mikejeep

Thanks for the fast reply, Trip! I just checked your report.. unfortunately my workaround won't resolve the issue on the GS5 (or the Note 4, or any other Samsungs with this problem). Nothing but 310120 is showing; no valid PCI hiding in the background either. I don't think it is site-dependent; it is your device. -Mike

Gotcha, thank you for that info guys. I was going to change the Wi-Fi routines soon anyways, this will just give me a reason to do it sooner rather than later. I'm not sure if it will be able to resolve this issue, but it can't hurt to try. Also, while I'm here -- I might have a workaround for non-Samsung users who are only seeing PLMN 310120 even when connected to Clear sites (I know some G2 and One Max users are affected). Who knows, it could fix affected Samsung devices too.. but I doubt it. Actually, the next time someone on a GS5 knows they are connected to a Clear site, please send me a diagnostic report.. -Mike

Actually, it looks like there are more issues than just a frozen icon -- the app says LTE but is displaying a 3G connection, and the system icon is showing 3G. Is this also on an S5? Did it happen on previous versions of the app, or have you only seen it on the new one? These are the first reports I've heard of this sort of thing. Hopefully we can at least narrow it down to WiFi calling on the S5 and/or the latest app update. -Mike

The specific method you are suggesting is a bit risky and complicated, because I would need to ensure that every column being imported was of the proper data type and format, otherwise the entire log could get corrupted. But as dedub pointed out, it's one of the things I am working on. I have a long way to go, but my plan is to allow direct imports of sqlite databases (best for sharing with others) as well as direct viewing and editing of the database from within the app (best for tweaking things individually). Because you would be doing it through the app, you wouldn't need root. Hey I love my army of unpaid customer service reps.. never be afraid to try and help! If someone gives bad information (which is rare) I'll eventually get around to correcting it.. -Mike

A PRL update will not change your LTE coverage or behavior.. all of the networks you have access to have been programmed in there for years. It's just a list of networks to scan. You're seeing a placebo effect. -Mike

Were you seeing the same results on both 3G and LTE? Did you try re-seating the SIM? I know it doesn't really matter now, but if this a bug it has the potential to be a huge one.. @cordell12 recently contacted me with a similar issue on two Note 3's and a Nexus 5, but it only affected 3G data -- everything else was fine, including LTE. A factory reset somehow did the trick. -Mike

Weird, a few people have asked me about this lately. "Unregistered" showing in the app typically indicates a device that is not activated on the network. I see it on my deactivated EVO LTE and when I put inactive prepaid SIMs in my Nexus 5. In my experience, you will get network connections, but cannot transfer any data. -Mike

There is no limit as far as SignalCheck is concerned.. I'm not sure if Android caps it at a certain quantity. You will only see neighbor cells for the currently connected connection type. It is not possible to see neighbors on other technologies. If you are on EV-DO/eHRPD, you will not see any neighbor cells; it's an LTE/WCDMA/GSM thing. -Mike

Like Tim said, the app reports what the phone is seeing. I have all of my nearby sites noted, and still see a "rogue" PCI on occasion. It could be that you haven't yet connected to that specific sector on that specific band, so you don't have that specific PCI recorded yet. Or your device can see it, but for whatever reason it is not accepting connections. Many possibilities. Again, as Tim said -- it's showing you what the phone sees. Just because you've never hit it doesn't mean it's not out there. As far as GCI goes, it might not be an Android limitation, it might be by design; I have no idea if the LTE neighbor cell protocol includes any more information than Android is offering. It's a moot point though, I can only show what Android decides to collect. -Mike

Fah the reckid, those highway signs wah real. The state has been tryin' to have a sense of humah lately. Phenomenal! -Mike

Send me a diagnostic report and I will try to see what's going in. Make sure you have neighbor cells enabled in the Preferences also. -Mike

