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

[pispo]

BL is connected to the motherboard at point C. But connector C takes care for the iSight camera and ALS as well if I remember it right.

So the only ways are:
* Cut the original wire and solder the wires to the PCI-E adapter. Non-reversible. Difficulty medium. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and RF cable extension.
* Rebuild the BT connector and solder such connector to the PCI-E adapter. Reversible. Hard to do. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and RF cable extension and old BT card.
* Leave disconnected the PCI-E, so only the Broadcom WIFI is used. Then it is possible to use a extra BT dongle. Reversible. Easy to do. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and USB BT4 dongle.

I want to go for the second one but I'm afraid of destroying the BT connector

 

[Vic Otting]

So the only ways are:
* Cut the original wire and solder the wires to the PCI-E adapter. Non-reversible. Difficulty medium. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and RF cable extension.
* Rebuild the BT connector and solder such connector to the PCI-E adapter. Reversible. Hard to do. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and RF cable extension and old BT card.
* Leave disconnected the PCI-E, so only the Broadcom WIFI is used. Then it is possible to use a extra BT dongle. Reversible. Easy to do. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and USB BT4 dongle.

I want to go for the second one but I'm afraid of destroying the BT connector

It is very tricky, but I think it is possible with the dongle. Such a dongle is very small and I've put it on my keyboard. So I can't see it.

 

[ECJ]

So the only ways are:
* Cut the original wire and solder the wires to the PCI-E adapter. Non-reversible. Difficulty medium. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and RF cable extension.
* Rebuild the BT connector and solder such connector to the PCI-E adapter. Reversible. Hard to do. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and RF cable extension and old BT card.
* Leave disconnected the PCI-E, so only the Broadcom WIFI is used. Then it is possible to use a extra BT dongle. Reversible. Easy to do. Needed PCI-E adapter v3, Broadcom Card and USB BT4 dongle.

I want to go for the second one but I'm afraid of destroying the BT connector

To make the procedure reversible, I just bought another Bluetooth cable. So if I want to reverse it, I just remove the modified cable and replace it with the new cable. The cable cost about $6 on eBay for my Late 2009 iMac 27".

 

[coolmaster]

To make the procedure reversible, I just bought another Bluetooth cable. So if I want to reverse it, I just remove the modified cable and replace it with the new cable. The cable cost about $6 on eBay for my Late 2009 iMac 27".

Buy a replacement cable seem like an easier solution. Did you have to access the motherboard to replace cable?

 

[pispo]

To make the procedure reversible, I just bought another Bluetooth cable. So if I want to reverse it, I just remove the modified cable and replace it with the new cable. The cable cost about $6 on eBay for my Late 2009 iMac 27".

This is also another possible solution. I have been searching and the model part for 2011 model is "922-9846". It costs around 40-50€ in europe :S

 

[ECJ]

Buy a replacement cable seem like an easier solution. Did you have to access the motherboard to replace cable?

The bluetooth connector is very easy to access to once you open the case. I'm glad that I ordered the backup bluetooth cable. I messed up the first on trying to solder the cables. So I just disconnected the old one, and attached the new one, and I'm back in business. I bought it from this auction for $6.75 USD. It works for 2009-2011.

 

[yifuhood]

sorry to ask this

After a few tries and a broken connector trying to remove the connector from the spare bluetooth card and solder it to a PCB board, it was a success with first try. I now have bluetooth 4.0 and handoff on my 2011 21.5" iMac. I followed the direction from Scrobert72 as much as possible except with version 3 of the Mini PCI-E Adapter, a separate Bluetooth antenna, and a SSOP/TSOP/MSOP8P to DIP8 PCB board as I can not find some of components here. Thank you Cordes and Scobert72 for your kind advice and I now achieve my goal of not cutting any cable and fully reversible incase something went wrong. I had to buy Chipquick SMD1 removal kit and a temperature control solder as a cheap 60W solder keep burning the bluetooth connector during my solder (it is also because I am first time solderer). Below are some photos I take during today's work. Good luck to rest of you.

hey i have never sold anything and i have no tools for that, if you can make one for me would like to buy one from you and pay your work. i am sorry to ask you here at macrumors , a place not for business . but please understand me , or anyone would help me make one?

