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The problem: At home, my 3G signal is very weak - occasionally it reaches 2 out of 4 bars, often it's only one and it frequently drops out altogether causing the phone to switch to EDGE. At work, however, I get a very good 3G signal, so it would be useful to use 3G.
Now, in theory the "Auto" band setting (auto between GSM and WCDMA) ought to cover this; but in practice the 3G signal at home is just strong enough that the phone keeps trying to switch into 3G mode (and thrashing the battery) but the actual data speed I get (even over HDSPA) doesn't seem much faster than EDGE, and every time it loses the HDSPA link and drops to EDGE there's a long pause before the data starts flowing again.
I've tried switching the phone's band setting between "GSM" and "Auto", using the GSM setting at home, and Auto elsewhere; but doing that plays havoc with "Microsoft Direct Push". Switching the phone band causes the data connection to drop, which switches Direct Push off; switching Direct Push back on again loses the more detailed settings I have set in ActiveSync (where I download email manually during work hours but automatically outside of work). In addition, because the data connection is lost, any application that's using it generally has to be shut down and restarted.
Is there some way of moving the phone between "Auto" and "2G only" mode without messing up the Direct Push setting and, if possible, without severing the data connection? While actually in "Auto" mode the phone happily switches between HDSPA and EDGE without any side-effects; so it seems like there ought to be a way to tell the phone "be in Auto mode but for the moment pretend that there is no 3G signal even if there actually is a weak one", and then use that setting in weak 3G areas, switching back to normal "Auto" behaviour when you know the 3G signal has improved. Or alternatively perhaps "Auto" mode could be made to not try to switch to 3G until you get a 3-bar signal, but, once switched, try and stay with 3G until it drops to 1 bar?
The underlying problem here is that the 3G signal in my house is quite weak, but not so weak that it is undetectable. If I leave my TP2's band setting set to "Auto" then it keeps trying to switch into 3G mode, then dropping back to 2G, with a delay every time it does it. (Drains the battery too). So I'd like to be able to quickly switch between 2G and 3G mode. (Obviously I could just leave it set to 2G all the time, but this is a waste when I'm at work or in some other place which actually has a good 3G signal).
My current solution is that I've got a start menu shortcut pointing to CMBandSwitching.exe in the Windows folder. (This is the same program that is launched if you go to the TouchFLO "settings" page, then hit Communications/Phone/Band). In here I can change the Network setting between "Auto", "GSM" and "WCDMA" which has the effect of turning 3G on and off.
But... there are horrible side-effects. Switching in this way causes the current data connection to get messed up, so that nothing can actually use it to access the Internet. Web browsers stop working, and I can't receive email. I've tried switching the data connection off and back on in Communications Manager, and this works sometimes; but even when it does, it messes up my ActiveSync schedule settings. And usually I simply can't get the data connection to turn back on. More often than not, when I change the Band setting I end up having to hit the reset button to get everything functioning normally again.
There must surely be a way of turning 3G on and off without disrupting the data connection and ActiveSync settings and requiring a reboot? The phone itself can do this in "Auto" mode if I'm moving between areas of good 3G signal and zero 3G signal. Is there perhaps a way to tweak the behaviour of "Auto" mode so that it needs a higher 3G strength signal to switch to 3G? Or is there any way to convince the phone (while in Auto mode) that there isn't really a 3G signal present (even though there is really a weak signal) so that it switches to 2G in a side-effect-free fashion?
(bump)
Hm. 136 views and no reply.
You might check into WMLonglife
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478519
I haven't tried it, but it may work for you. It functions more based on what you are doing with the phone as opposed to what bands are available.
mwelch16 said:
You might check into WMLonglife
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478519
I haven't tried it, but it may work for you. It functions more based on what you are doing with the phone as opposed to what bands are available.
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I'll check that out, thanks.
I have Zooper Widget Pro on my rooted/modded (CM 10.2.0-d2spr) Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3. I've noticed that when I'm on anything other than 4G/LTE, I get sensible values for #NCSIG# and #NCSIGN#. However, when my phone connects to an LTE tower, #NCSIG# jumps to/stays at 99, and #NCSIGN# jumps to/stays at 85 (positive, not negative).
