Just realized that that thing I had to climb up to get to my front door is actually a Verizon Cell phone tower!
So, just noticed this condition today and thought I'd share. I have a Smart Action set up to enable my Home Wi-Fi based on location - Trigger is my location; Actions are to turn on Wi-Fi, turn off Data and Max Ringer.
While home this afternoon I just happened to look at my phone and noticed that my battery seemed to be dropping a little quicker than normal and my cell signal strength was max bars which NEVER NEVER happens at home - kind of on the fringe in my house and I'm lucky to get 3 on a good day. I checked network strength and my 4G was 2147483647 db. Gotta be a world record, right? oh wait . . . is more db bad?
Just got me wondering if, while on the fringe, the radio actively looks for a signal (like it does between 1X, 3G and 4G) and maybe gets stuck in some type of high output state. Would explain some of the intermittent hi-temp, unusual battery drain I experience occaisionally/intermittently. Just so we're clear - I'm not complaining at all about my Maxx battery.
Running stock .211 rooted.
jeff_roey said:
Just realized that that thing I had to climb up to get to my front door is actually a Verizon Cell phone tower!
So, just noticed this condition today and thought I'd share. I have a Smart Action set up to enable my Home Wi-Fi based on location - Trigger is my location; Actions are to turn on Wi-Fi, turn off Data and Max Ringer.
While home this afternoon I just happened to look at my phone and noticed that my battery seemed to be dropping a little quicker than normal and my cell signal strength was max bars which NEVER NEVER happens at home - kind of on the fringe in my house and I'm lucky to get 3 on a good day. I checked network strength and my 4G was 2147483647 db. Gotta be a world record, right? oh wait . . . is more db bad?
Just got me wondering if, while on the fringe, the radio actively looks for a signal (like it does between 1X, 3G and 4G) and maybe gets stuck in some type of high output state. Would explain some of the intermittent hi-temp, unusual battery drain I experience occaisionally/intermittently. Just so we're clear - I'm not complaining at all about my Maxx battery.
Running stock .211 rooted.
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Click to collapse
I thought after 120 db it actually means you've lost signal.....optimal is between 80 to 120....
I could be wrong
I saw that exact same thing on my Maxx the other day. I also noticed battery declining due to it. Not sure what it means though.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
squiggie said:
I saw that exact same thing on my Maxx the other day. I also noticed battery declining due to it. Not sure what it means though.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
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It means your have no signal, and your battery is dying from your LTE radio trying to find signal. dbm between -80 and -120 is not optimal, that is the range where verizon techs will tell you that you may experience data connectivity issues. The lower the dbm the better signal you have, however most extended 4g service areas are at this quality. I have seen some locations, closer to the towers, where I have gotten signal around -60dbm, which gave about 38mbps down and around 16mbps up.
I ordered a sleek 4g signal booster from wilson electronics, which will get here tomorrow, and will let you guys know how much improvement I get in areas with different signal strengths.
i've seen it countless times on my razr. I think it's just a bug
No signal but my signal bars show as full? That makes no sense whatsoever. I think I have to agree that it is just a weird bug.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
I'll tell the truth. Wilson electronics sleek 4g-v is not going to improve SINR signal strength (that's what you need for better LTE speed), however it will improve RSSI signal, but this is not going to help for LTE. If you want a good LTE amplifier, you are looking to spend about $500 that includes outdoor, indoor antenna and SINR amplifier. SINR is more important then RSSI or DBM for LTE
Related
Hello everyone!
I received my Vibrant from the US a week ago and noticed that when 3G is on, the reception is 1/2 bars at most. While it's connected, the device gets hot in the top part and the battery drains like a F1 racing car.
I though I could see how good is the signal and it's about (-90) - (-100) dbm.
I never had reception issues with my previous phone that is 3 years old (HTC Touch Cruise) whose reception is quite good. My company's antenna is about 1 Km far and it's emitting 3G in the WCDMA 2100 MHz band.
Could any setting improve the reception to avoid heating and battery consumption?
Thanks a lot!!
You may want to try to set it to 2G only if you want a good battery life.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Maybe somebody knows an application that switches from 3G to 2G when the reception is not good. It might be very handy.
Also, I wanted to know what levels are acceptable in dbm for a 3G connection that doesn't drain the battery like crazy.
Thanks for your reply!
