Continuity-Activation-Tool
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dokterdok
BT 4.0 on mid-2011 iMac
I want to enable Continuity on a 21.5" mid-2011 iMac. I have the BCM94360CD + adapter and swap out instructions from iFixit. How do I hook up the small black wires to the new card? The adapter makes them backwards and the numbers on the connectors are different.
Also, I was able to upgrade my early-2011 MacBook Pro using your Continuity Activation Tool and it works great! Thanks for all your help!
-Mike
See how the CH0, CH1 and CH2 are easily accessible? Now look at the photos of my hardware: connectors face backwards (do I need a different adapter?) and they are labeled J0, J1, J2 (hidden with adapter) and J3. Which three do I use with the connectors? I'm assuming that J0 and J1 are CH0 and CH1 respectively. What about the third connector?
Unfortunately it didn't help much. It referred to the 27" model and I have the 21.5". It seems different. Should I wait for the Continuity Activation Tool update? It might work with a USB dongle... sounds waaay easier.
If you want to try out the USB dongle compatibility early - You might want to sign up for the CAT v.2.0 beta here. I'm looking for testers and your configuration would be a great fit. Let me know.
I will do that this week, thanks! Any suggestions on which make and model of USB dongle to purchase? If not, any I need to avoid?
I can't fill out the beta sign-up page without a USB dongle, so I need help with my previous question above please and thank you.
Hi, I can't guarantee yet that any dongles will work (it's experimental currently) but I'd recommend getting a Bluetooth 4.0 dongle based on a Broadcom BCM20702 chip, as it is the chip used in Continuity compatible Apple AirPort cards.
A few examples: Asus BT400 GMYLE IOGEAR GBU521
On 11 Nov 2014, at 20:25, beavis64 [email protected] wrote:
I can't fill out the beta sign-up page without a USB dongle, so I need help with my previous question above please and thank you.
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.
I have an ASUS BT-400 dongle coming soon. When I ran the system check, it said my Airport Driver is not Broadcom(?) I'm not sure what I can do, but I slogged through the link you sent me above to see if anyone had posted steps on how to put in the hardware I bought (pictures above) into a mid-2011 21.5" iMac, including wiring the 4th terminal on the new card. Can you see anything that helps? At this point I'll either go the internal route or the external one... I just need clearer instructions.
I'm currently trying to figure out which Macs will or won't support Continuity just by adding a BT4 dongle, and so far it seems that a number of iMacs will be left out, as they use a Wi-Fi card driver (Atheros based) that doesn't support Continuity. In your scenario, I'm afraid you'll need to go the internal route.
Hi! I have a iMac mid 2011 too. One question; must i change the AirPort Extreme card??
wait a moment, dokterdok, yes i have a airport extreme atheros based wifi card, but, i don´t use wifi for nothing, i use ethernet , and in this case, the card is broadcom...i believe ... Nombre: ethernet Tipo: Controlador Ethernet Bus: PCI ID del fabricante: 0x14e4 ID del dispositivo: 0x16b4 ID del fabricante del subsistema: 0x14e4 ID del subsistema: 0x16b4 ID de la revisión: 0x0010 Anchura del enlace: x1 Nombre BSD: en0 Nombre de kext: AppleBCM5701Ethernet.kext Versión del firmware: 57765-v1.37, 0x7cfcc847 Ubicación: /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleBCM5701Ethernet.kext Admite descarga mDNS: 3c:07:54:47:79:13 Versión: 10.1.2b3
and airdrop working by ethernet with defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces -bool true in terminal. in this the relevant is the ethernet card? the problem in this case only be BT 4.0? Could be that BT 4.0 dongle working by this way??
Well @neno1978 , that would be an interesting twist. Could you please type this in Terminal:
ifconfig -u | grep awdl
and provide the output? If something comes out, then there's a little hope.
nop, nothing comes out :( ... but, i am using calls, sms, etc with ethernet and airdrop too(mac to mac) ... some little hope?? ;)
i don´t now if it help but with ifconfig en1 | grep ether
ether 04:54:53:09:48:53 ...
