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Anyone think of moving the BT Antenna to the outside of the 2018 Mac Mini?
- Thread starter VisualStim
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Why mess up a Mini like that? And void the warranty, as well?
Just buy a USB3 "extender cable" (has male plug on one end and female port on the other).
Then, get a 3rd-party bluetooth "adapter".
This will SOLVE the bluetooth problems for most folks.
Just buy a USB3 "extender cable" (has male plug on one end and female port on the other).
Then, get a 3rd-party bluetooth "adapter".
This will SOLVE the bluetooth problems for most folks.
If you have Filevault enabled, you can not use the dongle until you have authenticated, which means plugging in a kbd to enter the initial pwd.
How do I get my Mac to use the third party dongle? And will my watch still unlock it?
I tried the long cable and 3rd party (Mac compatible dongle) method. It actually made matters worse.
Perhaps my cable was not shielded well enough. That seems quite an important issue here. I've had to throw some skinny cables away.
The Dongle should take over automatically. You see the change in "About this Mac" "System Report".
Perhaps my cable was not shielded well enough. That seems quite an important issue here. I've had to throw some skinny cables away.
The Dongle should take over automatically. You see the change in "About this Mac" "System Report".
Don't mess with the antennas ,they are tuned to the box.
RF is black magic, and should never be triffeld with. a2
RF is black magic, and should never be triffeld with. a2
The first thing I noticed when I first setup my Mac mini was that in the spot under my monitor my MBP 13" got perfect signal, the Mac mini seemed to not pick up my router at all! That's when I realised it had 'make do' WiFI, like it's 'make do' speaker. Still, grateful for both.
I ordered a super long ethernet cable and ran it up the stairs, under the carpet, to my room. Superior to WiFi. Desktops certainly do have their advantages.
I love being able to Hotspot out my own ethernet connection at work using the Mini (I travel with mine a lot) as the WiFi there is dismal to any and every device!
I ordered a super long ethernet cable and ran it up the stairs, under the carpet, to my room. Superior to WiFi. Desktops certainly do have their advantages.
I love being able to Hotspot out my own ethernet connection at work using the Mini (I travel with mine a lot) as the WiFi there is dismal to any and every device!
The “Antenna Plate” for the Late 2104 and 2018 Mac Mini’s look remarkably similar in the iFixIt tear down photos. I’m guessing that the USB interference with BlueTooth issue is due to poor shielding on/in-the-vicinity-of the motherboard, rather than the antenna. So I’m hoping that Apple will produce a Rev B 2018 Mini with modified shielding or motherboard -- before I upgrade my 2014 Mini.
GeRealBro
GeRealBro
How would we know it had been released?
How would you find new machines with revised hardware later?
IIRC in the past Apple indicated the Rev B as part of a revised model number. But even if that didn't happen, we would start hearing consistent reports from those who had just purchased their new Mini saying that interference is not a problem.
GetRealBro
Seems to me there was a problem with wifi (and bluetooth?) having interference from the USB3 ports on the early 2012 Minis.
OWC even sold a little "shield" that the user could install to alleviate these problems.
In time, I believe that Apple started including a similar shield in the 2012 Minis. I don't think that got a "revision b" designation, however.
Having written that...
I'm wondering if any "shielding" is in the 2018 models? Perhaps if you looked at a teardown report, it might be visible.
And having said THAT...
I don't think this quirk is going to be fixed by Apple in the 2018 Minis.
It "is what it is".
I could be wrong.
OWC even sold a little "shield" that the user could install to alleviate these problems.
In time, I believe that Apple started including a similar shield in the 2012 Minis. I don't think that got a "revision b" designation, however.
Having written that...
I'm wondering if any "shielding" is in the 2018 models? Perhaps if you looked at a teardown report, it might be visible.
And having said THAT...
I don't think this quirk is going to be fixed by Apple in the 2018 Minis.
It "is what it is".
I could be wrong.
Thanks for the reminder.
For those interested in more detail…
Here’s the link to the OWC Shield kit for the 2012 MIni
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM12BTS/
Note: the description of the shielding problem on the 2012 Mini OWC page indicates that “This situation appears to be due to the specific placement of shielding which can vary from unit to unit.”. So if this is a manufacturing issue in the 2018 Mini, it could be fixed "on the fly" with no model number change etc. Or hopefully OWC will come to the rescue again
And the way Apple indicated Rev A and B models in the past, is the letter after the / in the Model number. For example the G3 iMac had a Rev A and B model
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_ab.html
GetRealBro
For those interested in more detail…
Here’s the link to the OWC Shield kit for the 2012 MIni
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM12BTS/
Note: the description of the shielding problem on the 2012 Mini OWC page indicates that “This situation appears to be due to the specific placement of shielding which can vary from unit to unit.”. So if this is a manufacturing issue in the 2018 Mini, it could be fixed "on the fly" with no model number change etc. Or hopefully OWC will come to the rescue again
And the way Apple indicated Rev A and B models in the past, is the letter after the / in the Model number. For example the G3 iMac had a Rev A and B model
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_ab.html
GetRealBro
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This is the only computer you can buy at Apple right now IMO. The bluetooth issues suck but it sucks less than the crappy keyboard and flex cable issues on the MacBook Pro, less than iMacs cranking the heat and destroying its own graphic cards, and of course...cheaper than the Mac Pro.
This is the Apple world we live in. Sucks but if you need Mac OSX...
if you need one, you probably already have one so there is no need to spend your money to a beta product which should be released only after testing.
or.. buy one and send it back with a letter ”bluetooth issue”. the more they get back the more seriously they take it. i probably do that just because i have holidays so i have time to participate the apple lottery. if it is working fine, i can keep it...