Android App isn't mapping WiFis while driving: Rarely displays dark blue and light blue "balloons" while wardriving

Found a problem? Tell us about it! Topics-per-issue, please search before posting.

19 posts • Page 1 of 2
I have been wardriving since May 2015. (I'm at about 1,030,000 Wifis collected.)
In the last few months, I have seen a big problem with the Wigle Android app: When I try to run the thing with the mapping turned on (dark blue and light blue balloons) very, very few of those balloons appear, compared with the number than should appear. I hear plenty of high-pitched "beeps", and when I later upload the data and map it, those wifis seem to be properly mapping into located wifis. But dark blue and light blue balloons infrequently appear on the screen. As you can imagine, this is extremely inconvenient. I am using a Moto X Pure phone, with Android 7.0. But about a week ago, I had to shift to using a Moto G4 Plus, for a few days, that also used Android 7.0. It exhibited what seemed to be an identical problem: Showing VERY few light blue and dark blue balloons, but beeps occurred, and the data was properly mapped.

Note: After I posted this, I saw the words "Yagi Disciple" included. I have no idea where that came from.
Sorry about the Yagi disciple - those are forum tags based on how often you post.

It's interesting that the mapping core is missing data, but that points are being logged properly. The good news is that this is probably a rendering or settings problem - the bad news is that if it's a rendering problem, this could be hard to debug, or hard to fix, since the cost of the balloons in memory isn't something we can easily optimize (they're rendered by the mapping library)

First few questions:
1. have the balloons been missing on both the moto X and moto G4 plus, or just since the upgrade to G4?
2. when you upgraded, did the settings from the X get migrated to the G4?
3. Is "Clustering" On or Off? (opposite of what's offered in the menu is the current status)
4. Can you send us the exact android version numbers running on each model? (also, did the change in balloon visibility correspond to a specific version upgrade?)
5. Do you happen to know how constrained the memory on the devices is? (we try and show as many points as memory permits, but we do bound those based on system constraints - if there's a memory-intensive process running at the same time, it would evict balloons more quickly)

I have a Moto G4 plus, will make sure I'm running the right version and get testing. I'll admit that I don't use the mapping feature often on that phone, but I can side-by-side it with my primary phone. and start gathering data to help debug!

Cheers, and sorry for the trouble.

Ark and the WiGLE team.
"Sorry about the Yagi disciple - those are forum tags based on how often you post."

Is that explained anywhere?

"It's interesting that the mapping core is missing data, but that points are being logged properly. The good news is that this is probably a rendering or settings problem - the bad news is that if it's a rendering problem, this could be hard to debug, or hard to fix, since the cost of the balloons in memory isn't something we can easily optimize (they're rendered by the mapping library)"

I don't doubt that you, or your team, understand exactly what you just posted. Do you understand why I have hardly a clue about what you mean?

"First few questions:
1. have the balloons been missing on both the moto X and moto G4 plus, or just since the upgrade to G4?"

First, I wouldn't call it an "upgrade". It was merely a phone that was given to me because it was rather buggy. (But in ways that had nothing to do with Wigle). The balloon problem existed months before I got the G4 Plus. The balloon problem also existed when I ran the G4 Plus. I haven't attempted to run the GP plus since I got the Moto X Pure back, but I would not be surprised that the G4 would continue to demonstrate the problem.

"2. when you upgraded, did the settings from the X get migrated to the G4?"

I don't know. And how can I tell? How many settings must I check to be sure?


"3. Is "Clustering" On or Off? (opposite of what's offered in the menu is the current status)

At least as of now, I think "Clustering" is "off" for both the Moto X Pure and the G4 Plus. However, I notice that the line says, "Clustering On". Maybe it's just because you are so familiar with the system that you don't see any ambiguity, but any newbie seeing this line could interpret it as:
(The) Clustering is On OR
(Turn) Clustering On.
YOU know the answer. Others might not.

4. Can you send us the exact android version numbers running on each model? (also, did the change in balloon visibility correspond to a specific version upgrade?)
"Uh, on my Moto X pure, it says, "Android version 7.0" On my g4 Plus, it says: "Android version 7.0" Is that exact enough?

I do not know whether the balloon problem occurred in relation to a version upgrade. Was I supposed to notice this?"

"5. Do you happen to know how constrained the memory on the devices is? (we try and show as many points as memory permits, but we do bound those based on system constraints - if there's a memory-intensive process running at the same time, it would evict balloons more quickly)"

I believe both phones have 64 gigabytes eraseable storage. The Moto X has 3 gigabytes RAM. The G4 Plus has "4 gigabytes" RAM. Oddly, the G4 Plus claims that it has "64 GB ROM". I was not aware that these phones had any large amount of actual Read-only memory.

