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

[ufergus]

I have the pro version and have the 800 and LTE alerts notified.  It seems that the alerts only work if I turn my screen on while I'm in the area.  

 

Example: I enter an area I know has LTE, and I pick my phone up and turn the screen on and immediately the alert chimes it vibrates.  The first time it happened I thought it was a coincidence, but now I don't think it is.  I think the same happened with 800 this weekend also.

 

I have an EVO 4G LTE, if that matters.

 

Is it supposed to work like this?

 

I have this same behavior with the EVO 4G LTE.

[benifactor]

I get the lte alert sometimes at my house but no lte in status bar. As far as I know the tower I am connected to has rrus and is 3g complete but no lte. What could cause this? Using signal check pro on galaxy nexus.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[Dkoellerwx]

I get the lte alert sometimes at my house but no lte in status bar. As far as I know the tower I am connected to has rrus and is 3g complete but no lte. What could cause this? Using signal check pro on galaxy nexus.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

It may be a similar symptom as with the HTC ONE, where something holds onto the last bit of information from when you were on LTE, so when the app does a check, or WiFi disconnects or something like that it still thinks it has LTE, even though it doesn't. 

[benifactor]

It may be a similar symptom as with the HTC ONE, where something holds onto the last bit of information from when you were on LTE, so when the app does a check, or WiFi disconnects or something like that it still thinks it has LTE, even though it doesn't.

 

This happened 10+ hours after lte connection. And I was on WiFi.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Dkoellerwx]

This happened 10+ hours after lte connection. And I was on WiFi. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

The GNex is notorious for getting its radios stuck. That's the only explanation I can think of.

[mikejeep]

I have received multiple reports of "stale" LTE data displaying on the HTC One a signficant amount of time after the phone has lost LTE connectivity.  I have reported it to HTC and I'm still working on a fix that will handle this in the app.

 

As far as how alerts are received while your screen is off, that is device-specific.  SignalCheck does not poll/request/refresh signal data at any specified interval; it relies on an Android method that pushes signal strength changes to the app as soon as they occur.  This is very efficient, and means that users see updates immediately, yet no extra processing is wasted on calls to the radio when there is no new data.  Attempting to force faster updates would do nothing except waste resources, because whatever data is available is already updated instantly with this method.  The rate at which this data is updated is not configurable by developers or end-users.

 

Many (most? all?) Android devices cut down on background activity when the screen is turned off.  This is for power conservation, and it is an intentional design feature of Android.  I will not be implementing anything to interfere with that.. its a good thing.  If you are running SignalCheck Pro, you can enable an option in the preferences to automatically keep the screen on when the app is in the foreground; this will keep the device in its most "active" state.  Some people have observed that updates seem to come less frequently when the screen is on but data traffic has been idle for a bit; again, this is probably by design for power conservation purposes.  This is handled by manufacturers and probably the base Android code itself.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

I get the lte alert sometimes at my house but no lte in status bar. As far as I know the tower I am connected to has rrus and is 3g complete but no lte. What could cause this? Using signal check pro on galaxy nexus.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

It could have been a very brief blip of LTE that was gone before you noticed it, or a hiccup of your device's radio.  My EVO used to report LTE for a split second before going into airplane mode, months before there was any LTE in my area.  Or perhaps they are testing LTE in your area, and your device is connecting to it, but then immediately being forced off.

 

SignalCheck fires the alert the instant your device reports it has an LTE connection, so even the quickest flash of LTE could trigger it.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

This happened 10+ hours after lte connection. And I was on WiFi. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

FYI, even if you are on WiFi, SignalCheck could trigger an LTE or 800 alert.  It monitors the status of the cellular connection, even if the phone is using a different one.

 

-Mike

[benifactor]

FYI, even if you are on WiFi, SignalCheck could trigger an LTE or 800 alert. It monitors the status of the cellular connection, even if the phone is using a different one.

 

-Mike

Thanks for the answers and thanks for the app!

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[mikejeep]

The brand new version of Google Maps rolling out this week does not work as well with SignalCheck. Clicking on the BSL will zoom to the right area, but an error message appears and the pin is not placed.

 

I'll see what I can do..

 

-Mike

[markjcc]

are you able to add in WiMAX in there also longside LTE?

[ericdabbs]

are you able to add in WiMAX in there also longside LTE?

I asked mike awhile ago about adding wimax to the app. He says that wimax has some proprietary stuff that its not possible to add.

 

Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[4ginnc]

The brand new version of Google Maps rolling out this week does not work as well with SignalCheck. Clicking on the BSL will zoom to the right area, but an error message appears and the pin is not placed.

 

I'll see what I can do..

 

-Mike

Maps just updated again last night for me. Maybe they were fixing a bug to release another update so soon. I'll check this morning on the way to work and see if it's working again.

 

sent from my s3 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[digiblur]

Maps just updated again last night for me. Maybe they were fixing a bug to release another update so soon. I'll check this morning on the way to work and see if it's working again.

 

sent from my s3 using Tapatalk 4

 

Google Maps adds to the list of apps I rolled back and will not update.  Slacker, Talk, Gmail, and now Google Maps.  They're all going backwards! AH!!  You can't load your own KMLs in the GoogleMaps app anymore. 

