Modding #8: Bluetooth

Problem: very bad reception of the internal Bluetooth module

I like my Magic Apple Trackpad a lot. Very soon, I had to find out that the Magic Trackpad sometimes behaved very abnormal. After a cross-testing on a new MacBook Pro, it became clear that the problem is the internal Bluetooth module of my MacPro, which has reception issues (probably due to the aluminum casing and/or WLAN interference). The Magic Trackpad started stuttering from time to time. I think that the problem became worse after installing the Wireless ac Card. Sometimes the Magic Trackpad became nearly unsusable for some time.

After much Internet research as well as trial & error, the following two steps proved to be efficient in my case.



Step 1: WLAN antenna for internal Bluetooth module
One frequent suggestion has been to use one WLAN antenna instead of the Bluetooth antenna for better reception. Since my internal WLAN module was no longer in my machine, I did this, and it provided some real relief. However, under certain circumstances, stuttering still reverted.

(to be completed)


Step 2: External USB Bluetooth v4 Dongle
As of today, I installed an external USB Dongle from Digitus that embeds with a Bluetooth Chip from Cambridge Silicon Radio. After two days of testing, it's clear that the Magic Trackpad works much smoother now. Still, much more testing is required.

http://www.amazon.de/Digitus-Adapter-Tiny-Bluetooth-DN-30210/dp/B007HZJBDI


Upgrade Process: Under OSX Mavericks 10.9.4, it seems that upgrading to a third-party Bluetooth Dongle is rather straight-forward:
(1) I removed the external Bluetooth Dongle
(2) Do NOT YET plug in the new Bluetooth Dongle!
(3) I deleted /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist - system restart
(4) Terminal command: sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior="always"- system restart - this command is needed for the system to run the USB Dongle at startup/plugin automatically
(5) Plug in the external Bluetooth Dongle

(6) With certain Dongles, you may need to install Bluetooth Explorer from Apple - see here for example: http://www.geekguides.co.uk/414/how-to-select-a-bluetooth-adapter-in-os-x/
In my case, it already worked by sticking to the first five steps.

Benefits/Drawbacks (after 3 months' testing): My Magic Trackpad works much smoother with the external Bluetooth Dongle (EUR 12 well invested). The drawbacks I can live with are:
- Magic Trackpad frequently looses connection after a complete shutdown. Reconnection is sometimes a bit flimsy, but eventually succeeds (sometimes I have to turn off/on the Magic Trackpad and set it into discovery mode).
- When waking the system up from sleep, the dongle needs a bit longer to connect to my Magic Trackpad.
- Turning off Bluetooth via System Preferences does not work.
All in all, I can live with these drawbacks because the Magic Trackpad works much more reliably. Probably there are some Bluetooth Dongles that work more reliable, but that's just ok.

January 2015 - Yosemite update: Contrary to what I read in the net, Yosemite brought me more stability for my Bluetooth dongle. Disconnects are now very rare (less than once a month), so the solution just works fine.