I am trying to establish which is correct Bluetooth & Wireless card for the . . . . PowerMac G5 A1047 2061 2.3GHz DP (PCI-X) tower?

I can see a small anodised aluminium (not aluminum - as you wouldn't call calcium by the name calcum or sodium as sodum now would you?) bracket above/but close to the mainboard, close to the speaker/fan assembly towards the front of the interior of the machine. The aerial connector is like the type that plugs into the older Wireless Extreme cards (A1026/A1027) that fitted in the PowerBook A1046 and similar models, I seem to remember, and seems to be the type that would fit inside this bracket profile, as there's a slight offset cutout in the bracket to determine alignment. There is also a PCB mini socket like a PCI slot, right behind this cutout bracket, which is similar, if it's not the same as the type that are in the A1046 Powerbook that fitted these Extreme Wireless cards into a socket of a similar type, so I am thinking it is most probably this type of card I need, but I don't want to be fitting the incorrect card by mistake and doing more harm than good.

So any help selecting the correct card would be appreciated.

I also need to know which is the correct Bluetooth card for this PowerMac model as it seems to have a small block connector with about 50 contacts, (20+ on each side), and appears to have 2 offset pillar nut mounting points, and a small bluetooth aerial lead, and small black 3 wire connector for plugging onto the board, if I've figured it out correctly, which may indicate it uses a similar board to the ones found in the Mac Mini, but I'm not totally sure on that, tough I could strip my Mac Mini and see if the boards I think that might fit actually do, but rather than taking the disassembly route straight away I'd prefer to have some expert opinion on what I actually need - the actual board/Apple Part numbers would be really helpful.

The system I bought had a nVidia GeForce FX 5200 AGP 64MB card which is going to be unuseable with MorphOS, but I do have an ATI Radeon 9250 PCI 128MB card, and wondered if this will get picked up by MorphOS if I fit it in one of the PCI-X slots?

[ Edited by NewSense 11.06.2016 - 07:04 ]

This Airport card fits PCI-X PowerMac G5 and the Bluetooth module looks like one of those.

As for the antennas... You don't really need the overpriced original Apple antennas. Just get an MCX (one male and one female) to SMA adapter and a proper SMA antennas and you're done (at least that works for me).

I got that adapter really cheap here (about 5 EUR) and an antenna for another few EUR (mind you, if you use exactly the adapter I've linked you'll need a male SMA connector antenna while most of them are RP-SMA female ones) and that saved me like 50 EUR for the original antenna while works as good as such (or so I think).

Quote: Which if I'm not mistaken is the A1026/A1027 Airport Extreme card I mentioned above, which is as I expected. By the way, THANKS for your quick reponse, much appreciated.
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Which if I'm not mistaken is the A1044 Bluetooth card, but I cannot see the model/part number on the images you sent as there is no image close-up/zoomed in far enough to make out that information/detail.

I almost missed spotting inside my PowerMac G5 tower the point where the A1044 BT card will 'plug-in' as it is such a small connector block, at the very top left corner of the mainboard.

Additionally, just below that position for the BlueTooth card is another pair of card mounting points (offset brass pillar nuts) in the vicinity of the Bluetooth point that have a female oblong/keyed terminal connector with a line of 15 connector pins on each side and there is a 2 wire (green/yellow) connector block that seems similar to the modem card that I was familiar with seeing in the Powerbook, so is that going to be the modem card mounting point?

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That's a great suggestion as the Apple ones seem hard to come by, and overpriced! So, would this be the same - Male MCX to Female SMA adapter? As I have seen this one which looks like the item on Conrad you linked to. I have also seen a listing for a Sunny MCX Male to SMA Female RG316 Low Loss Pigtail Adapter Cable, which may allow me to mount the aerial in line with the back of the case better than it just sticking out backwards from the back - that is if I don't buy an 'elbow' bend aerial anyway.

But I am more likely to buy a 2.4GHz Router Antenna Network WLAN Wifi Aerial SMA male omni signal booster 5dBi, which has a white male SMA connector in the connector at the base of the aerial stem it seems.

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So, what does the RP mean, Reverse Polarity - or something else? AND are these MCX/SMA adapters a match for the size of the base thumbscrew thread of a standard aerial connector of either the male or female connector? As the aerial connector looks slightly smaller than the adapter, though this maybe due to the scale/magnification of the adapter in the images.