 

[coolmaster]

hey i have never sold anything and i have no tools for that, if you can make one for me would like to buy one from you and pay your work. i am sorry to ask you here at macrumors , a place not for business . but please understand me , or anyone would help me make one?

Sorry, I don't have time to oder the material and open my working iMac to test the cable built, maybe others in this forum can help you out. I am also a first time solderer, so it is really not as hard as it first seem. I searched internet for youtube video for smd/dipp solder and desolder demo and just practice it on a spare part before do it on actual board. If you still not feel comfortable, you can try ECJ did by order a spare bluetooth cable before you cut your original one. The only solder you will need is solder a wire to R1 on the adaptor and that is very easy to do with any cheap low power solder gun.
To be honest, while this continuity function is a nice to have feature, it is not a must-have for everyday usage.

 

[yifuhood]

thanks

Sorry, I don't have time to oder the material and open my working iMac to test the cable built, maybe others in this forum can help you out. I am also a first time solderer, so it is really not as hard as it first seem. I searched internet for youtube video for smd/dipp solder and desolder demo and just practice it on a spare part before do it on actual board. If you still not feel comfortable, you can try ECJ did by order a spare bluetooth cable before you cut your original one. The only solder you will need is solder a wire to R1 on the adaptor and that is very easy to do with any cheap low power solder gun.
To be honest, while this continuity function is a nice to have feature, it is not a must-have for everyday usage.

thank you for the reply.

i think i will wait a bit , see if any computer shop is going to make adapter kit for imac 2011. otherwise i will try to do it by myself . i have just upgrade the imac 2011 27 with a samsung 850pro 1tb and 32GB ram(about 750euro). i think i am going to keep this mac for some years still.

i want to upgrade the bluetooth to 4.0 is not only for continuity feature, but really for the the bluetooth 4.0, i am do music editing, the 2.1 bluetooth is a little slow (delayed)when i use my bluetooth 4.0 headphone , so i have to use wire most of the times. but i would like to move around some times when i record some stuff.

hope i could find something on eBay.

 

[Seanm57]

Seems I may have a defective pcie unit. In contact with OSXWIFI to resolve the issue.

Crizzly,
When you say defective pcie unit, do you mean the adapter or the Broadcom wifi card? I have the same problem as you had and I'm trying to figure out if my Broadcom card is the problem or the adapter.

 

[Zioweb]

Crizzly,
When you say defective pcie unit, do you mean the adapter or the Broadcom wifi card? I have the same problem as you had and I'm trying to figure out if my Broadcom card is the problem or the adapter.

Hi, I've a similar problem. Made tonight the mod on my imac 2011 27", used an adapter v3.0, an original apple broadcom and an antenna extender.
I've connected D+, D- and also 3.3v to the correct pin.
Mac started, wifi ok but bluetooth not found.
Listed in the USB devices I can see a Broadcom Bluetooth Download Device, but in the Bluetooth tab say nothing.

Maybe a faulty card also for me?

EDIT: False Alarm, it was a problem with the iobluetoothfamily.kext probably messed up, recovered and now it works like a charm!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR THE VERY PRECIOUS INFORMATIONS ABOUT THE MOD!!!!!

 

[Kantmann]

Hi, I've a similar problem. Made tonight the mod on my imac 2011 27", used an adapter v3.0, an original apple broadcom and an antenna extender.
I've connected D+, D- and also 3.3v to the correct pin.
Mac started, wifi ok but bluetooth not found.
Listed in the USB devices I can see a Broadcom Bluetooth Download Device, but in the Bluetooth tab say nothing.

Maybe a faulty card also for me?

