802.11ac and BT 4.2 are here for unibody MBPs and A1342 MB!

[mikehalloran]

He can order BCM943602CS card (Apple part # 653-0194) for A1398.

Thanks!

The Amazon link for those with the same Q.
Broadcom BCM943602cs 802.11ac Bluetooth 4.0 Card for Apple Macbook Pro Retina A1425 A1502 A1398 653-0194

 

[otacon6530]

I know we are out of stock but was the PCB design shared, so we can get it printed and solder our own connections? I have plenty of apple parts laying about.

I would hate to have to redo the research you did to get the pinouts for the connections, but will do it if you are trying to keep it proprietary.

 

[troop231]

I know we are out of stock but was the PCB design shared, so we can get it printed and solder our own connections? I have plenty of apple parts laying about.

I would hate to have to redo the research you did to get the pinouts for the connections, but will do it if you are trying to keep it proprietary.

This was already discussed multiple times in this thread, it is not possible to sell this way.

 

[otacon6530]

I've been working on Macs since the Plus and I'm comfortable with what I wrote.

Since some have a problem and others don't, the likelihood that it's an old bit of code or unsupported .kxt causing the problem is very high. Apple Support is very good at finding the conflicts and helping remove the offending code.


Yesterday's update fixed a couple of issues on my new iMac Pro. That's what I needed it to do. It didn't cause issues with my 2012 but that's ok. I'm entitled to free tech support.


One thing Apple has always been good with is that OS issues are entitled to free tech support—as long as it's a supported MacOS on supported hardware. With Catalina, the 2012s are entitled to it; 2011 and earlier are not. That isn't such a big deal as the techs don't care if you've been successful in initiating the call but if it requires escalation, that won't happen. If necessary, engineering can install a tracker to find the exact cause and help you run it down. Again, a 2012 gets this 2nd or 3rd level while a 2010-11 will not if running Mojave or Catalina.

BTW, High Sierra tech support officially runs out the day that Big Sur ships. 3 years of OS support is mandated by California law and many international agreements. This applies to late 2009–2011 Macs running OS 10.13 only. Schedule calls through Apple's web site and they'll call you. Actually, OS support runs out a few days after Apple sends letters and email to large corporate and government users announcing the date (I'm copied on it and it hasn't been sent). I don't know if Apple will still accept support calls on HS after Big Sur ships.

I may be outdated, but apple didn't provide free tech support for OS issues. I don't think that is true today either. However, if you say you just upgraded to the new operating system they will provide tech support since that is an exception. Otherwise, you are out of luck if you don't buy a single line agreement or apple care and are outside the 90 days phone support.

I admit that the last time I worked as a tech support agent was in 2013, so things "may" have changed.

 

[mikehalloran]

I may be outdated, but apple didn't provide free tech support for OS issues. I don't think that is true today either

It is exactly how I say it is. Apple adheres to California law on this. If you worked back then and navigated the support pages, you would have seen that OS issues always had free phone support — even back in the days when you were expected to give them a credit card otherwise (pre Genius Bar). Heck, even back to the Mac Plus and Lisa although, back then, I drove to Cupertino with the hardware or to pick up the floppies I needed.

Before I took it out of service in August 2019, I had a couple of support calls on my 2010 iMac. One was over the failure to shut down after I ran the March 2019 security update. A trace was installed that went to Engineering who found the offending .kxt and helped me remove it. Once the system was good, Resetting Launch Services fixed the remaining shut down issue.

The other was about Final Cut Pro X in 2018 — which surprised me because I didn't know the apps have it, too. In that instance, I found that I was doing everything right but it was so slow on my 2010 that that I couldn't tell it was working. For that, the only real fix was something newer and faster. A few months and an iMac Pro later, FCPx was no longer an issue.

Although retired from my consulting business, I'm first call for lot of clients, especially during lockdown. With these Security Update issues, I'm now up to 19 Macs since lockdown began.

High Sierra support officially ended two months ago. All Macs where that was the last supported OS are now on the Vintage list. It would surprise me if Apple is returning support calls on those but OS 10.13.x hasn't come up lately. Mojave and Catalina, on the other hand… yikes! Still, in each case, Apple Support or Engineering has found the problem.

