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

[SergeyBychkov]

I have some stupid questions:
1. Can we install a wifi/BT module from a later iMac in our 2011 models, in order to avoid some of the complications in the solutions discussed in this thread?
2. Is there any (internal) option to eliminate soldering without going down the costly route of a full plug and play kit? I wonder if there is a way to source the components separately and still end up with a plug and play solution?
3. Would an external USB dongle be an option? If so what spec dongle is needed other than having BT4.x and 802.11ac?

Thanks

Hi! I'll try to answer your questions:

1. You can use the card from newer models, this is described in the first messages of the topic, we do so. Only newer maps will give you a lot of features in the new Mac OS.

2. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on a plug-and-play solution, you can put a card without soldering, but you won't have separate Bluetooth and Wifi. Separate only through soldering, but it's not difficult. If you don't know how to solder, ask a friend or neighbor who can, it's a 5-minute job!

3. I have not met ready-made keys + the appearance will not be the one I want to see

PS:
In the message thread there is an adapter the same as on the bluetooth module board, you can buy it if it's hard to find a supported module from another iMac. This will give you a reversible solution if you need it. Unfortunately, there is no golden mean. Everyone decides for himself that there is a golden mean for him You can follow my path, so do many from this forum. This is the most proven and working method.

I've been looking for a ready-made solution for a long time, but all the contacts and links are no longer working + I'm not sure that I could order this solution to my country. This is an expensive solution. You do the same thing with soldering, but it's cheaper. The only difference is that you will have wires, and not all in one board. The correctness of connecting the wires during soldering is described in the forum in several messages, if you are not sure after soldering that you have connected everything correctly, check the connections with a tester, it is not difficult. I am sure that you will cope and everything will work for you!

 

[maccoops]

I found someone who is kind enough to do the soldering for me. Great! I already have the new card (BCM94360CD with 4 antenna ports) and the adapter card as well. I see a post on this thread which states the existing antenna which is fixed behind the apple logo is the 5GHz antenna. I see a guide for this card here identifying J0 as 5GHz, J1 and J2 2.4GHz and J3 is bluetooth. Can anyone confirm please?

I believe with the 3 wifi antennae attached to J0, J1 and J2 it is then necessary to connect an extension antenna to the existing BT antenna (unplugged from old BT card) and J3.
My iMac and the new card seem to have UFL connectors, therefore the BT extension would be a male EFL (plugs into existing antenna) to female UFL (plugs into new card J3).

Do I have all this right?

 

[maccoops]

I found someone who is kind enough to do the soldering for me. Great! I already have the new card (BCM94360CD with 4 antenna ports) and the adapter card as well. I see a post on this thread which states the existing antenna which is fixed behind the apple logo is the 5GHz antenna. I see a guide for this card here identifying J0 as 5GHz, J1 and J2 2.4GHz and J3 is bluetooth. Can anyone confirm please?

I believe with the 3 wifi antennae attached to J0, J1 and J2 it is then necessary to connect an extension antenna to the existing BT antenna (unplugged from old BT card) and J3.
My iMac and the new card seem to have UFL connectors, therefore the BT extension would be a male EFL (plugs into existing antenna) to female UFL (plugs into new card J3).

Do I have all this right?

I have received the BT extension and connected it as described above. Fingers crossed!

How did you guys manage to strip the super-fine wires from the existing BT in order to get the D+ and D- soldered? One of the wires pulled out of the plug cleanly, leaving a nice exposed inner core to solder onto. But the other one snapped so I'll need to strip the insulator back in order to get to the core. Any tips?

EDIT: for others looking at the same issue, I simply used a lighter to momentarily melt the insulator back a little way and expose the inner core. Worked perfectly. I'm using the same card as mentioned in the post below - all good, and the D+/D- means no soldering to the card is needed (unless you need to separately toggle on/off the BT) (and you still need to solder the D+/D- wire pairs together but this seems less risky than soldering to the card itself).

 

[blinkie1]

I'm considering buying this adapter for a BCM943602CS I'm planning to install on my iMac 12.2. However, the R1 solder points are on the other side of the board and I'm not sure why they are yellow? Is that some sort of coating that's going to be a pain to solder? I like this one because it seems to come with the D+/D- connector installed. Be keen to know if anyone tried these?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I'm considering buying this adapter for a BCM943602CS I'm planning to install on my iMac 12.2. However, the R1 solder points are on the other side of the board and I'm not sure why they are yellow? Is that some sort of coating that's going to be a pain to solder? I like this one because it seems to come with the D+/D- connector installed. Be keen to know if anyone tried these?

Use the right inner solder point for 3.3V (multi meter helps). Only suited for the CS cards and BCM94360CD since the differently shaped BCM943602CDP will collide with the white D+/D- plug on the right hand side. All other cards fit well. Yellow color on pictures is caused by crappy photo filter. Quality of the product is good.

