Use of other Wifi Cards

[satmandu]

Are there any specs on the older connecter, and specs for your new connector?

I'm trying to figure out if I can put a much newer wifi card into my MacBookAir4,2 , such as something which might support Wifi 6 or Wifi 6E.

[KrutavShah]

The one in this project is the 12+6 pin proprietary connector used by Apple with Broadcom wireless cards made up to 2015. This means 802.11 AC and BT 4.2 are available on the newest of this particular line of wireless cards.

As far as I know, all the newer Macs use a soldered-on wireless chipset. This could mean that Apple WiFi 6 chipsets may be unavailable on a modular card.

[satmandu]

So your adapter converts the old connector to act like the newer 12+6 proprietary connector?

I guess my question is this. What is the female connector the stock BCM943224PCIEBT2 cards go into called? And is there a way to make newer non Broadcom cards go into that slot, perhaps with an adapter. Maybe some way to get NGFF M.2 cards in there?

(I have linux on my old MacBookAir4,2, which works wonderfully, but I'd like to get a newer wifi card in there... and if a newer card can be made to work in that slot which linux supports, why settle for cards only made until 2015?)

[satmandu]

For instance, it is some flavor of PCI-E, right, so something like this comes to mind: https://www.newegg.com/p/0XM-0555-00008?Description=ax210&cm_re=ax210-_-9SIAP7NE2J3525-_-Product

[KrutavShah]

I see, so are you looking for a MacBook 12+6 pin to M.2 connector?

[satmandu]

I think most wifi cards for laptops today use M.2 connectors. But since mini-PCIe/mPCIe to M.2 Adaptors exist as per the above link, I guess one question is whether the mini-pcie connector in the older mac laptops (what you call the 12+6 pin connector) is actually electrically compatible with some mini-PCIe standard.

Since you have designed this adaptor, do you know if that is the case? IIRC Apple has often used connector form factors which differ electrically from what other manufacturers have done with some connector form factors later on. (e.g. the connectors for SSDs in 2014 which were non-standard.)

[satmandu]

Another site with mPCIe devices: https://www.assured-systems.com/us/news/article/what-are-mini-pci-express-mpcie-cards/

[KrutavShah]

The goal of this project is to get newer wireless cards made by Apple in their older MacBooks. Since most M.2 and mPCIE cards are not MacOS capable, it's outside the scope of this project.

However it is possible, and you certainly can make your own adapter, taking from this project. The issue you will run into is spacing, but it is certainly possible. I think the 2015 wireless AC cards would be good enough for most use cases, but you can always use some of the components in this project's library if you really do need to make something more advanced.

[satmandu]

Thanks. I would suggest expanding the scope of the project since macos is losing support on (I think) most of these older devices won't be supported with macos Monterey, since that will only support:

• MacBook Pro (early 2015 and later)
• MacBook Air (early 2015 and later)
• MacBook (early 2016 and later)

(But linux support seems fantastic on these older devices.)

Do you know if the mPCIE ports on these older laptops are standard compared to those found in non-apple devices, or if there is any special Apple sauce to them?

I guess I'll ask on the macrumors forums too...

[KrutavShah]

So on Unibody MacBooks, a flex cable is used to connect to the WiFi card, which this adapter can take in and break out into a layout that was designed to work with WiFi cards in Macs up to 2015, which means the Broadcom 943602 chipset and is supported in MacOS Monterey without issue.

As far as expanding the project, I am making a Mini PCIe version of it so that these retina wireless cards can fit into a PC's Mini PCIe slot, though it's still being planned. Since Apple now solders all their WiFi cards in the newer MacBooks, there likely will be no way for this project to be upgraded to the new WiFi 6 (AX) standard that the latest Macs use. This should be fine however since the WiFi 5 (AC) cards used in Macs haven't changed too much after the Retina MacBooks that had detachable cards.

Now if you really did want something like this for WiFi AX, the chipset will need to be both supported by MacOS and use the PCIe interface, as well as the chip would need to be available for purchase. If BlueTooth uses UART on these newer models, it may be harder to make an adapter that will work fully. Looking at the latest 2021 MacBook Pros, it seems that they use PCIe for wireless which is normal, and UART for BlueTooth. I suppose if there is interest, some research can be put into making such an adapter.