Wireless Airport Card Replacement with New 802.11ac

Hello. Can anyone confirm what version of Bluetooth is required for Mac Unlock using an Apple Watch? I'm excited to get Handoff, Continuity, and AC Wifi for my 2010 iMac, but the killer feature for my wife (it's her machine) would be opening her Mac with her Apple Watch. She has an Original Apple Watch Sport running the latest watchOS 3. I wanted to use the BCM94360CD card for its fourth antenna, but it seems to only support 4.0 and I'm afraid of choosing the wrong card without 4.1 support if that is required. Any help would be useful.

Thanks in advance to the ifixit community. I already replaced/upgraded a failing HDD in my iMac thanks to the help and guides found here and the ease of that job made me confident enough to tackle this project too!

I installed the BCM94360CD card on a mid-2011 24" iMac some time ago and it works perfectly for most things. From what I've read, copy on iMac and paste on an iPad or iPhone (I tried) and opening with the Apple Watch won't work on pre -2012 models. I've checked on System Preferences under Security & Privacy and the "Auto unlock with Apple Watch" option is missing.

You will have to figure out which framework works with this and edit it like I did here: replacing X7900 to T9300 for macOS Sierra install Is it worth it?

with the core brightness.frameworks to get nightshirt to work on older macs. Just because macOS Sierra is running doesn't mean that all functions of it will work unfortunately.

Alternatively, you could use clover boot loader with a smbios that tricks your Mac into thinking it's a newer model year and it will work then. But this can affect other things like USB ports and stuff. It's worth a try. I installed Clover on my 2007 iMac to make it think it was a late 2013 in order to get nightshift to work before I figured out how to edit the frameworks to have a 2007 model year work natively

After further research I may have misspoke here. It seems people upgrading to BT 4.0 and 802.11ac were getting it to work. Although they were useing BCM943602CS and BCM94360CSAX cards. Did you follow Apple's procedure in order to enable auto unlock?

Preparing to do the upgrade on my 27" 2010 iMac. Already ordered the Wi-Fi/BT card, the BCM94360CD. Found the U.FL extension cable for the BT antenna on data-alliance.net. Figured 18" would be plenty. The adapter card with USB I'll pick up on eBay. What I'm not figuring out is the additional antenna. How should it terminate? I'm finding plenty of U.FL to RP-SMA cables online, but I know that's definitely Not what I need here. I thought the antenna would simply terminate with no additional connector. Is that the case or should I be looking for something else? Again, thanks in advance.

[I have a 2007 imac 20"] - If you have pictures of your install of the combo card / adapter and any tips, I would be very appreciative. Updated my main CPU to a 9300 and installed the combo card ( BCM94360CS) and adapter but although my wifi works, my bluetooth function is not registering in ElCapitan anymore. I even tried changing the antenna leads (J1 & J2) but this did not work. Any suggestions since you had the same setup? Thanks for any help.

Kenneth, Sorry the testing I've now done show Apples current implementation is not leveraging the full throughput the 802.11ac standard offers. You see the number of streams is the key here. The current offerings only offer dual streams not the full three stream implementation to gain the full bandwidth. Because of that it makes no sense upgrading current 802.11n systems. There are also other issues here per a given system that also effects things. In all cases you're not getting what you think. Don't forget the limit of your link is the pathway and the far end devices ability to send or receive information. Current residential internet services can't supply the needed bandwidth and the far end server drives are often behind a firewall that packet shapes to limit a given sessions bandwidth so no one user consumes the available servers resources. Bottom-line here is unless you have your own high performance server hanging off its own 802.11ac AP there is not enough gain to upgrade currently.

Yes, in time this will change, but not now. Save your money, better options will be coming that will be worth upgrading your current 802.11n devices and network services.

Not following you here Clemens, Intel is not the maker of the WiFi board.

Hi Dan, My English is not perfect, but the question was "Can I swap out the original wifi card for an Intel 7260 card that gets 802.11ac?" For me that sounds like Paul would try to replace his existing original 802.11n Wifi card by an Intel 7260 802.11ac card. Is this misunderstood?

As mentioned it should work, physically. So far there is no EFI firmware lock against foreign / non-apple hardware parts in yours iMac. (Never tested) For example, HP has such restrictions in their laptop firmware.

However, I can confirm that a 2007 iMac Apple (Broadcom) Airport card is compatible with a 2006 iMac. First iMac has EFI64, second EFI32, - the card is still working perfectly under Mac OS X and Win 7.

But as I mentioned, - you will run with any Intel 7260ac chip based card into heavy driver troubles under Mac OS X.

The following (single band) 802.11ac card will probably work, - it's Broadcom BCM4360 based. (http://www.unex.com.tw/product/daxb-81) AND, most important, there exist a driver hack for Mac OS X.

