Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR Internal Module In A MDD FW800?

[Paralel]

Would the Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR internal module (A1115) that was used in the iMac (2006) work in an MDD FW800?

From what I've read they work in the G5 Power Mac systems and the modules that worked in those systems are known to be compatible with the MDD FW800. The socket appears to be compatible as far as the shape and number of pins.

However, I have no idea if the pinout is compatible. I wasn't able to find the pinouts for the A1115 nor the A1044 that is the native module for the MDD FW800.

I can get one for a really good deal so I'd hate to pass it up if it will actually work in my MDD FW800.

 

[Bolle]

arent those modules USB anyways?

if the socket looks the same Id just throw it in and try. I dont think apple changed the USB pinout on those just because they put it in another machine... except they got some reverse-psychology-kind-of-thing going on when it comes to saving costs :lol:

 

[Paralel]

I don't think they're USB, although it's entirely possible they hook into the USB bus internally like on some PC systems. Without a pinout it's more or less impossible to say without one hooked into a system sitting in front of me.

I decided at such a good price I might as well order one and see if it works. I figure if it does/does not work at least I can report back what happened so other MDD FW800 owners will know whether they are wasting their money or if this is a viable upgrade pathway to install Bluetooth 2.0 into their G4 systems.

One more bit of knowledge for the community is worth a few bucks.

 

[Gorgonops]

Those little bluetooth doodads that plug into a USB port and can be bought for less than $10 generally work fine with Macs, so unless you got a *really* good price on that service part I'm not sure why it'd be worth bothering. Saves a port, I guess.

Internal Bluetooth is almost *always* "electrically" USB unless the functionality is tacked onto another device. (There *may* be combo bluetooth/802.11 modules in some laptops connected via mini-PCI/PCIe but I haven't actually seen one.) There was an amusing problem we were having with Dell D600 laptops some years ago where users were complaining about their computer randomly beeping and telling them it'd found a "new USB device". Turned out that Dell had shoddily designed the laptop housing such that the Bluetooth module, which plugged into a fragile little connector on the motherboard beneath the palmrest, would flex back and forth enough to crack the solder under the plug. I personally cracked open several laptops and yanked out the Bluetooth board (usually the connector would come out with it) in order to quiet the complaining while the company waited for Dell to recall the defective machines. :^b

 

[Paralel]

Yeah, the only reason I'm trying this is to save a port. The damn thing only has two USB ports and those are taken up by my keyboard and mouse. I'm adding a USB 2.0 card to the PCI bus but it only has two ports on it so I really don't want one taken up with a bluetooth module.

 

[Gorgonops]

It slayed me how Apple around that era used to count the USB ports built into the keyboard in the total number of ports. I recall the iMac G4 literature where they simply added the number of ports on the system unit to the number of ports on the keyboard without accounting for the fact that in the real world *you'd have to plug the keyboard into one of the ports on the system unit before the ports on the keyboard could, you know, do anything*. If you're really charitable I guess that gives you the same gross port count as a PC with a USB keyboard *not* including a mouse passthrough attached, IE, one more than you actually get.

Heh, I guess that applied to the G4 towers as well.

Of course, the last 2003 (MDD-era) vintage PC motherboard I dealt with had six onboard USB 2.0 ports plus a header for two more on the front panel. Oh well. it's not like anyone's ever accused Apple of giving their customers *too much* for their money...

 

[Paralel]

Well, I plugged the module in and... absolutely nothing!

As far as my MDD is concerned there is no bluetooth module present.

Where should I start troubleshooting this?

I tried "dev / ls" in OF and as far as I could tell the system doesn't even see the device on the bus, however, I don't know the ID for the bluetooth module so I could have easily missed it.

 

[Gorgonops]

Without the pinouts of the sockets (of the respective machines) you're pretty much shooting in the dark.

A Bluetooth device will show on the "USB" device tree in System Profiler. (It shows as "Bluetooth USB Host Controller" on my Macbook Pro, I suppose I could check what the stock Bluetooth looks like on a G4 Powerbook as well.) If it's electrically active at all it should show up on that tree, even if it's not recognized as anything. (For instance, a silly USB missile launcher with no Mac driver shows as a "Composite Device" when plugged in.)

 

[Paralel]

It's not showing up anywhere.

From what I'm reading, if the Bluetooth kext can't match to an adapter with the correct ID then the bluetooth module doesn't get powered up. This would explain why the module isn't being seen anywhere.

Since this module wasn't meant for the G4 my bluetooth kext probably lacks the correct information.

Does anyone here have a "Mac Pro (1st gen.), iMac (17-inch Late 2006), iMac (20-inch Late 2006), iMac (24-inch), iMac (Early 2006 17-inch), iMac (Early 2006 20-inch)"? with an internal bluetooth module?

If so, please post the vendor ID and product ID so I can edit my kext to include this information.

 

[Gorgonops]

Even if the driver is incorrect a USB device should show up as "something". ("Composite Device" seems to be the default. I've just tried an unknown-to-OS X Belkin serial adapter and that's what it's called, same as the missile launcher.) The bus interface circuitry will be active even if the bluetooth functionality isn't initialized.

This command:

system_profiler SPUSBDataType

Will display *everything* the Mac detects on the USB bus. I'd suggest unplugging the module, running this and saving the output, plugging the module back in, and seeing if there is any difference. If it's there it should show the product and vendor id.

 

[Paralel]

Thanks. I'll give this a shot and see what comes up (if anything).