Lower cost alternative to the Fenvi FV-T919 Wifi/BT card - The FV-HB1200

[moniteur]

I bought one of these and set it up under win 10 first - the drivers were easy to find via google on Fenvi's website, and it works well.

When I installed 10.14.6 bluetooth and wifi worked fine, and airdrop worked perfectly. I haven't checked to see if imessage/facetime/handoff stuff works, as I don't use it on the computer.

 

[rj985]

This upgrade immediately added two benefits over my previous hardware: airdrop (pic below of old wifi card and BT USB dongle airdropped to hack ), and expanded 5 GHz WiFi channels. So far no continuity or handoff despite System Report indicating Handoff Supported (screenshot). Haven't researched enough to see what might be required to enable handoff/continuity so maybe those can get added too. I'm super happy about airdrop as I find it a lot more convenient than standard BT file transfer for iPhone photos & videos. Apple Watch unlock requires Bluetooth 4.2 but the FV-HB1200 (and FV-T919) are Bluetooth 4.0 so that feature won't work unless someone has found a work around. Also hoping FV-HB 1200 works on Catalina as scottkendall indicates he had problems on Beta. Initial reaction is that this is definitely worth the $35.99 USD I paid.

 

[scottkendall]

This upgrade immediately added two benefits over my previous hardware: airdrop (pic below of old wifi card and BT USB dongle airdropped to hack ), and expanded 5 GHz WiFi channels. So far no continuity or handoff despite System Report indicating Handoff Supported (screenshot). Haven't researched enough to see what might be required to enable handoff/continuity so maybe those can get added too. I'm super happy about airdrop as I find it a lot more convenient than standard BT file transfer for iPhone photos & videos. Apple Watch unlock requires Bluetooth 4.2 but the FV-HB1200 (and FV-T919) are Bluetooth 4.0 so that feature won't work unless someone has found a work around. Also hoping FV-HB 1200 works on Catalina as scottkendall indicates he had problems on Beta. Initial reaction is that this is definitely worth the $35.99 USD I paid.

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Odd that handoff does not work for you, it works from my iPad or phone to both hacks and back. Also my watch unlocks both PC that have this card. I have not gone back and checked in Catalina just because I am not sure that I will upgrade at least not the hacks. Mojave seemed perfect from day one, Catalina on the other hand had a bunch of issues that I did not like even on my real Mac.

I do notice that for air drop my phone does not appear if it is locked.
I make phone calls and my calls handoff
Never tested face time because I do not have a camera on my desktop.


I will try some further testing once there is a golden master Catalina. The bluetooth just did not seem to work but it was developer version like 3 before I went back to Mojave.

 

[moniteur]

I inadvertently discovered that iMessage works when I synced my phone to the hackintosh and then received a text. I also don't have a camera or a mic on this hack, and haven't bothered to find one to try it out further.

I'm definitely going to hold off on upgrading to Catalina until we see if the bluetooth will work, and how much effort it will take to get it running.

 

[rj985]

Thanks scottkendall for your feedback. I made some changes and now continuity/handoff is working! A couple of dumb mistakes were getting in my way. First I forgot I was running AirPortAtheros40.kext so deleted that and installed AirportBrcmFixup.kext. Still wasn't working but then realized Ethernet was still connected and as soon as I pulled that plug continuity started working. Apple Watch unlock also works - not sure why Apple website says 4.2 is required. Further, overall Bluetooth stability is way better than USB BT adapter. Couldn't be happier with this affordable card which I wouldn't have seen w/out this thread - much appreciated!

 

[scottkendall]

Thanks scottkendall for your feedback. I made some changes and now continuity/handoff is working! A couple of dumb mistakes were getting in my way. First I forgot I was running AirPortAtheros40.kext so deleted that and installed AirportBrcmFixup.kext. Still wasn't working but then realized Ethernet was still connected and as soon as I pulled that plug continuity started working. Apple Watch unlock also works - not sure why Apple website says 4.2 is required. Further, overall Bluetooth stability is way better than USB BT adapter. Couldn't be happier with this affordable card which I wouldn't have seen w/out this thread - much appreciated!

I still use the ethernet but I leave the Wifi enabled. I am not sure about the 4.2

 

[trs96]

not sure why Apple website says 4.2 is required.

There are a few Macbooks and iMacs and minis that have BT 4.0 that fully support continuity and handoff. Not sure why it would say BT 4.2 is required. It could simply be a typo Apple didn't catch when proofing the writeup. There is nothing magical about 4.2 that would make it work while 4.0 wouldn't.

Handoff-Compatible Mac Computers

Making sure your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch are ready is the first step, but you'll also need a compatible Mac computer. For Handoff to work, you will need to have Bluetooth LE 4.0 compatibility, which the following computers have:

• MacBook Air (mid-2011 or later)
• MacBook Pro (mid-2012 or later)
• Retina MacBook Pro (all models)
• iMac (late-2012 or later)
• Mac Mini (mid-2011 or later)

 

[trs96]

I have an adapter from OSXWifi (the only one they sell that says Wifi+BT OOB), it's like $120, so it could be 3x or 4x as expensive as others I see people buy, but it works.

Do you feel it's worth paying nearly 80 dollars more to get the same Wifi/BT adapter as the FV-T919 ? I'm not sure why anybody pays those inflated prices. Looks like they have gone up to $100 more now.

 

[scottkendall]

I have an adapter from OSXWifi (the only one they sell that says Wifi+BT OOB), it's like $120, so it could be 3x or 4x as expensive as others I see people buy, but it works.
Sorry it is not lower cost

I had one from OSXwifi ($120) everything worked great and then one day the BT stoped working. OSXwifi did nothing to compensate me for the fact that something just went wrong with their hardware out of nowhere one day it may have been 13 months old. I got this Fenvi, everything works out of box. If it is not working OOB then you are doing something wrong. As RJ985 noted it was his configuration that was causing the issues.

 

[scottkendall]

I'm not sure why anybody pays those inflated prices.

At the time I bought mine that was the best option that I saw, unless I wanted to piece it together myself. Few months later the Fenvi poped up.