Bluetooth and my Mac Pro 5,1

[flowrider]

As some of you know, I have been having trouble with USB interference with the internal Apple Bluetooth Module. My only Bluetooth device is a Microsoft Laser Mouse 8000, that I dearly luv. I was almost ready to replace it with a wired mouse, but after 3 months months of screwing around - I finally have Bluetooth working again with absolutely no interference.

My troubles began on 2/13/14 when I installed the Inateck KT4004 4-Port USB 3.0 PCI-E Express Card For MAC Pro. This card interfered with the Apple internal Bluetooth module. I tried adding the Microsoft dongle I got with the mouse. The Mac never saw it. I tried rerouting the wires from the internal module. I tried shielding the module and antenna wires. Nothing worked. I was frustrated as heck. And, at times the problem was worse than at other times. When I plugged a USB device directly into the Inateck Card, All bluetooth connection was lost and my mouse was dead. I bought a powered 7 port hub. I could plug a USB 3.0 device into that, and the Bluetooth connection was not lost, but the mouse action was as crappy as ever. It's very hard to work with an erratic mouse and that's what I have been doing for the last 3 months. BUT - NO MORE!!!!

I'm happy to say - PROBLEM SOLVED

I searched Amazon for all the Bluetooth dongles they sell. I only found two that said they were Macintosh compatible:

http://www.amazon.com/Rocketek-Low-...9690306&sr=8-2&keywords=bluetooth+adapter+mac

and

http://www.amazon.com/Kinivo-BTD-30...9690334&sr=8-1&keywords=bluetooth+adapter+mac

I also downloaded Apple's Hardware IO tools. The tool set contains a utility called Bluetooth Explorer. This utility let's you choose the Bluetooth module to want to use.

I ordered the Rocketek adapter first. The Bluetooth utility saw the device and I could activate it, but it absolutely refused to pair with the Microsoft mouse. I spent two hours trying to get them to pair. No Luck.

I next ordered the Kinivo device, selected it with the Bluetooth utility, then tried to pair the mouse and BINGO - SUCCESS. I didn't even have to restart. The Knivo BT-300 utilizes a Broadcom Chip, which I guess is the reason it worked so well. with my Mac. Kinivo also sells a BT-400 (Bluetooth 4.0) dongle, but it's not advertised as working with the Mac.

Anyway, I'm pleased as punch that I finally have working USB 3.0 and working Bluetooth. Both working together with no interference! It's been a long a frustrating 3 months.

Lou

 

[Angelus]

And now there's more

After a little bit of use with the MVC dongle mounted on the back of the case, it started showing signs of interference. Nothing really unworkable like the internal BT or the other dongles when mounted on the machine, but irritating. So, I got a 3 ft. USB cable to replace the 6 ft. cable that I had previously used, and the dongle works fine with the shorter cable. No interference and recognized by Bluetooth Explorer. So all is GOOD!!!!

Lou

Glad to hear it worked. I've been plagued by the internal Bluetooth too.
Up until today I had disabled the internal 2.0 and was using a Bluetooth 4.0 dongle attached to the USB port of my Apple Pro keyboard.
This morning I installed the Wifi AC/Bluetooth card that has been used in another thread to add Continuity/Handoff compatibility to the cMP.
Following the OP antenna arrangement resulted in the same poor Bluetooth signal despite me having replaced the Bluetooth antenna with one of these http://www.osxwifi.com/wireless-internal-antenna-for-bluetooth-macpro and attaching it to the front grill.

There was a post here https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19389239/ outlining the use of a built in Wifi antenna for Bluetooth along with the addition of another antenna. I left the new antenna on the front grill using the same principle and have changed the order of the antenna connectors so now from top to bottom it reads 3,1,2,BT. (So now the Mac Pro detect Wifi using the antennae 3, 1 and the antenna on the front grill. Antenna 2 which is in the Mac Pro Wifi cluster is now being used for Bluetooth instead. I hope that makes sense)

Monitoring the connection quality using Hardware IO tools shows that it can range from 58% to 100% but being honest it largely sits at 80-95%. It only seems to drop to 58% transiently if I grip the mouse really hard. I cannot detect any lag and now have wake from sleep by using the Apple Mouse I'm a very happy camper.