In West Palm I have full signal and wifi on and batt life is like 20 hours with heavy use. Here in West Broward I have 1 bar on and off and no wifi. 3G is ridiculous here. I get 2 hours max. Cant wait to leave tomorrow.
I Haz 3D
Yeah I only get 1 bar where I live and I have horrible battery life.
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Signal significantly effects battery life. The more the radio fluctuates between signals and loss/recovery of signal the faster battery will drain.
I update my PRL at least once a week to receive new tower & roaming updates...
Check this out: http://opensignalmaps.com/
i was out riding my motorcycle yesterday and didn't have great signal the whole time. i chewed through 2 stock batteries yesterday. while sitting at Hooters with my phone on the table it would go back and fourth between roaming about once a minute.
needless to say i'm going to try to get it changed out tomorrow for a Photon, that was the last straw.
You are right, but you dont have to frequently update your PRL. Your device will find new towers even if they arent in your current PRL. The only time the PRL really matters is if your carriers gains a completely new roaming partner.
SpartanEvo said:
Signal significantly effects battery life. The more the radio fluctuates between signals and loss/recovery of signal the faster battery will drain.
I update my PRL at least once a week . . .
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Sent from my Galaxy Tab using Tapatalk
pretty much, the less bars you have, the more power your phone has to use to get the signal.
My phone is on a death bed right now with this signal.
I Haz 3D
Was the same on the Evo 4G. Weak signal = battery gets raped. I wish they'd put a limit on the current draw. The phone can draw as much as 1 full amp of power searching for/holding a signal in fringe areas.
Mike
am i the only one having such slow speeds, that watching a youtube video is not possible unless wifi is enabled?
i can browse the web just fine, but anything youtube related and it falls on its face.
that and my battery lasting a mere 6 hours and i'm beginning to hate this phone. (yes, syncs are turned off, and no live wallpaper exists)
The only fix for this I have found is to return the phone for a refund...
Sad but very true.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
wakdady said:
am i the only one having such slow speeds, that watching a youtube video is not possible unless wifi is enabled?
i can browse the web just fine, but anything youtube related and it falls on its face.
that and my battery lasting a mere 6 hours and i'm beginning to hate this phone. (yes, syncs are turned off, and no live wallpaper exists)
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Well, if you did the Proxy removing trick and you called Sprint to have a "data reset for slow data speeds" and you are positive it isn't just the coverage/local tower saturation. From the sounds of your 6-hour battery you are probably in a low signal area and tower hopping and probably even roaming more than you should. I know mine does that. Mine does all of that even though I usually get decent enough speeds for everything except youtube, which I can stream it just takes an extra 5-10 seconds to buffer.
I'm on my 3rd phone, I've done all of those tricks and they have helped greatly, but, every bit of help it gets just masks the fact that to some of us this phone has terrible signal strength and tower locking and an absurdly low roaming threshold...roaming data is so slow that it's nearly useless for anything but simple web pages.
The only solution I've been able to come up with comes out on Friday I did love this phone, but, I've been in denial for a while now. I wish you better luck than I had.
Sprint 3G is horrible. If you are not on Wi-Fi or 4G watching anything on youtube is impossible. I love how Sprint has the only true unlimited data, but it comes at the price of piss-poor 3G speeds.
Your lucky to get 6 hours of battery use. I can get 6 if I lower my screen brightness to almost 0, turn off gps and sync, and not make any phone calls.
fmedina2 said:
Sprint 3G is horrible. If you are not on Wi-Fi or 4G watching anything on youtube is impossible. I love how Sprint has the only true unlimited data, but it comes at the price of piss-poor 3G speeds.
Your lucky to get 6 hours of battery use. I can get 6 if I lower my screen brightness to almost 0, turn off gps and sync, and not make any phone calls.
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Piss poor 3G speeds? I always use 3G since there is no 4G where I live, and even if I get around 1 bar, the 3G is amazing. It is incredibly fast. Also, the battery life should last about 12-15 hours with moderate (~3 hours screen on, some calls, medium data/streaming) usage. You might need to get your phone replaced.
But yeah, 3G, WiFi or 4G, the youtube buffering was always really slow on my phone and previous phones.
OP: If you have bad signal and cut in and out of roaming, that could be the battery drain problem. The Photon 4G is great with signal and should get around an extra 3 bars of signal than the Evo 3d does. (I have a friend with it and he gets 5 bars where I get around 1-3 bars) If you really need something for signal, you could sell your Evo for around 200 dollars on craigslist and get an around 200 dollar photon from craigslist.
