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

[dfranetic]

Can you share a link of where you got the connector socket so we will have 2 sources of such a connector, thanks.

It was in one of the earlier posts in this thread (you need ‘shrouded header: SM06B-SHLS-TF’). I found them on one of the ‘usual suspects’ sites. However, your local electronics parts store might also carry them if you’re lucky.

 

[Chow Andrew]

Does this mod make AirPlay on Mac work on 2011 21.5’ iMac on Monterey?
Want to use my iMac as a display for my M1 MacBook Air but target display mode is dead?
I upgraded to SSD and installed a new Graphics card, flashed the vBIOS and upgraded the OS to Big Sur using OCLP, so this is basically the last piece of the puzzle.

 

[The_Croupier]

@Ausdauersportler might know?
Not many people have probably done the GPU upgrade + BT upgrade + OCLP upgrade to test this.

Why not try it and let us know ?

 

[dfranetic]

Does this mod make AirPlay on Mac work on 2011 21.5’ iMac on Monterey?
Want to use my iMac as a display for my M1 MacBook Air but target display mode is dead?
I upgraded to SSD and installed a new Graphics card, flashed the vBIOS and upgraded the OS to Big Sur using OCLP, so this is basically the last piece of the puzzle.

I did a quick test from the 1st iMac in the 1st column (on ETH and WiFi, running Big Sur) of my sig. to the 3rd iMac in the 1st column (on WiFi, running Monterey DP1). It worked, but I did’t run the test for a long time, so I cannot guarantee stability.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I did a quick test from the 1st iMac in the 1st column (on ETH and WiFi, running Big Sur) of my sig. to the 3rd iMac in the 1st column (on WiFi, running Monterey DP1). It worked, but I did’t run the test for a long time, so I cannot guarantee stability.

Does this test in any way rely on the working VDAdecoder within the new AMD cards?

 

[dfranetic]

Does this test in any way rely on the working VDAdecoder within the new AMD cards?

Quite possibly. I cannot say for sure - I did the test a while ago and the Monterey machine is ‘open’ at the moment. (… so I cannot test again currently.)

 

[Chow Andrew]

I have just purchased https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a21wu.12321156-tw.0.0.285a446ekIyZo5&id=40307425283 from the seller last week however I do speak Chinese so maybe that is why he is not replying yet. I also had to use a shipment company to get it shipped to the UK in 10 days.

The package 3 from the sale is the correct card to work with iMac 2011. It was a well designed card however maybe due to luck, my board arrived with "Cold solder" so the bluetooth didn't work at all. The seller is very helpful and in the end I fixed it with multimeter and soldering iron to make sure the connectors resumes connectivity together. The seller kindly offered a partial refund to cover my cost of devices.

If you ask the seller to test the wifi and bluetooth before shipment, in theory you wouldn't need any soldering at all. There is just some work moving the Bluetooth cable closer to the extension card.

I am considering to buy this WiFi card with adapter also. I have asked the seller that the card is BCM94360CD last used in iMac 2015. By reading the first post, I see that this card does not support Apple Watch unlocking. The other card, I.e. BCM943602CDP last used in iMac 2017 fully support Big Sur including Apple Watch unlocking. Except Apple Watch unlocking, is there any features that the newer card brings that the old card don’t? I am wondering if the higher price tag of the newer card is worth it. I see that airplay to Mac in Monterey works even in 2013 MacBook Pro with OCLP in Mr. Macintosh’s video,

So is it a software limitation or does the Airport card takes part in the compatibility?
As both cards can use the same hardware mod, so in the future if I want to upgrade, in theory I should be able to just change the card and use the old mod?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I am considering to buy this WiFi card with adapter also. I have asked the seller that the card is BCM94360CD last used in iMac 2015. By reading the first post, I see that this card does not support Apple Watch unlocking. The other card, I.e. BCM943602CDP last used in iMac 2017 fully support Big Sur including Apple Watch unlocking. Except Apple Watch unlocking, is there any features that the newer card brings that the old card don’t? I am wondering if the higher price tag of the newer card is worth it. I see that airplay to Mac in Monterey works even in 2013 MacBook Pro with OCLP in Mr. Macintosh’s video,

So is it a software limitation or does the Airport card takes part in the compatibility?
As both cards can use the same hardware mod, so in the future if I want to upgrade, in theory I should be able to just change the card and use the old mod?