Is there a reason for this, and any fix/workaround? I'm trying to use it to display a progress bar, but when the numbers go wonky like that it's not very helpful. Since my office and home both have varying degrees of LTE coverage, I usually end up with a useless progress bar most of the time
Thanks!
I have similar issues on VZW. NSIG is always 99 and NCSIGN is always 85.....Works for a short time after a reboot but eventually goes back to this.
VZW GNEX 4.22
A.L.2009 said:
I have similar issues on VZW. NSIG is always 99 and NCSIGN is always 85.....Works for a short time after a reboot but eventually goes back to this.
VZW GNEX 4.22
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A.L.2009, what ROM are you running? Try turning off LTE (Settings > Wireless & Networks > More... > Mobile Networks > Network Mode) and select one similar to "CDMA/EvDo auto" (or another one that mentions CDMA but not LTE). If you get more sensible numbers after turning that off, then it's likely a problem with LTE specifically... if not, then I'm stumped
To the devs: I'd be willing to help debug this if you have any special tools to do so
Thanks..tried switching from LTE to CDMA, same problem.
Im running stock/rooted 4.2.2
Not sure if this is your issue but this is how I set up my WiFi and Cell progress bars:
For WiFi progress bar, under the 'Edit Progress Min/Max/Value' setting I have the Min set at 0, value is #NWSIG# and Max is set to 9.
For Cell progress bar, under the 'Edit Progress Min/Max/Value' setting I have the Min set at 0, value is #NCSIG# and Max is set to 31.
The reasoning is that the zooper fields for NWSIG field has values between 0 and 9 while NCSIG has values betwen 0 and 31. NCSIG also shows ASU as a value, but I have no idea what that is. Setting the max value to these settings makes the progress bar seem more usable to me than a setting of 0 to 100.
nukedawg said:
Not sure if this is your issue but this is how I set up my WiFi and Cell progress bars:
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The progress bars work just fine on any other network (1x, 3g, ehrpd), but when the phone connects to 4g/LTE, the numbers go wonky. I get the feeling this is a CDMA-specific issue, since I'm on Sprint and A.L.2009 is on Verizon. I imagine if it occurred on GSM networks too, it would've gotten more attention by now.
I just posted about this in a thread and a wonderful themer kwerdenker pointed me here Android Source CellSignalStrengthCdma you will have to use #NCSIGN# as for the progress bar code it will look like this or at least its what i did...
Code:
min = $#NCELL#=Sprint?-100:0$ value $#NCELL#=Sprint?#NCSIGN#*-1:#NCSIG#$ max $#NCELL#=Sprint?-75:31$
That code should allow for either DBM (Sprint) or ASU (GSM) i did it on my nexus 5...hope that helps
BlueDrgBlade said:
I just posted about this in a thread and a wonderful themer kwerdenker pointed me here Android Source CellSignalStrengthCdma you will have to use #NCSIGN# as for the progress bar code it will look like this or at least its what i did...
Code:
min = $#NCELL#=Sprint?-100:0$ value $#NCELL#=Sprint?#NCSIGN#*-1:#NCSIG#$ max $#NCELL#=Sprint?-75:31$
That code should allow for either DBM (Sprint) or ASU (GSM) i did it on my nexus 5...hope that helps
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Yeah, that source code highlights the problem:
Get the LTE signal level as an asu value between 0..97, 99 is unknown
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Whenever I'm connected to LTE, the value comes up "99".
That's what I get also on my n5...I just gave up on the asu for CDMA for that reason. I'm sure someone a lot smarter than I has a way but I haven't figured it out yet.. Sorry
Yeah... I can't use dbm either, because it's supposed to be a negative value, but when I connect to LTE it goes to +85
Doktor Jones said:
Yeah... I can't use dbm either, because it's supposed to be a negative value, but when I connect to LTE it goes to +85
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If you use the code i posted it will allow for a progress part to work....you have to basically make it negative. I saw the positive on my LTE on my N5 and that is how i got it to work with a progress bar. However i didn't check to see what the regular signal for voice would show up as...if that is already negative i will make modifications to my code and post it...going to check that right now.