I think you mixing things here. Depending on the iMac series you will have a PC Card or mSATA or now the M.2. In this model its a PC Card. But just because you have a standards based interface does not mean the OS can access the board. This is where the addressing is defined by the systems firmware (EFI). Different board manufactures use different addresses. While the same vendor may reuse the same address so as an example Broadcom different series boards will have the same memory address but it will be different than Intels' board. So swapping over between different Broadcom boards is more likely (Apple may even ask them to give them a special bd as well which they have in a few cases). Lastly, as you noted the OS drivers are an issue. Does Intel offer a OS-X driver (or did some one hack one together)? Not that I know of. So the bottom line here: I don't see this as a workable solution. And as you pointed out the antenna limitations also limit the benefit. Don't waste your time and money.

Sadly your system only has two antennas (2.4 & 5.0 GHz). So you really can't add the needed antennas to gain the full ability of 802.11ac. Here is a good reference to help you out: Wikipedia - 802.11ac. I would just get a AirPort Express unit to connect your system into locally via Ethernet. Then have it connect over WiFi to your Fiber modem. That way you can get the full benefit of 802.11ac (what your modems AP offers).

were you able to get handoff, continuity, and airdrop to iphones when upgrading the card?

Which wifi card did you upgrade to? Also, Do you know which location you put each antenna cable on the new card? Thanks!

Handoff, continuity etc work fine. Copy and paste to and from another device don’t. Open with Apple Watch apparently doesn’t work either but both these issues are reportedly due to being a pre-2012 model. I used the BCM94360CD card. I’m not sure which antenna connected to where but I followed the guides and encountered no problems. A word of warning. The screen data cable and the antennae are very delicate and could be easily damaged. If I find the guide I will post an image.

Hi Olivier Biot, - thanks for this feedback! Question, how and on which band you have tested the performance and what's your router?

According to the Wikidevi website (https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Broadcom_BCM94...) the BCM94360CSAX is like the BCM943602CS able to reach in 3x3 MIMO mode at the 5 GHz band speeds up to 1.3 Gbps. This is the same speed like the BCM94360CD has. However, because of it's fourth antenna the BCM94360CD can simultaneously run with 3x3 MIMO and Bluetooth 4.x. The BCM94360CSAX and the BCM943602CS will most likely fall back to 2x2 MIMO when BT 4.x is used on the same time.

Hi Clemens,

Note that as in the original explanation I also used the J2 connector for bluetooth, so yes it runs in 2x2 MIMO.

My router is a Netgear Orbi, with MU-MIMO and beam forming enabled, and i'm using the 5Ghz/80Mhz band. Reported TX Rate in OS X is 867Mpbs, and doing an internet speedtest I reached ~104Mbps, that is the maximum of my ISP Cable connection.

hope this helps,

cheers.

Thanks for the fast replay. Well, after searching the web I am not really wiser. ;) As mentioned, Wikidevi and several other sources defines the BCM94360CSAX as 3x3 MIMO capable with up to 1.3 Gbps performance. If that's really true, then the J2 connector is not Bluetooth-only, - it will be also used for the third 802.11ac (5 Ghz) stream. It is important to note that the max. stream capability has nothing to do with the MU-MIMO technique of the "second wave" 802.11ac standard (finalized in 2016). However, other websites defines the BCM94360CSAX as only 2x2 MIMO compliant, - totally confusing. The MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Late 2013) (which contains the BCM94360CSAX) is sometimes advertised as 1.3 Gpbs 802.11ac capable. Unfortunately there exist no official Apple documentation regarding the MIMO capability of their products, - very disappointing. :(

Update to my comment: According to the following article from The Register the MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Late 2013) is definitively capable to support 3x3 MIMO with 1.3 Gbps. This belongs then also to the BCM94360CSAX combo card! (At the screenshot it can be seen that BT was disabled for testing, - that may be a reason?) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/06/...

Well i did not have to go through all these considerations, since anyway my early 2008 iMac only have 2 built-in

wifi antenna, and since i wanted to anyway benefit from the bluetooth 4.0, so more than satisified with the result on my side ! Best of luck for your search/attemps on your side !

No worry Olivier, - I say thanks for yours feedback! And if you have the time and effort then just disable Bluetooth (in OS X) and check if the WiFi will connect at 1.3 Gbps to yours Netgear Orbi router. ;) :D

Tried again just now. One of the adapters fits ok, "just works", second one is marginal, the third one no way just falls right off.

U.FL connectors are designed to fail first on the "female" part, the one that is on the cable. That's a good design for a setup like this, where you don't want to connect/disconnect after installation... because you don't want the part soldered to your computer to fail. That would be bad.

SO: I think I may have squished at least one of these adapters. I tried to be very careful. I have re-assembled cell phones and laptop wifi parts before, but this piece was really difficult.

SO ORDER SIX OF THE ADAPTERS, FOLKS.

Also I just ordered another WiFi card from the eBay. If it turns out to be very different experience I will post update here.

(Would still be nice to know how to specify the U.FL connector size.)

