Yosemite Handoff-capable Bluetooth adapters?

[justr]

Thanks for your input. You might be right I guess? But my hack's in clear sight of my router about 5 meters away and I'm getting a RSSI of 70 ish..... whilst everyone else is getting 60's 50's? To me this does suggest there is poor reception from the card? My macbook air gets RSSI -50 Noise -80....

To me this does indicate I have an issue with reception? No if its the card / antenna or adaptor? That trickier to guess?

Honestly, it doesn't suggest that you have an issue with your card. Really.

You could have a router-card incompatibility. You could have USB3 causing issues (see my post above). There may be electronic or metal devices nearby or behind a wall causing issues. Your case might be part of the issue. You could just be unlucky. And yes, it's possible you have an issue with your card-- but short of buying a second card or pair of parts and experimenting in the exact same location around the same time... you won't have any suggestion of what's causing your problem.

All we can say is that your signal at that card in that system is a certain strength. We have no evidence whatsoever what is causing the issue, internal or external to the system.

The first thing I'd try doing is moving the computer to a few places around the room/apartment (including angling the computer in different directions without moving the antennas). Or getting a Wi-Fi analysis app on your phone or computer to get a better map of signal strength throughout your room/apartment. Then you'll get a suggestion of what's going on.

You need to somehow control the variables so that you eliminate certain possibilities...

Good luck, it's not fun!

 

[zachs33]

I couldn't get Handoff to work for me at all, from the time I bought my BCM card in early December, until last week. Although I was signed in to iCloud, it just wasn't working. I tested the WiFi and Bluetooth and both worked fine. Airdrop worked fine between my Hack and MBP, as well as between my Hack and my iPhone. Personal hotspot connection also worked fine over bluetooth (if I went to Bluetooth->Devices->Zach's iPhone 5S->Connect) but I noticed that it just wasn't the same. Whenever I clicked on the Airport menu bar on my MBP, I would see under 'Personal Hotspot' my phone, along with its battery status, etc. On my Hack, this never appeared. I couldn't test much with handoff, beyond Notes and Safari, as iMessage/Facetime had stopped working. It was only recently when iMessage functionality returned that I tried signing in. iMessage worked. Almost immediately I noticed the Handoff-Safari icon to the left of the dock (Safari was open on my iPhone). Then I was getting an iMessage prompt asking whether I want to be able to send SMS over my phone from my Hack. Handoff now works perfectly!

My hack is a XPS 8300 i7. Not sure how different it forms yours. Card is in a x1 pcie slot and the usb lead is plugged into a usb2 header.

Card LEDs are green when machine is on and when it is asleep. I see no red.

Mine is also green, but I wish it didn't have an LED! I have a clear case panel (Corsair Graphite 780T), so I can see it all the time. I can turn off the lights on my motherboard, lower my fans (reducing the LED) and control the colour on my CPU cooler, but that little light is irritating and it doesn't match the red colour theme in my desktop. I put tape over it. Why it needs an LED when it's inside a desktop is somewhat beyond me.

On a separate note (and probably rather off-topic) I also used to have an XPS (8500). It ran OS X so easily it got me started on my hackintosh project (still ongoing), but the Dell had to go. A case swap was the best move I ever made. So much more potential to upgrade hardware (allowed me to fit a larger GPU and a decent PSU for a start). A few components here and there, another case swap or two... now it seems the Dell has faded into the mist. Is it the same machine? The only component left from the XPS is a single 1TB HDD, used as a storage drive. Still, there could be much philosophical debate over that question. Anyway, I guess my point is that a case swap is a good (and not necessarily expensive) move.

 

[carlocav]

Also check that the card is installed nicely in the PCIe slot. As was mentioned sometime earlier in this forum thread, the adapter card can be a very tight fit. Sometimes one has to loosen the screws holding the metal bit to ensure the card is level in the slot.

Good luck with your trouble shooting.