"I have a Moto G4 plus, will make sure I'm running the right version and get testing. I'll admit that I don't use the mapping feature often on that phone, but I can side-by-side it with my primary phone. and start gathering data to help debug!"



Cheers, and sorry for the trouble.

Ark and the WiGLE team.
short version: your device only shows as many balloons as it can easily fit into free RAM (android has some say in this, but if you're running 7.0 on both devices, you'll probably see similar behavior). If you run low on memory, the app (the mapping library, in point of fact) trims balloons from the queue to keep from overflowing and/or running down your battery. You can try and run WiGLE without any other programs in memory and see if this makes a difference, but it may also be system-bounded. If you're running other programs, or the device limits are hit, there isn't much of an alternative - this is why we use image tiles and offer search functionality in the Database tab. If you turn on map tiles on your device (under Settings in the app), and select "Mine" for "Show discovered networks on map"), you'll get the same overlays as you'd get on the site, which are a low power/memory alternative to putting up all those balloons on the map.
"short version: your device only shows as many balloons as it can easily fit into free RAM (android has some say in this, but if you're running 7.0 on both devices, you'll probably see similar behavior)."

Okay, one had 3 gigabytes, the other has 4 gigabytes.


" If you run low on memory, the app (the mapping library, in point of fact) trims balloons from the queue to keep from overflowing and/or running down your battery. You can try and run WiGLE without any other programs in memory and see if this makes a difference, but it may also be system-bounded. "

Next time, I will try to be careful to erase (?) all pending/background processes.

"If you're running other programs, or the device limits are hit, there isn't much of an alternative - this is why we use image tiles and offer search functionality in the Database tab. If you turn on map tiles on your device (under Settings in the app), and select "Mine" for "Show discovered networks on map"), you'll get the same overlays as you'd get on the site, which are a low power/memory alternative to putting up all those balloons on the map."

Uh, "turn on map tiles"? I looked under "settings in the app", and saw nothing about "map tiles". I will check this.

Also, when i use Google Maps for navigation, it gives me the option ("offline maps") to download map data from very large areas, to be used offline when no Internet is available. Can Wigle employ this data too?
Sometimes, when I'm scanning, the map gets very fuzzy and indistinct. I assume it's because it isn't getting data, but I don't know why it should not get data.
I tried the: "and select "Mine" for "Show discovered networks on map"), you'll get the same overlays as you'd get on the site, which are a low power/memory alternative to putting up all those balloons on the map."
but nothing was improved. Very, very few blue balloons appear on the screen, although I heard hundreds of higher-pitched "beeps".
If it would help, I could mount one phone, taking a video of the screen of the second phone, and recording the "beeps" emitted. But, I wonder if this could help.
I don't imagine video will tell us anything new, although some screenshots might be useful.
My concern is that we can't directly influence the way the third-party library that renders the balloons culls them from memory.

Can you tell us a little about your intended use and the expected behavior of the balloons?
"Can you tell us a little about your intended use and the expected behavior of the balloons?"

In the past, the balloons simply indicated which streets I had covered. It's rather difficult now to fully cover a neighborhood, when there is no record of the locations of the WiFis.
I'm curious, mostly because this element hasn't changed in our software in a very long time.

I've spent the week stress-testing it, and I'm still seeing a large number of points on the map with the G4. We'll continue to explore.
I have an old Moto X 2nd Generation. I will activate it for Wigle, and see what it does.
Before 1.5 years ago, I heavily used a Moto X 1st generation, and I don't recall it ever having this problem.
I have not been able to activate my Moto X 2nd gen phone. It's old, and nearly at its memory limit. It had many old pictures, and I don't know if they were/are backed up. The system told me to upgrade the Photos program, but I could not do that, because there was not enough available memory to do that. And, I also did not have enough memory to install the Wigle program.
I have (maybe?) fixed a problem in the phone software, but haven't yet tested to determine if it fixes the scanning problem.

But, I have decided that I want to buy a cheap, used phone for wardriving. I hope to not have to put it on any cell phone plan. My main objective is to find a phone that has a FAST WiFi scan: One that can do scans in 1 second or less. Does anybody know of such a phone?
Aardvaark mentioned that old Galaxy S4s (running cyanogen mod) were his tool of choice at Def Con last year!
The talk is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSsTgazmHCw!

19 posts • Page 1 of 2

Return to “Bugs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests