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Bluetooth adapter?
- Thread starter ethanhodges
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I use a DLink DBT-120 for all my non-bluetooth machines with USB ports. Works just fine.
For my PowerBook G4 on which I test SL-PPC, I use a generic USB adapter which is marked with “CSR 4.0” — short for “Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth 4.0”.
As with most BT devices, it needs no drivers.
I think Cambridge Silicon Radio is the key element here. That is the same device that is reported with the Belkin adapters.
I just ordered the DLink on ebay. Do you know if there would be any issues using my Apple AirPods?
I can confirm that. They do work great on Tiger and Leopard and are plug and play. Another dongle I can highly recommend is the LogiLink BT0015 which I use on all my PowerPC Macs that do not have internal Bluetooth.
I think the only thing about USB Bluetooth adapters I could do without is the blinking LED (almost always blue).
Blue blinking LEDs are soothing.
It's the red blinking LEDs/lights I'm not so crazy about.
Blue blinking LEDs are soothing.
It's the red blinking LEDs/lights I'm not so crazy about.
For my brain, any LED which blinks incessantly, without a diagnostic purpose (good example of diagnostic purpose: the amber and green LEDs of an ethernet port, or even the blue lights signalling network activity on my router), ends up being a distraction.
My first computer with an actual hard drive was a 286 in 1990 It had a green power LED and a red LED to show disk access. I was incredibly disappointed when learning that Macs had no disk access LEDs (but the power LEDs have always been cool). Way back with iStat 1.0 I discovered I could modify the color of the 'lights' used for the disk access section in the menubar. Since that time, every Mac I've owned that could run iStat has had red and green disk access lights. Red for write, green for read.
Watching the blinky lights way back in the 1990s was one way to diagnose your PC. If an install was not proceeding or had stalled out you'd know. Because the disk access light would either not be on or it would repeat a pattern. Hence this is why blinking lights don't bother me. It means stuff is working.
The slow flash of the blue LED on my Belkin adapter tells me it's on and irregular flashes tell me it's sending/receiving. If it's off or solid on then I know I've got a problem.
I the one pictured here. I have one for my Power Mac G5 and one for my G4 modded Pismo. Both are running Sorbet Leopard.
I'm having trouble connecting my AirPods to the DLink DBT-120. I get an error that it is unable to pair. Any solutions?
Airpods won’t work. Well, they might pair momentarily after much connecting and disconnecting. Then the connection “times out.” You might be able to pair with headset quality. But that will likely not last either.
I’ve been down this road and tried every conceivable thing I could think of. My advice is to buy headphones that are Bluetooth 2.1. or below. They should work. I bought a cheap 2.1 pair off of eBay for $11. They pair fine. I may try to find an older quality pair of 2.1 headphones to use.
Alternately (and possibly cheaper): find a generic “CSR 4.0” BT adapter on eBay or similar and try that. It is, after all, a Bluetooth 4.0-compliant protocol, and this might play nicer with newer Bluetooth-enabled gear like wireless AirPods than, say, a Bluetooth 2.1 adapter.
I do know I’ve managed to use the USB “CSR 4.0” adapter to connect from a PowerPC Mac (running Leopard), to a Bluetooth 4.0 Ugreen receiver to stream audio. Ugreen only sell the BT 5.0 version now, but the form factor is identical to what I have.