It is not entirely clear it this information is still true. During this time we all used the @dosdude1 patcher which installed (unwanted) a legacy WiFi patch. It turned out that this patch was blocking the watch unlock feature completely. So you may even get watch unlock with Catalina and the BCM94360CD.

But to get back to your original plan: You can get a GPU dead iMac 21,5 for approximately 50 Euro, a converter kit for 20 and you can create a nice 21.5 external display for your M1 MacBook Air.

Airplay will not be a real substitute for a real display connection and I doubt it will work anyway with your current iMac hardware using Big Sur. My guess Airplay needs some hardware support. But I can be completely mistaken.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Ok, Just give me some time. I'm struggling with installing Windows 10 and Office 365 on the machine at the moment.
Installing on the same SSD with Big Sur and High Sierra didn't work out.
Had to sort out with Windows Home on an USB enclosure before moving it to internal.
I will post the photo of 2 positions of the plug.
1) General view. For the antenna, IPEX1 to IPEX4 cables, I used 2x 5cm cables, and 1x 15cm cable. Took me 2 hours just to firmly attach the IPEX4 jacks. Had to throw away the same amount of IPEX cable because of my clumsiness.

View attachment 1784948

2) The premade jack (white) in its position. All its way to the right of the female jack. Red is D+, Black is D-. I guess in my case the 3.3V line is the 3rd one from the right. The white jack can be plugged in all the way to the left. But then the blue tooth is not recognize (wifi still good).

3) A little blurred, the premade jack next to the stock USB cable connecting to original BT unit. Matching with the red-white cable, then cable color should be Green = D-; White = D+; Grey (purple) = 3.3V. I don't plan to turn-off wifi anyway, so I didn't modify 3.3V line. I'm just happy it worked plug-n-play. The wire are too small to my eyes for any modification.

Looking a the picture above it seems you have connected the BT antenna to the J2 connector (which is 2,4GHz WiFi), the 5 GHz WiFi to the J1 (which is the BT connector).

To repeat and describe the connectors on the BCM943602CS module:
J0: 5 GHz WiFi
J1: BT
J2: 2,4 GHz WiFi

Not sure about the Late 2009, but I guess the antenna in the middle behind the SSD is the 5 GHz one. The upper antenna right hand side of the FaceTime camera the 2,4 GHz and on the left hand side the antenna near the old BT module is the BT antenna.

If you still have problems try to reconnect the antenna cables.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Looking a the picture above it seems you have connected the BT antenna to the J2 connector (which is 2,4GHz WiFi), the 5 GHz WiFi to the J1 (which is the BT connector).

To repeat and describe the connectors on the BCM943602CS module:
J0: 5 GHz WiFi
J1: BT
J2: 2,4 GHz WiFi

Not sure about the Late 2009, but I guess the antenna in the middle behind the SSD is the 5 GHz one. The upper antenna right hand side of the FaceTime camera the 2,4 GHz and on the left hand side the antenna near the old BT module is the BT antenna.

If you still have problems try to reconnect the antenna cables.

Thank you, I do have some issue with the Bluetooth connections.
I will do the rewiring of antenna after returning to the office.
Right now it's my daily working computer and I'm afraid of messing something up during the dissassembling/reassembling process.

 

[ktanggu]

hello. it's newbie.

my iMac 2011 mid 27" (iMac 12,2) upgrade complete to stock wifi,bt → bcm94360cd.
now runnung imac is i7 2600 / 24GB RAM / GTX 880M 8GB / SSD MX500 1TB / BCM94360CD.

wifi AC , BT4.0 , airdrop works , BT low energy support : YES , Handoff support : YES , Instant Hot Spot support : YES.

i bought bcm94360cd + adapter at aliexpress(fanvi). cut original bt card wire and using jumper cable(self soldering) to connect adapter. The picture I referenced is in post #120. just d+, d- , 3.3v cable.
removed original BT card, used another i bought anthena with long cable to connect bcm94360cd.

