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Magic Mouse & Bluetooth reception broken
- Thread starter ddf200
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Sorry for the wrong link.
This one is correct:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2231119
This one is correct:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2231119
Same problem with my 2009 MP. I was going nuts and about to return the Magic Mouse.
Update
I have a couple of things to report on this subject...
First, The Magic Mouse does perform better than the Mighty Mouse... however, not enough to be satisfactory. There's still plenty of lag and jerky movement... it's just not as bad as it was with a Mighty Mouse.
Next, I tried moving my Mac Pro from the left side of my desk to the back of my desk. It's not convenient or a long term solution, but it did allow me to test the BT performance of the internal module closer to the mouse in everyday use (the mouse is now only about 3 feet away from the back of the chassis compared to about 5 feet before). This has improved performance significantly... indicating to me that it's primarily a poor reception problem and the orientation of the chassis to the mouse and the amount of intervening space and material plays a factor. Note that I traced the internal BT wire up the right rear side of the chassis (when viewed from the rear).
Finally, I ordered a few different bluetooth antenna's from a seller on Ebay. Hopefully I'll get them next week and I can report if running one of these external up the back of the Mac Pro improves performance much.
Failing that, I'm going to try the aforementioned IOGear BT dongle to see if I can make that work.
I'll report back when I know more.
I have a couple of things to report on this subject...
First, The Magic Mouse does perform better than the Mighty Mouse... however, not enough to be satisfactory. There's still plenty of lag and jerky movement... it's just not as bad as it was with a Mighty Mouse.
Next, I tried moving my Mac Pro from the left side of my desk to the back of my desk. It's not convenient or a long term solution, but it did allow me to test the BT performance of the internal module closer to the mouse in everyday use (the mouse is now only about 3 feet away from the back of the chassis compared to about 5 feet before). This has improved performance significantly... indicating to me that it's primarily a poor reception problem and the orientation of the chassis to the mouse and the amount of intervening space and material plays a factor. Note that I traced the internal BT wire up the right rear side of the chassis (when viewed from the rear).
Finally, I ordered a few different bluetooth antenna's from a seller on Ebay. Hopefully I'll get them next week and I can report if running one of these external up the back of the Mac Pro improves performance much.
Failing that, I'm going to try the aforementioned IOGear BT dongle to see if I can make that work.
I'll report back when I know more.
Solution
I've found a solution to my bluetooth reception woes that may interest other Mac Pro owners.
It involves purchasing a cheap bluetooth antenna off ebay and running it external to the case.
I purchased both the one above and this Apple part. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Apple part, sucks! Don't buy it. Even external to the case, it offers no improvement over the stock antenna. The one linked above seems much better.
You can use Apple's Bluetooth Explorer to measure the connection quality. Install Xcode from your OSX CD (options) and look for it in Developer>Applications>Utilities>Bluetooth.
Here's the performance of the stock antenna with the Mac Pro behind my desk. The first third of the graph is with the mouse furthest from the Mac Pro, the middle third shows the signal quality with the mouse nearest the Mac Pro and the last third shows the signal quality with the mouse where I would normally use it (about mid way between the two extremes).
With the mouse furthest from the Mac Pro, lag and jerky movement were the norm and this is supported by the consistent RSSI near -10 and the raw RSSI near -70.
Now here's the performance with the new antenna resting on top of my desk (again the first third is furthest from the antenna, middle third closest, and final third between the two extremes).
Note how it doesn't really matter where the mouse is on the desk, it's enjoying a great lag free connection with only occasional small drops in RSSI and consistent raw RSSI between -50 and -60.
Here's some pics of the antenna installed. The stock bluetooth antenna wire is visible in the first photo as it's labelled. Unfortunately, the connector on the replacement antenna is just too big to fit through the cheese grater holes on the rear of the chassis so I had to have it exit through a PCI slot cover as shown. The antenna wire is long enough to reach the top of your work surface and the antenna itself is protected by a piece of cardboard which makes it easy to tape to anything close by. While it's crude, and I wish Apple would have provided a better solution, this is better than being forced to use a wired mouse.
Of course, you could go the route of a 3rd party dongle, but then you forgo the ability to wake the Mac from sleep with your BT mouse/keyboard.
I've found a solution to my bluetooth reception woes that may interest other Mac Pro owners.
It involves purchasing a cheap bluetooth antenna off ebay and running it external to the case.
I purchased both the one above and this Apple part. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Apple part, sucks! Don't buy it. Even external to the case, it offers no improvement over the stock antenna. The one linked above seems much better.
You can use Apple's Bluetooth Explorer to measure the connection quality. Install Xcode from your OSX CD (options) and look for it in Developer>Applications>Utilities>Bluetooth.
Here's the performance of the stock antenna with the Mac Pro behind my desk. The first third of the graph is with the mouse furthest from the Mac Pro, the middle third shows the signal quality with the mouse nearest the Mac Pro and the last third shows the signal quality with the mouse where I would normally use it (about mid way between the two extremes).
With the mouse furthest from the Mac Pro, lag and jerky movement were the norm and this is supported by the consistent RSSI near -10 and the raw RSSI near -70.
Now here's the performance with the new antenna resting on top of my desk (again the first third is furthest from the antenna, middle third closest, and final third between the two extremes).
Note how it doesn't really matter where the mouse is on the desk, it's enjoying a great lag free connection with only occasional small drops in RSSI and consistent raw RSSI between -50 and -60.
Here's some pics of the antenna installed. The stock bluetooth antenna wire is visible in the first photo as it's labelled. Unfortunately, the connector on the replacement antenna is just too big to fit through the cheese grater holes on the rear of the chassis so I had to have it exit through a PCI slot cover as shown. The antenna wire is long enough to reach the top of your work surface and the antenna itself is protected by a piece of cardboard which makes it easy to tape to anything close by. While it's crude, and I wish Apple would have provided a better solution, this is better than being forced to use a wired mouse.
Of course, you could go the route of a 3rd party dongle, but then you forgo the ability to wake the Mac from sleep with your BT mouse/keyboard.
Attachments
Great job.
Just for other owners of mac pros, 2006-2008 models have had some success with changing the bluetooth antenna lead to the other available wire in the case. I guess this extra wire isn't available to 2009 owners.
I myself did this and my bluetooth reception has drastically improved.
Just for other owners of mac pros, 2006-2008 models have had some success with changing the bluetooth antenna lead to the other available wire in the case. I guess this extra wire isn't available to 2009 owners.
I myself did this and my bluetooth reception has drastically improved.
That's what got me thinking... in the 06-08 machines, the Wifi and BT modules are next to each other so you can easily swap antennas around. In the 2009, the Wifi is near the front and the BT near the rear... making it impossible to swap antennas thus this solution. I hate it's ghetto aspect, but it will do until I can come up with something more elegant.
My Mac Pro has just come back from Apple to have this issue fixed and it hasn't.
Great.
Looks like I'll be bodging it then!
Great.
Looks like I'll be bodging it then!
is this the same Belkin?
Cheap now on Amazon ($13 shipped)
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Mini-B...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275923594&sr=1-2
My 1,1 Mac Pro's Bluetooth (which I installed myself) is choppy with my Magic Mouse, and now I'm already fantasizing about the new touch pad that may be announced today at WWDC.
Cheap now on Amazon ($13 shipped)
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Mini-B...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275923594&sr=1-2
My 1,1 Mac Pro's Bluetooth (which I installed myself) is choppy with my Magic Mouse, and now I'm already fantasizing about the new touch pad that may be announced today at WWDC.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.