> I do have an ATI Radeon 9250 PCI 128MB card, and wondered if this will get picked up by MorphOS if I fit it in one of the PCI-X slots?

Only if it has a Mac compatible rom.

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That would be it, I believe. Alas, I don't have one (I admit I find it tempting to 'max' my PMG5, but installing a modem knowing I would never ever use it would be silly. Woudn't it?)

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...and have a 3mm aluminium shielding? I'm afraid that would pretty much kill the signal.

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Yep. The Reversed Polarity are just... erm... reversed. Let me give you an overview:

Here's the RP-SMA. And "male" is to the left! (although it's so often mistaken that it's better to just compare the pictures)

Now here are our adapters and their corresponding SMA antennas in the back.

Assembled...

...and ready to plug in (AirPort antenna to the right, Bluetooth antenna to the left).

See? I even crawled under my desk to show them to you :)

OK, one more effort and we've got photos of (mounted) Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme modules.

Here is the BT (the modem mounting port is in the lower right corner of the picture) and here - the AirPort card in its mounting bracket (hmph, those numbers... did I just share too much?)

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Yes the ATI Radeon 9250 PCI 128MB card is a MAC ROM GFX card, so that sounds OK from you have said, I'll give it a try.

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I suppose so, and I have to say my need for FAXing thesedays has 'dried-up' so as you say it would only be to 'max-out' the PMG5.

> NewSense wrote: I have also seen a listing for a Sunny MCX Male to SMA Female RG316 Low Loss Pigtail Adapter Cable, which may allow me to mount the aerial in line with the back of the case better than it just sticking out backwards from the back

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OK, so I won't be getting one of those, thanks for explaining that.

NewSense wrote: So, what does the RP mean, Reverse Polarity - or something else?
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The Male is on the LEFT - I thought connectors with pins jutting out/exposed were all classed as Male connectors, so why are these aerial connectors terminals connectors assigned differently?
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That is how I expected them to look I suppose.

Also, does the left-hand adapter (longer & thicker centre part) have a sleeved recessed connector inside the collar of the outer part of the adapter (on the side the photo was taken) which would slide into the G5 Bluetooth socket that has a small pin jutting out inside the connector on the back of the PowerMac, as that is what the adapter looks like in the photo ?

If I understand correctly, the one type of aerial is capable of capturing the signals for Wireless and Bluetooth - as long as it is plugged into the correct connector/adapter(s) and terminals.
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OK
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So the connector on the left (of the 3rd photo - G9X28ak) - what is the MCX and SMA pin orientation - I thought it would be - Female MCX and Female SMA, but from what you said if it has a sleeved connector (no pin sticking out) then that is a Male connector - which seems very confusing?
I know I basically asked the same question above, but, just to confirm what is correct, is there a difference to the aerial type or are they just the same type of aerial, but with the different adapters to handle the different signals?
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You are tooooo kind, I really appreciate all the trouble you have gone to for me, and I don't think the numbers are offering anything of interest to anyone in reality, certainly not to me. Just a BIG THANK YOU.

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Hey, it's "reversed", remember? Let me explain you that: there are two features that determine the 'gender' of the connector. One of them is body (inner or outer threads - the one with inner threads is considered as "male") and the other one is the inner pin (when it sticks out then - logically - it's called "male"). RP-SMA that has outer threads and "male" pin, it's considered "female" because of it's body. Analogically, even if there's no inner pin, but the threads are inside, the connector is considered "male".
Now, regular SMA has everything sorted out - a male connector has a "male" pin and threads inside, while a female - outside threads and a standard, female pin socket.

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That's basically how it works here.

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No, no 'reverse polarity' here. That's female MCX on the left (female MCX to female SMA adapter - for Bluetooth) and male MCX on the right (male MCX to female SMA adapter - for AirPort).
As it's easier to get RP-SMA aerial than a SMA one (most of them are "male" - with female inner connector and inner threads) you could also consider getting a MCX to RP-SMA adapter. Well, I just hope I did not confuse you too much with that...

Hi kozser,

I really appreciate you explaining that once more about RP-SMA as that really is a Reverse Principle of what you would expect from how the connectors normally look visually.

But I believe I understand what this "RP" is all about now, so thanks for taking the time to explain it.