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

[Czo]

Hi all, firstly I like to thank all the contributors to this great thread. Mr-Mur, thank you for a very detailed tutorial, very nice.

I Have read through every post in this entire thread and searched google a bit but just want a specific answer to doing this modification with a BCM94331CD WiFi instead of the BCM94360CD WiFi card?

If I have done my research properly then the BCM94331CD WiFi card IEEE 802.11a / b / g / N from a 2012 iMac/MacBook/Air, should deliver all the functionality of Continuity, Handoff, Airdrop just with out AC speed?

So it should support up to 450M wireless ABGN with Bluetooth 4.0, Im after functionality more than high speed and the cost difference is massive $10 AUD v's about $75 AUD inc shipping.

Also could one of the experts here confirm it should install exactly the same as a BCM94360CD WiFi card?

Parts Im looking to buy.
Card: LINK
Adapter: LINK

Thanks again,
Croupier.

Unlock with Watch will not work with the 802.11n version, because the required capability (time of flight) introduced with 802.11ac devices. Thats why unlock with Watch requires a Mac from 2013.

I don't know which any other handoff/continuity things that are requires the newer standard.

 

[The_Croupier]

Unlock with Watch will not work with the 802.11n version, because the required capability (time of flight) introduced with 802.11ac devices. Thats why unlock with Watch requires a Mac from 2013.

I don't know which any other handoff/continuity things that are requires the newer standard.

Good information thanks, I can live without watch unlock, I don’t have one atm anyway.
Hey Czo, do you know if A BCM94360CSAX WiFi Card 802.11ac would work with Apple Watch unlock if I get one in the future?

 

[Czo]

Good information thanks, I can live without watch unlock, I don’t have one atm anyway.
Hey Czo, do you know if A BCM94360CSAX WiFi Card 802.11ac would work with Apple Watch unlock if I get one in the future?

Currently i have a 4360 in my iMac, but i can't say yes. In last year, when i am upgraded to a Series 3 watch from a Series 2, i found watch unlock can't be enabled on my iMac because i am still running Sierra on it. So on Sierra, unlock with Watch worked fine with a Series 0 (original) Watch and Series 2 Watch, on Series 3 High Sierra will be required, so i think Series 4 will require Mohave on Mac side. I am still waiting for my Series 4 watch, so i can not check it yet.

 

[johnmacair]

Hi Guys,

the BCM94360CD is very expensive at this time, which is the current cheaper alternative?

Thanks

John

 

[FlorisVN]

Hi Guys,

the BCM94360CD is very expensive at this time, which is the current cheaper alternative?

Thanks

John

Have you seen this adv. on AliExpress ?

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/BCM9..._expid=8dc06884-0b8d-4ec2-843f-f3e2549a1c79-0

 

[johnmacair]

Have you seen this adv. on AliExpress ?

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/BCM94331CD-2-4-5G-WiFi-kaart-Bluetooth-4-0-Netwerkkaart-voor-Apple-iMac-A1418-A1419-PK/32873209839.html?spm=a2g0z.search0104.3.1.20ed3f11xcVThw&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_3_10065_10068_319_5729915_317_10696_453_10084_454_10083_10618_10304_10307_10820_10301_10821_538_5730815_537_536_10843_10059_10884_10887_100031_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_2,ppcSwitch_0&algo_pvid=8dc06884-0b8d-4ec2-843f-f3e2549a1c79&algo_expid=8dc06884-0b8d-4ec2-843f-f3e2549a1c79-0

Hi Floris,

Description says 802.11a/g,802.11n and the reviews say that handoff and watch unlock won't work link :
But, yes, Handoff doesn't work.

The description is misleading So I did not get the BCM 94360CD. These card will not with your iMac or Hackintosh with handoff support, useless therefore and I asked for refund but I need to send them back. But I don't get any support nor an address so I have wasted 16 of these cards and a lot of money for nothing. Never wil buy something from them again. Very disappointed.

 

[Karppa82]

Hey

I have iMac Late 2009 27" and want to change BCM94360cd card to it.

I bought these:
https://www.ebay.com/p/Mini-Pci-e-52pin-Adapter-for-Bcm94360cd-Bcm94331cd/1631968703?iid=112425691492&opts=opick

https://www.ebay.com/p/Broadcom-Bcm94360cd-802-11ac-WiFi-Card-Bluetooth-4-0-for-Apple-27-iMac-Airport/1839253691?iid=282015385309&opts=opick

and one wifi antenna and extension cable for bluetooth antenna.