Do the proxy thing. It won't speed up your data persay but for me if i have the proxy in YouTube doesn't work if I take it out it does. I've done it multiple times. It's really easy.
boom!! from my shooter
yousefak said:
Piss poor 3G speeds? I always use 3G since there is no 4G where I live, and even if I get around 1 bar, the 3G is amazing. It is incredibly fast. Also, the battery life should last about 12-15 hours with moderate (~3 hours screen on, some calls, medium data/streaming) usage. You might need to get your phone replaced.
But yeah, 3G, WiFi or 4G, the youtube buffering was always really slow on my phone and previous phones.
OP: If you have bad signal and cut in and out of roaming, that could be the battery drain problem. The Photon 4G is great with signal and should get around an extra 3 bars of signal than the Evo 3d does. (I have a friend with it and he gets 5 bars where I get around 1-3 bars) If you really need something for signal, you could sell your Evo for around 200 dollars on craigslist and get an around 200 dollar photon from craigslist.
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Agreed. Having owned an evo (currently using), photon, and a 3d ill have to say that the reception issue was definitely the phone (3d) and NOT the network.
At work with my evo 4g and I can buffer a HQ youtube video fairly quickly with just one bar of reception. Yet on the 3D I can even buffer a non hq youtube video at ALL. even on wifi it couldn't stream a vid. Piss poor. The mopho was excellent. On par or better than my evo.
I shouldn't have to do all these tweaks to my phone to make it work AS A PHONE. that is the one of the main things on my list that MUST work out of the box.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
yousefak said:
Piss poor 3G speeds? I always use 3G since there is no 4G where I live, and even if I get around 1 bar, the 3G is amazing. It is incredibly fast. Also, the battery life should last about 12-15 hours with moderate (~3 hours screen on, some calls, medium data/streaming) usage. You might need to get your phone replaced.
But yeah, 3G, WiFi or 4G, the youtube buffering was always really slow on my phone and previous phones.
OP: If you have bad signal and cut in and out of roaming, that could be the battery drain problem. The Photon 4G is great with signal and should get around an extra 3 bars of signal than the Evo 3d does. (I have a friend with it and he gets 5 bars where I get around 1-3 bars) If you really need something for signal, you could sell your Evo for around 200 dollars on craigslist and get an around 200 dollar photon from craigslist.
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Then you are lucky. Many of us live in areas with good sprint coverage...I always get 4 or higher bars but download speeds of 50 kps..around there. I only get 200 plus in the late hours..2 am and such. You tube lags and the rest of slow download headaches. Not everybody has good speeds like you and I am not a betting man, but I would think the majority of us get ****ty speeds. Hell, my cricket phone before I went sprint had faster speeds, but service was awful. Not flaming, just stating the truth. Sprint has ****ty speeds, period. Some of us, the majority...have much, much slower speeds then you
I have to agree with everyone else. I get good coverage and I'm connected to sprint's 3G network not 1x and I consistantly get below 100kbs. My phone is basically unusable without wifi connected. Once in a while I'll get like 500kbs and it feels like 4G! So Lame. It's a good thing Sprint doesn't throttle data! LMAO If they did the speeds would be like 10kbs!
maybe the problem is not on the phone but on the carrier.. i have the Evo in Portugal and the youtube speed is normal over mobile data (and not wifi) and my battery always lasts about 48 hours..
i live in the San Francisco Bay area and we have very good 3G and 4G in many areas. but it still sucks. it wasnt this bad when i first got the phone.
can someone send me a link or how-to on the proxy thingy?
what other phone options do i have that either meet or excel in the specs compared to a evo3d?
wakdady said:
i live in the San Francisco Bay area and we have very good 3G and 4G in many areas. but it still sucks. it wasnt this bad when i first got the phone.
can someone send me a link or how-to on the proxy thingy?
what other phone options do i have that either meet or excel in the specs compared to a evo3d?
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Click to collapse
The Photon. And in a week or two from Friday check the epic touch 4g forums to see how their reception is
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
I have trouble streaming youtube on 3G too. Usually I use 4G.....but yeah its kinda annoying
I haven't had any issues on my Evo...but I know youtube themselves, (streaming from a desktop with 60 megs down...has been painfully slow...and it's only youtube.