EDIT: I just tested it and voice goes to a negative number so i will make changes to the code and re-post for you guys.
---------- Post added at 12:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 PM ----------
Okay i got the new code for the value section on a progress bar that will allow for the change...my N5 only connects to LTE unless i need to make or get a call then it switches networks from Data to Voice network and thus why i didn't think about the issue you just brought up...
here's the code hope this helps....
Code:
$#NCELL#=Sprint && #NCSIGN#>-1?(#NCSIGN#*-1):#NCSIGN#$ $#NCELL#!=Sprint?#NCSIG#$
BlueDrgBlade said:
If you use the code i posted it will allow for a progress part to work....you have to basically make it negative. I saw the positive on my LTE on my N5 and that is how i got it to work with a progress bar. However i didn't check to see what the regular signal for voice would show up as...if that is already negative i will make modifications to my code and post it...going to check that right now.
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Click to collapse
That doesn't actually solve the problem; normally (1x, 3G, EHRPD) the values are already negative, ranging from -125 to about -60 (theoretically it could go much higher, but -62 is the best I've ever seen, standing within ~100yd of a tower with LOS). If I just use some math magic to make the invert the positive, it still doesn't resolve the fact that the 85 is an entirely invalid value. However, doing some more Googling, it looks more like it might be a ROM-related issue with Sprint LTE; in other words, ZW gets bad data, and just merrily runs along with it.
Doktor Jones said:
That doesn't actually solve the problem; normally (1x, 3G, EHRPD) the values are already negative, ranging from -125 to about -60 (theoretically it could go much higher, but -62 is the best I've ever seen, standing within ~100yd of a tower with LOS). If I just use some math magic to make the invert the positive, it still doesn't resolve the fact that the 85 is an entirely invalid value. However, doing some more Googling, it looks more like it might be a ROM-related issue with Sprint LTE; in other words, ZW gets bad data, and just merrily runs along with it.
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Click to collapse
I noticed that looking over more of the source code for android...but my last code post above should allow for this goof up in the system.
I have a similar issue with my Droid Turbo on VZW. ASU comes up as -3, but dBm comes up as around -119, which is not my real signal strength. It's breaking one of the indicators on my shiny new widget.
I have created a Zooper Widget with a custom signal progress bar but I have an issue with AT&T LTE that whenever I am connected my signal in Zooper shows as a 99ASU and a Positive 85dBm. I know others have had this issue with Sprint, but that solution didn't work for me. Has anyone else had this issue/been able to solve it so the signal shows as the right values?
Jcross1324 said:
I have created a Zooper Widget with a custom signal progress bar but I have an issue with AT&T LTE that whenever I am connected my signal in Zooper shows as a 99ASU and a Positive 85dBm. I know others have had this issue with Sprint, but that solution didn't work for me. Has anyone else had this issue/been able to solve it so the signal shows as the right values?
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Anyone?
I've been giving myself a headache trying to figure this out and still can't get it.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
sixstrings78 said:
I've been giving myself a headache trying to figure this out and still can't get it.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
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I have it with T Mobile
Skipjacks said:
I have it with T Mobile
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Click to collapse
How did you configure it?
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
sixstrings78 said:
How did you configure it?
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
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I don't. I have the same problem at you on t mobile. I don't have a solution.
Sent from your phone. You should be more careful where you leave that thing.
Jcross1324 said:
I have created a Zooper Widget with a custom signal progress bar but I have an issue with AT&T LTE that whenever I am connected my signal in Zooper shows as a 99ASU and a Positive 85dBm. I know others have had this issue with Sprint, but that solution didn't work for me. Has anyone else had this issue/been able to solve it so the signal shows as the right values?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this, in the "edit progress min/max",
set value to "NCSIG",
min to 0,
max to 70. I have the spacing set to 40 and split to 7. Seems to work pretty good for me.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
Zooper has problems calculating dBm & ASU on LTE (4G)
I have the same problem as the OP, and others on the thread. I have already posted about it on the Zooper G+ forum, and on the Zooper support site, to no (apparent) avail.
