How to improve Bluetooth signal strength on 2010 Mac Mini?
I have a 2010-model mini connected to 2 displays in 2 different rooms. It's paired with an Apple bluetooth trackpad and keyboard.
The first display is directly above the mini and I'm operating it from about 10ft away with direct line of sight. The responsiveness of the trackpad and keyboard is perfect (bluetooth strength for both devices shows an RSSI in the minus 60s)
For the second display I'm sitting about 30 feet away through a couple of stud walls. Responsiveness - particularly from the trackpad - is poor with a jerky mouse pointer that's pretty much impossible to use. RSSI is down in the minus 80s.
Both devices are described on the Apple website as having a range up to 33ft, but I suspect this is best case with a direct line of sight, so I'm conscious that I'm probably pushing over the upper end of the realistic range.
I tried using a Bluetooth 4.0 external USB dongle to see if this would improve matters over the inbuilt Bluetooth 2.1, but it didn't (I guess the trackpad and keyboard - which I've had for about 2 1/2 years - are only Bluetooth 2.0, so whether I could have expected to see any improvement is up for debate).
So - question is - have I reached the limits of what range the trackpad and keyboard (and possibly my Mac) can cope with, or are there any tips for beefing up the Bluetooth signal strength so I can operate the mini reliably from the second room? (When googling the problem I saw a neat DIY someone had done to improve bluetooth reception on a Mac Pro by fitting an external antenna to the bluetooth card through a hole drilled in one of the PCI slots - but I imagine this would be a much more tricky mod given the lack of space in the Mini).
Thanks
Greg
Mac mini (Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), RAM Upgrade 8Gb, HDD upgrade 1.5Tb