MP 1,1-5,1 Classic Mac Pro 802.11 AC and BT 4.0 Wireless Upgrade With External Antenna

[Meester X]

Hi all,

We can help me out. I installed like you all ( I suppose) a BM 94360Cd in my 5,1 with an adapter kit and connected USB. I removed the CPU case and fans for better sight and working.
System info shows I have BT 4 and Wifi AC, Wifi I can use.
But the problem i have that I cant use BT, cant find any device in the area .
I connected a external SMA Antenna with extension cables.
What is maybe wrong, who can help me debugging this?

Have you connected the two wires from the D- and D+ on the adapter card to the bluetooth usb header?

If you look at the last two pics of the second post in this thread you'll see what you need do. Until you do that the BT section won't work. Also pics here....

Classic Mac Pro (5,1): Upgrade Wi-Fi to 802.11ac and Bluetooth to 4.0 - CrystalIDEA Blog

crystalidea.com

 

[cdiepenheim]

Hi Meester X, are you Dutch? me2.

Well I did , I had first the two wires plus and Minus crossed and nothing was to see in system info.
I will post pictures. Even without the Cable connected. Then bluetooth info is blanco

 

[cdiepenheim]

look at the pictures. BT is active it seems This is with connected cable.

And no devices showing around

And with my Mac Mini what I have (3rd pic). All devices around even the active Mouse and keyboard.

 

[Valdaquendë]

One small suggestion. I admit to being a perfectionist; I love making but I want my work to look immaculate and I prefer not to cannibalize parts. I wanted a BlueTooth data cable that would fit perfectly and look as perfect as possible. Unfortunately (for my sensibilities), there is a maze of conflicting opinions about the backplane's header and the housing most suitable (the incorrect JST GH is most often named). And cables on the internet are often inadequately described, lacking in length and rainbow-colored.

The bluetooth header on the backplanes of classic 4,1 and 5,1 Mac Pros is a Molex PicoBlade 4-circuit, 1.25mm pitch header. If you are upgrading to a BCM94360CD or similar WiFi/BT card on your cMP, a perfect cable (black wires, 12" long with the appropriate PicoBlade connector) can be obtained from Digi-Key (Part # WM15259-ND) for about $3.61 as of this writing. The Molex part number for this cable is: 0151340403

NOTE: I beg the community's pardon for posting this information in more than one thread; I'm assuming that that is somewhat of a no-no. I merely wanted to make sure that the info would show up in a broader range of search criteria.

 

[eVasilis]

H all

Just a small question, are the wifi and bluetooth antenna cables for a 2010 macpro soldered on the motherboard or are thye attached via ipx plugs?

Thanks!

 

[Valdaquendë]

They use U.FL IPX (IPEX/UFL) connectors such as these.

 

[dr.mav]

look at the pictures. BT is active it seems This is with connected cable.

And no devices showing around

And with my Mac Mini what I have (3rd pic). All devices around even the active Mouse and keyboard.

Hello. Have you been able to fix your issue? I just found out that my bluetooth is actually working just in proximity of couple inches away from chassis.

 

[netsrot39]

Thanks to the OP for posting this. I will go the same route with my Mac Pro 4,1. The reason for that is that I damaged my Bluetooth antenna connector by using a low-quality U.FL IPX extension cable. Also I've noticed a considerable increase of signal strength (about 30-40%) by using external antennas on my Mac Pro 2,1 and Mac Pro 3,1. Both have Airport and Bluetooth combo cards installed that are recognized by the Macs via a PCIe to mini PCIe adapter (the Airport card itself is also converted to mini PCIe with another adapter). The approach pointed out by the OP seems more pure though since the intended mini PCIe slot of the Mac Pro is still being used as an interface for the Airport card. I'll probably post some pictures later of my setup with the external antennas but I still have to wait quite some time for the items to arrive from China.

 

[netsrot39]

So the last parts needed for this upgrade surprisingly arrived yesterday and I've just completed this mod. Unlike the OP, I didn't use a sleeve for my antenna cables since I think it is unnecessary and you can very well manage your cables without it. I also did my Bluetooth cable in a different manner. In my case it wasn't necessary to cut anything since I had depinned the original Molex connector before and just joined cables by using another pair of two similar short cables and twisting them together (also adding insulation between them of course). Here are some pictures of the upgrade:

I also added an NVME adapter card to the antenna bracket since I still wanted to make good use of the upper PCIe slot:

Another view of the logic board mounted inside the case:

A picture of how the Mac Pro now looks seen from the rear:

All in all, I have to admit that this setup works way better than with the internal antennas. In the process of taking out the motherboard I also removed the internal antennas (i.e. the ones that sit behind the sticker on the bottom of the Mac Pro and the Bluetooth one that was located near the bottom PCIe slot). I've tested a bit and everything works like a charm: Bluetooth, WiFi, Handoff and AirDrop

I was amazed by how easy it actually was to fully disassemble the cMP. I'd suggest everyone to do the same mod if they have every toyed with idea of adding Bluetooth 4 and other goodies with external antennas to the Mac Pro.