Resolved G4 mini Bluetooth reception

[MrCheeto]

What sort of mighty mouse range do you get with your G4 mini? I'm beginning to suspect the range suffers as with some aluminum desktops.

Notice the mini has small windows on the top case to allow radio reception. My mouse works fine so long as the mouse is above this window. If, however, the mouse is using the same surface that the Mac is on, or if the mouse surface is below the Mac, I get extremely choppy and slow mouse movement.

Is there a solution that the hobbyists are aware of or will I have to modify my desk so the mini rests beneath my desktop?

 

[3922434]

Well I’ve used all the way across the room no problem….the range is a standard AirPort Extreme that sits on a daughter board which of course sits inside the mini. It has two separate antennas that mount on top for better reception and Bluetooth….added a pic of mine…Range is pretty far….mine is behind my tv and my media center trashcan Mac Pro and I’ve used it up to 20-25 feet away. Just remember haveing miltiple devices that are Bluetooth in the same room can cause some issues at times because it’s further away from you.

 

[3922434]

And in terms of the choppiness’s…there’s only one thing I can think of that would cause that and it plagued g5 iMacs and that is heat….you may notice degradation in signal/ general speed as the g4 heats up. I’ve heard that it vastly effected the silent upgrade model that shipped with the 1.5 g4. If anyone else wants to chime in I could be wrong but I swear I’ve seen a thread somewhere about it.. .

 

[MrCheeto]

Did you take apart your G4 just to give an example? 😵‍💫

Dang I was afraid to hear that it’s just mine that’s having the issue cuz now I have to get to work.

I do have the last upgrade but the choppiness is immediate and goes away if I locate the mouse over the mini.

I guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…

 

[3922434]

Did you take apart your G4 just to give an example? 😵‍💫

Dang I was afraid to hear that it’s just mine that’s having the issue cuz now I have to get to work.

I do have the last upgrade but the choppiness is immediate and goes away if I locate the mouse over the mini.

I guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…

Nooooo I had just got done overclocking it to 1.67Ghz. Good little machine!

 

[MrCheeto]

Thanks for confirming my suspicion.

The symptom is that the mouse was extremely choppy unless I placed it within about a foot of the TOP of the Mac mini. It barely worked on the desktop beside the Mac.

I finally got my iron out and reattached the wire to the square antenna. Keep in mind it is a coax cable. There is a very small gauge wire in the center and a sheath on the outside. These make up the two conductors.



The sheath looks like plain old nylon but it does indeed have wire in it that can be soldered.

The inner wire goes through a hole in the antenna and attaches to the top "arm" with solder. The sheath should solder to the bottom underside.

Once I got it all together I was able to enjoy Halo without lag! Finally I can use wireless devices with my old G4 Mac mini again!