MP 1,1-5,1 802.11ac, BT 4.0, Continuity, and Handoff Working on Mac Pro 2010

[didier.ma]

Hi, I got the 4-port USB card from Inateck in my Mac Pro 3,1.

The AC card won't change anything about the interference. It's fundamentally how Apple place the BT antennas next to the PCIe area near the rear casing (you can see it as it's cover in a plastic sheet).

Before upgrading, I use one of the left over Wifi antennas and it worked great. The only downside is it take a bit longer time for the computer the recognised the BT mouse and keyboard when the computer first start up or boot to Windows. Not a big deal.

After upgrading to the AC card, I have no choice but to use the BT antennas again. I saw someone using an external antennas and smartly place it inside the case, in the front area .

I'm interested if anyone has a response to this question. I currently have an Inateck card which is interfering big time with my Bluetooth. My solution up until now had been to use the wired pro keyboard and plug a 4.0 bluetooth dongle into the side USB port on the keyboard.

My main concern if I went with the MacVidCard wifi AC/bluetooth card option is that my bluetooth signal would go to pot again and I'd be back to square one. If I could shield the bluetooth it would give me a nice clean solution again.

Only other option I guess would be just use the wifi portion of the card and continue to use the dongle but that wouldn't work with handoff/continuity would it?

 

[MacVidCards]

Hi, I got the 4-port USB card from Inateck in my Mac Pro 3,1.

The AC card won't change anything about the interference. It's fundamentally how Apple place the BT antennas next to the PCIe area near the rear casing (you can see it as it's cover in a plastic sheet).

Before upgrading, I use one of the left over Wifi antennas and it worked great. The only downside is it take a bit longer time for the computer the recognised the BT mouse and keyboard when the computer first start up or boot to Windows. Not a big deal.

After upgrading to the AC card, I have no choice but to use the BT antennas again. I saw someone using an external antennas and smartly place it inside the case, in the front area .

Did you try switching antenaes/

With ac wireless being 3 times faster than n, it is possible that you don't need perfect reception.

Would take all of 30 seconds to switch antenaes and see what happens

 

[Gav Mack]

Hi, I got the 4-port USB card from Inateck in my Mac Pro 3,1.

The AC card won't change anything about the interference. It's fundamentally how Apple place the BT antennas next to the PCIe area near the rear casing (you can see it as it's cover in a plastic sheet).

Before upgrading, I use one of the left over Wifi antennas and it worked great. The only downside is it take a bit longer time for the computer the recognised the BT mouse and keyboard when the computer first start up or boot to Windows. Not a big deal.

After upgrading to the AC card, I have no choice but to use the BT antennas again. I saw someone using an external antennas and smartly place it inside the case, in the front area .

You have to shield the antenna ends; I use bent slivers of mu-metal glued onto the cable ends with araldite. As I'm almost certainly going to get this card for my 2008 I suppose I'll post some pics this time.

I have a large supply of mu-metal sheet if anybody wants a slice here in the UK...

 

[Angelus]

Well I've gone ahead and ordered the card and adapter from OSXWIFI so will see how it goes. Have also purchased one of their bluetooth antennas and will aim to place on the inner aspect over the anterior grill. Hopefully that'll sort out the reception issues.

 

[Gav Mack]

Well I've gone ahead and ordered the card and adapter from OSXWIFI so will see how it goes. Have also purchased one of their bluetooth antennas and will aim to place on the inner aspect over the anterior grill. Hopefully that'll sort out the reception issues.

As you're in kiwi land and slightly far away to throw in the royal mail second class(!) It's a sliver of mu-metal bent into a semi circle about an inch long, at the connector end two small cuts and bent in the middle so it completely covers up the connector. A coating of Araldite rapid inside the 'valley' of metal to stick the wire and connector in and let dry for 4-6 hours.

A inch by two inch square of mu-metal will easily do all the antennas and thinner much more malleable mu-metal than my sheet you can get on ebay. Mine is thick and a PITA!

 

[Angelus]

As you're in kiwi land and slightly far away to throw in the royal mail second class(!) It's a sliver of mu-metal bent into a semi circle about an inch long, at the connector end two small cuts and bent in the middle so it completely covers up the connector. A coating of Araldite rapid inside the 'valley' of metal to stick the wire and connector in and let dry for 4-6 hours.

