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

[Fubie]

Mike,

 

I'm running a custom ROM (CM10.1) and we thought SignalCheck Pro couldn't see the Hex SCID.  I was comparing what my SCP listed compared to Dkoellerwx and while his showed Serving Cell which is the Hex SCID mine showed CID and a different number for the same LTE tower.  lilg740 just confirmed that my CID which was 90280195 is the decimal of Serving Cell 056190103 hex that Dkoellerwx showed.

 

We can see the HEX SCID.  Is there anyway you can have the decimal number converted and show the hex in addition to the decimal?

[mikejeep]

Mike,

 

I'm running a custom ROM (CM10.1) and we thought SignalCheck Pro couldn't see the Hex SCID. I was comparing what my SCP listed compared to Dkoellerwx and while his showed Serving Cell which is the Hex SCID mine showed CID and a different number for the same LTE tower. lilg740 just confirmed that my CID which was 90280195 is the decimal of Serving Cell 056190103 hex that Dkoellerwx showed.

 

We can see the HEX SCID. Is there anyway you can have the decimal number converted and show the hex in addition to the decimal?

Wait.. so you see an LTE CID? This would be the first report of the new API 17 features working.. if so, that is awesome news!! If you could post a screen shot and let me know what device and OS version you are on, I can see exactly what needs to be converted. What CM version, is it a nightly? I hadn't found a device or ROM that utilized this code until now, so I had no idea what format it would be in.

 

-Mike

[david279]

What nightly are you on? I don't see any CID? Im on the HTC One with 7/22 nightly.

 

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[lordsutch]

I've been doing some work with the CM team to get LTE CID reporting into their ROMs. For the adventurous, see http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/45607/

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[david279]

Ah I've been watching that. I assume that will come to the one. People have only been testing it on the jewel so I'm not sure.

 

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[lordsutch]

It's probably the same RIL under the hood (I doubt HTC would start from scratch for a new model), so in theory it should work on all HTC CDMA/LTE devices.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[Fubie]

Wait.. so you see an LTE CID? This would be the first report of the new API 17 features working.. if so, that is awesome news!! If you could post a screen shot and let me know what device and OS version you are on, I can see exactly what needs to be converted. What CM version, is it a nightly? I hadn't found a device or ROM that utilized this code until now, so I had no idea what format it would be in.

 

-Mike

 

Here are two caps.  Both the the CID correspond to Hex SCID for the tower in Fordland, MO and next to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, MO.

[Fubie]

What nightly are you on? I don't see any CID? Im on the HTC One with 7/22 nightly.

 

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I'm running Decks unofficial CM10.1 nightly from 7/16

[bmoses]

ok, so i upgraded to the pro version and went out for a drive and noticed that a few times the EVDO sector ID in signalcheck did not match what was displaying in field trial.

 

for example

 

i was sitting directly by the tower for these two pics. i tried resetting data connection and exiting the app and it never changed to display what field trial was displaying. this is on an EVO 4G LTE running meanbean rom.

 

if you need any specifics or need me to get/test anything to get your more info let me know. otherwise i love everything else about the app and am glad i purchased it!

[mikejeep]

I've been doing some work with the CM team to get LTE CID reporting into their ROMs. For the adventurous, see http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/45607/

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Great job, that's awesome!  Do you think the final implementation of this will continue to display the CID as an integer, or might it possibly come through as hex?  Just trying to decide if I should always convert the CID to hex in my app, or make it optional.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

ok, so i upgraded to the pro version and went out for a drive and noticed that a few times the EVDO sector ID in signalcheck did not match what was displaying in field trial.

 

...

 

i was sitting directly by the tower for these two pics. i tried resetting data connection and exiting the app and it never changed to display what field trial was displaying. this is on an EVO 4G LTE running meanbean rom.

 

if you need any specifics or need me to get/test anything to get your more info let me know. otherwise i love everything else about the app and am glad i purchased it!

 

Hmmm... that is strange.  I'm not sure how this would happen.  I pull the EVDO sector ID out using code similar to lordsutch's discovery of how to find the LTE serving cell.. the sector ID displayed in SignalCheck updates each time any of the signal levels change (not just the EVDO signal).

 

I have been watching my EVO LTE, and sector values always seem to match.  Do yours ever match?  Any chance that while you were sitting by the tower, you were quickly switching between two sectors?  I see the values only differ by one character, so my (very uneducated) guess would be that each of those is the same site but a different sector.