I cut the old bluetooth cable and soldered d+,d- and power wires directly to the old bluetooth cable
Is it correct that I have to put the cable to mini pic e adapter cn3 connector and solder wires like this:

red wire (d+) to the third wire from left to the old bluetooth cable
black wire (d-) to the second wire from left to the old bluetooth cable
wire from mini pci e apter's r1 to first wire from left to the old bluetooth cable

like this picture:imgres

EDIT:

I soldered wires like I mentioned earlier:

from mini pci e adapter:

wire from R1 point to old bluetooth cable power wire
wire from red d+ wire to old bluetooth cable d+ wire
wire from black d- wire to old bluetooth cable d- wire

Bluetooth is working and my trackpad and keyboard are working but wi-fi is not working (no device installed).

What could be wrong?

Sorry about bad english

 

[wlagarde]

I have a Mid-2011 iMac with macOS Mojave 10.14.4 installed via the dosdude1 patcher. I installed a BCM94360CD WiFi/Bluetooth card from OSX WIFI. The system report is showing handoff as supported and WiFi and bluetooth devices work fine; however, I cannot get continuity features including handoff to work. Has anyone else had this issue?

 

[wlagarde]

Problem solved - All continuity features including handoff and apple watch (I have a series 3) unlock work! See this thread for the solution. The specific application of this solution for my 2011 iMac 27 with a BCM94369CD from OSX WIFI installed and macOS Mojave 10.14.4 installed using the dosdude1 patcher is below:

In terminal get your board number using the following command: ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'
For example my board number is: Mac-942B59F58194171B

Using TextEdit search for your board number (i.e. Mac-942B59F58194171B) and set flag to "true" in: /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist

Note: First copy SystemParameters.plist to your desktop, edit it, and then copy it back into the /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ folder. Keep a backup copy of the original SystemParameters.plist file in case you need to revert back to the original

Then perform these two commands in Terminal:
sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-942B59F58194171B/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360
sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-942B59F58194171B/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcmNIC.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcmNIC

In system preferences/general: Uncheck "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices"

Reboot

In system preferences/general: Check "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices"

Reboot

 

[Karppa82]

Hey

I have iMac Late 2009 27" and want to change BCM94360cd card to it.

I bought these:
https://www.ebay.com/p/Mini-Pci-e-52pin-Adapter-for-Bcm94360cd-Bcm94331cd/1631968703?iid=112425691492&opts=opick

https://www.ebay.com/p/Broadcom-Bcm94360cd-802-11ac-WiFi-Card-Bluetooth-4-0-for-Apple-27-iMac-Airport/1839253691?iid=282015385309&opts=opick

and one wifi antenna and extension cable for bluetooth antenna.

I cut the old bluetooth cable and soldered d+,d- and power wires directly to the old bluetooth cable
Is it correct that I have to put the cable to mini pic e adapter cn3 connector and solder wires like this:

red wire (d+) to the third wire from left to the old bluetooth cable
black wire (d-) to the second wire from left to the old bluetooth cable
wire from mini pci e apter's r1 to first wire from left to the old bluetooth cable

like this picture:imgres

EDIT:

I soldered wires like I mentioned earlier:

from mini pci e adapter:

wire from R1 point to old bluetooth cable power wire
wire from red d+ wire to old bluetooth cable d+ wire
wire from black d- wire to old bluetooth cable d- wire

Bluetooth is working and my trackpad and keyboard are working but wi-fi is not working (no device installed).

What could be wrong?

Sorry about bad english

Could someone help with this? What is weong eith wi-fi, because bluetooth is working but wireless network not.