 

[Krutav]

So I've been following this thread around for a while ever since my 2011 15 inch WIFI card broke. Since I have access to the Macbook schematics, I was able to design an adapter card similar to what is being sold here. I noticed that Troop231's adapter has been sold out for a while now, so I figure it will be hard for some people to get their upgrade. Anyways, I have a fair bit of experience with micro-soldering on apple devices and PCB design skills, so I was able to easily make a prototype PCB on KiCAD (free software!) and I plan on releasing the design for free open source on GitHub so that if you want to take a crack at building your own, you can. It is a cheap design and you can go to a website like JLCPCB and order it for $2 plus shipping. As for the WIFI card, I found dozens of Macbook Air 2015 WIFI cards for $5 each. So the total cost of this project was under $20 and an hour of soldering. I'll make another post here when it is ready for GitHub release. Of course, this a more DIY option, so if you want something that works out of the box, I recommend buying the $149 adapter that Troop231 is selling. Thanks for all the inspiration!

 

[jrumball]

So I've been following this thread around for a while ever since my 2011 15 inch WIFI card broke. Since I have access to the Macbook schematics, I was able to design an adapter card similar to what is being sold here. I noticed that Troop231's adapter has been sold out for a while now, so I figure it will be hard for some people to get their upgrade. Anyways, I have a fair bit of experience with micro-soldering on apple devices and PCB design skills, so I was able to easily make a prototype PCB on KiCAD (free software!) and I plan on releasing the design for free open source on GitHub so that if you want to take a crack at building your own, you can. It is a cheap design and you can go to a website like JLCPCB and order it for $2 plus shipping. As for the WIFI card, I found dozens of Macbook Air 2015 WIFI cards for $5 each. So the total cost of this project was under $20 and an hour of soldering. I'll make another post here when it is ready for GitHub release. Of course, this a more DIY option, so if you want something that works out of the box, I recommend buying the $149 adapter that Troop231 is selling. Thanks for all the inspiration!

Thats great news looking forward to the link =)

 

[troop231]

So I've been following this thread around for a while ever since my 2011 15 inch WIFI card broke. Since I have access to the Macbook schematics, I was able to design an adapter card similar to what is being sold here. I noticed that Troop231's adapter has been sold out for a while now, so I figure it will be hard for some people to get their upgrade. Anyways, I have a fair bit of experience with micro-soldering on apple devices and PCB design skills, so I was able to easily make a prototype PCB on KiCAD (free software!) and I plan on releasing the design for free open source on GitHub so that if you want to take a crack at building your own, you can. It is a cheap design and you can go to a website like JLCPCB and order it for $2 plus shipping. As for the WIFI card, I found dozens of Macbook Air 2015 WIFI cards for $5 each. So the total cost of this project was under $20 and an hour of soldering. I'll make another post here when it is ready for GitHub release. Of course, this a more DIY option, so if you want something that works out of the box, I recommend buying the $149 adapter that Troop231 is selling. Thanks for all the inspiration!

I suggest you don't, please. This isn't an open source product and is copyrighted. We have employees to pay that lost their previous jobs due to Covid.

You can keep your project to yourself; if others are serious enough they can go through the same process as we did many years ago.

Thank you so much for your understanding!

 

[naylom11]

I respectfully disagree. And before I say what I'm about to say, I want to underscore this... I am extremely grateful for your work on this, you've extended the functionality of my machine in a measurable way, and I was more than happy to compensate you for that effort. But I'm an advocate for open source, and the very nature of this project is DIY.

I believe the term you were looking for is "Patented", not copyrighted. Assuming you have government issued protection (which based off what you said doesn't look like it), I would suggest you reach out to @Krutav using the proper legal channels to prevent it. And @Krutav I would suggest before you do anything to ask @troop231 for a copy of said protection. If he can't present it, then this is fair game. Regardless its difficult to make the case that this violates any patent protection you may have. Much less that such a project would directly impact your bottom line.

Assuming you do have the proper protection. Violation requires a few things: 1. That the individual creating the GitHub project somehow reverse engineered your work. Which according to him was designed from schematics of his personal machine. 2. That the individual selling said product is seeking profit, which he is not. And 3. The release of said project would have a measurable effect on your bottom line.

Respect where respect is due. But this is the free market. @Krutav I look forward to checking out the project.

 

[Krutav]

I respectfully disagree. And before I say what I'm about to say, I want to underscore this... I am extremely grateful for your work on this, you've extended the functionality of my machine in a measurable way, and I was more than happy to compensate you for that effort. But I'm an advocate for open source, and the very nature of this project is DIY.

I believe the term you were looking for is "Patented", not copyrighted. Assuming you have government issued protection (which based off what you said doesn't look like it), I would suggest you reach out to @Krutav using the proper legal channels to prevent it. And @Krutav I would suggest before you do anything to ask @troop231 for a copy of said protection. If he can't present it, then this is fair game. Regardless its difficult to make the case that this violates any patent protection you may have. Much less that such a project would directly impact your bottom line.

