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mikejeep

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Everything posted by mikejeep

  1. mikejeep
    I plan on talking to him about this I am still working on the numeric values; right now the only solution I have is to create a separate icon for each number.. which complicates things further if I want to include 1X/3G/4G displaying as well. Seems silly, but Android only allows graphics up there.. so I'm trying to implement it as efficiently as possible. -Mike
  2. mikejeep
    Ah, I understand now. I am still working on getting this to work well; my biggest hurdle at the moment is my lack of graphic design skills.. having trouble adding text to my icons that is readable. If anyone is talented enough to help with that, or can at least point me towards a decent icon creation tool, I'd appreciate it! SignalCheck draws the 6 signal bars based on RSSI, even for LTE (it calculates the RSSI based on given RSRP & RSRQ). I set the cutoffs in a fairly linear fashion; 4/6 bars would be -94 to -85 dBm RSSI. -110 dBm RSSI would be 2/6 in my app, pretty consistent with CM's 1/4 showing for -110 RSRP. Maybe CM just takes whatever signal value the phone is giving out (whether it is RSSI or RSRP) and uses that to display the bars. Or, they are smarter than me (probably true!) and feel that -110 RSRP only deserves 1/4 bars I was always curious if people would think the bars were displaying too high/too low; you're the first to bring it up. I have no problem tweaking the values if anyone thinks it will make the app more accurate. When I started developing SignalCheck, I basically set the values by slicing up the usable RSSI dBm range into mostly equal segments (<75, <85, <95, <105, <115, <120). I have no idea where other apps/ROMs set their cutoffs. For LTE signals, I felt that calcuating RSSI based on RSRP & RSRQ would give a more useful measure of the true signal strength, instead of just RSRP (i.e. 'good' RSRP with 'good' RSRQ should be shown as better than 'good' RSRP with 'bad' RSRQ). Perhaps some of the gurus on here can advise if that was a reasonable idea or not? -Mike
  3. mikejeep
    I am guessing a lot of that has to do with the number of people utilizing the network at the same time when there is an event with 17,500 people in the same building. If you try it when nobody is around, perhaps a weekday morning after the rush of commuters have left North Station -- how are your speeds then? -Mike
  4. mikejeep
    Thanks for your support! Knowing it's useful is more valuable to me than your $2.. but I do appreciate that too. Now that I appear to have squashed all of the bugs and get it stable, I intend to add more new features. Regarding multiple icons, I thought that most (if not all) devices already show the 1X signal strengths on their default bars on the top right side of the screen.. no? That was my major motivation to create this app in the first place. Perhaps I'm not totally understanding what you're looking for. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you want. One of my next goals is to mark the signal type on the signal bar icon, by adding text and/or color. This is my first app, and I'm learning as I go, but I'll see how I can implement themes also. I definitely understand what you mean about fitting in.. I'm sure it looks quite out of place on some ROMs. Thank you for the props! Hadn't thought to offer a text-based display in the notification bar; I will put it on my list. The sampling rate is not really a "rate" at all.. without getting too technical, it's not a fixed period of time. Whenever the device reports that any signal strength has changed, the app is refreshed.. so it's essentially realtime data. -Mike
  5. mikejeep
    I released an update (2.13) earlier tonight, it should be available on Google Play by now. If you were experiencing any crashes or other problems, especially when you connected to LTE, please try this version out. Pro users: New features include the option to start the notification part of the app every time your device boots, and another option to keep the screen on whenever SignalCheck is in the foreground. -Mike
  6. mikejeep
    I have noticed that quite often myself.. I actually see that as a benefit of my app. I have *very* limited knowledge of cellular technology, but that seems to indicate to me that the phone's antenna is seeing LTE, but for some reason it won't switch over. Since I started using my app, I've always thought this could be a huge insight as to why many HTC EVO LTE owners have problems connecting or staying connected to LTE. My app seems to hint that it's not the phone's antenna that is at fault, rather some sort of handoff issue. I was really hoping that other people would see this and some of the skilled contributors to S4GRU could evalute/explain/fix what is happening. Interesting to see that it's happening on your GN. Any insight, cellular nerds?? You are correct, but if you look at his screen, the phone is receiving an LTE signal, but showing that it is connected to eHRPD (3G). -Mike
  7. mikejeep