 

[waimtrp]

Problem solved - All continuity features including handoff and apple watch (I have a series 3) unlock work! See this thread for the solution. The specific application of this solution for my 2011 iMac 27 with a BCM94369CD from OSX WIFI installed and macOS Mojave 10.14.2 installed using the dosdude1 patcher is below:

In terminal get your board number using the following command: ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'
For example my board number is: Mac-942B59F58194171B

Using TextEdit search for your board number (i.e. Mac-942B59F58194171B) and set flag to "true" in: /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist

Note: First copy SystemParameters.plist to your desktop, edit it, and then copy it back into the /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ folder. Keep a backup copy of the original SystemParameters.plist file in case you need to revert back to the original

Then perform these two commands in Terminal:
sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-942B59F58194171B/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360
sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-942B59F58194171B/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcmNIC.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcmNIC

In system preferences/general: Uncheck "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices"

Reboot

In system preferences/general: Check "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices"

Reboot

thanks for your tips, i follow it and successfully make my iMac 2011 27" work , so happy now
i got my full kit at this shop , and work like a charm

 

[Karppa82]

Could someone help with this? What is weong eith wi-fi, because bluetooth is working but wireless network not.

Anybody?

 

[wlagarde]

Anybody?

Defective card?

 

[zvaniel4o]

I just bought " https://www.ebay.com/itm/Broadcom-B...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 ". However I am experiencing the following issue with Catalina installed with DosDude patch method: once I try to run continuity as sudo from terminal, the script tells me that my BCM94331CD does not support Bluetooth 4.0, I have tested this card on my hackintosh and confirmed that supports Bluetooth 4.0. What should I do? thank you.

 

[highvoltage12v]

I just bought " https://www.ebay.com/itm/Broadcom-BCM94331CD-Mini-PCI-E-WiFi-Bluetooth-Card-for-Apple-iMAC-A1418-A1419/261763388809?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 ". However I am experiencing the following issue with Catalina installed with DosDude patch method: once I try to run continuity as sudo from terminal, the script tells me that my BCM94331CD does not support Bluetooth 4.0, I have tested this card on my hackintosh and confirmed that supports Bluetooth 4.0. What should I do? thank you.

The PCI-E adapter must have 2 wires coming off that need to be spliced into USB d+/d- for the Bluetooth part of the card to work. Do you see Bluetooth at all? The iMac a1311/a1312 mPCI-E slot does not have the USB pins populated.

Here are the ones I used for my Mac Pro and will eventually install into my a1312 2011
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E...1CD-Upgrade-to-Version-3-0-DZ002/333183219913

 

[zvaniel4o]

The PCI-E adapter must have 2 wires coming off that need to be spliced into USB d+/d- for the Bluetooth part of the card to work. Do you see Bluetooth at all? The iMac a1311/a1312 mPCI-E slot does not have the USB pins populated.

Here are the ones I used for my Mac Pro and will eventually install into my a1312 2011
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E...1CD-Upgrade-to-Version-3-0-DZ002/333183219913

I happen to have Bluetooth functionality however, I know if power isn’t supplied to in the hackintosh setup, it says Bluetooth device isn’t connected at all. On my iMac however Bluetooth is functional, I can connect various devices without issue and it detects the Bluetooth card, it just says that handoff is not supported.

 

[highvoltage12v]

I happen to have Bluetooth functionality however, I know if power isn’t supplied to in the hackintosh setup, it says Bluetooth device isn’t connected at all. On my iMac however Bluetooth is functional, I can connect various devices without issue and it detects the Bluetooth card, it just says that handoff is not supported.

Wait, did you find and disconnect your old Bluetooth card in the iMac? Check Bluetooth HCI version in System preferences.

 

[zvaniel4o]

Wait, did you find and disconnect your old Bluetooth card in the iMac? Check Bluetooth HCI version in System preferences.

Yes, the old wireless card was Atheros AR5BXB112 with mini pcie port connectivity, and I swapped it with the Broadcom BCM94331CD. To my knowledge there are no other devices attached to my iMac that will allow wireless connectivity. The HCI revision is 0x206. For more information about the bluetooth you can check the attachment below. I am baffled by this situation, because I am familiar with Continuity tool since I had to enable the same model wireless card in Catalina on my Hackintosh. I know this card works on it too (while trying to troubleshoot I installed it there temporarily in order to check its proper functionality). However, over here on the iMac (which is A1311 21" mid 2011) I have no AirDrop. Anyway I can still pair and use various bluetooth devices without an issue. I just have no Handoff (continuity) and AirDrop functionality.