Assuming you do have the proper protection. Violation requires a few things: 1. That the individual creating the GitHub project somehow reverse engineered your work. Which according to him was designed from schematics of his personal machine. 2. That the individual selling said product is seeking profit, which he is not. And 3. The release of said project would have a measurable effect on your bottom line.

Respect where respect is due. But this is the free market. @Krutav I look forward to checking out the project.

Alright, so I really didn't mean to come into this chat and start an argument or anything like, that so I would just like to apologize to everyone here. Troop231 did reach out to me and I did respond. I want to make it clear here that I have no intentions of harming business, infact I appreciate that Troop231 came up with a game-changing solution to WIFI upgrades on these old Apple products.

Just to clarify, I have a lot of experience with these Apple devices and some engineering skills which allowed me to come up with a solution in a few minutes with the knowledge I gained from past projects. It's a really cheap and simple solution, but I am also not here to sell a product because I am a big supporter of Open Source projects which is why I want to put my solution on my GitHub for people to try. I am simply uploading schematics, which means that the 1 hour of assembling needed for this and ordering materials from china is the cost that whoever tries this project has to incur. As a student strapped for cash, I just needed a solution that I can use for my MacBook that I can build at home on a weekend.

Troop231 has come up with a great product that anyone can purchase and get delivered to their home. And that's the difference, which is that they are selling an easy-to-use solution that works out of the box at Subtle Design, and I am uploading a file that you can view on a screen but you cant hold.

Also, this type of product (I think) cannot be patented or copyrighted, as it is designed to be an upgrade to a device that is manufactured and copyrighted by Apple. Attempting to file for such protection on this type of product may get Apple a little suspicious as they do not want their end users opening their products up at all. I'm no legal expert though, so correct me if I am mistaken.

So please, please do purchase Troop231's product as their team has put in a lot of work designing and manufacturing their WIFI upgrade product, and that we want to support their company during these hard times of the global pandemic.

 

[0134168]

I really feel like to say my opinion. Everyone is so gratefull about the work of @troop231 . Myself have two of his modules. But as can´t reach the demmand, new ways open. Always been like that in tech. And they are two very diffrent productcs. One, works out of the box, and for a price. The other one is more on the line of linux, opensource. You have to invest a lot of hours and buy your own componetes. Can´t see the problem here.

 

[naylom11]

Alright, so I really didn't mean to come into this chat and start an argument or anything like, that so I would just like to apologize to everyone here. Troop231 did reach out to me and I did respond. I want to make it clear here that I have no intentions of harming business, infact I appreciate that Troop231 came up with a game-changing solution to WIFI upgrades on these old Apple products.

Just to clarify, I have a lot of experience with these Apple devices and some engineering skills which allowed me to come up with a solution in a few minutes with the knowledge I gained from past projects. It's a really cheap and simple solution, but I am also not here to sell a product because I am a big supporter of Open Source projects which is why I want to put my solution on my GitHub for people to try. I am simply uploading schematics, which means that the 1 hour of assembling needed for this and ordering materials from china is the cost that whoever tries this project has to incur. As a student strapped for cash, I just needed a solution that I can use for my MacBook that I can build at home on a weekend.

Troop231 has come up with a great product that anyone can purchase and get delivered to their home. And that's the difference, which is that they are selling an easy-to-use solution that works out of the box at Subtle Design, and I am uploading a file that you can view on a screen but you cant hold.

Also, this type of product (I think) cannot be patented or copyrighted, as it is designed to be an upgrade to a device that is manufactured and copyrighted by Apple. Attempting to file for such protection on this type of product may get Apple a little suspicious as they do not want their end users opening their products up at all. I'm no legal expert though, so correct me if I am mistaken.

So please, please do purchase Troop231's product as their team has put in a lot of work designing and manufacturing their WIFI upgrade product, and that we want to support their company during these hard times of the global pandemic.

I agree. And in fact I would continue to recommend subtle designs. The product works incredibly well... Thats not the issue. My issue comes with the line "and is copyrighted". Which is jut false. That implies legal protection, and is meant to discourage anyone from sharing this information. And I'm sorry, that's not the way the market works. You've developed a different and viable solution.

 

[0134168]

I agree. And in fact I would continue to recommend subtle designs. The product works incredibly well... Thats not the issue. My issue comes with the line "and is copyrighted". Which is jut false. That implies legal protection, and is meant to discourage anyone from sharing this information. And I'm sorry, that's not the way the market works. You've developed a different and viable solution.

Didn´t want to mention, but to call to copyrights is simply absurd. More talking about Apple.