EDIT: False Alarm, it was a problem with the iobluetoothfamily.kext probably messed up, recovered and now it works like a charm!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR THE VERY PRECIOUS INFORMATIONS ABOUT THE MOD!!!!!

Zioweb, did you need to solder the BT connecters, or did you figure something else out? I've been following this thread for awhile, about ready to crack open the 2011 27" iMac to install a 1 TB 850 EVO SSD, but have been waiting to get this BT 4.0 teased out first. I have the 24" antennae extender, the new broadcom card and v3.0 adapter.
Thanks to everyone for the groundwork on this!

 

[Zioweb]

Yes. I've removed the old BT adapter, extracted the cable from the original male connector and soldered to the cables that goes to the adapter. Only 3 wire: D+, D- and 3.3v. Worked perfectly at first attempt.
I also used the antenna extension from the original position to the new card.

Follow the instruction in this thread, look for the correct color schema of your cable, mine has a different color scheme but similar to another user.

 

[Kantmann]

Can electrical tape cause overheating?

Finally found some time to crack open the 2011 27" iMac yesterday, added a new SSD, removed the old Bluetooth card, a lot of dust, and installed a new Broadcom Airport card (with BT 4.0), and everything seems to be working fine (continuity, etc.). I secured the Airport card to the adapter by wrapping with electrical tape, which also insulated the 4 antennae terminals from shorting on anything.
It now occurs to me that this has created the potential to overheat the card. Has anyone had any overheating issues with the Broadcom upgrade?

 

[barolomark]

iMac Mid 2011 BT4 Card doesn't work

Hi there,

i change my iMac 12,2 to the Broadcom BCM94360CD Card with adapter V3.0...
WLAN works really fine - but BT 4 doesn't. I try to connect the D+/D- cable from the old BT card connector and i also use the 3,3V but the system info says "No Hardware detected". Any ideas what's wrong with my configuration ? Thanks a lot. Mark.

 

[cervicor]

OSXWIFI-card - connection

Hello,

maybe here is someone who can help me. The guys from OSXWIFI do not react on any email.
I bought a „APPLE BROADCOM BCM94360CD - 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC + BLUETOOTH 4.0 WITH ADAPTER FOR PC/HACKINTOSH LAPTOP WITH FULL SIZE MINIPCIE CARD“ from OSXWIFI.
Can someone tell me please, what are the two soldering points inside the red ellipse? These are the Power (GND & 3,3V) for the Bluetooth-USB-port? If yes, what is GND and what is 3,3V (1 & 2)?

thanks
cervicor

 

[Headrush69]

Another success story here on a 27" 2011 iMac.

Thanks all for the pics and instructions.

 

[QuestionSanity]

Corban,

I'm about to begin this upgrade on my 21-inch 2011 iMac. I have a couple of questions for you.

So you bought the additional BT cable as linked to.

1)Where did you decide to mount it to get good reception?
2)Do you know what connector the attennae it goes to on the broadcom board? 3) And if I don't care if the BT & AP power are connected/controlled together, that means, aside from the antennae everything is plug and play? No additional soldiering?
4) And did you disconnect the original bluetooth card then?

Thanks for your time. It's been hard finding specific answers for that specific model. Seems like everyone is doing the upgrade to the 27-inch iMacs.

Hi

I just did this mod to my iMac 27inch 2011 Model.
I used the following parts
http://www.ebay.com/itm/390961471442?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191110158624?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I connect the D+ and D- to the circuit board as it was already confirmed they are not there. I had to scrape the green coating off the tracks and solder directly to the board.

The system worked fine for a cost of $50. This is way cheaper than purchasing at OSX WiFi.
Handoff worked immediately with no issues, I could handoff between my iPad and iMac instantly. There were no software changes required at all, it was basically plug and play!
Wireless AC connected without an issue and nice and fast.

What I found to be an issue which I am now working on.

1. This adapter card connects the Bluetooth and Wireless power together, so when disabling the wireless from the system settings the bluetooth is also disabled - Not nice since you have to plug a USB mouse into the back and turn it back on.