 

I'd like to assume the engineering screen is more reliable, but at the same time, perhaps that value does not always update and it was stale information?  Lots of what-ifs...

 

-Mike

[lordsutch]

Great job, that's awesome! Do you think the final implementation of this will continue to display the CID as an integer, or might it possibly come through as hex? Just trying to decide if I should always convert the CID to hex in my app, or make it optional.

The Android 4.2 API defines the return type from getCi as an integer, so it shouldn't change formats from that. I typically format it for display as hex using String.format("%08X"), so it matches what you'd get from the HTC API.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[bmoses]

Hmmm... that is strange.  I'm not sure how this would happen.  I pull the EVDO sector ID out using code similar to lordsutch's discovery of how to find the LTE serving cell.. the sector ID displayed in SignalCheck updates each time any of the signal levels change (not just the EVDO signal).

 

I have been watching my EVO LTE, and sector values always seem to match.  Do yours ever match?  Any chance that while you were sitting by the tower, you were quickly switching between two sectors?  I see the values only differ by one character, so my (very uneducated) guess would be that each of those is the same site but a different sector.

 

I'd like to assume the engineering screen is more reliable, but at the same time, perhaps that value does not always update and it was stale information?  Lots of what-ifs...

 

-Mike

 

it could have been switching between channels/sectors on the same tower but i switched back and forth several times and the values in the screenshots stayed the same. Yes they do match sometimes, and sometimes when they don't match it will eventually update without any intervention from me and then they will match.

 

Right now they do not match and i've been watching them for over an hour, both the field trial screen and signalcheck have shown the same sector ID for this whole time (each being different). Field trial (last 5 digits) is 1557F and signalcheck (last 5 digits) is DB06F. I haven't done much to try and force them to match this time, besides exiting and relaunching the app, as i was waiting to see if they would eventually match on their own. plus i'm on a good EVDO tower/sector right now and don't want to risk losing it by toggling airplane mode

 

all other info shown on the screen is constantly changing so its not that info isn't getting updated. Since you have the same phone and its working fine on yours i'm guessing that either my phone is a piece of crap, or something with the ROM i'm running is messing it up. i'll trying clearing out some cache's and re-installing the app and let you know if it makes a difference.

[mikejeep]

The Android 4.2 API defines the return type from getCi as an integer, so it shouldn't change formats from that. I typically format it for display as hex using String.format("%08X"), so it matches what you'd get from the HTC API.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

That's exactly the answer I was hoping for to keep things simple on my end.  I knew the 4.2 API wanted it as an int, but I wanted to double-check.  Already have the conversion code done, piece of cake.

 

Not trying to be greedy, but any plans to implement getPci in CM?  Only asking because I have the code for that already in there as well, but I haven't seen it appearing on any screenshots.  I figure that might help folks with non-HTC devices compare where they are at, since it seems like the getPci value is what is shown on other Engineering screens.

 

-Mike

[bmoses]

I uninstalled the app, rebooted to recovery, wiped cache and dalvik cache, rebooted, and installed the app. When i first launched it the sector ID matched between signalcheck and field trial. I then did reset data connection a few times to try and force a new sector ID. after doing that field trial now shows 3B57E (has stayed on that for the past minute) and signal check shows 8E97F.

 

OK i think i just figured it out. if i use the option to reset the data connection from the app the sector ID doesn't always update after that. if i do airplane mode outside the app, even with it on in the background, the sector ID will update closer to real time instead of getting stuck. 

 

i'll keep testing between the two reset modes and see if that holds true.

 

speaking of the connection reset, should it flash airplane mode really fast and then go back to bars but no 3G icon and just sit there? i seem to have to hit the button a few times in order to cause all connections to go away and see it reconnecting and the 3G icon come back up.

 

thanks for your help!

[lordsutch]

Not trying to be greedy, but any plans to implement getPci in CM?  Only asking because I have the code for that already in there as well, but I haven't seen it appearing on any screenshots.  I figure that might help folks with non-HTC devices compare where they are at, since it seems like the getPci value is what is shown on other Engineering screens.

