mikejeep

That's weird, if the app sees B41 in the pulldown I'm not sure why the icon isn't. Next time you see it, please go to About -> Send Diagnostics and include your information. -Mike

Yep, the missing neighbor notes is the most glaring impact of this bug.. I'm trying to sort it out. I tinker with the neighbor cell stuff quite often, so I'll give your request a try and see how it shakes out. It's tricky and doesn't always shake out the way I would expect it to. With only a PCI to work with, there's a lot of educated guessing on the app's behalf. -Mike

Just wanted to chime in to say congrats on the beta release and keep up the great work, nahum! I know how hard it is to get something like this off the ground, but it's worth the satisfaction you'll get from the positive e-mails. I'll look into signing up for the beta shortly, wife has an iPhone 5s and I can compare data with my Android devices that I know are showing valid info.. I'm in a very mature market with lots of Sprint and Clearwire sites broadcasting all sorts of LTEness. -Mike

Hmm.. when you say "lte only" do you mean it just shows "LTE" (i.e. Band 25)? Is there any consistency as to when it gets stuck? Are you sure LTE Discovery isn't wrong? -Mike

Not sure what's causing those battery drains.. I haven't released any updates in several weeks, so it's not anything new. Have either of you tweaked your location settings, or started using the site logger or location service within the app? I use GSam Battery Monitor and sometimes I see random spikes from SignalCheck myself, and I have no idea why. Part of me wonders if it's a Google-something in the background and somehow it's getting reported as SCP. I do not have any wakelocks directly coded into the app; they are probably tied to one of the Google components it has, such as the 1X geocoder or location service. -Mike

Hey all, I'm finally back!! Mother Nature has been relentless up here in Boston, so I got stuck in the Caribbean for a little longer than expected (I'm sure you all feel bad for me) and it's caused a whole bunch of extra work at my "real" job too. But enough excuses, back to work.. Unfortunately the only data reported for neighbor cells is their PCI and their RSRP. That's it. Nothing else. If there was more there, I'd show it.. as others have suggested, there are some new options that you can play around with to try getting better results for neighbor cell notes. On the same topic, I am aware of a serious bug that causes some incorrect neighbor notes and invalid log entries to appear; it happens in markets that use more than one PLMN -- i.e. Clearwire. Some devices are seeing the new PLMN before the new GCI, which causes SignalCheck to see a bogus PLMN+GCI combination. I'm testing a workaround for this but it needs a little more work. Luckily I have a broad mix of Sprint and Clear (and co-located) sites in my area on Band 41 now, so I am victimized by this all the time -- makes for a great testing environment. I still don't have a Lollipop test environment running, but I've gotten several requests to remove the SignalCheck notification from the lockscreen -- so I know it's showing up there, at least for some people. I'm looking into it and will add option(s) to customize this behavior if possible. It's on the list of Lollipop stuff I know I need to get done. -Mike

Just wanted to post a quick update.. I officially finished my master's program this week, the raise is coming, and I leave for my sister's Caribbean beach wedding tomorrow. Oh, and there was a parade today... After I get home next week, things will get back to normal -- I'll be on here all the time, and work on SignalCheck will resume. Thanks for your patience! -Mike

Thanks for stepping in for me, AJ and Robert! The OP sent me a PM within minutes of you guys posting and PMing me as well. As I mentioned somewhere around here a couple of weeks ago, I'm not able to get online much until next week. I actually have legal rights to the name, and just to keep things from getting too confusing, I'd ask that you use a different one. I'm constantly bombarded with requests to port it to iOS, and I don't want someone to think I'm behind your app (or you're behind mine). I'm completely flattered and humbled that the name has earned some marketing appeal! Soon it will be like Kleenex, Rollerblades, and Band-Aids.. As far as the idea, I'm all for it; like Robert said, I wish I could branch out, but don't have the time to devote to learning another language and developing for another OS. As much as I wish I could, Android keeps me more than busy, and the inability to get it on the App Store is a big hurdle. But I'll keep an eye on this thread and help out with whatever info might be useful. OP, feel free to give me a shout if there's something you think I might be able to help with. My wife has an iPhone so I'll steal it off the night stand and install this at some point! She will be thrilled.. haha.. -Mike

I am not sure what you are asking for.. are you looking to manually create/edit a SignalCheck database file in order for 1X notes to properly appear? If so, the "sites_cdma" table just needs unique "_id" values for each row (typically start at 1 and increment), and "sid", "nid", and "bid" to be filled in accordingly. -Mike