Using Zooper Pro v245010b on a Verizon CDMA Galaxy Nexus running KitKat (4.4.2 rooted, Shiny ROM, which is very close to the stock ROM). I'm having three problems with the cell signal information (NCSIGN) when I'm in an area with a 4G / LTE connection.
1. Zooper reports NCSIGN as a negative integer when on 3G / eH; but as a positive integer on 4G / LTE. The OP seems to have seen the same thing (positive dBm on 4G) on Sprint. This means that (for example) to get the dBm to display as the negative integer regardless of connection type, I can't just tell it to display #NCSIGN #, I have to tell Zooper "if I'm on LTE, precede the dBm value with a negative sign". This is easy enough, using $#NCONNS#=4G?-#NCSIGN#:#NCSIGN# . So, if that was the only problem, it would be trivial, and barely worth reporting, but I think it may reflect a deeper issue with Zooper & LTE......
2. The central problem is that (at least for me, and some other users) Zooper does not report the absolute value of NCSIGN correctly on 4G / LTE. The reported value does change from time to time, but it's not the correct value. See the attached file with 2 images, captured within a few seconds of each other when I was in an area with a very strong & stable LTE connection.
The top image shows the phone info screen. The yellow arrows indicate (from the bottom up) that I'm connected on LTE, with a dBm of -68, and an ASU of 72. Note that the dBm value (-68) is taken from the value "rsrp" value shown on the line "CellSignalStrengthLte". -68 is quite a strong signal, as confirmed by the 4 bars of connection shown in the status bar.
The bottom image shows my Zooper widget. It shows (correctly) that I am on LTE. however, the dBm is incorrect, showing 85 (the "-" sign comes from the display code I've provided in point 1 above). Because the reported dBm (as a negative integer, i.e., -85) is much weaker than the real dBm (-68), the indicated percentage signal, and the signal bar strength, are lower than they should be - but that's not a real issue; they're wrong because Zooper is delivering an incorrect value for NCSIGN under an LTE connection. If this dBm is fixed, the progress bar & percentages will be fine, too.
3. There's another problem, separate from the above. ASU (NCSIG) doesn't work properly for Zooper when you're on LTE. As you see from the images, my ASU was 72.... but Zooper's cutoff max ASU is 31. Anything above that is displayed, by Zooper, as "99" - which, I think, means "ASU value unknown". I believe the problem is that ASU is calculated differently depending on whether you're on 3G or LTE. Under 3G, the calculation is ASU = (RSSI + 113) / 2. Max value is 31. Zooper does this OK. But under LTE, ASU is calculated as follows: ASU = RSRP + 140. And under LTE, the max is around 97. So, looking again at the attache image, my RSRP is -68. Add 140, bingo, my ASU is 72.
Bottom line: I think that Zooper needs two tweaks in order to report correctly under LTE. Under LTE, (1) Zooper should use the RSRP data (NOT RSSI) to define #NCSIGN# (i.e., dBm, reported as a negative integer); and (2) to correctly calculate the value of #NCSIG# (ASU), Zooper should use the LTE-specific equation (ASU = RSRP + 140). Note that the second item (the ASU calculation) is less important to me, because it's easy to customize Zooper code to display the correct ASU, so long as Zooper is providing the correct input value for #NCSIGN#. But without the correct dBm value under LTE, we're stuck.
I'm new to Zooper, but have learned a lot since messing around with it. I found some icon sets with battery, wifi, and cell strength bars. The battery scalable icon set works perfectly, surprisingly. It shows accurate battery status with no advanced parameters at all?!? The wifi and cell strength sets are not as cooperative. I have tried adding in the #NWSIG# and #NCSIG# tags in the advanced parameters field, but no luck.
Can someone help me understand why the battery icon set would work and the others don't. And then, is there a way to get the wifi and cell strength scalable icon sets to properly display the signal strength?
ok, this is annoying as hell. There has to be a way to do this. With all the skins and icon sets out there, I can't believe that there isn't a way. How does the battery set work?