iM 4,1-14,4 iMac (late 2007 to mid 2011) 802.11ac + BT 4.0 internal upgrade

[Ausdauersportler]

Happy to report the connector is an exact match.

I just use nail clippers to remove the unwanted pins then bend the left and right pins out a little leaving the centre pin straight to make soldering a little easier.

I removed my old half broken glued on original Apple connector and soldered the new one on to the board, I just used my Dremel to make 2 pads.

The board looks a little nasty after the rework and glue removal. My next attempt will be a lot cleaner.

Link to the connector:

Minimum amount is 30 per lot.
If anyone in Australia wants one message me and we can work something out.

AU $12.67 13%OFF | FPC connector spacing of 1.0 MM 6 p plating lie connector FFC flexible ribbon cable socket 6 p needle seat

AliExpress

I will update the wiki with the connector details.

Enjoy.

View attachment 1767880 View attachment 1767882 View attachment 1767883 View attachment 1767884 View attachment 1767886 View attachment 1767887 View attachment 1767888 View attachment 1767890

This is nice.

The 3.3V line is missing! And it comes really late, I already cut all my cables, on the 2011 mostly close to the to the miniPCI slot. You have already to route back the antenna cable.

Hot glue might be the fitting solution to fix the new connector?

 

[The_Croupier]

This is nice.

The 3.3V line is missing! And it comes really late, I already cut all my cables, on the 2011 mostly close to the to the miniPCI slot. You have already to route back the antenna cable.

Hot glue might be the fitting solution to fix the new connector?

3.3v is there discreetly. Undecided on solder or glue.

I'll be up upgrading my second iMac in a few weeks. I am seeing if I can make a BCM94331CD plug and play for under $20 USD ?

Might try to sell a few on eBay for the people that want a cheaper plug and play solution than OSX WiFi.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

3.3v is there discreetly. Undecided on solder or glue.

I'll be up upgrading my second iMac in a few weeks. I am seeing if I can make a BCM94331CD plug and play for under $20 USD ?

Might try to sell a few on eBay the people that want a cheaper plug and play solution.

Now I see the black third cable.

About reselling the solution: On my first attempt I got a bunch of these adapter cards with pins to short to give me a stable contact. I had complete WiFi/BT drop outs until I changed the connector card with one I got from the female warrior site (local and more expensive).

I would not try with the cheap 94331 card because it is not included in any supported Mac any longer. The 94360 or better 943602CDP are more future proof, but this drives the price up.

And I got some discunctional cards from Far East - mostly 94331/94360 w/o working BT.

 

[The_Croupier]

And I got some discunctional cards from Far East - mostly 94331/94360 w/o working BT.

This is concerning, I have read some negatives reviews regarding the issue.
I will try my best to avoid this but like the GPUs on Ali its all a bit of a lottery.

I was fortunate buying these 30 connectors for $15. I was half expecting to have thrown my money away, got lucky there ?

 

[globetribe]

I'll be up upgrading my second iMac in a few weeks. I am seeing if I can make a BCM94331CD plug and play for under $20 USD ?

Might try to sell a few on eBay for the people that want a cheaper plug and play solution than OSX WiF

This is nice ground work ! interested if you ship to as far as France ;-)

 

[Ausdauersportler]

This is nice ground work ! interested if you ship to as far as France ;-)

If you managed to swap the GPU this BT change is a peace of cake, even with cutting the original cable. You will NEVER install back the original BT modul.

 

[globetribe]

in short i would need a PCIe adapter + WIFI/BT Module + wiring of D+/D- and 3,3V. Any recommendation for the WIFI/BT module ?
Also how is this new module recognised / treated with OCLP BS ?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Same rule: Check the first post

 

[globetribe]

Same rule: Check the first post

I know i was lazy yesterday...

 

[Danwilderspin]

Will this bring back my airplay audio after upgrading my imac 12,2 to big sur?

 

[tckoo1411]

I'll let you know once I confirm it works, I haven't had a chance to strip down my iMac yet to test if the connector is a match.

Thanks for the link!

 

[tckoo1411]

Now I see the black third cable.

About reselling the solution: On my first attempt I got a bunch of these adapter cards with pins to short to give me a stable contact. I had complete WiFi/BT drop outs until I changed the connector card with one I got from the female warrior site (local and more expensive).

I would not got with the cheap 94331 card because it is not included in any supported Mac any longer. The 94360 or better 943602CDP are more future proof, but this drives the price up.

And I got some discunctional cards from Far East - mostly 94331/94360 w/o working BT.

