How To Automagically update Cell Near list?

[Necro mancer]

I have a profile that triggers based on Cell Near, is it possible for tasker to somehow automagically trigger a scan and add towers without human intervention? 

[easiuser]

There is an entire project in this forum "How to tell when I am home" that addresses this in great detail, but personnally this is what I do:

 

This is the profile I use for being near my home.  It uses the global variable %CellHome to store all the tower info

 

Profile: locHomeNear (15)
 Priority: 9 Restore: no
 State: Cell Near [ Cell Tower / Last Signal:%CellHome Ignore Cells:* ]

and this is the profile I use to update the cell list %CellHome.  NOTE: There is a newline prior to %CELLID in action A2.  The entry task, AddHomeCellID can be called initially by just runnning it from tasker or a shortcut while at home.  If you want it to update automatically, you need to trigger on something.  In my case, anytime the %CELLID variable changes and I am connected to my wifi and not connected to my car BT.

 

I occationally get an empty or invalid %CELLID which is why there are so many checks in action A1.

 

Profile: LearnHomeNear (69)
 Priority: 9 Restore: no
 Event: Variable Set [ Variable:%CELLID Value:* User Variables Only:Off ]
 State: Not BT Connected [ Name:* Address:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX]
 State: Wifi Connected [ SSID:EASI-WAN MAC:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX IP:* ]
Enter: AddHomeCellID (76)
 A1: If [ %CellHome !~ *%CELLID* & %CELLID !~ \%CELLID & %CELLID !~ GSM:0.0 ]
 A2: Variable Set [ Name:%CellHome To:
%CELLID Do Maths:Off Append:On ]
 A3: End If

[Necro mancer]

Bless you.

Yeah I thought I saw a project doing that, but had trouble finding it.

So tasker use a veriable that contains all cell towers in text list!?

[Necro mancer]

Ah, this just adds the current cell tower to the list, it doesn't actively scans for all available towers.

:/

[Sean Williams]

Ah, this just adds the current cell tower to the list, it doesn't actively scans for all available towers.

easiuser's example works fine and over time your tower list will be updated.

Towers are only updated as they are seen, for your device to add new ids it must switch between cell sites. Depending on your location, network and a whole bunch of real world variables this can happen frequently or infrequently.

If you want to try and force connections to different cell sites you could try toggling aeroplane mode or switch between 2g, 3g, 4g (if available) etc. then easiusers profile will collect all viable cells.

[Necro mancer]

Tasker has the option to scan for cell towers, as thats exactly what it does when we press the "scan" button when making a "Cell Near" profile.

I thought maybe there is a way to trigger it automagically.

thanks for the suggestions.

[Sean Williams]

Tasker has the option to scan for cell towers, as thats exactly what it does when we press the "scan" button when making a "Cell Near" profile.
I thought maybe there is a way to trigger it automagically.

thanks for the suggestions.

I believe the 'Scan' button is collecting any towers your phone switches to while the scan is active.

The actual cell tower switching is network/carrier related and beyond the scope of Android alone. The only way I know of is to force radio changes.

[Necro mancer]

You sure about that?

I assumed the tower the phone is connected to is the one marked with < sign at the end while scanning.

This is just theoretical, but 

its possible to scan for network operators under settings -> networks -> mobile networks.

It doesn't show a list of cell towers, but how does it find all available operators if not through scanning for all available towers?

[Sean Williams]

You sure about that?

About what?

I assumed the tower the phone is connected to is the one marked with < sign at the end while scanning.

I agree?

This is just theoretical, but
its possible to scan for network operators under settings -> networks -> mobile networks.
It doesn't show a list of cell towers, but how does it find all available operators if not through scanning for all available towers?

I'm no expert here and Google will provide better answers...

I would guess in the event your phone wishes to register to a network it will broadcast a signal. Once the signal is picked up by one or more local cell towers they check your id if your allowed onto their network an algorithm will determine which cell tower, base station you will be allowed to connect to at which point said tower replies to you.

I think the question here is why can't we choose the towers we connect to?

The answer being if we were allowed to hop between cell towers at our leisure to our own preference, ultimately we would be taking away the ability for a network operator to manage their own networks.

[Graphic]

When you press "scan" it will simply check when the cell connected changes and report it to %CELLID.

Checking %CELLID is the way to automagically add cells.

I created this 1 year ago and works flawlessly:

1 profile updates cells while i am connected to a wifi.

1 task removes cells that have not been used for x days when wifi disconnects.

[Marco Infusino]

Hi, you may post your configuration?
Thanks

[Graphic]

To add cells is easy.

To remove old cells i use several regex conditions. The probability that you mistype something is high.

If you still wish to see how i did it i can post it.

[Germán Dotta]

Graphic, Hi!

Can you share this profiles?

Thx.

[Matthew]

Hi,

I know it was a while ago, but can you please share your task that removes old cell towers?

[Graphic]

Hi,

I know it was a while ago, but can you please share your task that removes old cell towers?

I already did:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/tasker/authorname$3AGraphic/tasker/O0--ky4nwBY