    Aha, I haven't used a Samsung device so I wasn't sure. My app does not "dial" the code, it calls the activity directly.. I'll have to figure out what Samsung names some of its activities and see if there is a way to call it. I have run into some trouble with this method; for example, I know how the name of the EPST activity on HTC devices, however it does not work because of a permissions problem.. I have yet to figure out which permission it requires. Wondering if it cannot be launched by an external app. Thanks for the info. I haven't seen that in anything that I've accessed so far, but then again, I wasn't looking for it.. I will see what I can come up with. As many of you know, it's not very straightforward to access a lot of this data, and it varies by device. Android 4.2 looks like it improves a lot of things, but I haven't gotten any of it to work yet. -Mike
  8. mikejeep
    Thanks. I believe the issues were related to my attempts to gather LTE cell info; an update been released and should be available on Google Play within the hour. -Mike
  9. mikejeep
    Fill me in on what a PN is, and I will see what I can do! -Mike
  10. mikejeep
    This is probably related to the LTE cell info that I was trying to provide. It has been removed from the latest version (2.09), please give that a shot and let me know. Thanks, -Mike
  11. mikejeep
    Much appreciated.. is this true across the board? (1x, 3G, LTE, etc) The Android documentation isn't very thorough in this realm, so I've basically been flying by the seat of my pants. I need folks like you to steer me in the right direction! Let me know and I will fix it in the next release. Thanks, -Mike
  12. mikejeep
    Technically, it was not released/supported until the Jelly Bean 4.2 API. However, like you said, not every device supports it.. I had tried to include LTE cell info in the last release of SignalCheck, but it was causing more force closes than anything, so I have removed it from the latest version. I intend to carry out more testing and bring the feature back in another version very soon. -Mike
  13. mikejeep
    Thanks for the report. It appears that many Samsung devices either do not have these screens, or do not allow access to these areas by third-party applications. I have improved the error-checking routines in the latest version (2.09, should be available on Google Play within the hour) to handle this. Field Trial and EPST are diagnostic screens normally accessible by entering special dialer codes, at least on HTC devices. I intended to allow these shortcuts to save people the hassle of knowing the dialer codes, or possibly accessing these screens on devices without a dialer (such as a tablet). If the function is not supported by a device, there is not much I can do. This part of my app is meant to provide a shortcut to pre-existing screens, not create new functionality. -Mike
  14. mikejeep
    I actually added LTE cell ID info to version 2.08, which I released late last night.. I suspect that is what is causing the crashes, since this is a brand new problem. Any chance anyone with Jelly Bean got any cell ID info on LTE? Or anyone with Jelly Bean have it not crash while on LTE? I also saw some crash reports come in for some of the shortcuts on the Advanced menu. I'll check everything out this afternoon.
  15. mikejeep
    Hello all, I have been visiting S4GRU for quite some time, and one of the most common issues I see popping up is confusion from users--especially when they first get 4G LTE devices and/or LTE service--regarding their signal strengths. For some reason, the signal bars on many devices do not display what most users expect them to display. It seems strange that we have to enter special dialer codes just to see what our LTE signal is! With that in mind, I started creating an Android app from scratch. I had never created an app before, so it took a few months before it was ready for the public, but its time has come. Robert and a few others have been beta testing it for me since October, and I recently released it onto Google Play. Robert gave me the go-ahead to give it a mention here on S4GRU, so here goes.. It's called SignalCheck, and it is available on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Blue+Line+Computing The "Lite" version is free; the "Pro" version has a small one-time fee but includes a bunch of extras, including signal bars in the notification area, a widget, the ability to alert a user when they pick up an LTE or 800 SMR signal, one-button instant connection reset, the street address of the connected 1X site, and menu shortcuts to some screens that are usually only accessible with dialer codes. I intend to offer S4GRU Premier Sponsors special benefits in the near future, as soon as I figure out a feasible way to do that. This is the first app I have ever developed, so I'd appreciate any and all feedback, both positive and negative. I have been trying to educate myself as much as possible regarding cellular technologies, as I didn't know much before I started this project. My goal is to make this app as accurate and useful as possible for all the "nerds" on here.. myself included! I intend to continue squashing bugs as they are reported, and adding features as they are requested. As I learn more about Android programming and cellular technology, I'll improve things. Please let me know what you would like to see, and I'll do what I can. My "Beta Crew" helps test out the app before public updates are pushed out. Membership is by invite only but anyone is welcome to join in our discussions or get a sneak peek at what is going on (see thread here). Links: SignalCheck Help / FAQ | Change Log | To-Do "Wish" List | Known Issues | SignalCheck on Google Play -Mike Here are some screen shots from a previous version.. there have been tweaks since this release, but this is basically what you get: http://www.bluelinepc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SignalCheck-2.0-main-168x300.png http://www.bluelinepc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SignalCheck-2.0-menu-168x300.png http://www.bluelinepc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SignalCheck-2.0-advanced-168x300.png http://www.bluelinepc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SignalCheck-2.0-pulldown-168x300.png