Upon setting up both my wifes and my own Razr Maxx I noticed a few things:
My home WiFi signal is quite weak... My thungerbolt and wifes Droid X have great WiFi signal, but the Maxx is so bad it regularly drops the connection. A co-worker has noticed the same thing with his Maxx...
The Celular signal is roughly 6 to 10 dmb worse than the Razr... tested a few Maxxs and regular Razrs right next to each other at various places. Always the same difference (ICS ROM will drop your signal even more... not sure why yet).
This really sucks if you're in a low signal area to begin with (which I am). I tried the Galaxy Nexus and it was even worse !!!
Went to a Verizon store and checked out there phones just sitting there... what do you know... all show the same signal issues I've noted with my own phone... Razr is good, Maxx not so good, Nexus blows.
Could this be due to the extended battery in the back of our phones causing some shielding issues? Am I just going nutz here
My GSM razr has the worst wifi reception of any device I have ever used. It's the one great hardware flaw, I doubt it is fixable.
Same here, my Razr has the weakest Wi-Fi signal of all the phones I owned and own. I did noticed one thing, if I flip it into landscape, signal strenght improves greatly.
br Zola
The antenna is at the bottom right, become left handed and voila!
I find that the 3G reception is much better than anything I ever had though, and usually faster anyway..
So I just got a giant data plan. =)
First to start out the reception at my house sucks. So I am always tweaking my phones to cope with the low signal. On my g3 before my little mod my signal was 1x and -106 to no service at all. Then I thought maybe my battery was emitting emf that interfered with the signal a little bit. So I filled the battery compartment with tin foil. Just enough to fill the battery compartment (leaving about 1/2 inch beneath the battery pins) and raise the battery a little. My signal after is -95 1x I have 3g and it is -86 and to my surprise when I first turned my phone on I had 4g which I have never seen in my house before. This is a mod every vzw g3 owner should at least try. If you do I I'm in need of thanks
I have a case on my phone that has a piece of aluminum trip around the edge and some people have complained that it decreases the signal. I don't have a problem with that b/c I don't usually have trouble with a weak signal or dropouts unless I'm driving down Interstate and that's only a couple times a month.
Aluminum can help or destroy signal you just need to know where to put it... Take your signal readings before and after if you try it. As big of a boost I seen it would not surprise me if it closed your dead zone gaps
Casey Walt said:
First to start out the reception at my house sucks. So I am always tweaking my phones to cope with the low signal. On my g3 before my little mod my signal was 1x and -106 to no service at all. Then I thought maybe my battery was emitting emf that interfered with the signal a little bit. So I filled the battery compartment with tin foil. Just enough to fill the battery compartment (leaving about 1/2 inch beneath the battery pins) and raise the battery a little. My signal after is -95 1x I have 3g and it is -86 and to my surprise when I first turned my phone on I had 4g which I have never seen in my house before. This is a mod every vzw g3 owner should at least try. If you do I I'm in need of thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like it worked for me. I taped the foil down with scotch tape really good because I do a lot of battery swapping. I also have poor reception in my house and signal increased 5-8 dBm. Able to load webpages on 3G now in the basement, still very slow but def improvement. Thanks for posting
hawkswind1 said:
Seems like it worked for me. I taped the foil down with scotch tape really good because I do a lot of battery swapping. I also have poor reception in my house and signal increased 5-8 dBm. Able to load webpages on 3G now in the basement, still very slow but def improvement. Thanks for posting
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Click to collapse
Any time... You may be able to tweak the placement of it more. I think the cdma antenna is on the bottom lte on top and evdo on the side... The key is to make the interference that the phone naturally makes bounce away from theses antennas (it obviously works) lol I'm surprised lg didn't make sure of this to begin with. Just for the record my phone is now able to make calls anywhere in my house.. Was never able to do that (even with my droid bionic:laugh
Casey Walt said:
First to start out the reception at my house sucks. So I am always tweaking my phones to cope with the low signal. On my g3 before my little mod my signal was 1x and -106 to no service at all. Then I thought maybe my battery was emitting emf that interfered with the signal a little bit. So I filled the battery compartment with tin foil. Just enough to fill the battery compartment (leaving about 1/2 inch beneath the battery pins) and raise the battery a little. My signal after is -95 1x I have 3g and it is -86 and to my surprise when I first turned my phone on I had 4g which I have never seen in my house before. This is a mod every vzw g3 owner should at least try. If you do I I'm in need of thanks
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Click to collapse
Pics?