A inch by two inch square of mu-metal will easily do all the antennas and thinner much more malleable mu-metal than my sheet you can get on ebay. Mine is thick and a PITA!

Hmmm, am currently visiting family in Ireland. Will be here til 23rd August. How much would you be looking for?

 

[Gav Mack]

Hmmm, am currently visiting family in Ireland. Will be here til 23rd August. How much would you be looking for?

Cost of covering the postage will be fine. Will dig out the sheet tonight and get the snips out.

 

[Angelus]

Cost of covering the postage will be fine. Will dig out the sheet tonight and get the snips out.

Excellent. Would really appreciate it.
Send me a PM with the cost and I'll send my parents address.

 

[h9826790]

Thanks for the info. Since I only have 1 graphic card + 1 Tempo SDD card. So, it's far easier for me to take the PCIe option, the ext antenna at the back is not a problem at all, and I still can add a USB 3 card.

 

[meptik]

I ordered an adapter from osxwifi.com, and a BCM94360CD from Some Guy on Ebay.

Unfortunately, this didn't quite work out for me

With the adapter and card installed, my MacPro5,1 refuses to start up (no power led, no fans, no nothing). Had a quick look at the diagnostic LEDs, and 'ovtmp cpu A' and 'ovtmp cpu B' were blinking; scary . Retried after detaching/reattaching the wireless card to the adapter, with same results. Put the old card back again, and all was well again.

I tried booting the machine with just the empty adapter card installed and that worked just fine, so I suspect it's the wireless card that's defective. Not sure though. Any thoughts?

Tempted to just go for the complete solution MacVidCards is selling. It's more expensive, but it's nice to only have one party to bitch at if things don't work . Aside from this, running a wire from the wifi/bluetooth card back to the old bluetooth cards port feels like a more elegant solution to me than connecting the card to a USB port, as you're forced to do with osxwifi.com's approach.

 

[osxwifi]

I ordered an adapter from osxwifi.com, and a BCM94360CD from Some Guy on Ebay.

Unfortunately, this didn't quite work out for me

With the adapter and card installed, my MacPro5,1 refuses to start up (no power led, no fans, no nothing). Had a quick look at the diagnostic LEDs, and 'ovtmp cpu A' and 'ovtmp cpu B' were blinking; scary . Retried after detaching/reattaching the wireless card to the adapter, with same results. Put the old card back again, and all was well again.

I tried booting the machine with just the empty adapter card installed and that worked just fine, so I suspect it's the wireless card that's defective. Not sure though. Any thoughts?

Tempted to just go for the complete solution MacVidCards is selling. It's more expensive, but it's nice to only have one party to bitch at if things don't work . Aside from this, running a wire from the wifi/bluetooth card back to the old bluetooth cards port feels like a more elegant solution to me than connecting the card to a USB port, as you're forced to do with osxwifi.com's approach.

Hello,

We test all and every adapter we sell before shipment to make sure all work 100%, we offer full set to avoid this kind off problem with not working or even fake BCM94360CD which start come up from eBay\China (more info in last posts - http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8492.0.html).

Please contact us and we will try our best to help.

 

[meptik]

Hello,

We test all and every adapter we sell before shipment to make sure all work 100%, we offer full set to avoid this kind off problem with not working or even fake BCM94360CD which start come up from eBay\China (more info in last posts - http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,8492.0.html).

Please contact us and we will try our best to help.

Thanks, will get in touch with you later tonight. As I said, I suspect it's the BCM94360CD that's the issue, but I'll send you some shots of the assembled card before/after install to rule out other causes.

If anyone's interested, I can also post some photo's here. Might help others identify faulty or fake BCM94360CD's, if this turns out to be the case.

 

[lexR]

You have to shield the antenna ends; I use bent slivers of mu-metal glued onto the cable ends with araldite. As I'm almost certainly going to get this card for my 2008 I suppose I'll post some pics this time.

I have a large supply of mu-metal sheet if anybody wants a slice here in the UK...

a pic of this will really help as and when you get round to it, I'm here in uk so would be interested.