 

[blinkie1]

Thanks! I see now, the pins are yellow too. I'll try this out and report back.

 

[blinkie1]

Totally butchered the soldering part and almost burnt a hole in the adapter PCB. I have a couple of questions...

1. Can I still solder a wire to the other solder pin for 3.3v or is this toast?
2. The BT cable I have has brown, purple, grey and two blacks wires. The brown one is 3.3v (tested). However, I'm presuming purple is D+ and grey is D-? Is that right?
3. The old wifi card on the iMac had three antenna ports, one going to the top left antenna, one to the top right and one in the middle circle (somewhere?). The card Ive picked is the BCM43602CS which only has 3 antenna points. I'm thinking the left and right ones go to the wifi ones but how exactly is the Bluetooth one routed? and what happens to the middle cable that is left if I connect the Bluetooth antenna cable which came off the Bluetooth chip?
4. The existing antenna cables don't seem to fit BCM43502CS, do I need a jumper from MHf4?

Sorry if these are repeated questions, I'm just flustered going through 33 pages of this thread!

Attached some pics for reference
TIA!!

 

[blinkie1]

So, with your help I finally understood what needs to be done and I managed to connect the new BT card.
@The_Croupier your solution is the most clean one. However, I would have to wait again for another month to get this surface mount connector via China, so I proceeded to "skin" the two cables of the oem Bluetooth cable, and connect them to the D+ and D- of the Pcie Adaptor. In my imac 12.1 the two cables were the purple one and the white one.
I did not cut them, just "skinned" them a little and connected the black and red wires of the PCIE adaptor, so theoretically, in case I remove the red and black cables, I could re-connect the oem Bluetooth cable back to its place.

I tested airdrop and it works great. I also connected some BT 4.0 devices (like the MX Anywhere 3 for MAC mouse and an Xbox controller) and it worked great. I also tested the BT keyboard during boot and it works.

Many thanks my friend and to all of you for the assistance. I may proceed in ordering the surface mount connector, just to have a cleaner look.

@madvinegar

How did you know that your grey wire was D+ and purple D- even thought the original post shows purple to be D+ and grey D-. Was this a mistake in your photo or you actually tested it? I have a similar set but only my wifi works not my bluetooth. My 3.3V wire is fine, I've tried to switch the purple and grey wires but no luck. Bluetooth shows up in hackintools but just won't come on...antenna extension is plugged into the middle pin for the BCM943602CS.

Thanks!

 

[madvinegar]

@madvinegar

How did you know that your grey wire was D+ and purple D- even thought the original post shows purple to be D+ and grey D-. Was this a mistake in your photo or you actually tested it? I have a similar set but only my wifi works not my bluetooth. My 3.3V wire is fine, I've tried to switch the purple and grey wires but no luck. Bluetooth shows up in hackintools but just won't come on...antenna extension is plugged into the middle pin for the BCM943602CS.

Thanks!

I new the purple was the D- from this post.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-mid-2011-bluetooth-4-0-internal-upgrade.1780242/post-20011694

 

[blinkie1]

Thanks!

@Ausdauersportler - Thanks for the info, I managed to salvage the adapter I had messed up but thankfully it had some life left in it. I still have to patch and shrink tube things but for now electric tape is working just fine

@madvinegar - Thanks for responding mate, I changed the wires and reinstalled Monterey as it was giving me issues earlier and bluetooth and wifi are both working 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Next stop...GPU smh.

I'm stoked!

 

[mehrdad595]

Thanks!

@Ausdauersportler - Thanks for the info, I managed to salvage the adapter I had messed up but thankfully it had some life left in it. I still have to patch and shrink tube things but for now electric tape is working just fine

@madvinegar - Thanks for responding mate, I changed the wires and reinstalled Monterey as it was giving me issues earlier and bluetooth and wifi are both working 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Next stop...GPU smh.

I'm stoked!

hey there
could you please put links to buy.
TIA

 

[Pablin256]

Buenas tardes amigo. Hice todo el procedimiento y todo funciona bien. Actualicé a la última versión de Big Sur y mi teclado y mouse Bluetooth se desconectaron. ¿Alguna solución?

 

[Pablin256]

¡Gracias!

[USUARIO=1199136]@Ausdauersportler[/USUARIO] - Gracias por la información, logré salvar el adaptador que había estropeado, pero afortunadamente aún le quedaba algo de vida. Todavía tengo que parchar y encoger las cosas del tubo, pero por ahora la cinta eléctrica funciona bien.

[USUARIO=1304422]@madvinegar[/USUARIO] - Gracias por responder amigo, cambié los cables y reinstalé Monterey porque me estaba dando problemas antes y tanto el bluetooth como el wifi funcionan 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Próxima parada...GPU smh.

¡Estoy emocionado!

Buenas tardes amigo. Hice todo el procedimiento y todo funciona bien. Actualicé a la última versión de Big Sur y mi teclado y mouse Bluetooth se desconectaron. ¿Alguna solución?