Edit: I have 4G but my signal says -102.
Sent from my LG-VS985 using XDA Free mobile app
jco897j said:
Pics?
Edit: I have 4G but my signal says -102.
Sent from my LG-VS985 using XDA Free mobile app
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Good remember that number also take your cdma (1x) readings also... then try my mod and report back.. im working on pics i just need the old tablet to charge enough to turn on lol
Pics
didn't feel like taking the rest of my case off but the important part is there....
Casey Walt said:
didn't feel like taking the rest of my case off but the important part is there....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try this out when I get a hold of some foil. I noticed the G3 gas a bad antenna. In my apt with my gs4 on HSPA+/ATT I get about 89-94dbm. With my G3 on the same network I get about 102dbm.
daniel4653 said:
I'll try this out when I get a hold of some foil. I noticed the G3 gas a bad antenna. In my apt with my gs4 on HSPA+/ATT I get about 89-94dbm. With my G3 on the same network I get about 102dbm.
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Click to collapse
I know the att version has very bad signal problems. Do you have it or the Verizon version? Because if you have the Verizon version the antennas wouldn't be properly tuned anyway and could explain why it's so bad also
Casey Walt said:
I know the att version has very bad signal problems. Do you have it or the Verizon version? Because if you have the Verizon version the antennas wouldn't be properly tuned anyway and could explain why it's so bad also
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Sorry forgot to clarify that. I have the Verizon version on ATTs network.
I tried this and it has no effect. That is to be expected because the battery is encased in metal and therefore already shielded.
Yep, battery is already shielded. Your results if anything are just an anomaly .
Digital_MD said:
I tried this and it has no effect. That is to be expected because the battery is encased in metal and therefore already shielded.
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DigitalMD said:
Yep, battery is already shielded. Your results if anything are just an anomaly .
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You guys must be doing something wrong then because I am seeing differencees and somebody else said they did to. where are you guys located? I know I am on vzw 800mhz network maybe you guys are on 1900mhz... And it doesn't affect it as much
I tried this just now, using LTE Discovery paid version to monitor the signals. LTE strength on Verizon Band4 was unchanged at around -100dBm, and the SignalToNoise ratio was either the same or maybe a bit worse.
Thinking maybe the 1xRTT signal might have been the one affected, I checked that too, but again there was no change.
All this on a Verizon tower about 0.8mile away.
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
trent999 said:
I tried this just now, using LTE Discovery paid version to monitor the signals. LTE strength on Verizon Band4 was unchanged at around -100dBm, and the SignalToNoise ratio was either the same or maybe a bit worse.
Thinking maybe the 1xRTT signal might have been the one affected, I checked that too, but again there was no change.
All this on a Verizon tower about 0.8mile away.
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Did you raise the battery a little because I know this had the biggest afftect but just puting tinfoil in and slightly wrapping the sides it around helped a little I'll try again and take more accurate readings to see what happens
The battery is already shielded by a metal casing, unless you are using a cheap knock-off battery, there's no technical reason that foil would make any difference in that area. And I did try it in a low signal area, -105 db on LTE before and after. -101 db on 1x before -102 after, within the margin of error.
I attempted this as well. I first watched my signal for a while to figure out a rough average as we'll as a typical range from the same position within my house. I performed the mod and the typical position was 1-2 worse, but it stayed within the range. I suspect the "gains" a few found are likely within your typical fluctuations as well and you may have noticed during a good period.
Sent from my LG G3 smartphone.
Casey Walt said:
Did you raise the battery a little because I know this had the biggest afftect but just puting tinfoil in and slightly wrapping the sides it around helped a little I'll try again and take more accurate readings to see what happens
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you raise the battery,I have the zero lemon as well,and my signal drops when I use it as opposed to stock. I'm willing to try anything for better signal...thanks
Sent from my VS985 4G using XDA Free mobile app
My results
Here is what I found- I folded the aluminum 3 times and cut it to be a little shorter than the battery. I tried it from my office (which gets a pretty good signal anyways) 2 times with the foil and 2 times without. I got 86dBM originally, 76dBM with the foil (which made me think the foil was working) but on the second try I got 85dBM without and 87dBM with the foil. My gut tells me the first time was a fluke. Still I plan to try it at home to see if I can tweak out a bit more signal.