Sprint is redoing all of its towers, nationwide. But it is being completed in phases, and there was reportedly a shortage of B41 equipment for a period of time. Instead of waiting for B41 equipment, Sprint most likely proceeded with the B25 upgrades so users did not have to wait for LTE. B41 upgrades have started proceeding rapidly across the country since fall. S4GRU sponsors of various levels have access to maps showing site acceptances and upgrade schedules. You'll need to monitor your engineering screen or use an app like SignalCheck, Signal Detector, or LTE Discovery to see what band you are connected to. In fully upgraded areas, you can be moved between B25/B26/B41 frequently. -Mike

It does not seem to be market or vendor-specific; I think is just how the network and Android operate. I'm sure that all three apps are using the same collection of standard Android routines, so we are all susceptible to it. This is exactly what I am testing now. Combined with some user-specified options, it should resolve 99% of the issues. I can't change how the network or devices behave, so I have to find the best way to work with the data that will be seen in the wild. There are numerous checks within the app to ensure what is being reported is valid, it's just a matter of balancing the error-checking properly to make sure too much is not being filtered out. Very happy to hear that! One of my priorities is to make sure it's as lean and efficient as possible. It's not a terribly useful app if you need to be plugged in to use it. Thanks! -Mike

I don't think that is what is happening.. at least that's not what I'm seeing on my N5 or on user reports. The biggest issue is that sometimes the various IDs (PLMN, GCI, PCI) do not immediately report new values simultaneously when you switch sites. So it might record a PCI with a null/incorrect GCI, or a PCI+GCI but null/incorrect PLMN. I'm trying to figure out the best way to resolve it without missing legitimate data. It's tricky because it is inconsistent. -Mike

Haven't been able to find time to get online much recently, but I did change the plain text date format to force a two-digit day. It was previously using the date format for your locale; it is now hardcoded. Hopefully it doesn't mess anything up for my international friends. I am also aware of the issue with null entries in the Site Log. I think there are a couple of different things causing that; something new and something that was probably happening before but not noticed. I'm not going to be around much for the next 3-4 weeks as I have many work and family commitments crammed into a very short period of time. All of it is very good, just limits my free time. But by early February, I'll have a raise, masters degree, new brother-in-law, nice tan from the Caribbean, and (hopefully) frostbite from another Boston championship parade.. -Mike

Sure, I will look into it; just to be sure we are on the same page, you are seeing this when you export a log with plain text timestamps, correct? When importing to Excel, conversions are handled by Excel so I cannot control how it appears. And the database itself stores date/time information as seconds from the Unix epoch, not plain text dates. -Mike

No.. at least not on purpose! Do you ever connect to nTelos? Not entirely sure what you are saying here. It's showing you the distance between your current location and the location where that cell has the strongest signal logged (theoretically, a reasonably accurate reference to the actual location of the site). The more you drive around with the Site Logger and Location Service enabled, the more accurate your neighbor distances will be. If you only connect to a particular site once, it's probably not going to be a very accurate reflection of that site's location. But if you drive very close to a tower (or manually enter your site coordinates as others have done), those entries would be reliable. -Mike

Haha we'll see! Maybe the enable/disable option will be a separate easter egg.. who knows.. I did see them, sorry I didn't a chance to acknowledge them. I've been trying to poke through the code to see what the issue might be, but haven't seen anything obvious yet. I'm also working on something for the issue where the GCI doesn't immediately populate but I haven't gotten it working yet. Interesting, thank you for sharing -- I will see if the lack of a BSL has a negative effect on the log. I hadn't done any testing like that. Trip is the only one who had reported CDMA logger issues until now. Neighbor cells do not report a TAC, only PCI.. if they included a TAC it would make it much much much easier for me! -Mike

Haha yes the icons get a potty mouth when you hit above -40 dB.. it's my version of an easter egg, although it seems to cause more confusion than anything. I get e-mails almost daily from people who report the app is "broken". I've even been asked to give a refund because of it. When I get around refreshing the numeric icons, I'll go up to at least -30. No matter what, the main screen always shows the exact reading; the icons are graphics, not text. Each possible value you see is actually an image that I had to create manually -- there are over 500 icons in the current release. -Mike

There's always a chance! I have 365 days to figure that out, but you know I'm hesitant to make promises.. -Mike

I can't explain why you might be seeing what you are seeing, but I know on my Nexus 5 (as stock/pure Android as it gets), when in LTE Only mode, I cannot send or receive any calls or SMS. As soon as I switch to another mode that includes CDMA, calls and SMS instantly begin working. I accidentally left my N5 in LTE Only mode for a couple of days while traveling all over the place.. when I switched it back, I was instantly flooded with text messages asking why I wasn't answering the phone.. hah! -Mike