 

[DarthGrogu]

I know the website said the next batch will be ready 1st quarter but is there a rough idea on when we could expect the next batch to be ready? I’ve been trying to get one of this for my 2012 unibody MBP for a while! This would be the last part I’d need to finish upgrading 🙏

 

[Krutav]

Just a quick update: the MacBook Air Wireless cards can be had for $6 so I decided to experiment on an old spare card I had. I was able to desolder the tiny antenna connectors and replace them with the ones on the old 2011 wireless card. This now makes it compatible with the Unibody Macbooks. In addition, the card fits within the existing plastic wireless cage with a few small modifications. The same can be said for the retina Macbook Pro wireless cards as those appear to also work. (I don't have any on hand so I cannot check measurements.) Because it fits in the existing cage, there is no need to use a 3D printer and print out a shell so you save some money in that regard. Now all that is next is building a PCB which will be a bit more cumbersome with my tools.

The Retina Macbook Wireless cards cost $10 on eBay give or take, and they have 3 antenna connectors, whereas the MacBook Air has 2. I used to own a 2015 13 inch Macbook Air and I can confirm that the 2 antenna connectors that it has will suffice. The designs will be on GitHub, and everyone is free to use it and access the documentation there. @troop231 you may also use the designs if you want for a later revision of your product! I do not plan on including instructions for iMac card just yet because it is big and won't fit in the existing cage. Attached below are some pictures of this mock-design.

 

[smoothunit]

I suggest you don't, please. This isn't an open source product and is copyrighted. We have employees to pay that lost their previous jobs due to Covid.

You can keep your project to yourself; if others are serious enough they can go through the same process as we did many years ago.

Thank you so much for your understanding!

What the actual **** did I just read?

 

[Krutav]

Hello everyone, upon the request of @troop231, I have created a new thread to discuss my open-source solution for the Macbook Wireless upgrade so that we don't fill up this thread with unrelated posts that OP does not want. Here is the new thread: MacRumors Thread

Once again I would like to say that you all should support @troop231 business and wireless upgrade product if you can as this is their thread and they have put in lots of time into creating a great solution.

 

[rb2112]

I know the website said the next batch will be ready 1st quarter but is there a rough idea on when we could expect the next batch to be ready? I’ve been trying to get one of this for my 2012 unibody MBP for a while! This would be the last part I’d need to finish upgrading 🙏

I am in the same boat, 2012 15", really would like to get this. Is there indeed going to be another batch? If so, when? Thank you for all the work you've done on this!

 

[troop231]

I am in the same boat, 2012 15", really would like to get this. Is there indeed going to be another batch? If so, when? Thank you for all the work you've done on this!

Yes, there is a large batch being worked on now as this is being typed. Biggest batch yet! Also waiting on new test equipment.

 

[alemeni]

Yes, there is a large batch being worked on now as this is being typed. Biggest batch yet! Also waiting on new test equipment.

Happyy to know it! I'm also waiting for this for my Late 2011 15" MBP upgraded with a Mid 2012 Motherboard.

 

[cheesypie777]

Weird question but is there a way that this card would prevent my computer from sleeping? I have an early 2011 13” MBP and it hasn’t gone into sleep mode since I installed this card. I even wiped my computer and reinstalled the OS and it still won‘t sleep. The sleep indicator light just stays on when the lid is shut rather than turning off like it is supposed to when the computer is in sleep mode.

 

[troop231]

Weird question but is there a way that this card would prevent my computer from sleeping? I have an early 2011 13” MBP and it hasn’t gone into sleep mode since I installed this card. I even wiped my computer and reinstalled the OS and it still won‘t sleep. The sleep indicator light just stays on when the lid is shut rather than turning off like it is supposed to when the computer is in sleep mode.

That shouldn't happen. At least we've never seen that yet. Which OS? Did you put the old card back in?

 

[0134168]

Weird question but is there a way that this card would prevent my computer from sleeping? I have an early 2011 13” MBP and it hasn’t gone into sleep mode since I installed this card. I even wiped my computer and reinstalled the OS and it still won‘t sleep. The sleep indicator light just stays on when the lid is shut rather than turning off like it is supposed to when the computer is in sleep mode.

Never seen that. Check the energy setup

pmset -g

 

[rb2112]

Yes, there is a large batch being worked on now as this is being typed. Biggest batch yet! Also waiting on new test equipment.

Anticipating this sometime soon, but we are going to be sporadically on/off line next week, and I would hate to miss these if the ordering opens when we are gone. Any update on the timeline, should I be finding an internet point each day? (Hopefully yes!)

 

[troop231]

Anticipating this sometime soon, but we are going to be sporadically on/off line next week, and I would hate to miss these if the ordering opens when we are gone. Any update on the timeline, should I be finding an internet point each day? (Hopefully yes!)

If won’t be that soon. The icestorm in TX last month set us back quite a bit.