SAme here. I got the 94360 with dodgy BT. Works ok for a while then drops off. I will try again in the weekend to see if my cabling problem

 

[searge]

I have another question to the experts Does it fit the dupont connector (down image) in the connector attached to the bluetooth module (up image)?

I want to made a reversible mod as coolmaster but with only one soldering (feeding power to v3 adapter) and in a cheaper way. I wan to know if it is possible to replace SSOP/TSSOP/MSOP8P to DIP8P + bluetooth connector by 3 dupont connectors.

Hello community, I‘m preparing my BT 4.2 upgrade for my iMac 2011 27‘‘. Looking at my BT cable colors are different. Can I assume that cable position in this row should be definitely correct to get right cables for D+, D- and 3,3v?

 

[The_Croupier]

Yes cable position is the same regardless of color.
It goes: Blank (no pin), 3.3v, D-, D+

 

[dfranetic]

I have been following this thread for about a year now. I did follow almost all of the recommendations - except one: I used Broadcom BCM943602CS (BT4.2) for BT/WiFi upgrade. I have successfully upgraded some iMac11,x and iMac12,x machines. (This card was already mentioned as a sensible upgrade for iMac11,x machines as it only has 3 antenna connectors, I also used it in iMac12,x machines - and I didn't need any antenna extension cables, just left the BT antenna disconnected.) Besides the adapters/cables already mentioned in this thread, I additionally used three short U.FL to MHF4 antenna connector cables. I was able to obtain original female board connectors for the internal BT USB/power cable connector and rerouted the original BT board cable for a neat (and reversible) solution.

I learned two things. First: the MINI PCI adapter (F-C25AP) that I used created a (non-harmful) short between two 3.3V power supplies (one from the MINI PCI port, the other from the BT cable), so I cut one track at the bottom of the PCB (documented below). Second: apparently there is no EFI driver for the BCM943602CS in iMac11,1 machines (27', late 2009) - I upgraded two of them and none will connect to a Magic Keyboard before/during boot. (On the other hand, I was able to use a BT keyboard before macOS loads with BCM943602CS on iMac11,2, iMac12,1, and iMac12,2.) A quick test with BCM94360CS2 (BT4.0, from a hackintosh) revealed that iMac11,1 has EFI drivers for this card. As BCM94360CS2 only has two antenna connectors, I am now waiting to receive BCM94360CS (BT4.0) to use in iMac11,1's. (I hope a BT keyboard will connect to it before boot. And yes - it really annoys me to have no BT keyboard connected before macOS loads...)

I must say that I am really satisfied with this (and this) added functionality to my machine(s).

Here are some photos of my upgrade:
F-C25AP adapter PCB

MHF4 to U.FL antenna cables

Cut track at the bottom of the adapter PCB.

Glued the female BT board connector to the adapter PCB (upside down, I used 2-component adhesive).

Removed the unused pins from the BT board connector, soldered the necessary wires. (I used silicone insulated solid wires. Silicone does not melt and retract while soldering. Due to the pin spacing of the connector this is a relatively tedious soldering job.)

Used some heat-shrink tubing to insulate those U.FL connectors and connected everything up.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I have been following this thread for about a year now. I did follow almost all of the recommendations - except one: I used Broadcom BCM943602CS (BT4.2) for BT/WiFi upgrade. I have successfully upgraded some iMac11,x and iMac12,x machines. (This card was already mentioned as a sensible upgrade for iMac11,x machines as it only has 3 antenna connectors, I also used it in iMac12,x machines - and I didn't need any antenna extension cables, just left the BT antenna disconnected.) Besides the adapters/cables already mentioned in this thread, I additionally used three short U.FL to MHF4 antenna connector cables. I was able to obtain original female board connectors for the internal BT USB/power cable connector and rerouted the original BT board cable for a neat (and reversible) solution.

I learned two things. First: the MINI PCI adapter (F-C25AP) that I used created a (non-harmful) short between two 3.3V power supplies (one from the MINI PCI port, the other from the BT cable), so I cut one track at the bottom of the PCB (documented below). Second: apparently there is no EFI driver for the BCM943602CS in iMac11,1 machines (27', late 2009) - I upgraded two of them and none will connect to a Magic Keyboard before/during boot. (On the other hand, I was able to use a BT keyboard before macOS loads with BCM943602CS on iMac11,2, iMac12,1, and iMac12,2.) A quick test with BCM94360CS2 (BT4.0, from a hackintosh) revealed that iMac11,1 has EFI drivers for this card. As BCM94360CS2 only has two antenna connectors, I am now waiting to receive BCM94360CS (BT4.0) to use in iMac11,1's. (I hope a BT keyboard will connect to it before boot. And yes - it really annoys me to have no BT keyboard connected before macOS loads...)