As just about everyone has realized by now, SignalCheck Pro 4.27 was released on December 22.. this ended up being a huge update! As I was finishing things up, other parts of the app were impacted, and in the end there were many changes. I apologize for the delayed changelog post, but I was out of town for Christmas. Visit Google Play to download or update the app. SignalCheck Lite (free version) is *well* overdue for an update, which I am working on right now. That should be released by the end of this week. Without further ado, here is a summary of the changes.. as always, I appreciate everyone's support! Improved method to obtain LTE GCI information (Courtesy of the guys at Simply Advanced!) Improved reliability of PLMN ID identification for Sprint users. Hopefully nearly all LTE devices should be able to see the correct PLMN and GCI now--even Samsung users that lacked this information before. PCI is still not universally available, but I'm still working on it. Work is in progress to display TAC information on more devices. A huge thank you to the guys behind the LTE Discovery app (@SpenceSouth and @danialgoodwin) for sharing their findings with me! Added ability to backup and import Logger databases. (Pro) Root access is no longer needed to access the actual log database file. You need a third-party tool to view or modify the entries, but there are several free options. I personally use SQLite Debugger for Android and DB Browser for SQLite for desktops, but any SQLite database utility will work. I will be publishing details about the database structure soon, but looking at an existing database should answer most questions. Added option to display LTE neighbor cell site notes based on location. (Pro) Added option to specify maximum range to display location-based LTE neighbor cell site notes. (Pro) Neighbor cell information has become the "hot" part of SignalCheck lately, so I've been doing a lot of work on it. As I have stated before, Android only reports the PCI of neighbor cells, so a lot of interpretation is necessary to figure out exactly which site the app is referring to. This new option relies on entries in the Site Log that were saved while the app's Location Service was enabled. Instead of relying on the PLMN+TAC to determine which site the app is reporting as a neighbor cell, the new option shows the closest saved site from the Site Log. The more you run the Site Logger, the more accurate your neighbor cell displays will become. If you have the app's Location Service disabled, it will automatically revert to the PLMN+TAC method instead. Please understand that this is still a "best guess" by SignalCheck, and the information you see may not be accurate all the time, especially if you have not been logging sites for very long. Typically, if you see a neighbor cell listed that is unusually far away, it is probably not the same site. These options are marked "BETA" within the app but is proving to be very stable and useful. Added option to ignore PLMN for neighbor site notes. (Pro) As Clearwire B41 sites use a different PLMN than the Sprint network, ignoring PLMNs results in better neighbor cell notes for users with Clearwire LTE sites in their area. It may also improve neighbor cell displays for other providers. As noted above, please remember that this is still a "best guess" by SignalCheck based on all of the information available, and may not be accurate all the time. Added LTE band display to widget. (Pro) Added many new higher-resolution status bar icons. (Pro) Added option to display recognized LTE bands or frequency classes on status bar icons. (Pro) The new icons should make it easier to see details, and they include a display of the band or what I call "frequency class" (i.e. 'LTE 800'). There are a few icons remaining that have not been done over yet, most notably the dB readings. I will refresh those in future versions. Added additional indicators for AT&T LTE bands 4, 17, 4 DAS, and 17 DAS. Added new indicators for T-Mobile LTE bands 2 and 4. Several users have been providing me with great information regarding various mobile networks and how to identify other bands. I am willing to add anything and everything I can, as long as I have the information I need. Let me know if you have information about a particular provider's network that would be useful within the app. Added option to choose the background color for the main screen. (Pro) Changed main screen to default to a true black background, saves power on AMOLED devices. Instead of a black to dark gray gradient, the default background is now completely black. If you preferred the old version, there's an option in the Preferences menu to change it back. Changed display to show “Clearwire B41″ if connected to a former Clearwire LTE band 41 site. This should be more noticeable than the asterisk that was showing before. Non-Clearwire B41 sites will still appear as "Sprint" and likely indicate a site with 8T8R equipment. Changed display to show Sprint prepaid MVNO connections (Boost or Virgin Mobile). Prepaid customers connect to the same network, but Sprint brands them differently, so SignalCheck will now follow that. Changed Location Service to use new Google routines. (Pro) SignalCheck uses the Google location routines, which were recently changed. There should not be a significant impact on the user end, although I have seen some instances in testing where the location stops updating without any warning to the user. I am not certain if this is related to this change or something else. Launching another app that uses location services (such as Waze or Google Maps) seems to kick-start things, as does changing the location options within the app. Improved 1X and LTE provider identification; unknown IDs will now display network-provided name. Instead of showing "SID 1234" when a network is not identified, the app will fall back to whatever provider name the network is reporting. The app has never used this value because some custom ROMs or certain network conditions would render this inaccurate. SignalCheck will continue check its own internal database for provider names before using the network-provided name. LTE Site Logger will run an automatic one-time background cleanup to remove various null entries. (Pro) The causes of most "bogus" log entries have been resolved, but I have recent reports of lingering issues. I will keep trying to add one-time cleanup routines to new releases as I identify garbage that can be cleaned out. Resolved force closes on Android 4.2+ devices caused by invalid neighbor cell data. (Pro) Resolved issue with dictionary suggestions not appearing when editing site notes. (Pro) Resolved issue with Free Mobile WCDMA display string. Resolved issue with LTE band identification for Sprint Prepaid users on PLMN 312530. Resolved issue with missing LTE connection information when reported RSRQ is invalid. Resolved issue with Sprint LTE band 41 frequencies not displaying on compatible HTC devices. Resolved issue with stale LTE GCI display. Bug fixes.. lots of bug fixes! Please let me know if you think you are still seeing problems related to any of these issues. Added option to display location information in metric units of measurement. (Pro) Location-based neighbor cell distances are shown in miles by default; this option allows display in kilometers instead. As other features are added to the app, this option will become more relevant. Added display of primary scrambling code (PSC) in hex format. This was done at the request of some WCDMA users and is indicated with an "x" prefix on the screen, as the CDMA 1X hex BID is. Removed option for secondary GSM icon; would likely never be shown on any device. (Pro) I added this a long time ago before I had any knowledge of how non-CDMA devices worked. Updated provider database. I am always hearing of new or reassigned PLMNs and SIDs.. I rely on user reports for this information, so if you ever see a mistake, please let me know. Happy New Year! -Mike