I've attached some photos of the setup. You can see the antenna through the front grill but I don't care as it's an internal solution that seems to be working. The antenna was easy to thread into place and the only component I had to remove was the CPU tray so all in all the most difficult thing was connecting the antennae to the card.

 

[Marty62]

Glad to hear that you've got that sorted Lou
I know it's been "bugging" you for a while ....

I only have the Apple Magic Pad on BT and that seems to behave fine with the
kt4004 'et all.
Marty.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Thanks, Bugging really isn't the word. It's been driving me up the wall.

It was great to get up this morning, turn on the Mac, and have peacefully coexisting USB 3.0 and Bluetooth. I'm in complete control of my mouse again

Lou

 

[crjackson2134]

^^^^Thanks, Bugging really isn't the word. It's been driving me up the wall.

It was great to get up this morning, turn on the Mac, and have peacefully coexisting USB 3.0 and Bluetooth. I'm in complete control of my mouse again

Lou

That's great news! I know many people don't like the MagicMouse for various reasons, but I absolutely love mine. I've got the same setup as you, yet I've NEVER had any BT problems with this machine. It's a crying shame that the USB 3.0 and BT standards are so problematic. I also don't really understand why 2 systems that are exactly alike (from the BT / USB aspect) get such different results.

I would have probably threw in the towel after 3 months and used a wired mouse. I'm glad you didn't give up...

 

[hfg]

Where can you get the Apple's Hardware IO tools?

 

[jchaley]

Flowrider - your post was very informative.

Two questions:
1. How do I get the Apple Hardware IO tools with the Bluetooth Explorer?

2. The Kinivo dongle - do I simply plug it into one of the USB3 ports on the card, or into one of the built-in USB2 ports on the Mac?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[h9826790]

1. How do I get the Apple Hardware IO tools with the Bluetooth Explorer?

Register as a developer (it's free), and then go to the following link.

https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action?name=for%20Xcode%20-#

 

[flowrider]

Where can you get the Apple's Hardware IO tools?

Flowrider - your post was very informative.

Two questions:
1. How do I get the Apple Hardware IO tools with the Bluetooth Explorer?

2. The Kinivo dongle - do I simply plug it into one of the USB3 ports on the card, or into one of the built-in USB2 ports on the Mac?

Thanks in advance for your help!

1. To get Apple's Hardware IO Tools you need to go to the Apple Developer's Center Here:

https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/mac/index.action

And Register using your App Store Login information. registration is free and is easy. Once in, go to View all Developer Downloads. Then go to page 2, and look for Hardware IO Tools for Xcode - October 2013 . Download that. It contains Bluetooth Explorer.

2. I have the dongle plugged into one of the three builtin USB 2.0 ports on the back of the machine. The dongle contains an activity light that I didn't always want to be looking at.

Lou

 

[jchaley]

1. To get Apple's Hardware IO Tools you need to go to the Apple Developer's Center Here:

https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/mac/index.action

And Register using your App Store Login information. registration is free and is easy. Once in, go to View all Developer Downloads. Then go to page 2, and look for Hardware IO Tools for Xcode - October 2013 . Download that. It contains Bluetooth Explorer.

2. I have the dongle plugged into one of the three builtin USB 2.0 ports on the back of the machine. The dongle contains an activity light that I didn't always want to be looking at.

Lou

Thanks, Lou. Very helpful.

John

 

[jchaley]

Lou, I downloaded the hardware IO tools with the Bluetooth Explorer app, but Explorer won't open on my Mac Pro 5,1 running OSX 10.8.5. I get the error "Bluetooth Explorer cannot be opened because of a problem." Any ideas?

 

[flowrider]

^^^^No I don't. It is supposed to run on ML or later. I have a startup disk with 10.8.5 on it, I'll try and run it later to see if I can duplicate the problem. It works fine for me in 10.9.2 and 10.9.3.

Lou

 

[flowrider]

Lou, I downloaded the hardware IO tools with the Bluetooth Explorer app, but Explorer won't open on my Mac Pro 5,1 running OSX 10.8.5. I get the error "Bluetooth Explorer cannot be opened because of a problem." Any ideas?