I must say that I am really satisfied with this (and this) added functionality to my machine(s).

Here are some photos of my upgrade:
F-C25AP adapter PCB

View attachment 1782830
MHF4 to U.FL antenna cables

View attachment 1782835
Cut track at the bottom of the adapter PCB.

View attachment 1782832
Glued the female BT board connector to the adapter PCB (upside down, I used 2-component adhesive).

View attachment 1782831
Removed the unused pins from the BT board connector, soldered the necessary wires. (I used silicone insulated solid wires. Silicone does not melt and retract while soldering. Due to the pin spacing of the connector this is a relatively tedious soldering job.)

View attachment 1782833 View attachment 1782838
Used some heat-shrink tubing to insulate those U.FL connectors and connected everything up.

View attachment 1782834

Really nice!

Thought long about that kind of mod, too. But since you would have to pull back the BT connector cable completely from the left to the middle and the source connector is really directly located left of the PCIe expansion board I decided lately to cut the cable there leaving approximately 10cm. From there one can solder the D+,D-,3.3V directly do the board.

I doubt there will be a need to re use the old BT adapter ...

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I installed the BCM94360CS with an adapter. The adapter was soldered with a USB jack that somehow fit to the BT jack on the logic board. So I didn't need to do any modification. And I can reverse to the old BT module as well.

Both bluetooth and Wifi are recognized. Airdrop worked beautifully.
Wifi is working. But I couldn't see my NAS drives any more. I had to do manually by the "Connect to Server" command.
The machine couldn't see any Bluetooth devices. (I have a bluetooth audio receiver that worked fine in High Sierra & the old Bluetooth module.
It seems that I would have to do some more steps to active Bluetooth.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

By the way, i use the adapter in the below link and didn't have to cut wire or solder anything. Just plug in the USB port for Bluetooth (all to the right side) and it worked out of box. No 3.3v fed to the card, though.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Which Link below

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Which Link below

Sorry, I forgot to add the link: Pick the 1.25mm pitch. That would fit iMac 2009 & 2010. I bought one each and the 1.0mm didn't fit.

5.99US $ |mini PCI E to wireless wifi card BCM94360CS BCM94360CD BCM94331CD converter board with 40cm line with screw for macbook Pro/Air|Computer Cables & Connectors| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

aliexpress.com

 

[Faranor]

I upgraded my 2010 27" iMac with a BCM94360CD card. Everything works on the Mac side. Handoff, bluetooth mouse and keyboard, fast wifi etc.

The only thing is when i boot into windows 10, the bluetooth doesn't work. WiFi works, just bluetooth doesn't. I tried to install the bootcamp 5.x driver which i used when i installed the windows drive but it doesn't work.

Any idea which bluetooth driver I can use in windows 10 for this card (BCM94360CD) ?

 

[The_Croupier]

Just plug in the USB port for Bluetooth (all to the right side)

I'm sorry I have no idea what your talking about?
Can you post some pics if your actual install.
Thx.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I upgraded my 2010 27" iMac with a BCM94360CD card. Everything works on the Mac side. Handoff, bluetooth mouse and keyboard, fast wifi etc.

The only thing is when i boot into windows 10, the bluetooth doesn't work. WiFi works, just bluetooth doesn't. I tried to install the bootcamp 5.x driver which i used when i installed the windows drive but it doesn't work.

Any idea which bluetooth driver I can use in windows 10 for this card (BCM94360CD) ?

It really just needs an update of bootcamp drivers and some patience. After booting into W10 it always takes some time unless the BT driver becomes active and mouse and keyboard is working.

 

[Faranor]

It really just needs an update of bootcamp drivers and some patience. After booting into W10 it always takes some time unless the BT driver becomes active and mouse and keyboard is working.

It's already not working for weeks. Maybe a newer Bootcamp driver? version 6.x?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

It's already not working for weeks. Maybe a newer Bootcamp driver? version 6.x?

Once I did the installation the „software update“ functionality came up with the bootcamp driver update package. I really did not track the version and deleted W10 from that particular iMac12,2 system. Using it on an iMac11,3 now with the BCM943602CDP and got it working there in the very same way using the UEFI installation method I posted on the GPU thread. There was nothing special to do.