Official Magic Box discussion thread

[nexgencpu]

54 minutes ago, jonathanm1978 said:

So far, nothing I've done has made the note 8, mine or my wife, c connect better than it does right now. In places where the note 5 was fine and had great signal, the note 8 drops to att b17. I wish I could turn off b17..

 

 

You should be able to disable any specific band using ##DATA# and clicking on edit, MSL "000000"

Another thing again, like the GS8 before being updated I noticed that band 25 is first priority, I switched mine to band 41 as first, seems to help marginally hold onto band 41 longer.

[jonathanm1978]

Since band 17 is a roaming band... It's either on or off. I change the band priority a few days ago. 

Either have to disable LTE roaming or leave it on.

I know Sprint doesn't have a roaming partner for LTE around here.... The closest I know of is cspire in Mississippi...

[jonathanm1978]

The only way, so far, that I have found to keep my Note 8 from jumping on B17 AT&T is turn off LTE Roaming in ##DATA#...

And even then, I'm bouncing back to EV-DO VZW roaming -- I really think they should do some work on the radio and improve the reception.

[though]

53 minutes ago, jonathanm1978 said:

The only way, so far, that I have found to keep my Note 8 from jumping on B17 AT&T is turn off LTE Roaming in ##DATA#...

And even then, I'm bouncing back to EV-DO VZW roaming -- I really think they should do some work on the radio and improve the reception.

The Moto Z2 Force radio is supposed to be killer.

[jefbal99]

Still working with MB support on my Galaxy Tab E not connecting to the MB.  Its so odd in the LTE available file, I see the two towers to the East and West, but no mention of the MB.

Support requested a factory reset of the Galaxy Tab E so I'm going to try that out tonight

[derrph]

Will Sprint know if I keep my Magic box unplugged after its been fully set up? It works great but there are times where it will kill my data for a hour or more. Without the box I can I pick up 10x10 B25 with the speeds of 6-10 down. With the MB I pick up 41 and have speeds maxing out at 60. 

[shaferz]

13 minutes ago, derrph said:

Will Sprint know if I keep my Magic box unplugged after its been fully set up? It works great but there are times where it will kill my data for a hour or more. Without the box I can I pick up 10x10 B25 with the speeds of 6-10 down. With the MB I pick up 41 and have speeds maxing out at 60. 

From what I understand, yes.  I had heard/read somewhere that 10 days was the magic number...?

 

I'm not clear on what you mean by 'killing your data' though.  If you get better speeds and coverage on the MB, then why would you ever want to disconnect from it?

[derrph]

1 hour ago, shaferz said:

From what I understand, yes.  I had heard/read somewhere that 10 days was the magic number...?

 

I'm not clear on what you mean by 'killing your data' though.  If you get better speeds and coverage on the MB, then why would you ever want to disconnect from it?

Wow they are really tracking these things. 

The speeds are good but there are random times that that my speeds will just drop below 1mbps. When this happens, it will stay like that for a hour or more.  This happens maybe 3 or 4 times a day. 

[nexgencpu]

18 minutes ago, derrph said:

Wow they are really tracking these things. 

The speeds are good but there are random times that that my speeds will just drop below 1mbps. When this happens, it will stay like that for a hour or more.  This happens maybe 3 or 4 times a day. 

Check the relay status on the MB to see why its dropping speeds so drastically. It could simply be that its no longer on B41. 

[derrph]

9 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

Check the relay status on the MB to see why its dropping speeds so drastically. It could simply be that its no longer on B41. 

Ill do that. I know I unplugged it when I left for work today (Lets not let the neighbors suffer lol). On the relay screen, Is there something in particular I should look for?

[nexgencpu]

1 minute ago, derrph said:

Ill do that. I know I unplugged it when I left for work today (Lets not let the neighbors suffer lol). On the relay screen, Is there something in particular I should look for?

It will tell you band and CINR info from donor site.

[derrph]

17 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

It will tell you band and CINR info from donor site.

Thanks, I'll do this tonight and check it out in the case the speeds drop.

[shaferz]

Phone had been connecting to the MB sporadically again, but it hasn’t connected to the MB once since I updated to iOS 11 today.  Ugh.

Anybody on the official iOS11 update... let me know if you connect to your magic box after updating please.

FWIW, Carrier Bundle 29.0.1.