Sorry, so late getting back here. I booted to 10.8.5 last night, and Bluetooth Explorer wouldn't open either

Lou

 

[flowrider]

Just a quick note. I received a new Fantom USB 3.0 HDD yesterday, it replaced my old USB 2.0 LaCie HDD that was in the process of failing. I erased and destroyed the old drive. Once the Fantom was installed, no BT with the dongle. The OS wouldn't pair with my mouse. So I tried moving the dongle and cables around. Got everything to work again, with the dongle on the front of the Mac in the lower USB slot. And, the curser is stable. So, it's now in a slot that was unstable before This is crazy business.

Lou

 

[hfg]

Sorry, so late getting back here. I booted to 10.8.5 last night, and Bluetooth Explorer wouldn't open either

Lou

I downloaded Bluetooth Explorer on my 5,1 under OS X 10.9.2. It unpacked fine and mounted a drive with the tools. Selecting the BluetoothExplorer.app doesn't give any errors, and it puts an icon on the dock ... should I be seeing a window somewhere?

I have a couple of "AZIO Bluetooth Micro USB Adapters" which claim to be Mac OS X compatible on the package. I would like to try one of them plugged into the keyboard USB port right next to the mousepad.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^I don't have an icon in the dock. But if you open BT Explorer their will be be menu items, go to tools and scroll down to HCI Controller Selector. I'm on a trip, so I'm using my MBA, but per your request, I have attached a jpeg of the window that opens allowing you to choose the BT Controller.

Lou

 

[hfg]

^^^^I don't have an icon in the dock. But if you open BT Explorer their will be be menu items, go to tools and scroll down to HCI Controller Selector. I'm on a trip, so I'm using my MBA, but per your request, I have attached a jpeg of the window that opens allowing you to choose the BT Controller.

Lou

Hi Lou,

Do you have to have the Developer Tools installed before it will run, or is it a standalone app? I execute the .app and it displays a "downloaded from internet" message, then I get a running-program icon in the dock, but nothing on the screen ... no menu, no dialog box, nothing.

Closing the app and re-running it again displays the "downloaded from internet" message ... which is strange, that should only display once.

Thanks for your help ... but I don't want to interrupt your trip. I will continue to investigate here.

Thanks,
-howard

 

[flowrider]

^^^^It's a Standalone Application. When you open it, there are choices in the Menu Bar. Do like I said above.

Lou

 

[hfg]

Yep ... that is what I get. Executing it shows nothing else other than the dock icon that it is running. I am now trying it on my iMac ... with the same results.

I wonder if you need the Developer environment installed for it to work? I do not have any of that installed.

Here is what I am seeing after I unpack the download.

 

[hfg]

Sheesh ... I CAN BE SO STUPID AT TIMES!

I was looking for a pop-up dialog box and didn't even notice the system menu bar had changed. Of course .... that is where you manage it from.

Sorry for the idiot at this end ... all is well now.

Thank you for your help.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Good - Glad you figured it out?

Lou

 

[malcbo]

Hi,

Thank you for your topic.

Haven't purchased the BT dongle yet but have been fiddling with BT Explorer.

As per above screenshot, it states that "the change is NOT retained after a restart". Is it really? Do you need to reselect the other controller on every reboot?

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Yep, thats what it says, but it's not true. The change is retained until you change it again.

Lou

 

[malcbo]

^^^^Yep, thats what it says, but it's not true. The change is retained until you change it again.

Lou

Excellent!

 

[hfg]

I downloaded Bluetooth Explorer on my 5,1 under OS X 10.9.2. It unpacked fine and mounted a drive with the tools. Selecting the BluetoothExplorer.app doesn't give any errors, and it puts an icon on the dock ... should I be seeing a window somewhere?

I have a couple of "AZIO Bluetooth Micro USB Adapters" which claim to be Mac OS X compatible on the package. I would like to try one of them plugged into the keyboard USB port right next to the mousepad.

Just thought I would report back ...

Although Bluetooth Explorer recognized my old "AZIO Bluetooth Micro USB Adapter", I was unable to get it to connect with my trackpad or mouse. So I purchased the adapter that 'flowrider' suggested earlier, and it was also recognized and easily connected/paired with all my Bluetooth devices. It is plugged into one of the hidden USB ports on my wired keyboard (with num pad) so there will be no "range" problems with USB 3.0 interference.

The adapter selection with Bluetooth Explorer is persistent through reboots, and survived the recent OS update as well. Working great!

Thanks for all the help and pointers Lou ('flowrider')!


-howard