thx

 

[searge]

Hello community,
I just finished my 2nd Bluetooth/WiFi-Upgrade to an iMac 2011 27'' with BCM943602CDP. My 1st update was without any issues running BigSur (OCLP update) finally as there is k3100m graphic adapter in that iMac.
The 2nd update doesn't show any Bluetooth Adapter in High Sierra. On the other side WLAN is working without any issues. Bluetooth Explorer doesn't show anything and there is no Bluetooth icon in HS system preferences. Do I have to expect this as there are no driver for BCM943602CDP under High Sierra? Hardware part seems to be fine (cable soldering,...). Any ideas/hints?

 

[dfranetic]

Hello community,
I just finished my 2nd Bluetooth/WiFi-Upgrade to an iMac 2011 27'' with BCM943602CDP. My 1st update was without any issues running BigSur (OCLP update) finally as there is k3100m graphic adapter in that iMac.
The 2nd update doesn't show any Bluetooth Adapter in High Sierra. On the other side WLAN is working without any issues. Bluetooth Explorer doesn't show anything and there is no Bluetooth icon in HS system preferences. Do I have to expect this as there are no driver for BCM943602CDP under High Sierra? Hardware part seems to be fine (cable soldering,...). Any ideas/hints?

Take another look at the hardware part. I once made an unnoticeable short while soldering, which only became ‘visible’ with a multimeter. Once I redid the soldering part, BT popped up.

 

[internetzel]

Thanks to @Ausdauersportler providing me the needed parts, I managed to upgrade my late 2009 iMac11,1 with a BCM94360CD.
I left antenna jack J2 unconnected for now.
Everything is working as expected (I think), including Bluetooth at the EFI boot screen and Bluetooth without WiFi enabled.

As shown in the pictures I tried a different way of doing the soldering job without cutting the Bluetooth USB cable.
I took the pins out of the plug without breaking it and soldered them directly to the adapter board.
Additionally I decided to solder the shield to where I thought it might make some sense - I did not check whether the connector shield is actually connected to some pin of the adapter board.
Probably this is not easily reversible as one would have to remove all the solder from the in- and outside of the pins.
But it was quite somewhat easier for me to solder those solid pins instead of the fine wires.

 

[searge]

Take another look at the hardware part. I once made an unnoticeable short while soldering, which only became ‘visible’ with a multimeter. Once I redid the soldering part, BT popped up.

Still no progress. I checked wiring/soldering though and through and compared it with my working system. I chnged bt-card, tried another clean install (HS) and behaviour is still the same. I think, either adapter card is broken or D+ / D- connection is wrong, although completely identical to my working solution. Is there a way to figure out (multimeter) which cable is for D+ and which one is for D-. Colors are different compared to picture shown in this thread but I soldered position by position and that worked in my first solution.

 

[dfranetic]

Still no progress. I checked wiring/soldering though and through and compared it with my working system. I chnged bt-card, tried another clean install (HS) and behaviour is still the same. I think, either adapter card is broken or D+ / D- connection is wrong, although completely identical to my working solution. Is there a way to figure out (multimeter) which cable is for D+ and which one is for D-. Colors are different compared to picture shown in this thread but I soldered position by position and that worked in my first solution.

Can you move the combo adapter card + WiFi/BT card between systems? Does your 'first solution' work in this second system? (Does your 'non-working solution' also 'not work' in the first system?)

 

[searge]

Can you move the combo adapter card + WiFi/BT card between systems? Does your 'first solution' work in this second system? (Does your 'non-working solution' also 'not work' in the first system?)

Will try this ... needs more effort as I have to change bt-cable or do some resoldering, but this could help to sort out the problem. But just one question:

BCM943602CDP should be recognized by default in High Sierra in combination with iMac 2011 27''?

I mean, it is really strange, because wlan part is working good, it is just bt part showing me no hardware adapter. It is not a bad/weak signal or misbehaviour. Makes me believe that bt card and adapter should be o.k.

 

[dfranetic]

Will try this ... needs more effort as I have to change bt-cable or do some resoldering, but this could help to sort out the problem. But just one question:

BCM943602CDP should be recognized by default in High Sierra in combination with iMac 2011 27''?