  16. mikejeep
    Hey guys, I actually have been working on an app called SignalCheck that does this. Robert has been beta testing it for me over the past few months and gave me permission to promote it here on S4GRU.. I haven't had a chance to post about it here, it's funny that people have just started talking about it over the past few days! I started developing it last October, and released it to the public on Google Play a couple of weeks ago. I started a thread about it here: http://s4gru.com/ind...hs-all-at-once/ I am aware of the new features in Android 4.2 and I'm currently working on adding them in.. specifically the identity of LTE cells. I have been trying to educate myself as much as possible regarding cellular technologies so that this app is as technologically correct as possible. I see a mention of SNR above; it appears my app might be reporting values 10x too high as well. If someone could confirm this for me, the code changes would be easy for me to implement. To keep things on-topic, if you have any questions about my app, reply in the other thread. I'd be more than happy to participate in the programming aspect of things in this thread. Thanks, -Mike EDIT: I just uploaded a new version with the LTE SNR corrected, as well as LTE cell info for Android 4.2 users.. it will probably take an hour or so before it shows up on Google Play. I probably jumped the gun a bit on the LTE cell info since I do not have a 4.2 device to test it on, so hopefully one of you guys can let me know if it crashes or not!
  17. mikejeep
    Really? I disagree.. if I'm looking at a data source--whether it is a Sensorly map or something totally unrelated--I like knowing the data is accurate. There is no reason to map it as 2G/3G if there is no way of knowing if that's what the signal is. Plus, 2G and 3G mapped in different colors on Sensorly, at least for Sprint.
  18. mikejeep
    Don't forget that they are working on the NV upgrades while keeping the towers online.. the entire Boston market is about 1/3 done, good progress but plenty of work left to do. I would anticipate bumps in the road along the way, all of which will be well worth the end result. Don't look at it day-by-day, look at the long-term big picture. Patience!
  19. mikejeep
    Great to see you on here, Sensorly. And many thanks for answering my tweet last week (and implementing) the distinction between the Sprint 4G networks. Keep up the great work.. it's an awesome tool to watch the LTE coverage roll out!
  20. mikejeep
    Scattered towers are already live.. more come online each week. We are lucky, progress in the Boston market has been very steady, and Sprint is no longer blocking LTE signals up here. If you make a donation, you can access the section of this site containing constantly updated maps displaying which tower upgrades are complete. -Mike
  21. mikejeep
    The one posted by David279 earlier in this thread: http://m.engadget.com/2012/09/13/sprint-flipping-the-lte-switch-in-boston-and-chicago/ It says LTE goes online around Barnstable on 9/12 and Eastern MA 9/21.
  22. mikejeep
    I was on the Cape and Nantucket (la-dee-da!) from last Saturday until Wednesday.. didn't catch any whiffs of LTE anywhere, despite that leaked announcement promising coverage near Barnstable last week. For the record, I'm not a Cape Guy either.. lived here my entire life and didn't make it down until recently. I'm a Lake Guy.. vacations in NH. The ocean is too cold up here ;-) I have been getting LTE in the area of Rts. 38/495 near the Lowell/Tewksbury line, but that's about it lately. Hoping to see a lot more signals after tomorrow. I will continue mapping with Sensorly.. I'm also very close to releasing my own simple app that shows your 1X/EVDO/LTE signal strengths.. hoping S4GRU users will benefit from it. Stay tuned!
  23. mikejeep
    After receiving strong LTE signals in South Tewksbury several times over a period of a few weeks, I haven't been able to receive any at all for at least 10 days. Perhaps the testing period for this area is over, and the LTE signal is now (unfortunately) blocked until Sprint officially launches the Boston market. To put a positive spin on it, you can look at this as a sign of progress in the right direction, right!
  24. mikejeep
    Take a deep breath. Sprint hasn't even officially announced Boston as an LTE city yet. Put your phone in CDMA-only mode if you don't want to get bounced around during testing. I'm just excited that we have been seeing steady signs of progress!
  25. mikejeep
    Live LTE blazing in Downtown Lowell right now, right next to the Tsongas Arena.. have had strong signal for over 20 minutes, very nice!
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