 

As far as I can tell, the HTC RIL (and the Qualcomm RILs generally, like the Nexus 4's RIL if you enable LTE in the baseband) only report the E-UTRAN Cell ID and the Tracking Area Code, by pretending they're the same info as similar UTMS concepts. There's no physical cell ID to get that's reported to Android from the radio.  That should change in RILs specifically designed for Android 4.2 and later, which shouldn't need any gross hackery and should Just Work as-is, but none seem to be in the wild yet.

[mikejeep]

I uninstalled the app, rebooted to recovery, wiped cache and dalvik cache, rebooted, and installed the app. When i first launched it the sector ID matched between signalcheck and field trial. I then did reset data connection a few times to try and force a new sector ID. after doing that field trial now shows 3B57E (has stayed on that for the past minute) and signal check shows 8E97F.

 

OK i think i just figured it out. if i use the option to reset the data connection from the app the sector ID doesn't always update after that. if i do airplane mode outside the app, even with it on in the background, the sector ID will update closer to real time instead of getting stuck. 

 

i'll keep testing between the two reset modes and see if that holds true.

 

speaking of the connection reset, should it flash airplane mode really fast and then go back to bars but no 3G icon and just sit there? i seem to have to hit the button a few times in order to cause all connections to go away and see it reconnecting and the 3G icon come back up.

 

thanks for your help!

 

Wow, talk about a thorough uninstall and troubleshooting run!  I appreciate the info.  Clearly either SignalCheck or the engineering screen is not getting updates as quickly as the other.  Like I said before, I am going to assume engineering mode is more reliable.  I will keep digging to see if I can figure out what is going on.

 

What ROM and Android version are you running?  Do you ever happen to notice if engineering mode seems to be showing an ID that SignalCheck picks up a period of time later, i.e. is the app perhaps one ID behind, if you know what I mean?

 

The Reset Data Connection feature essentially just turns on airplane mode for a few seconds (I occasionally tweak the exact length of time to see if anyone reports better/worse reconnection scenarios; right now I believe it is set to 1 second), and then turns it off again.  Sometimes the connection comes back up fine, other times you need to hit it again.  It's the same "airplane mode" you are accessing from any other menu on your device, so the effect should be the same.

 

Unfortunately, there is no other method for a third-party developer to implement anything that enables, disables, or restarts the radio(s).  It's not a perfect solution, but Android is very protective of access to most radio functions.  Nobody has reported it yet, but I know for a fact that RDC does not work in Android 4.2+ because Google removed access to airplane mode for developers.  There is a big outcry to bring it back, but I'm not sure if Google will listen.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

As far as I can tell, the HTC RIL (and the Qualcomm RILs generally, like the Nexus 4's RIL if you enable LTE in the baseband) only report the E-UTRAN Cell ID and the Tracking Area Code, by pretending they're the same info as similar UTMS concepts. There's no physical cell ID to get that's reported to Android from the radio.  That should change in RILs specifically designed for Android 4.2 and later, which shouldn't need any gross hackery and should Just Work as-is, but none seem to be in the wild yet.

 

Ohhh ok, I was wondering if that was the issue.  So using the same concept, Samsung folks likely do not have access to the HTC-style hex ID because it does not exist in their RIL?

 

I cannot wait until manufacturers start natively utilizing the new API.. my life would be much easier!  While I'm in contact with the HTC engineers about the stale LTE signals on the One, I'm going to plant that bug in their ear...

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

Looking for a little help from those of you with an HTC One experiencing the stale/stuck/frozen LTE signal data...

 

I am working with HTC on resolving this issue.  They are asking for specific locations where this is happening.  If you notice this issue, could you please pass along the street address where it occurred and the Serving Cell you see on the screen? If you happen to know the Sprint Cascade ID also (aka what is seen on the sponsor maps), it can't hurt to add it.

 

Please send me a private message on here or e-mail support@bluelinepc.com -- no need to clutter up this forum with all that.

 

Those of you who already gave me this information don't need to do it again unless they want to give me another address.  I'm fairly certain this isn't a location-dependent bug, but HTC has been very responsive and I want to provide them with whatever they ask for.

 

Thanks,

-Mike

[linhpham2]

Any chance of seeing what tower we're connected to for LTE in the next software update?  

[digiblur]

Any chance of seeing what tower we're connected to for LTE in the next software update?

Don't think you will ever see that with any software. You will have to track that yourself with your serving cell IDs.