I just saw your report.. your G2 is not reporting the PLMN properly. Has it been sleeping around with a Samsung and contracted that disease? It is reporting the PLMN in another area that is a newer Android routine that most phones don't use yet. I seem to recall some similar reports from G2 users when the phone was first released.. I thought it was resolved with a radio update, but perhaps I just ignored it instead. Have you ever seen anything besides 310120 in any version of SignalCheck? -Mike

Yeah, I wish I could.. but the only bits of info that Android provides for neighbor cells is the PCI and RSRP. PLMN is also supposed to be reported, but in testing it is always null, so I just ignore it. Impossible for me to determine much of anything with just those two readings. As I noted in the changelog, even the site note is just a best guess. -Mike

I bet the necessary fixes are fairly easy on their end, but those in a position to fix it have no idea it's a problem that anyone notices. Although they did improve things on the S3 and S4 in later software updates, so maybe things will improve over time. I try pestering them whenever I have a chance. Has anyone tried that "Refresh" app on an S5 or Note 4? Baby steps, right? That only took 5 years.. LOL -Mike

Actually, I would say there are at least three. A couple north of the mountain, and one in town. I'm guessing the two northern sites cover the resort. -Mike

It's probably normal.. those might be B25, B26, and B41 PCIs all at the same site. Each sector does have its own PCI. In my area, B25 and B26 sectors pointed in the same direction share the same PCI, but I don't know if it's the same everywhere. Others have reported the S5 doesn't show neighbor cells, just another strike against Samsung. Are you sure that's a Clear B41 site? It's being identified as B41 because of the GCI (third character is odd).. is there a chance it's a Sprint 8T8R B41 site? If it's Clear, you're just getting lucky because of the odd character. The app has always behaved like this, it only updates the screen when a mobile signal or mobile connection is changed. All of the WiFi data is passive.. it only updates when something on the mobile side changes or when you bring the app into the foreground. I designed it this way intentionally as it's a secondary function of the app and it keeps down the battery/CPU usage, however minimal it may be. I had plans to add options for active WiFi scanning, but nobody has ever asked for it and I had other priorities. I can make it more of a priority now that I know somebody might appreciate it. I thought (incorrectly, thankfully) perhaps the cleanup prompt would appear if someone found B41 for the first time after this update, which would not be desirable because I anticipate any B41 found from this point on is legitimate. Nobody should need to do any scrubbing from here on out. -Mike

The point of the cleanup was to get rid of the unreliable entries from when the app had issues identifying B41.. those issues should be gone, so why would you want them to be deleted again? There is already an option within the app to clear the entire log if that's what you're looking for. No, not yet. I was holding off until they were both working well, so if there were future issues I would know they are related to the Alerts, not the actual band identification. B26 is definitely solid. After this one is in the wild for a couple of weeks without any problem reports, I will feel comfortable enough declaring B41 to be stable as well. I mentioned it the other day, the Alerts code needs to be gutted, and I plan on doing it all together. I also will be adding various band identifier icons. -Mike

You will only get the prompt if you have any Clearwire B41 entries in your Site Log the first time you open the app after updating. If there are no entries, there is nothing to clean up. If you have a S5, I doubt you will be prompted, because the S5 can't identify Clear B41. Although now I'm wondering if there will be an issue down the road when someone who isn't prompted then saves some Clear B41 entries.. hmm.. uh oh! EDIT: I must have already thought of that, I checked the code.. that won't happen. -Mike

