago, mikejeep said:

The latest update to SignalCheck Pro will be available on Google Play within the hour! As always, some much needed bugfixes and a few new features. Here is the full changelog with some details:

•  
• Added option to apply a correction factor to LTE timing advance (TA) value.
  Some devices report LTE TA as approximately one-half of the actual value. Enable this option to manually apply a correction. If device manufacturers correct this in the future, simply disable the option.. and hopefully someday it can be removed completely.

Thanks,
-Mike

Mike,

Concerning the TA Value, on April 18 I reported to you that my s9 was showing I was about 8451 ft from my cell site. I am actually about 16,000 feet.   Now, with this update today, I am seeing  just over 16,000 ft.  At least for me, it is now fairly accurate.

[mikejeep]

Concerning the TA Value, on April 18 I reported to you that my s9 was showing I was about 8451 ft from my cell site. I am actually about 16,000 feet.   Now, with this update today, I am seeing  just over 16,000 ft.  At least for me, it is now fairly accurate.

Excellent! At first, I didn't receive any reports except for yours, but eventually a few people reached out and said it looked like their device was reporting about half of what it should.. my Pixel 3 was very accurate at first but then I noticed it too, possibly after a software update. Hopefully it either gets resolved across the board or I can eventually identify specific devices/scenarios it impacts so I can automate the correction.

-Mike

[alphaalphagamma]

looks like a 1x site note for an Airave 4 also applied to the Magic Box Voice Amp, and other Airave 4's.   Is there any way to distinguish between them?

 

My site note shows on 3 different locations =D

[mikejeep]

On 6/18/2019 at 12:27 AM, alphaalphagamma said:

looks like a 1x site note for an Airave 4 also applied to the Magic Box Voice Amp, and other Airave 4's.   Is there any way to distinguish between them?

My site note shows on 3 different locations =D

It will only share 1X site notes if the SID+NID+BID are identical.. the problem is that all of the Airave 4's I have seen report BID 0. So if all of them have the same SID and NID (which appears to only be 504-506 so far), that's probably what is causing this. Since CDMA 1X does not broadcast any other identifying information, there's no way for the app to know the difference.

Personally I think the BID 0 is a software goof, but I can't even get my hands on an Airave 4, let alone tell them it's programmed wrong..

-Mike

[jthawks]

Is there a way to find what mhz Verizon is using? You know 5x5 or 10x10? I have an s10.  Thanks. 

[mdob07]

5 hours ago, jthawks said:

Is there a way to find what mhz Verizon is using? You know 5x5 or 10x10? I have an s10.  Thanks. 

There are a couple of ways to determine the channel size, though none of them are as easy as opening the engineering screen. The first is to check the FCC licenses for your area for Verizon. 2nd is if another carrier you use has adjacent licenses, for example here I knew Verizon had a AWS carrier centered at 1725/2125. I also have AT&T which happens to have a 10x10 AWS carrier centered at 1715/2115. That puts Verizon's carrier as 10x10 also. 3rd process I use is I have an old rooted nexus 6 running NSG. Since the phone is rooted NSG call pull loads more info from the modem than my S9 plus. None of these methods are a direct replacement for the engineering screen and all require a little work, but anyone of these three can get you what you want.