 

[xelanaiznac]

I'm interested if anyone has a response to this question. I currently have an Inateck card which is interfering big time with my Bluetooth. My solution up until now had been to use the wired pro keyboard and plug a 4.0 bluetooth dongle into the side USB port on the keyboard.

My main concern if I went with the MacVidCard wifi AC/bluetooth card option is that my bluetooth signal would go to pot again and I'd be back to square one. If I could shield the bluetooth it would give me a nice clean solution again.

Only other option I guess would be just use the wifi portion of the card and continue to use the dongle but that wouldn't work with handoff/continuity would it?

post #145 i posted the solution. working great for me

 

[nick85]

any solution for original mac pro 1.1 / 2.1 ?

is there any solution (continuity/handoff support) for the original mac pro 1.1 / 2.1 ?

 

[MacVidCards]

Same card in 1,1 2,1 offers all new tech. I confirmed in the 1,1 and Yosemite thread

 

[nick85]

handoff and continuity support mac peo 1.1/2.1

macvidvards

where are the details ? ( link )

which card etc. do I need for the mac pro 1.1/2.1



thanks, nick

 

[brand]

macvidvards

where are the details ? ( link )

which card etc. do I need for the mac pro 1.1/2.1

Google macvidcards and you will find his Ebay store and Web store.

 

[iPhoneBlog]

Should Handoff with iOS beta 5 and 10.10 Public beta already work? I use the adapter from OSXWIFI and everything besides Handoff works.

 

[nick85]

brand thanks for your clever hint

as we made it possible to expand the live of the "original mac pro"
we teached the forum some time ago clear whats possible.

http://bit.ly/1ipinVA

Actually I am really disappointed a little bit.

Some tuneups are really much too expensive.

Example: I am using an pc evga gtx 780 SC 6GB ACX in my mac pro 2.1.
No extra costs only a little bit of knowledge.

Because of the hardware limitations of the mac pro 1.1/2.1 (especially)
I use this cards normally in a pc setup for cuda rendering.

But its working fine.


You can google it

 

[Fair Witness]

I installed my 802.11ac card purchased from Macvidcards a few days ago. Installed into my 2009 5.1, everything is working perfectly, although plugging in those antenna wires is a pain if you have larger fingers.

 

[netkas]

I installed my 802.11ac card purchased from Macvidcards a few days ago. Installed into my 2009 5.1, everything is working perfectly, although plugging in those antenna wires is a pain if you have larger fingers.

This

 

[nick85]

if you wanna use an evga gtx 780 SC 6GB ACX in your mac pro

http://bit.ly/1vNCKHZ

I used another method ... this one is free and works

 

[lexR]

MVC option arrives, installed and all is well...

seems like forever for the adapter to clear customs but eventually the MVC solution to prolonging the usability for the cMP arrived, just installed and working as intended. really quick install, no issues at all, the thing that took the longest was trying to plug the power supply for the card into were the BT was originally sourcing its power from.




let hope apple doesn't lock certain devices by serial numbers as that would be annoying. For me it was worth it as i intend to keep this MP for some time and the new airport extreme card and 4.0LE bluetooth is a bonus.

 

[MacVidCards]

seems like forever for the adapter to clear customs but eventually the MVC solution to prolonging the usability for the cMP arrived, just installed and working as intended. really quick install, no issues at all, the thing that took the longest was trying to plug the power supply for the card into were the BT was originally sourcing its power from.

Great to read !!!

The trick with that tiny plug is the side with two wires goes toward top and you need to line it up straight before it will go in.

Might be easier to do before card is in but then you would have to thread card behind the metal support in middle.

Anyone doing this needs to be patient and take their time. The plugs and antennae connectors are REALLY SMALL but keep this in mind, there are even smaller ones in MacBooks so we are kind of lucky. And certainly lucky that due to the use of industry standard slots we can still upgrade a 2006 machine to current tech. 2006 iMac and iBooks etc. are stuck in the past. (for the most part)

As far as the 780 6GB thing above, do you realize that 10.9.4 is ut and all of the OpenCl issues with GK110B cards have been fixed for some time?

So, no need for all that fiddle-faddling.

Also, the guy's blog post is a little questionable, his CUDA-Z shows hhis GTX780 is running at PCIE 1.0 speed.