It would be really useful to have a ‘debug mode’ in the android app. I know the app is processing all the data so it has it. Possibly just a toggle that adds this data to the screens? Generally I try not to be that guy who critiques beta software about features to add. This time I’m tossing it out there because I think this very likely would be something fairly easy to add and benefit a LOT of people. Sadly I suck at coding and I fully accept an, ‘If you want it, do it yourself’ reply I’d buy you beers anytime though
Information on each node (consider all these values to be time stamped):
How long ago these items were last heard/updated: map location update, distance from a node, signal strength, number of hops, number of tries.
The actual numerical signal strength for transmissions in the chat window or the list of nodes window. (Did that last transmission just barely make it through?.. am I approaching loss of connectivity? Was it rock solid and can I go for a faster speed setting?)
A countdown next to the sent message in the chat window so we know how many times it has tried sending with no ACK and what the signal strength is. (I was making it through on try 1… now I moved to a different room and it’s taking 3 tries… Maybe I should change location for better reliability?)
Speed settings and what they are actually setting the LoRa radio to in technical terms beyond just “Long Range” in the app.
Show hop data for those of use that are using 3 or more radios so we can see how far our message made it and what node is the failure point in a net. Sorta like APRS can display all that data.
Basically just give us an option to see this technical data easier… so say I try swapping antennas to see what one performs better. Poll the radio on the other side and see what the received power is in dB or RSSI of sorts. Swap to a different antenna and can compare the two number and see what antenna is a better performer.
I realize some of this may be easy… like appending a numerical signal number in the chat window. Even if it’s derived. Some may be harder than I think.
A few more ideas (Less of a priority as I think they would require more work than the above ones):
A button option to force re-polling of a node or all nodes (if the node allows it) for their current GPS/ battery power level/etc information for when things are lagging in the app. Similar to a force polling or force send for this data so it is updated as a priority. For security reasons, this could be disabled at the app level.
A toggle to use the Phone’s GPS information as if it were from the node for a lat/lon when connected to a radio that has no GPS.
A toggle (or build) to pair without a password. (Would solve tons of complaining right now about pairing issues If I can see the pairing password in the serial stream, can the app not capture that and at least show it on the phone screen? Possibly just automatically pair? (not a coder here, sorry). It would solve the problem of me walking out of BT range, back into range, and the phone trying to pair over and over (still does it sometimes on 0.9.1)
A new window in the app that will show a log of all the communications from the phone to the connected radio… Similar to attaching it to a serial port terminal, which I physically need to do on some of my units with no display to snag the pairing password.
Forwarding SMS message… ok I won’t even go there Joking.
Thanks for all the hard work so far. We appreciate it! The debugging stuff would help a LOT!
That would be great. Would love to ‘alpha’ test that out.
Having the option of displaying that data in the current various windows would be a big plus.
Love to hear more about your plans if you care to share.
Again. Great work. None of this is meant to be a critique. You all are doing coding that I can’t do and I appreciate that. (fair to say we all do). Thanks!
-w
Hi @lgx - I am seeing the Debug Panel, but only the message heading. I am not able to expand the message (tap, double-tap) to see the details that you show above. Is there some setting required to enable that - i.e. is this a bug or me?
I am running Android 10, on Samsung S10, Meshtastic App version 1.1.02.
(Edited to add a screenshot below)
When I look at the phone using Logcat - after a double-tap I see this information 2020-10-11 11:29:15.861 1012-1012/? D/GameManagerService: identifyGamePackage. com.geeksville.mesh, mCurrentUserId: 0, callerUserId: 0 2020-10-11 11:29:15.861 1012-1012/? D/GamePkgDataHelper: getGamePkgData(). com.geeksville.mesh 2020-10-11 11:29:15.971 12269-12269/? V/InputMethodManager: Starting input: tba=com.geeksville.mesh ic=null mNaviBarColor -855310 mIsGetNaviBarColorSuccess true , NavVisible : true , NavTrans : false 2020-10-11 11:29:15.971 1012-1012/? D/GameManagerService: identifyGamePackage. com.geeksville.mesh, mCurrentUserId: 0, callerUserId: 0 2020-10-11 11:29:15.971 1012-1012/? D/GamePkgDataHelper: getGamePkgData(). com.geeksville.mesh
Next Android release on Google play will fix the missing data, when the apk is built in production mode, the serialized data are not displayed, not happening in dev mode, this bug was my fault.
For the SNR data, when the packet contains this information, it is automatically displayed, in fact the debug panel display raw data coming from the device. I’m planning to include the data sent to the device soon.
I’d buy you beers anytime though 