You will need an AWDL interface to enjoy handoff, and as far as I know it's been only implemented in the Broadcom 4360 Wireless drivers. There's no hack around this I'm afraid.
Are there any new possibilities for an internal or external solution for the mid-2011 21.5 inch iMac with your new updates this week?
@beavis64 What does the System Diagnostic say about your active AirPort drivers? could you please verify. If it's Broadcom there's a chance it'll work with a dongle with CAT 2.0. If it's an Atheros, then your AirPort card will need to be replaced with a compatible Broadcom one to have Continuity.
No, it's Atheros. I have the internal hardware and basic instructions from iFixit, but I don't know how (or where) exactly to connect the black antenna wires. Please see the pictures at the beginning of this post; I'll paste my earlier question again:
"See how the CH0, CH1 and CH2 are easily accessible? Now look at the photos of my hardware: connectors face backwards (do I need a different adapter?) and they are labeled J0, J1, J2 (hidden with adapter) and J3. Which three do I use with the connectors? I'm assuming that J0 and J1 are CH0 and CH1 respectively. What about the third connector?"
Do I need to swap out the bluetooth module and reroute the black wire from that to the new card in the adapter? Too many questions...
The problem, I think, that in iMac mid 2011 the Bluetooth is separate wifif-card and then need energy to work. They solved it with a trick making by a usb. But my question is; can this card work with a Bluetooth dongle and not with the Bluetooth of the card? If the answers is yes; can we used a wifif-card without Bluetooth ?? Which??
I have installed a bcm94360cd card in my iMac 2011 mid. I've also moved the 3 cables to the new card and also got a 4th unused connecter on the new card. Wifi and Bluetooth works but for some reason Yosemite uses the original Bluetooth card instead of the new one!? And if i remove the original Bluetooth card yosemite cant find any Bluetooth hardware at all. What am I supposed to do with the unused 4th connection on the new card? Hope you can guide me :-) thanks :-)
michaeltilst, did you ever get a response? I still have the same questions.
Beavis64 - I apparently bought the wrong adapter. Have just received a new one with USB D+/D- connector, which I will connect directly to the motherboard. I'm going to install the new adapter on thursday - and I will let you know if everything works :-) Crossing my fingers...
michaeltilst, could you please post a photo and a part number for the new adapter on this thread? If it works, I'd like to get one as well!
@beavis64 I orderede this one: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-PCI-E-Adapter-for-BCM94360CD-BCM94331CD/2033123652.html It's very important that the adapter is "version 3" - otherwise it may not have the USB +/- connector.
However, I got some problems. At first everything seemed fine. My bluetooth connection was now managed by the BCM94360CD card after I connected the adapter to the motherboard. And everything seemed fine in system settings: Continuity etc. was enabled. BUT my wifi was gone :( I didn't find out what the problem was - so I switched back to the old adapter again.
The VERY good news: I read on a website that Continuity Activation Tool 2.0 now supports some Bluetooth 4.0 dongles. So I bought a Iogear GBU521 dongle (was very cheap) and now EVERYTHING runs perfect: Continuity, Handoff, Airdrop, Wifi etc. I strongly recommend you to buy the same dongle. Way easier than replacing Airport card. So I lost some money, but everything works now :-)
Merry christmas...
@michaeltilst Which is the chipset of your Wifi card? Is it a Atheros or a Broadcom? Have you disconnected the old BT module inside the iMac?
I want to perform the same update but I saw that "Atheros Wi-Fi AirPort cards will prevent Continuity from working even when adding a Bluetooth 4.0 dongle. The System Diagnostic feature of CAT tells which Wi-Fi brand is active. There are no workarounds and no patch is expected to change this, an AirPort card upgrade is required."
I love your dongle solution by my AirPort card is Atheros and I am afraid it will not work:( I saw that the airport replacement works but requires doing some wiring between the airport adapter and the bluetooth connector. However, I want to make the tweak reversible and this is quite difficult.
michaeltilst, can you use the built-in Atheros wifi card AND an Iogear GBU521 dongle to get all the Continuity, Handoff, Airdrop, Wifi etc. to work? Or do I still need to open up my iMac and put in the Broadcom card with the new adapter?