The most anticipated software update of your life is finally here.. SignalCheck 4.261 has been released into the wild! It has been pushed to Google Play and should be available within the hour. This is a significant update but my beta crew did a great job so it should be stable. One major bug I am still aware of is the lack of Alerts for those running Android 5.0 (Lollipop) -- I'm still working on that. The option is in the app, but the Alerts never play. A lot of the details have been discussed over the past couple of weeks, but below is the full changelog, roughly prioritized.. as always, thanks for everyone's support! Improved Sprint LTE band 41 identification, including new 8T8R sites.Resolved issue with PLMN 311490 always showing for Sprint LTE band 41. Resolved issue with Sprint LTE PLMN failing to update properly. Band 41 identification is drastically improved.. and "drastically" might be an understatement. It was terrible before, and that's putting it nicely. The only remaining B41 issue appears to be with Samsung devices; many (including the Note 4 and Galaxy S5) are not reporting the proper PLMN, so the app is unable to recognize Clearwire B41 sites. On these devices, users will see a different GCI pattern that matches the Clearwire numbering scheme for their market. Hopefully Samsung fixes this sooner rather than later. Users who have any Clearwire B41 entries in their Site Log will be prompted to delete them the first time they launch the app after upgrading. This is strongly recommended. The B41 identification in previous versions was so unreliable that there is likely a significant accumulation of unreliable data in your log. If you answer "Yes" or "No", you will not be prompted again, so choose "Ask Me Later" if you want to think about it until the next time you bring the app into the foreground. I understand that many of you may have saved some B41 site notes, but again, it was so unreliable, I suggest that you scrub it out and move forward knowing that everything from this point forward will be accurate. Sprint LTE band 41 sites that were not Clearwire sites will share user notes with co-located B25 sites. (Pro) Thanks to the detective work of S4GRU users, 8T8R sites are now identified within the app. SignalCheck will now link the site notes for B25 and B41 sites, but it requires a bit of confusing explanation. If you have B25 notes already saved for a site, and connect to the B41 side of that same site, you will see the same site note. The same is true in reverse -- if you have a B41 site note saved, once you connect to B25, the note will be linked. However, if you already have separate site notes for B25 and B41, those notes will remain separate UNTIL you edit either one, at which time it will overwrite all notes for that site. Please ask if you have questions about this; I realize it might cause some head-scratching, but it's really a great feature and will save everyone some time as 8T8R construction progresses. Added option to display LTE and GSM neighbor cells. (Pro) A neighbor cell is another sector in range of your device that is not serving the active connection. For LTE, neighbor PCIs are shown; for WCDMA, neighbor PSCs are shown; and for GSM, the PLMN, CID, and LAC are shown. No other information about neighbor cells is available, so I am not able to absolutely confirm which specific LTE or WCDMA sites the neighbor cells represent. However, I decided to take a stab at it for LTE and display the site notes associated with a site that it MIGHT be. If there is a note saved for the given PCI on the currently connected TAC, the note is displayed with the neighbor cell. There is a margin of error with this; you may be seeing a neighbor PCI that is on another TAC, so the note displayed may be incorrect. There should be a decent distance between these sites, so it should be clear if you are seeing a note from a site that is not in the vicinity.You may see the same PCI shown several times; this is most likely the different bands broadcasting from the same sector. Added options to hide disconnected or unavailable connection types. (Pro) With the addition of neighbor cells, the information display was spanning beyond a single screen, so it only made sense to include this now. There are a few different options; "Hide All" hides anything that is not conected, "Only Disabled" only hides disabled connections, "Only Wi-Fi" only hides the Wi-Fi display when it is not available, and "None" shows all connection types all the time. Added Site Log fields for strongest signals and the locations they were received. (Pro) After running the log for awhile, you should be able to plot the information from these new columns to get a good idea of where the site is. The signal strength, latitude, and longitude are recorded. Added display of frequency class for recognized LTE bands (i.e. "LTE 800") on the main screen. This is pretty self-explanatory; makes it very easy to see the impact of a tri-band network. Sprint LTE band 41 sites that were owned by Clearwire are now marked with an asterisk on the main screen. Eventually, these sites will be the execptions, as construction progresses on native Sprint sites with 8T8R equipment. Again, a Samsung bug prevents proper Clear B41 recognition on many devices, so nothing will be shown on those. Added display of primary scrambling code (PSC) for GSM sites. I'm not sure what this is, but I figured out how to get it, so I might as well display it. WCDMA neighbor cells are only identified by their PSC. Resolved issue with disconnected Wi-Fi connections showing -127 dBm signal on Android 5.0. Lollipop has introduced some changes that impact the app; please report any issues you discover. Alerts are still not working for Lollipop users. It looks like the public launch will be on November 3, so I will hopefully have this fixed very soon. Resolved issue with null GCI and TAC values appearing in the LTE site log. (Pro) I thought this bug was squashed, but apparently not -- please let me know if the issues continue. Resolved issue with Wi-Fi connections displaying speeds of 0 Mbps on some devices. The Wi-Fi speed will now be hidden if it is invalid. Changed user site note prompts to capitalize the first letter of each word by default. (Pro)This was driving me crazy, very happy to have found how to do this! Resolved issue with missing last_time values in the Site Log. (Pro)The "last_time" column could be null under certain conditions, but that is now fixed. Resolved issue with stale 1X information displayed after connection is lost. (Pro)The BSL and/or graphic meter would "stick" in certain conditions. Added indicators for Free Mobile UMTS bands 1 and 8 and LTE band 7. International provider based in France. I will add band identifers for any networks as long as someone can provide me with a site identification pattern to do so. Updated provider database. Minor update, mostly to international providers. SignalCheck Lite (the free version) will be updated next week, I realize it is a couple of versions behind. -Mike

