BT hand off works but choppy touchpad

[adam9c1]

I have a cMP 2010 running 10.12.6

Today I finally got to "install" the magic touchpad and it is very choppy or disconnects frequently.

I moved it from another machine where it was working fine.

I got the card a while ago via eBay and hand off and continuity work great.

Any ideas?
Here is more info.

Manufacturer: Broadcom

Transport: USB

Chipset: Unknown (0)

Firmware Version: v146 c4790

Bluetooth Power: On

Discoverable: Off

Connectable: Yes

Auto Seek Pointing: On

Remote wake: On

Vendor ID: 0x05AC

Product ID: 0x8294

HCI Version: 4.2 (0x8)

HCI Revision: 0x12B6

LMP Version: 4.2 (0x8)

LMP Subversion: 0x2192

Device Type (Major): Computer

Device Type (Complete): Mac Desktop

Composite Class Of Device: 0x380104

Device Class (Major): 0x01

Device Class (Minor): 0x01

Service Class: 0x1C0

Auto Seek Keyboard: On

 

[bookemdano]

Definitely sounds like poor BT signal. How close is the cMP to your trackpad? Try moving it so it's close to the back of the cMP (that's where the BT antenna is). Also, do you have a USB 3 card installed? USB3 is famous for causing BT interference.

Aside from those two issues, the problem is likely antenna related.

It doesn't have a great BT antenna to begin with, and as part of installing the new card you have to run a jumper cable to extend the BT antenna to the combo BT/WiFi card. That cable can be very tricky to install and it's easy to break where the two tiny connectors mate together.

You can use one of the WiFi antennas as the BT antenna instead by re-arranging the cables you attached to the card.

 

[adam9c1]

I'm not certain, but I think that I did test the touchpad before...

The tower is about 3 feet from the touchpad.

Within 3 hours the touchpad would be OK, choppy, disconnect.
Batteries are brand new and show 100% (they have been sitting in my utility room unused).

 

[bookemdano]

The problem is definitely not the touchpad (well, not definitely, but the fact that it works fine on another Mac basically tells you it's fine).

I too had choppy BT when I first added the BT4/WiFi card. I think I had damaged the connector on my BT antenna when trying to connect that damn jumper cable so I bought another antenna off of eBay and installed it. But I think when I was doing that I also read the tip about using one of the WiFi antennas for BT. So I'm pretty sure I did that at the same time.

So you may want to try that first. Just re-arrange the antenna connections on the card. This PDF (http://jf9web.azurewebsites.net/mis...l done/osX wifi card install instructions.pdf) shows a picture explaining which connector is which. Just swap the BT antenna with one of the WiFi ones and see if your trackpad is better behaved.

You didn't answer in regards to my USB 3 suggestion, but suffice it to say if you have any USB 3 stuff in the vicinity you should unplug them and see if that helps.

 

[adam9c1]

I do not have a USB3 card.

The only USB3 "in the area" would be a 2011 Mac Mini and a 2015 MBA.

EDIT:
I will remove all my drives and start with a clean OS as well.
It would be a bummer... as it's pretty "fresh" without any junk in it.

 

[bookemdano]

I guess I'll say it a third time. It's a bluetooth signal issue. Reinstalling your OS and hard drives is extremely unlikely to fix it.

For me the answer was swapping the antenna connections on the airport card so that the BT chip was actually using one of the cMP's WiFi antennas instead of the BT antenna. I haven't had any choppiness since.

Best of luck.

 

[h9826790]

Use 5GHz Wifi but not the 2.4GHz one.

 

[adam9c1]

Use 5GHz Wifi but not the 2.4GHz one.

I do have a Wi-Fi access point few feet away from me. It is serving 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrums.

Thing is I have another magic Touch Bar at work connected to a cMP running fine, and two feet away another Magic Touch Bar connected to a Mac mini doing fine too.

 

[Squuiid]

Use 5GHz Wifi but not the 2.4GHz one.

This!
Disable the 2.4GHz band on your Wi-Fi access point/router. It’ll likely resolve your issue.

 

[h9826790]

I do have a Wi-Fi access point few feet away from me. It is serving 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrums.

Thing is I have another magic Touch Bar at work connected to a cMP running fine, and two feet away another Magic Touch Bar connected to a Mac mini doing fine too.

Does your cMP connected to the 2.4 or 5GHz network?

 

[adam9c1]

The work machines are connected to the network via ethernet, however this network is used heavy on both 2.4 and 5.

 

[h9826790]

The work machines are connected to the network via ethernet, however this network is used heavy on both 2.4 and 5.

Understand that, but does the cMP's wifi actually connected to the 2.4GHz network?

It doesn't need to be the primary network adaptor, but still "good enough" to interfere the BT.

If you have wired network, make sure the 5GHz network has priority in the cMP's wifi setting. So that it won't automatically (and accidentally) logged into the 2.4GHz network and causing the interference.

However, heavy 2.4GHz device around still possible to interfere the cMP's BT connection. The BT antenna of the cMP is shielded inside the big metal case, not really the best location. If interference cannot be avoid in your situation, an external antenna may be required to solve the issue.

 

[adam9c1]

At home:

I’ve shut down my tower and removed all the drives.
I’ve disconnected the Wi-Fi access point which is 7 feet away from the cMP.

Booted to a SSD with 10.13.6 and repaired the touchpad.

The problem continues.

I’ve moved the touchpad to inches from the tower and it is ok now (for few minutes)


I suspect the BT cable extension etc.
I will swap two antennas in the next few days.