I mean, it is really strange, because wlan part is working good, it is just bt part showing me no hardware adapter. It is not a bad/weak signal or misbehaviour. Makes me believe that bt card and adapter should be o.k.

Yes, I know, it's a major hassle. However, it is most likely the cabling or the adapter card, since it exhibits the same behaviour with a known good WiFi/BT card. If you have a spare adapter card, it might be quicker to redo the whole job with the spare card. (Also, do check if you really have two equal adapter cards. I was just reworking an iMac - upgraded a year ago - today and I noticed that it had a different adapter card from the ones I used lately. Slightly different wiring, too...)

I can't say for sure about the BCM943602CDP, but BCM943602CS is recognized in High Sierra.

 

[The_Croupier]

Still no progress. I checked wiring/soldering though and through and compared it with my working system. I chnged bt-card, tried another clean install (HS) and behaviour is still the same. I think, either adapter card is broken or D+ / D- connection is wrong, although completely identical to my working solution. Is there a way to figure out (multimeter) which cable is for D+ and which one is for D-. Colors are different compared to picture shown in this thread but I soldered position by position and that worked in my first solution.

The wire position won’t change irrespective of the color, if it’s working with the original card then the wiring is ok. Check continuity on the adapter card.

Post in thread 'iMac Mid 2011 Bluetooth 4.0 internal upgrade'

iMac Mid 2011 Bluetooth 4.0 internal upgrade

Thanks. Please see my notes in the attached diagrams. Hopefully they are readable. Essentially, I'm wondering if pin 24 brings wifi power and did you separate power between bluetooth and wifi by cutting the noted trace? Or are they not really connected?

forums.macrumors.com

 

[searge]

Thanks to all of you. Problem is solved. I've redone soldering and finally BT poped up. I think cable connection was bad on D+ or D- (wire on cable cover instead directly wire on wire; not easy to proof with multimeter). HS immediately recognized BT after repair.

Thanks for all advises! ??

 

[JohnPascololo]

Hello all! Thanks for sharing this upgrade guide here! Are all cards mentioned in the first post supported by Montery?

I'm asking because the listing confused me a little stating: "Monterey needs for sure an updated WiFi module and the BCM84360XXX series is a more future proof bet."

Is this a typo and was meant to read BCM94360XXX?

Regards!

 

[CrickoUK]

I just wanted to share my success with this upgrade to a 27" 2011 iMac.

I installed a BCM943602CDP (I believe it came from a 2015 5K 27" iMac) using a miniPCIe adapter board and spliced/soldered the original BT cable for D+ and D-. I also used all the original Antenna (Three WLAN was easy, the BT had to be extended) and the signals are all excellent.

This iMac has also had it's GPU upgraded (Nvidia 770M 3GB) and is running macOS Montery via Opencore Legacy Patcher.

The results are exellent, with Airdrop/Handoff/Universal Clipboard/Airplay all working flawlessly, along with brightness control.

I genuinely couldn't be happier with this machine - and it's so nice that it gets used every day, rather than being scrapped (it was donated to me after it's original GPU failed)! 😊

 

[kitroughtrash]

I opened my 2011 21.5” iMac today to replace the bluetooth card. Everything was going smoothly until the connector for the bluetooth antenna on the new card snapped off.

is there any way to save the day by some sort of soldering? it appears that the connector has 4 soldering points on the pcb but one of them has competely broke off.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I opened my 2011 21.5” iMac today to replace the bluetooth card. Everything was going smoothly until the connector for the bluetooth antenna on the new card snapped off.

is there any way to save the day by some sort of soldering? it appears that the connector has 4 soldering points on the pcb but one of them has competely broke off.

1. Your card lost the solder-pad on the PCD already. Normally you only need 2 side connectors for an antenna.
2. You don't need to connect all 4 antenna jacks to make it work. 3 antennas are enough.

 

[kitroughtrash]

The problem is its the BT connector that broke. The three intact ones are for wifi.

there are two solder points on the pcb that i could connect to, i think they are for the outer part of the BT antenna cable, not the core.