[linhpham2]

Don't think you will ever see that with any software. You will have to track that yourself with your serving cell IDs.

 

The info (base station ID and map location) is available for 1xRTT, so why not for LTE?

[bmoses]

Wow, talk about a thorough uninstall and troubleshooting run!  I appreciate the info.  Clearly either SignalCheck or the engineering screen is not getting updates as quickly as the other.  Like I said before, I am going to assume engineering mode is more reliable.  I will keep digging to see if I can figure out what is going on.

 

What ROM and Android version are you running?  Do you ever happen to notice if engineering mode seems to be showing an ID that SignalCheck picks up a period of time later, i.e. is the app perhaps one ID behind, if you know what I mean?

 

The Reset Data Connection feature essentially just turns on airplane mode for a few seconds (I occasionally tweak the exact length of time to see if anyone reports better/worse reconnection scenarios; right now I believe it is set to 1 second), and then turns it off again.  Sometimes the connection comes back up fine, other times you need to hit it again.  It's the same "airplane mode" you are accessing from any other menu on your device, so the effect should be the same.

 

Unfortunately, there is no other method for a third-party developer to implement anything that enables, disables, or restarts the radio(s).  It's not a perfect solution, but Android is very protective of access to most radio functions.  Nobody has reported it yet, but I know for a fact that RDC does not work in Android 4.2+ because Google removed access to airplane mode for developers.  There is a big outcry to bring it back, but I'm not sure if Google will listen.

 

-Mike

 

i work in tech support so thorough troubleshooting is what i do right now i'm running MeanBean 3.09 which is based on the latest RRU and android 4.1.1. and unless i've messed something up i'm running the latest radio update too (baseband is 1.12.11.1210 and build # is 3.16.651.3 CL147243). last night i tried two other ROMs too, Viper's and Evilution, they both did the same thing as well.

 

From what i can tell it appears to be one behind. so if they both match, and field trial updates to a new one signalcheck will still be showing the old one. its not always just one behind though. sometimes they will match and i will see field trial show two different new ones and signalcheck will still show the old one, for example if they are both on 1 and field trial shows 2 and then settles on 3 signalcheck is still on 1. 

 

i'm starting to think its something with my phone though, so far today it has been fine (did a nandroid last night before trying other roms and then restored the nandroid) but since i've installed signalcheck it will eventually start lagging real bad and not responding to trying to get to the menu or going back to the home screen and if i can't get it to exit it will then show the not responding message asking if you want to wait or close.

 

as to the airplane mode, that makes sense to me, just wasn't for sure if that was normal or not since it was really fast and it seemed like i had to do it 2-3 times in order to really see the connections reset.

 

thanks for all your hard work on this!

[mikejeep]

Any chance of seeing what tower we're connected to for LTE in the next software update?

 

Sure.. go buy an HTC device and you can see the IDs!

 

For anyone else.. no IDs yet.  I have been focusing 100% of my LTE-cell-finding-efforts on Samsung devices for the past few months, but it's not easy.  Essentially you have to hack in through a back door, then somehow circumvent a security procedure that prevents external apps from seeing any of the radio info.  Not sure why they designed it so tough, but that's how it is.

 

Unfortunately, I have found it impossible to reach Samsung developer support.  I had slight hope that they would offer me some insight, but I can't figure out how to get a message to the right person.

 

The info (base station ID and map location) is available for 1xRTT, so why not for LTE?

CDMA 1X sites broadcast their latitude and longitude. LTE sites do not. I'm working on the LTE ID portion (see above).

 

-Mike

[linhpham2]

 

Sure.. go buy an HTC device and you can see the IDs!

 

For anyone else.. no IDs yet.  I have been focusing 100% of my LTE-cell-finding-efforts on Samsung devices for the past few months, but it's not easy.  Essentially you have to hack in through a back door, then somehow circumvent a security procedure that prevents external apps from seeing any of the radio info.  Not sure why they designed it so tough, but that's how it is.

 

Unfortunately, I have found it impossible to reach Samsung developer support.  I had slight hope that they would offer me some insight, but I can't figure out how to get a message to the right person.

 

 

CDMA 1X sites broadcast their latitude and longitude. LTE sites do not. I'm working on the LTE ID portion (see above).

 

-Mike

 

Don't LTE sites broadcast their BSID's? Maybe cross reference that info with the NV maps in the sponsors' section at S4GRU