 

[highvoltage12v]

Yes, the old wireless card was Atheros AR5BXB112 with mini pcie port connectivity, and I swapped it with the Broadcom BCM94331CD. To my knowledge there are no other devices attached to my iMac that will allow wireless connectivity. The HCI revision is 0x206. For more information about the bluetooth you can check the attachment below. I am baffled by this situation, because I am familiar with Continuity tool since I had to enable the same model wireless card in Catalina on my Hackintosh. I know this card works on it too (while trying to troubleshoot I installed it there temporarily in order to check its proper functionality). However, over here on the iMac (which is A1311 21" mid 2011) I have no AirDrop. Anyway I can still pair and use various bluetooth devices without an issue. I just have no Handoff (continuity) and AirDrop functionality.

What you did was change the wireless card to a newer Apple wireless card that has Bluetooth built in. But since the M-PCIE slot doesn't have USB pins/3.3v on it the built in, bluetooth will never work. You are still using bluetooth 2.1 because your old bluetooth card is still inside your iMac. please see the picture attached of what your old bluetooth card looks like.

You need the proper (ebay link from earlier) conversion adapter that has the wires out for USB d+/- and splice it into the connector shown on the bluetooth card connector in the picture. This thread has a lot of success posts demonstrating this.

 

[jborko]

What you did was change the wireless card to a newer Apple wireless card that has Bluetooth built in. But since the M-PCIE slot doesn't have USB pins/3.3v on it the built in, bluetooth will never work. You are still using bluetooth 2.1 because your old bluetooth card is still inside your iMac. please see the picture attached of what your old bluetooth card looks like.

You need the proper (ebay link from earlier) conversion adapter that has the wires out for USB d+/- and splice it into the connector shown on the bluetooth card connector in the picture. This thread has a lot of success posts demonstrating this.

I am now fighting to get this working too. I want to avoid to cut wires and be able to revert to the original setup if possible. I have the card and adapter which is not the best (so I ordered a new one like in your second picture) and just the Bluetooth card as well which I will disassemble and use its connector to "elegantly" connect the new card. (I have seen several people in this thread have done it (Thanks for posting the pictures and the process)... I was not able to find an answer to 2 things.

Since it seems that the Bluetooth module of this replacement card uses a separate USB connection and power, assuming that I will solder (for testing purposes) a regular USB cable to the adapter and plug it into a USB port, will I be able to see the Bluetooth card in the system?

That brings me to the other question, USB regular output will supply 5v, and based on everything I read here the adapter needs 3.3v. Will it kill the card if I attempt a short (10-20s) test without stepping it down to 3.3v?

 

[zvaniel4o]

What you did was change the wireless card to a newer Apple wireless card that has Bluetooth built in. But since the M-PCIE slot doesn't have USB pins/3.3v on it the built in, bluetooth will never work. You are still using bluetooth 2.1 because your old bluetooth card is still inside your iMac. please see the picture attached of what your old bluetooth card looks like.

You need the proper (ebay link from earlier) conversion adapter that has the wires out for USB d+/- and splice it into the connector shown on the bluetooth card connector in the picture. This thread has a lot of success posts demonstrating this.

Thank you so much for your help! I decided I won't buy an adapter, but to modify what I already have. I have good soldering skills so I was able to use the conversion adapter after all. I looked back in this thread and found out the pinout, I soldered the the points and connected the wires to the D+/D- on the existing bluetooth cable. Again thank you for letting me know that I had to remove the old BT card. For some reason I assumed one card does it all.
[automerge]1575064006[/automerge]

I am now fighting to get this working too. I want to avoid to cut wires and be able to revert to the original setup if possible. I have the card and adapter which is not the best (so I ordered a new one like in your second picture) and just the Bluetooth card as well which I will disassemble and use its connector to "elegantly" connect the new card. (I have seen several people in this thread have done it (Thanks for posting the pictures and the process)... I was not able to find an answer to 2 things.

Since it seems that the Bluetooth module of this replacement card uses a separate USB connection and power, assuming that I will solder (for testing purposes) a regular USB cable to the adapter and plug it into a USB port, will I be able to see the Bluetooth card in the system?

That brings me to the other question, USB regular output will supply 5v, and based on everything I read here the adapter needs 3.3v. Will it kill the card if I attempt a short (10-20s) test without stepping it down to 3.3v?

Use a voltage regulator such as LD33v. I wouldn't risk on trying anything more than 3.3 volts for this card.