2. There are no simple locations for the D+ and D- (and now the Bluetooth Power) to solder onto the adapter. Scraping the green coating and soldering to the tracks is the only method.

My next steps to fix the power issue is connect the power from the old Bluetooth to the new bluetooth and cut the track so the WiFi power and Bluetooth Power are not joined together. Simple enough.

So in summary, everything works perfectly for about $50. This was significantly easier to do than I had thought. I wouldn't want to have paid $100 from OSX WiFi and had to do similar work.

If anyone wants I can summarise with pictures the whole process. I used this thread and a few others so that I could verify the adapter board that I received was OK.

 

[yifuhood]

hey guys!

will this one work
http://www.ebay.de/itm/151651514734?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

 

[kkclstuff]

Plug and play install with scavenged connector

Hello.
I just wanted to thank everyone that has posted their ideas in upgrading the bluetooth card / wireless adapter. I have completed my upgrade without cutting the connector off the original bluetooth adapter. It has taken me a bit of research but I wanted to share with everyone the components I used and some pictures of the completed product.

I purchased a couple of original iMac bluetooth cards from ebay for around $5.00 each to see if I could get the connector off the bluetooth card to wire up to the OSXWifi adapter. The best way I found to get the connector off was to use this ChipQuick SMD kit.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019UZP7I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Using this makes removal of the connector much easier. There are several Youtube views you can watch on how to use the product. It works great -- I destroyed two different connectors before getting this.

Next I found this PCB to mount the connector to.

http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products_partnum&id=450

The pins on the connector will align up perfectly. Cut the board that has 8 pins in half and epoxy the bottom of the connector the circuit board to make sure it doesn't move. Then solder the pins to the traces.

I used a three conductor cable and soldered directly to the OSXWifi board for the USB +/ -Data and Vcc power connections. I cut the trace on the card going to pin 1 and connected a small wire directly to pin 1 as others have stated in-order to control the power to the WIFI card and bluetooth. I then wrapped the new connector assembly with heat shink tubing.

The OSXWifi board does not have a mounting hole to correctly mount to the right side of the iMac, so I made a small bracket with flexible metal to attach to the left side mounting hole on the OSXWifi card and this provide a secure connection without using zip ties.

Next the antenna connector - I wanted to use the original iMac antenna but on the 27" iMac the 12" antenna extension will not work. I found this 24" extension that works perfectly and is also only $6.00.

http://www.data-alliance.net/servlet/-strse-757/U.FL-I-dsh-PEX-HiRose-extension/Detail

I have been using my new card for about two days and has been working great. Thanks everyone for your posts and I hope this information will help others in the forum.

Hello
First off, thank you to everyone, all their ideas, and posts!!

I too wanted to do this upgrade in my 2011 21.5" iMac without altering (cutting) any of the wiring. Ive been trying to find the model number of the BT connector so that we can purchase the part for our upgrades.

FWIW, buying a used BCM92046MD BT board to scavenge the connector is probably the most cost effective solution. My cost for a used board on eBay was $3 shipped. As stated in scroberts72 post, QuikChip is worth the investment—makes to a quick/clean job of connector removal.

when all of my parts arrive I'll post a complete install tutorial in a new thread.
Fingers crossed.

Many thanks!


UPDATE: After some digging, I found the part for those wanting to make their own removable USB D±/3.3V cable. (photo below shows my V3.0 adapter card with the 2pin connector removed and a JST connector installed coupled with an 16" extension USB D±/3.3V cable and 21" BT antenna extension.)

JST connector
wire housing: SHLP-06V-S-B
shrouded header: SM06B-SHLS-TF
contacts: SSHL-003T-P0.2

PDF: http://www.jst-mfg.com/product/pdf/eng/eSHL.pdf

 

[kkclstuff]

hey guys!

will this one work
http://www.ebay.de/itm/151651514734?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Hmmm that looks promising. Wish it was in US. Looks like you'll still need the antenna extension. Let us know if it works!