[4ginnc]

I tried again and it's still not working, even after last night's update.  

[markjcc]

I wish Google play accepts PayPal

[mikejeep]

I tried again and it's still not working, even after last night's update.  

 

Yeah, I have been doing some testing and it looks like Google Maps 7 does not allow extra data to be passed in.  Not sure if this is by design or a bug, but it's not working.  My goal was to eventually incorporate maps into the app itself anyway (instead of launching the external mapping app), this might force me to do it a bit sooner.  "Cheating" by launching the mapping app is just so much easier on my end!

 

After testing on both the new and old Google Maps versions, I have it fixed, at the expense of the SID label on the marker.  Not much I can do about that for now.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

are you able to add in WiMAX in there also longside LTE?

 

Eric jumped in for me already; I will probably not be adding WiMax support.  There are no standard methods to get WiMax information in Android; the code is proprietary and would require a lot of work and testing on devices that I do not have.  I know Sprint will be keeping the network up for at least a couple more years, but I'd rather focus my efforts on the network being turned on now, not the one they are trying to get everyone off of.

 

I wish Google play accepts PayPal

 

Did you get my e-mail replies?  How Google chooses to do business is out of my control.  You can buy a Google Play gift card at an online merchant with PayPal, or grab one in a physical store.  PayPal is a competitor of Google Checkout, so of course they don't accept it.  Maybe when Checkout is shut down next month that will change, but I wouldn't hold your breath.  Sorry!

 

-Mike

[imex99]

Mike,

 

I hate ur app......

 

 

 

It's like crack for an addict, I'm addicted to it!

 

Love the app and so glad I bought the pro version, keep up the great work.

 

Our Columbus, OH market is in full swing nv upgrades, love hearing the different alerts and tones.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[mikejeep]

Mike, I hate ur app...... It's like crack for an addict, I'm addicted to it! Love the app and so glad I bought the pro version, keep up the great work. Our Columbus, OH market is in full swing nv upgrades, love hearing the different alerts and tones.

Hahaha I'm not sure if I should apologize or say thank you! Glad you find it useful! See you on "Intervention" soon..

 

-Mike

[mrknowitall526]

Mike, I hate ur app...... It's like crack for an addict, I'm addicted to it! Love the app and so glad I bought the pro version, keep up the great work. Our Columbus, OH market is in full swing nv upgrades, love hearing the different alerts and tones. Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

I agree, I'm addicted to it also!  

 

My sister picked up my phone over the weekend and said "Why is there an "EH" next to your bars?"  Haha.  I just said, "I downloaded an app that plays a sound when I have 4G."  She just responded with "Oh."  LOL!

[bmoses]

i did a search and it looked like this was mentioned awhile ago, but any chance you could add the EVDO channel and EVDO sector ID info on the screen? I've been plotting the EVDO sector ID's from the towers as i've driven around to them looking for NV upgrades so i can tell what tower EVDO is connected to when i'm at work. Having that info all on one screen would really be nice so i don't have to keep dialing ##33284# to get back to it all the time

[mrrogers1]

i did a search and it looked like this was mentioned awhile ago, but any chance you could add the EVDO channel and EVDO sector ID info on the screen? I've been plotting the EVDO sector ID's from the towers as i've driven around to them looking for NV upgrades so i can tell what tower EVDO is connected to when i'm at work. Having that info all on one screen would really be nice so i don't have to keep dialing ##33284# to get back to it all the time

 

I think you can get to that under Menu/System Shortcuts/HTC Field Trial.

[mikejeep]

i did a search and it looked like this was mentioned awhile ago, but any chance you could add the EVDO channel and EVDO sector ID info on the screen? I've been plotting the EVDO sector ID's from the towers as i've driven around to them looking for NV upgrades so i can tell what tower EVDO is connected to when i'm at work. Having that info all on one screen would really be nice so i don't have to keep dialing ##33284# to get back to it all the time

If you have an HTC device, you can enable the display of the EVDO sector ID in the Preferences screen. Unfortunately right now I can't get IDs for non-HTC devices--or any channel or band information for any devices--displayed directly in the app. You can get to the engineering screens through the System Shortcuts menu in the app if you find that to be quicker. I plan to add widgets that will give you one-click access to these features soon also.

 

I am constantly trying to get more data into the app, such as ID/PN/channel/band/etc.. it is a lot of guesswork and back-door hacking, but I'm not giving up. I have been starting to grab cheap older devices off eBay for testing purposes in the hopes that it will help development in this area.

 

-Mike

[bmoses]

If you have an HTC device, you can enable the display of the EVDO sector ID in the Preferences screen. Unfortunately right now I can't get IDs for non-HTC devices--or any channel or band information for any devices--displayed directly in the app. You can get to the engineering screens through the System Shortcuts menu in the app if you find that to be quicker. I plan to add widgets that will give you one-click access to these features soon also.

 

I am constantly trying to get more data into the app, such as ID/PN/channel/band/etc.. it is a lot of guesswork and back-door hacking, but I'm not giving up. I have been starting to grab cheap older devices off eBay for testing purposes in the hopes that it will help development in this area.

 

-Mike

 

 

thank you! guess thats what happens when you try and request features that are already there that you didn't know about cause you didn't upgrade to the pro version yet /goes off to purchase pro version