Are there internal USB bus ports in iMac 2011 to power Bluetooth 4.0 upgrade
Hi,
I have a mid 2011 iMac 27" and am going to upgrade the bluetooth to 4.0 using this upgrade
The Bluetooth needs power from USB, i either use the adapters to power it by running the cables out from the RAM cover to use one of the external USB ports, ugly, or can i steal the power from something that I don't and have never used eg: iSight/Facetime camera or the SD card?
Comments
If you're asking if there are actual "standard ports" for USB on the inside of the mac (that you could plug a cable end into) then the answer is NO.
Of course there are places in there where a person with some soldering skill and know-how could find a proper power source... but... you risk your entire computer if you screw something up. (I know... many years ago i ruined an SE/30 trying to jury rig something internally
)
That said... I'm not even certain that there is a standard socket for that card to plug into ... I'm just not sure how bluetooth is integrated into the computer inside the iMacs these days.
not standard USB no, and at the moment the WiFi card and bluetooth are separate cards, the upgrade is a combined WiFi/Bluetooth 4.0 card but the bluetooth needs power
Would the following do what you need?
http://www.amazon.com/Inateck®-Bluetooth-Wireless-Compatible-Playback/dp/B00N2E3ZHG
http://www.amazon.com/ORICO-BTA-402-Bluetooth-Adapter-Controller/dp/B00AKO7XOW
hi marvin
no, unfortunately bluetooth 4.0 dongles wont enable handoff feature
The USB is actually for the data not for power. If you look on the adapter it has solder points for USB_D+ and USB_D- and the pins say D+ and D-, those are for USB data. What you could do is solder a cable to these points and slide the ends into the cable that connects to the original Bluetooth board.
But you need to know which ones are for data.
edit:
I have found a post which tells which cable is D+ and D-:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/252958-guide-installing-apple-bluetooth-module-in-your-hackintosh/page-2#entry1764478
The user is talking about the bluetooth module in the Macbook Pro A1260, which is the BCM92046MD and is the same as in the 2011 iMac
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Model-A1260-Bluetooth-Board/IF185-108
http://www.techrepublic.com/pictures/cracking-open-the-27-apple-imac-2011/73/
The cable configuration is confirmed by another user in this post:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/252958-guide-installing-apple-bluetooth-module-in-your-hackintosh/?p=1834733
And another user made a more clearer diagram:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/252958-guide-installing-apple-bluetooth-module-in-your-hackintosh/?p=2073059