Yep, surprise! I intended to have the details posted last night, but something came up and I haven't had a chance yet. The changelog is now on the website, and a detailed post regarding the changes will be coming in this thread within the next day or so. Figured you guys wouldn't mind getting the update anyway.. Yep, its in the works. Didn't want to hold off any longer on an update though. New alerts and fixes for Lollipop are the top priorities. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and everything else! -Mike

Because there are no conflicts in whatever particular bands you are referring to. Entities in Canada and Mexico (and some US markets) are still using the 800 MHz frequencies that Sprint is deploying on, so those entities have to finish rebanding before Sprint can use them nearby. It's a (slow) process that was started a long time ago, and was originally expected to be finished by now. -Mike

In the current public release, the use of Location Service is irrelevant. It only makes a difference if you're using the alternative neighbor cell option on the new beta. Yes, the time is getting near, just need to wait until the dust settles. Soon™! Kevin, the next release will show the provider on Clear sites as "Clearwire B41". I had it say "Clear" originally, but it was so similar to "Sprint" that I decoded to change it to make it easier to notice at a quick glance. The asterisks are gone for Clear sites. -Mike

Someone more experienced with all of this could probably explain it better (and perhaps more accurately) than me, but TAC stands for Tracking Area Code. To simplify it, think of it like regular telephone area codes -- every area of the old-school telephone network is covered by an area code, and the boundaries are set based on geography. All of the sites within a particular TAC region are assigned the same TAC. It seems to be similar to the NID (network ID) parameter on CDMA 1X networks. TACs can be anywhere between 0-65535, and they are unique for a particular PLMN. So for Sprint (PLMN 310120), there is only one area where TAC 532 is in use. But that doesn't mean that AT&T (PLMN 310410) isn't using 532 in a totally different part of the country. They are roughly sequential from what I have seen (most sites in my areas are in the 520's and 530's) but I have no idea if it's the same nationwide. In my travels, TACs in a particular area appear to be similar. If you export your own Site Log after running it for awhile, you can see how it may apply in your area. EDIT: There is a discussion about TACs in this thread. Sponsors can see examples of some maps that show how TACs are spread out. -Mike

Do you have the Site Logger enabled? If it's not logging, its not saving the PCIs it would need to look up later. My best guess is that you are near TAC boundaries (see Robert's post in this thread from a few days ago for a great explanation of this). If the current connection and the neighbor cell are not on the same TAC, no note is shown. The new location-based option coming in the next update takes a different approach and would work better in this case. Looking back, the neighbor cells from your first screenshot are not the same as the second. So that one showing a note might be the only one on the same TAC as Layton. You also did not have the Logger enabled in your first screenshot.. as I mentioned above, the app won't record the PCI if the Logger is disabled. Neighbor cells only report PCI, so this is needed. -Mike