Bluetooth Issues / Bungled Upgrade

[moonchilddave]

Ok, so I was upgrading my VCS with RAM & an M.2 SSD... long story short, I bungled one of the wireless card's connections (pulled the connector right off the surface of the board and stayed in the antenna connector).  So off I go looking for a replacement and ended up getting these...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WHZNRD9/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08XN6WMXJ/

Got them put in and boot it up.  WiFi connects fine.  I can't seem to get the controllers to pair though... Bluetooth is turned on.  But, when I boot into Batocera 30 that I installed on the SSD I'm able to connect to the network and can pair the controllers with no issue.  So it seems to me like the connections are good and the card is fine - but for some reason AtariOS has some kind of issue with it.  I went looking for a genuine Realtek board, but can't seem to find any that look the same.  I saw all the HP & Leneovo labeled ones on eBay.  But I decided to go with the one on Amazon as someone in the comments said it worked with the AMD chipsets.

So, anyone have any ideas?  Or do I need to contact Atari to see if I can purchase yet another card from them (if possible)?

[0_obeWAN]

Hello,

I have buy this one and waiting for, but not before 12 May (For switching card on laptop) 

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B08YFD9FJ1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.azurewave.com/img/nvidia/AW-CB375NF_DS_B2_A_STD.pdf

 

I will tell you when I have tested. I hope you find an alternate solution before

[justclaws]

3 hours ago, moonchilddave said:

Ok, so I was upgrading my VCS with RAM & an M.2 SSD... long story short, I bungled one of the wireless card's connections (pulled the connector right off the surface of the board and stayed in the antenna connector).

I don't know if you know, but the wireless connector which connectors to the WIFI board is a tiny connector.
It's possible that if you accidentally yanked the cable with the connector off the board, you can just push it
back on again. Although it's not clear, and there was misinformation back in December that the cables was
soldered to the WIFI board, that's not true. (Well, not normally!) It's like a tiny ball connector, that clips on.
Most laptops (like my Dell and Lenovo) have a similar WIFI antenna connection, and they also just pop-on.

As to Atari spares, I am sure they'd be happy to help usually, but I know that Atari have been having huge
problems also with supply chain for parts, and they may well not have a big supply of spares. (My guess.)
Rumour has it that some people even got a different WIFI card, just because Atari could not get 13K, or
thereabouts, for the first batch. As it's a new OEM component, it may be that it's not in the retail supply.

As to your syncing problem, this may just be simply that as a console, the VCS is built to use known good
and tested hardware, and so the AtariOS is tuned just for that hardware. Normally Linux distributions will
have a driver for numerous different devices, the same as Windows does. Can you try the original again?
Honestly, if you cannot get the connector to pop back-on, a careful owner can fix it with solder very easily.

[moonchilddave]

1 hour ago, justclaws said:Can you try the original again?
Honestly, if you cannot get the connector to pop back-on, a careful owner can fix it with solder very easily.

Not gonna work... see photo.  Also that's the Main antenna connection.  Might have been ok without the Aux unless Atari is not using antenna diversity for some reason.

[justclaws]

Ah, that is indeed, very much pulled off - I didn't mean to patronise you, btw. It's a tricky repair!
Some people don't realise that the antenna cable is a very small connector, but clearly you do! ?
The close-up of the card is interesting though. Maybe somebody else has a different working one.

[moonchilddave]

32 minutes ago, justclaws said:

Ah, that is indeed, very much pulled off - I didn't mean to patronise you, btw. It's a tricky repair!
Some people don't realise that the antenna cable is a very small connector, but clearly you do! ?
The close-up of the card is interesting though. Maybe somebody else has a different working one.

Yeah, at my age (50+) trying to do that repair without a microscope is a lesson in futility.  The card I bought was supposedly the Realtek RTL8822CE chipset - same as the OEM.  When I looked it up I saw versions w/ Bluetooth v4.2, while the card I got is v5.0.  I'm wondering if that's my issue.

[CPUWIZ]

Most likely.

 

That is pretty easy to solder back on, if you still have the part, even if not.  They are cheap, I probably have at least one laying around brand new.

[moonchilddave]

When in Batocera, it reports to be a Realtek card... most of this is gibberish to me though.

 

[CPUWIZ]

Even has a part number for you on it, so you can order one, in case you don't have the original anymore.  Just ask someone to do it for you.

 

 

[iot4c]

Please, believe, it will be easy to solder in any repair office of electronics. Chinese OEM modules are a constant riddle, can be that Atari himself don't knows what the factory had installed in different branches.

[moonchilddave]

Ok, so it seems as if the issue is with the version of Bluetooth the card is.  I purchased this on eBay just to see if it would work.  It does.  So I'm guessing v5.0 cards won't work, but v4.2 works on both sides... AtariOS and Batocera!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254706655006

Here's what I get in Batocera:
 

Edited May 16, 2021 by moonchilddave

[moonchilddave]

I took the time to compare them.  As far as I can tell, the only difference between the 2 cards is the "Subsystem" reported by the lspci command - otherwise, they look identical.  The one that doesn't work is the actual Realtek, where as the one that works looks to be more or less generic.  The only difference mentioned when buying was the one that didn't work was advertised as bluetooth v5, and the one that works was advertised as bluetooth v4.2.  So it seems my suspicion was correct and the issue is you need a v4.2 card for it to work.

0_obeWAN, I suspect the card you mentioned won't work being a v5 card. 

I suspect Atari could do an upgrade of the controllers to support v5, but that appears not to have happened as of yet, and probably won't unless they switch to a v5 card in the VCS due to supply issues.
 

Edited May 17, 2021 by moonchilddave

[0_obeWAN]

I still haven't received the mentioned Wifi card at moment. Amazon saids before Sunday.
I hope it will be soon. I'm not even sure if it will work, it's a 7€ (shipping included) poker move, raison of delay. 
I'll let you know as soon as I get it if the bluetooth works with the controllers.

[moonchilddave]

1 hour ago, 0_obeWAN said:

I still haven't received the mentioned Wifi card at moment. Amazon saids before Sunday.
I hope it will be soon. I'm not even sure if it will work, it's a 7€ (shipping included) poker move, raison of delay. 
I'll let you know as soon as I get it if the bluetooth works with the controllers.

That was basically what mine was... a cheap poker move!

[0_obeWAN]

On 5/18/2021 at 10:04 PM, moonchilddave said:

That was basically what mine was... a cheap poker move!

It seems to work, for a first test it is conclusive.
I opened my console, removed the original card, replaced it with the new card without connecting the antennas. I removed the top cover and placed the modern Controller physically in contact with the card.

I put the modern controller at a 45° angle to the left console angle, and it works.
It synchronize in bluetooth with Batocera 30 (detect, synch, manual conf, profil OK) and the AtariOS normally detect contoller. 
I move in the menus and everything seems OK, provided to leave the controller in contact with the card.

 

So I am very optimistic for my laptop, I will see in the next days.

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by 0_obeWAN
Add picture

[Chrisdiaz73]

Man, these posts are 2 years old and my VCS has been collecting dust while I awaited for Atari to replace my WiFi/Bluetooth module for almost 3 years. Finally they sent me something, was nothing but antennas … 2 years ago I bought a card and never could get anything to connect … never thought of searching the issue, turns out I sure did replace it with a 5.0 module, so literally yesterday got a 4.2 module and now everything works. Wasted all this time just dumbfounded. At least now I’m playing some of these games with my kids and now have to tackle trying to install windows on the M.2 drive. Ugh.