Bluetooth head tracker cannot connect

[prestosmith]

I just purchased the waves head tracker ( https://www.waves.com/hardware/nx-head-tracker ) to use with logic pro x. The requirements from the company’s developers is that you have Blue Tooth low energy mode available as well as BT4 compatibility. On my hackintosh I use this dongle for bluetooth connectivity:


https://www.iogear.com/product/GBU521/


Unfortunately I am not able to get the head tracker to connect. I have run the following command as an attempt to force the hackintosh to use the USB dongle for bluetooth connectivity:


sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=always


This came from a post I saw on this issue with an older mac noted here:


http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/hom...etooth-head-tracker-working-on-an-old-mac-pro


So I know this is a long shot to post here, but maybe someone will have some insight on adjusting a hackintosh to be able to connect with this head tracker. But for some more specific questions… How can I tell if my hackintosh supports BT4 and is bluetooth low energy mode capable?


Thanks.

 

[prestosmith]

Okay, I found this script to get info on the USB bluetooth dongle here on the forum and ran it:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/handoff-bluetooth-low-energy-tester.137875/
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/handoff-bluetooth-low-energy-tester.137875/
This is the output:

BluetoothLowEnergyCheck ; exit;
Built Jul 28 2014
Found (0xA5C21E8) named 'iMac', turned on, ready
HCI 0x6:0x1000, LMP 0x6:0x220e, MAC 00-02-72-32-c5-3f
Low Energy supported, Power Change supported
Using Peripheral Manager, Mavericks or higher
State is: Powered On
logout

From what I can see here, I should meet the requirements of BLE support and BT4 compatibility. Is that correct?

 

[prestosmith]

Here is the response I got from the manufacturer:

Please note that Apple supports only native BLE which was introduced on 2013 Mac models.
We've seen a few cases of users that were able to use their BLE dongles on OSX El Capitan, however after upgrading to OSX Sierra, the BLE dongles have stopped working.

Does anyone know if BLE dongles would be supported with OS High Sierra?

 

[celtsune01]

I too would like to find a good solution for this as well. same reason. Also for wifi .. Nice if it were combined in one dongle

 

[Moniker]

Did you guys have any luck? Everything else is working fine, BT wise. And it's working on the built in Intel Bluetooth (figured out it was working earlier today) but the Waves tracker just won't connect. Connects fine to my phone, connects fine to the (currently in the shop) MBP with 4.0 Bluetooth (I changed the chip inside).

Seems a shame that everything works BUT the tracker. I can't have studio monitors, so this was kinda part of my set up. I hadn't tried to set it up yet.

 

[KevinAgnes]

Guys, any update on this issue?

 

[TucsonSean]

I am having the same issue with the same dongle...

 

[jaymonkey]

For native Bluetooth LE support in MacOS you need to use an internal WiFi/BT Combo card that uses a Broadcom chipset and is detected by MacOS as an AirPort device and flagged as "Built in" ...

If you have a spare PCIe slot than you can purchase a WiFi/BT combo card on a PCIe adapter.

See the Broadcom WiFi/BT guide for more info :-

Broadcom WiFi/Bluetooth [Guide]

Broadcom WiFi/Bluetooth [Guide] WiFi and Bluetooth working out of box on macOS with Apple branded Broadcom BCM94360. Enables specific half mini and M.2 BCM94352 on macOS with methods described below. Credit: RehabMan This thread does not support: macOS/Continuity Atheros/Qualcomm...

www.tonymacx86.com

You have to remember that all genuine Apple Macs's ship with built in bluetooth support which MacOS specifically supports, so in most cases using a USB dongle is completely unnecessary and many of the built-in MacOS Bluetooth features such as Handoff and Continuity ... etc and certain features of Apple bluetooth devices (mice, keyboards, trackpads .. etc) will not work when using a USB BT Dongle.

Cheers
Jay

 

[entoine]

I found this on the waves facebook, it worked for me !!! I didn't turn of bluetooth, just turn on waves NX, try to connect the tracker, then go to sleep (the computer, not me, and wake it up) and Bam, working

"Hey everyone! For those of you experiencing connection issues while using BT4.0 USB dongles on OSX (I have it working in Mojave), I discovered a workaround to get NX working:

Prior to doing this, make sure you have your dongle set as the primary Bluetooth controller via BT Explorer. Also make sure you are using one of the two dongles Waves recommends (the IOGear or the Plugable).

1. Turn off bluetooth
2. Open Head Tracking software
3. Turn on bluetooth
4. Turn on NX hardware so blue light is blinking
5. Put the computer to sleep (click Apple logo top left, then "sleep.")
6. Wake up the computer after 5-10 seconds, and BAM, connection! Putting the computer to sleep allows the NX to connect to the dongle.

Let me know if this works for you!
Izzy"


EDIT :

it worked for me, on Mojave, but when I do that, my Apollo Firewire is not happy and I must restart the computer to make it work again (if not, it will display an error message everytime I load a UAD plugin). So I found a way that seems to work (a little pain in the ass but it seems to work).

1 . make shure you have 2 users account for your mac

2.go to system preferences >> users then in the options menu (by clicking the home on the botom of the column), check the last line « display user permutation menu .. » or something like that (it french it is « afficher le menu de permutation d’utilisateur sous forme de.. »

3. then on the top right of the screen you have the possibility to switch to the other user

so by switching to the other user and come back, the tracker will work (without Apollo becoming unstable). When the other user is already open, when you switch to it, you need to close the session, and then come back… and it work

a little tricky, if anybody know a better way, a terminal command to have the same result.. it would be very welcomed…

 

[entoine]

I found another simpler way... go to the bluetooth panel in the System Preference window.. you'll se the mac searching devices (turning doted circle above the devices list), it will not find the tracker, but when you close this window, most of the time your tracker will connect