I solved the problem of the cable and now both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi work in the OS, however Bluetooth works in Bootloader but not in BIOS and when I boot the computer without a wired keyboard attached it says "keyboard failure" so it doesn't recognize apple wireless keyboard
and if I attach a wired keyboard the apple wireless keyboard start working from the bootloader.
So is impossible to make it work even in the bios? What can I do?

 

[kawayuppie]

I solved the problem of the cable and now both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi work in the OS, however Bluetooth works in Bootloader but not in BIOS and when I boot the computer without a wired keyboard attached it says "keyboard failure" so it doesn't recognize apple wireless keyboard
and if I attach a wired keyboard the apple wireless keyboard start working from the bootloader.
So is impossible to make it work even in the bios? What can I do?

Interesting that it is working in the boot loader and not BIOS. Can you set "ignore keyboard error" or similar in the BIOS? Then when you boot up, and when still in POST, using only your wireless Apple keyboard, hit any key or F2 to access setup. See if the keyboard is recognised then.

It just worked OTB on my XPS 8300. Might have something to do with the BIOS version. Are you able to update your BIOS?

Sorry, not much help, I know.

 

[carlocav]

Thank you for the answer

No options in BIOS to ignore Keyboard option and it is the latest version
I tried restoring a copy of Yosemite with Chamaleon and Bluetooth doesn't work even in Chamaleon. Why is this possible (work with Clover but doesn't work with Chamaleon)? How can I make it work in Chamaleon?

 

[justr]

Mine does work at Post, BIOS, Chameleon. I didn't do anything special, but I do notice that I need to hit a key first to get the keyboard to wake up... and then it will be responsive before entering the OS. Normally I turn the computer on and the keyboard/mouse are awake and responsive as soon as the OS boots... not need to wake the pair up. But at Post, and in BIOS and Chameleon I have to wake the board up and then hit the key combos to do things. During Post this can be an issue because there isn't much time to get the keyboard woken up AND still hit the key to, say, enter bios or pick a boot drive/media.

The other issue is figuring out what key combo on the apple bluetooth keyboard maps to the delete key for entering the BIOS...

 

[demonknight9]

Mine does work at Post, BIOS, Chameleon. I didn't do anything special, but I do notice that I need to hit a key first to get the keyboard to wake up... and then it will be responsive before entering the OS. Normally I turn the computer on and the keyboard/mouse are awake and responsive as soon as the OS boots... not need to wake the pair up. But at Post, and in BIOS and Chameleon I have to wake the board up and then hit the key combos to do things. During Post this can be an issue because there isn't much time to get the keyboard woken up AND still hit the key to, say, enter bios or pick a boot drive/media.

The other issue is figuring out what key combo on the apple bluetooth keyboard maps to the delete key for entering the BIOS...

If you have a gigabyte motherboard it's the F12 key and then choose setup at the bottom

 

[carlocav]

But at Post, and in BIOS and Chameleon I have to wake the board up and then hit the key combos to do things.

thank you for the feedback. Sorry for my ignorance, but what you mean by "the key combos"?

 

[justr]

thank you for the feedback. Sorry for my ignorance, but what you mean by "the key combos"?

To enter BIOS (or select a boot drive manually/other than the order set up in BIOS) you have to hit a key, for instance the Windows-based keyboard 'delete' key. This isn't always mapped to the same key on an Apple keyboard-- or the key in question might not even exist on the Apple keyboard. Often there's a different key, or combination of keys (like fn + f12) to invoke the same thing using the Apple keyboard.

 

[carlocav]

To enter BIOS (or select a boot drive manually/other than the order set up in BIOS) you have to hit a key, for instance the Windows-based keyboard 'delete' key. This isn't always mapped to the same key on an Apple keyboard-- or the key in question might not even exist on the Apple keyboard. Often there's a different key, or combination of keys (like fn + f12) to invoke the same thing using the Apple keyboard.

Thank you for the answer.

I found the option to hide keyboard error in BIOS, I enabled it but Apple Wireless Keyboard still doesn't work in both BIOS and Chameleon bootloader.
Anyone has an idea on why the keyboard works in Clover but doesn't work in Chamaleon? For various reason I prefer Chameleon and so I would like to make the keyboard work on it.