[dro1984]

My speeds indoors are going up and down (not by much) even with Magic Box.    In  the last few days, my MB has been going back and forth between Band 25 and Band 41.      (just like without my MB...it would oscillate indoors ...  guess that's why I was approved for a MB?!   Borderline B41 here...  Maybe Massive Mimo or a "Merger" will help?

[banananuts87]

6 hours ago, shaferz said:

Phone had been connecting to the MB sporadically again, but it hasn’t connected to the MB once since I updated to iOS 11 today.  Ugh.

Anybody on the official iOS11 update... let me know if you connect to your magic box after updating please.

FWIW, Carrier Bundle 29.0.1.

No issues post update

[derrph]

15 hours ago, shaferz said:

Phone had been connecting to the MB sporadically again, but it hasn’t connected to the MB once since I updated to iOS 11 today.  Ugh.

Anybody on the official iOS11 update... let me know if you connect to your magic box after updating please.

FWIW, Carrier Bundle 29.0.1.

no issues with connecting to my MB after the update. 

[derrph]

21 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

Check the relay status on the MB to see why its dropping speeds so drastically. It could simply be that its no longer on B41. 

I plugged it back in and speeds dropped but not to be below 1mbps like before. CINR was 8.3 and it was still connected to B41. Maybe the tower it is pulling from is at a distance. That would be my guess. 

[jefbal99]

11 minutes ago, derrph said:

I plugged it back in and speeds dropped but not to be below 1mbps like before. CINR was 8.3 and it was still connected to B41. Maybe the tower it is pulling from is at a distance. That would be my guess. 

Other thought is that the donor site may have been over saturated from Macro network usage and the backhaul just couldn't keep up.  We run into that a lot in Michigan.

[red_dog007]

So, made progress today on my MB.  I decided to take it out of the box after it being in it for a couple weeks.  After a couple days I noticed last night it is at 80%!!!! But damn, it's been there at least 12hrs  at "Connecting LTE".

[iansltx]

@lilotimz while I'm waiting for an RMA on my MB, mind checking if 78624 has proper spectrum for the MB? Was getting stuck at 20% or timing out there, despite solid B25 and B41 signals to play with (tried setup outside).

Fingers crossed that this is just an MB HW issue and the replacement will bring that sweet, sweet B41 action indoors at my parents' place, which is limited to 25 or 26 depending on where you are in the house. Metal roofs + multi-hundred-foot towers will do that.

[lilotimz]

5 hours ago, iansltx said:

@lilotimz while I'm waiting for an RMA on my MB, mind checking if 78624 has proper spectrum for the MB? Was getting stuck at 20% or timing out there, despite solid B25 and B41 signals to play with (tried setup outside).

Fingers crossed that this is just an MB HW issue and the replacement will bring that sweet, sweet B41 action indoors at my parents' place, which is limited to 25 or 26 depending on where you are in the house. Metal roofs + multi-hundred-foot towers will do that.

From a quick glance there appears yo not be a spectrum issue but if the replacement also does not work it may be prudent to inquire about the S1000 NSC or Airave 3.

[iansltx]

5 hours ago, lilotimz said:

From a quick glance there appears yo not be a spectrum issue but if the replacement also does not work it may be prudent to inquire about the S1000 NSC or Airave 3.

It would be if there was a solid broadband connection to feed it. There isn't, so it's not :).

[shaferz]

Update... 

 

MB is still sporadic at our house.  Phones connect to it occasionally.

 

Visiting family in the Ozarks this weekend so I brought the MB along.  Phones grab mostly 3G and SOME B26, but never anything else.  Plugged the MB in, told it to do its setup and went down to the dock.  After 5 minutes, our phones have 3-4 bars and have 10-15mbps download and 1-2mbps upload.  This is amazing.

[travisc]

https://imgur.com/gallery/cY2q4

Since getting my magic box setup, I've seen steady improvement in signal strength and download speed over the past couple weeks. No issues with any of our devices connecting to it. It's quite remarkable to go from barely any service to what is attached in the link above.

 

[shaferz]

FFS.   

 

Now the power supply for our MB has seemingly failed.  When I first plugged it in, I thought the power supply seemed overly ‘noisy’ in that it made a constant hiss/buzz.  Woke up this morning to 2 bars of 1x, and the MB indicated it needed to be plugged in.  Receptacle tested fine.  Power Supply no longer makes any noise and smells a little suspect so Sprint is sending a replacement.