Your enginerring screen is showing PLMN "311-49" which really means 311490 but Samsung can't get their act together. That indicates a Clearwire B41 site. However, your Note 4 is reporting PLMN 310120 to Android, which is the default for Sprint. Improper PLMN reporting is an issue that plagues most Samsung devices, and unfortunately there isn't anything I can do about it except yell at Samsung and hope they fix it in a future software update. SignalCheck is not indicating B41 because the phone is not providing correct information to the app. Samsung did release a tool that has fixed issues related to SignalCheck for other users called "Refresh Customization" you can try. I do not know which devices it is compatible with and some people warn of settings getting reset, so use at your own risk: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samsung.refreshDevice Sounds like a juicy rumor! The weekend ends today, hmmmm..... -Mike

It's not my way, it's Android's way -- buttons are coded as "Positive", "Negative", and "Neutral".. the OS decides what order they go in. Somewhere around Android 4.0 they switched the order around. I just go with the flow! -Mike

Hence my hope that most people would opt to scrub it away. Did the prompt seem clear enough? Adjusting the wording took longer than coding it. Many of yours were probably bogus duplicate entries of B25 and/or B26 sites that had the wrong PLMN showing.. plus with one entry per unique GCI, a typical site could have 6 such entries (3 B25 sectors, 3 B26). The garbage piles up quickly! -Mike

I decided to go with a "Yes/No/Ask Later" prompt that explains the situation. More work on my end, but gives everyone the option at least once. Choose wisely, you only get one chance! -Mike

I believe the only PLMNs that "stuck" inappropriately were the Clearwire ones because of the nature of the bug. The enginerring screen probably uses a proprietary method to get the PLMN, not one of the ones built into Android that I have to use. Samsung was also showing PCIs on their enginerring screens long before their phones started reporting it to Android. It's not necessarily a lot of work to code some import/export functions, I'm just trying to tackle other items that affect a much wider audience first. I'm not going to get into creating pre-populated databases for people.. that's way more work that getting the import/export goodies working. But it is certainly technically feasible if you are rooted or otherwise have write access to the app folder on your device.. just make sure you're not sharing sponsor-confidential information with anyone.. Did I miss something about you losing data? I hope you're not misunderstanding what I was discussing before about cleaning up the logs -- I'm not going to wipe them out, just prune Clear PLMNs that were unreliable until this latest version. -Mike

Oh that's coming.. like I've said before, I wanted to get B26 and B41 identification nailed down accurately before jumping into that (or LTE band notification icons). If I enabled B41 alerts a few months ago, I'd be buried in hate mail for lots of false alarms. I'm fairly confident this release cleans up all of those bugs, but I want to let the public version hit the street for a bit before I'm totally convinced. Also, I'm going to overhaul the Alerts configuration.. I don't want to have 100 different hard-coded possibilities as the app grows, especially since many of them will be provider-specific. -Mike