 

[yifuhood]

company

Hmmm that looks promising. Wish it was in US. Looks like you'll still need the antenna extension. Let us know if it works!

I am trying to find out which company is making this kind adapters, the seller told me its from a taiwan company , since I speak Chinese , I will find out the company s name.

 

[kkclstuff]

yifuhood, the white 4 pin female connector on the BACK of the adapter board "looks" like the same one I'm looking for.

UPDATE: found it! (for those who want to make their own removable USB D± and 3.3v cable)

JST connector model numbers
wire housing: SHLP-06V-S-B
shrouded header: SM06B-SHLS-TF
contacts: SSHL-003T-P0.2 (these are crimp-type contacts)

 

[IamDave]

Found this thread an interesting read but my mind is boggled now!

 

[kkclstuff]

reversible upgrade successful!

My 21.5 iMac 2011 (EMC 2428) upgrade was a success and I could barely wait to post.

This mod retains:

• Independent power for wifi and BT
• Handoff/continuity features worked after reboot and sign-in to iCloud
• No kext mod or CAT software. (BTW, I use CAT on my 2010 Mini and its great!)

Background: I wanted to be able to remove/reverse the process if needed. To do this I needed to build an extension cable to "tap into" the original BT card to get the both USB D± and 3.3V signals.


Parts: about $43US (all from eBay except the JST connectors)

• Mini PCI-E Adapter for BCM94360CD/BCM94331CD
• Apple Broadcom BCM94360CD card
• U.FL IPX cable male to female terminal block cable 1.13 pigtail connector 60cm
• SOIC adapter board, SO-8 SMT to 8-pin DIP (1mm pitch if you find it, 1.27mm pitch can work too)
• Apple MacBook Pro A1260 Bluetooth Board W/Cable BCM92046MD (used to scavenge the connector or use optional JST connector below)
• Optional: a sample set of JST connector model numbers:
  wire housing: SHLP-06V-S-B
  shrouded header: SM06B-SHLS-TF
  contacts: SSHL-003T-P0.2 (these are crimp-type contacts)
  ​

I started with the adapter removing the D± 2pin connector to add the JST connector. This was not necessary but I wanted to have some fun with it making a removable USB D±/3.3V extension cable.(*If I were unable to get the JST connectors or using a scavenged BT connector, I would not make the extension cable removable. I would have opted to solder it directly to the adapter card as others have done before and use the scavenged connector to plug into the original BT card cable.)





One advantage of mounting the JST (or scavenged connector) to the adapter card is that SOME iMacs have a BT cable that can be purchased separately and use to patch directly to the adapter card:

To make the procedure reversible, I just bought another Bluetooth cable. So if I want to reverse it, I just remove the modified cable and replace it with the new cable. The cable cost about $6 on eBay for my Late 2009 iMac 27".

Unfortunately the 21.5 iMac 2011 is not one of them. The BT/iSight/and USB? are mated into one cable at the motherboard. (But FWIW, a scavenged cable AND BT card could be used for parts.)

After mounting the JST connector to the adapter card. I added the jumper for the 3.3V "R1" mount.



Many have discussed about cutting the trace. I did not cut it with positive results:

Success at last! I completed my upgrade using the basic adapter from China and soldering D+, D-, and +3.3v as mhafeez illustrated. In my testing, trying without the +3.3v, the bluetooth shut off with the wifi as expected. Like mhafeez, I did not cut a power trace, but by adding the bluetooth power as he showed, I now have bluetooth when wifi is shut off. And incidentally, the wifi functionality and control does not seem to be affected by having the wifi power bridged (trace not cut) with bluetooth power.

After completing the adapter card, I mounted a JST connector (or scavenged BT connector) on the PCB card to create an 16" extension cable. **Line up the 2nd pin of the connector to match the original BT card. NOTE: the 1st pin is empty.

6 N/A for extension (ground)
5 N/A for extension (ground)
4 D+
3 D–
2 3.3V
1 *empty*
​

(continued in next post)