 

[BertHiddink]

Hello,

I found these cards but not sure whether this is a "plug & play" card or a soldering-model (BCM94360CS2) for my iMac mid 2011 27"?
Could you please help me out?

Thanks!

 

[k000858]

I have iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)

I'm going buy:
- BCM943602CS https://aliexpress.ru/item/40007240...w.productlist.search_results.2.41894aa67ENYJQ
- Mini-PCI-E 12+6 adapter https://aliexpress.ru/item/10050046...29.552202247.1678427625-1897219209.1678427625
- U.FL-MHF4 adapter

There is USB-cable in set of Mini-PCI-E adapter (1 on picture). Is it need be connected to original Bluetooth cable on main-board?
More there is some cable in set of Mini-PCI-E adapter (2 on picture), may be for R1 point of Mini-PCI-E adapter. Where need it be connect ?

 

[dorninko]

Hi all,
please help. I did everything according to the plans in this forum, I used the adapter as in the above comment, I used the BC943602CDP and connected the USB+/- cables and the 3.3V cable correctly. Wifi works but BT does not. I instelled Monterey via OCLP on my iMac 12,2. What could I have doen wrong?
I did exactly the same setup on another iMac12,2 and it worked.
I am out of ideas. I re-installed the Macos from scratch but that did not solve the problem.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

Update: I found the problem, an unwanted connection between 2 pins. Now everything works fine.

 

[k000858]

iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
- 3,1 GHz Intel Core i5 (Intel Sandy Bridge)
- 16 Gb 1333 MHz DDR3
- SSD 500 Gb
- AMD Radeon Pro WX 4150 4Gb MXM (Polaris)
- macOS Monterey 12.6.7
- OCLP 0.6.7

I have upgraded WiFi/Ble to BCM943602CS by Mini-PCI-E 12+6 adapter with USB D+/D- / 3.3V pinouts connect from old Bluetooth.
All works ok (Airdrop, Airplay, Handoff, etc..) (it was tested with iPhone 8+ iOS 16.5.1).

 

[Adamov]

Guys, sorry. I ran two times with all this article but i still have question:

I bought one of the modules from the first post where it says it's plug and play. But is it really?

Are all cables matched? Should i buy (i still didn't) adapters or something?

I already have 2600s i7 and waiting 32 gigs of ram.

Thanks in advance.

 

[curioussurfer]

This adapter works for me in a 2010 iMac, but I am confident it will work on a 2011 as well. You have to sacrifice your infrared receiver and use the IR connector on the logic board. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/400....order_list.order_list_main.17.21ef1802stZfS3

EDIT: Bluetooth and Wifi works perfectly for the 2010 iMac. Another one of these adaptors does not work in a 2011, tested it with a known working card, but it does not get recognised. The adaptor might be a lemon or it's a SMBUS conflict? Ordered a couple of these adapters and will try again in a 2011, once they arrived

 

[Adamov]

curioussurfer, thanks a lot. I don't use the IR so sacrificing the connector won't be a problem. I will order this.

 

[curioussurfer]

curioussurfer, thanks a lot. I don't use the IR so sacrificing the connector won't be a problem. I will order this.

I have tested this adaptor with one of my 2011 iMacs. The card does not get recognised. You might want to hold off with ordering or cancel.

 

[King3]

iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
- 3,1 GHz Intel Core i5 (Intel Sandy Bridge)
- 16 Gb 1333 MHz DDR3
- SSD 500 Gb
- AMD Radeon Pro WX 4150 4Gb MXM (Polaris)
- macOS Monterey 12.6.7
- OCLP 0.6.7

I have upgraded WiFi/Ble to BCM943602CS by Mini-PCI-E 12+6 adapter with USB D+/D- / 3.3V pinouts connect from old Bluetooth.
All works ok (Airdrop, Airplay, Handoff, etc..) (it was tested with iPhone 8+ iOS 16.5.1).

Hi, Could you share the links where you purchased the card and adapters? Will work with my iMac21.5" mid 2011? Thanks.

 

[The_Croupier]

Hi, Could you share the links where you purchased the card and adapters? Will work with my iMac21.5" mid 2011? Thanks.

Yes it will work.
Everything can be found on AliExpress or eBay.

 

[King3]

Yes it will work.
Everything can be found on AliExpress or eBay.

Thanks. I will buy this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...!sea!AU!160739030!&curPageLogUid=OXJUL3VdpLvS

and this

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003658676492.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.547f38daG2gcQB&mp=1

and this

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003761251985.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.547f38daG2gcQB&mp=1


is that enough? Do I need any additional antenna or cable?

 

[The_Croupier]

The FPC Adapter Board is optional, because you are going to use a MacBook (CS) card that has smaller connectors you will need to get U.FL/IPEX1 to MHF4/IPEX4 cables as outlined in the first post of this thread.