 

[highvoltage12v]

I am now fighting to get this working too. I want to avoid to cut wires and be able to revert to the original setup if possible. I have the card and adapter which is not the best (so I ordered a new one like in your second picture) and just the Bluetooth card as well which I will disassemble and use its connector to "elegantly" connect the new card. (I have seen several people in this thread have done it (Thanks for posting the pictures and the process)... I was not able to find an answer to 2 things.

Since it seems that the Bluetooth module of this replacement card uses a separate USB connection and power, assuming that I will solder (for testing purposes) a regular USB cable to the adapter and plug it into a USB port, will I be able to see the Bluetooth card in the system?

That brings me to the other question, USB regular output will supply 5v, and based on everything I read here the adapter needs 3.3v. Will it kill the card if I attempt a short (10-20s) test without stepping it down to 3.3v?

You can borrow 3.3v from the SD card USB power + on the SD card reader. It's the same way we make the dosdude dyinglight module work in these iMacs.
Picture belongs to @Nick [D]vB on the MXM thread.

 

[zvaniel4o]

On my iMac a1311 which runs Catalina now thanks to DosDude, I was getting the following error in Continuity Activator/enabler after I was able to configure the hardware properly: "Cleaning up old Wi-Fi kext... WARNING. Failed to delete the legacy Brcm4331 Wi-Fi kext. Continuing." If someone is using Catalina and cannot enable Continuity and Handoff on their iMac due to the error above or some reason, here is what I did to make Continuity work for me. In terminal enter the following:

sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

and hit enter. Type your password and hit enter again. Now type sudo in terminal and leave it for now. After that right click on the Continuity Activator/enabler (which you can find here https://codeload.github.com/dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool/zip/master)>Show Package Contents>Contents>Resources> and drag and drop the contitool.sh in terminal>hit enter, type your password and follow the instructions. After that restart your system. To check if everything was successful click on the apple logo on the top right>About This Mac>System Report...>click on Bluetooth in Hardware and make sure you have "Yes" on the following:

Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes
Handoff Supported: Yes
Instant Hot Spot Supported: Yes

just like the screenshot below.

After confirming the activation was successful make sure that "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices" in enabled in System Preferences>General. If continuity is still not working, try to disable/enable your Wifi and Bluetooth connection in your devices which support Continuity/Handoff. Make sure you are connected in the same network. If still not working, reboot the devices. If still not working sign out and sign back in to your iCloud account on all of your devices.

 

[Czo]

You can borrow 3.3v from the SD card USB power + on the SD card reader. It's the same way we make the dosdude dyinglight module work in these iMacs.
Picture belongs to @Nick [D]vB on the MXM thread.

The original BT module still works with 3v3, that's what i describe' in the firsts posts.

 

[jborko]

I done this today, thanks to all for the previous posts and pictures, it helped significantly... I was searching a long time to find the "female" connectors (like on the original Bluetooth card) without success, so I bought 2 old cheap Bluetooth adapters and removed the connectors, soldered them to a SOIC8 PCB (like someone suggested here... thanks) and I have a fully reversible solution. I also ordered a U.FL extension and an extra antenna. I used the antenna as U.FL extensions still have not been delivered.

The card, the adapters and the antenna I found on Ali - total price <40.

It could have been done without the extra Bluetooth connectors, but since I did this first time, I wanted to make it reversible just in case.

Initially, I used wlagarde's instructions to get handoff to work, but the commands were not sufficient to change the SystemParameters.plist on Catalina. So I looked at the Catalina on unsupported mac thread and used this way instead.

First, make sure SIP is disabled, otherwise, you will not be able to change the SystemParameters.plist

csrutil status

Then the command to get your board ID

ioreg -l | grep "board-id"

| "board-id" = <"Mac-942B59F58194171B"> (this was mine iMac 2011 27")

sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

Replace the board ID with yours in the next command

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-942B59F58194171B:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"

On top of that, for my case, it required signing out and back into iCloud, and disabling/enabling Handoff in System Preferences/General.

A couple of question on the WiFi...
For me, iperf3 shows 280mbps, over one concrete wall and 20feet (6m) with Netgear R7800 (X4S) router.
Is it too much to hope for more speed?
What speeds are you able to achieve between the iMac and the router at what distance?