So much help from this guide and the comments here, seriously I thank you all.

Hi Boyd, - the antenna adapter should be always of the MHF4 size. For that upgrade described here three female U.FL to MHF4 male adapter are needed. This is fundamental important, - any other size will NOT fit. Be aware, - there are several very similar connectors which are all described as M.FL. Unfortunately M.FL is a fully misleading term because it stands for different connector sizes. Some are just minimal larger, others are just minimal smaller. So, again as mentioned, - anything other then MHF4 will NOT fit.

The BCM94360CD card needs the same M.2 adapter like the BCM94360CSAX and BCM943602CS cards. Just search on ebay for "BCM94360CD BCM94331CD adapter card" and you will find A LOT. There is one for $5.98 with two mounting holes. This will be a prefect choice, - no washer is needed with that M.2 adapter model. Regarding the BCM94360CD card you do NOT need any antenna adapter. The BCM94360CD card uses the same U.FL connectors like the old 802.11n cards. Well, because it has a fourth connector an additional antenna is recommended. But don't ask me where to install it in the iMac, - I have absolutely no idea. ;)

Thank you, Clemens, for your fast reply! I mixed up the letters yesterday, sorry for my mistake. It says on one side of the card BCM94360CS, and on the other side it says BCM94360CSAX. It also has only 3 antenna plugs: J0, J1, J2. The position is like on the photos in your guide.

So would this M.2 adapter work? https://goo.gl/q0Fdp5

Also this means I need antenna adaptors? The only seller I could find on the internet is this one: https://goo.gl/VYKxHj

But I am worried the cord might be too short. Maybe I am searching for the wrong terms or maybe German google is not the right choice for searching. Any hints on if those adaptors I linked would work? Or another site that sells adaptors with longer cables? Thanks in advance! =)

here is what I bought on my side for the BCM94360CSAX :

antenna adaptor : http://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/U-FL-female-P...

airport card adapter : http://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/New-Mini-PCI-...

I put this in an early 2008 20" model, and the antenna cable adapter were more than enough, so no worries on your side, they should be long enough.

@denization

These are exactly the right parts, - perfect / perfekt! :) I would recommend these for the original ALU iMac line (2007 - early 2009). The other M.2 adapter posted by olivier.biot has only one mounting hole (on the upper left), so there is a washer needed (as seen on my photos).

The standard length of the antenna adapter is between 6 to 10 cm and this is really far enough. For the original ALU iMac line no longer length is needed! If you still want longer antenna adapter cables then you can specify this during the purchase, - just write ebay seller bydpete a message.

thank you for your support, clemens and olivier. i just ordered all the parts and am looking forward to installing the new wifi card. probably in one month from now... when everything will have arrived hopefully. i will repost on my success/failure =)

Hi Seb, - which Mac OS version you have installed? At first you should check the antenna config and the connection of the adapter cables. I have upgraded several original ALU iMac computers and have never noticed such a behavior. If the symptom still persist also with other / different access points then your BCM94360CSAX card may be faulty. There are many ebay sellers which offers this card, - some are described as new / unused others as refurbished. So it may be possible that you get a faulty one. :-( Furthermore there are different labeled BCM94360CSAX cards, - some include Chinese letters at the front. Therefore it could be that not all BCM94360CSAX cards are genuine Apple. ;-)

Hi Clemens, so I just did several tries to find the right one. I find a combination where wifi and bluetooth works correctly (handoff ...) J0 = WHITE, J1 = BLUE, J2 = BLACK.

everything is working

Again Hi Seb, - interesting, that was my original antenna config! I changed it then to the other one. Reason: Several other 802.11ac upgrade threads mentioned that J2 should be always Bluetooth. Whatever, it could be that there were some variability in the manufacturing process. As a consequence not all antennas will work with a 802.11ac card. The 5Ghz WiFi technique seems to be much more susceptible then the 2,4Ghz BT / WiFi one.

Whatever thanks for this hint! Will not this alternative antenna config in my thread. ;-)

Hi Seb & Clemens. In the midst of 2007 imac 20" upgrade also. Installed new 9300 cpu. installed wifi card BCM94360CSAX, as well as antenna adapters and wifi card adapter. El CApitan starts well. Problem is opposite of Seb - using J0 = WHITE, J1 = Black, J2 = Blue (like Clemens said), my wifi works fine but my bluetooth is non functioning (not available). Removed original bluetooth module from logic board also. I imagine this was needed. Is there any solution you could think of to get Bluetooth working again? DO I try Seb's antenna pattern above (J1 = Blue, etc.)? If I do switch them, how hard is it to unclip the snap connection on J1 and J2 on the connectors? If I don't use bluetooth, other than hooking up peripherys, are there other newer functions that use bluetooth that I would be missing out on? Because if it is too hard, I will just use a USB dongle type keyboard. ANy ideas/help appreciated. Thanks all.

(Also, there is a thread under https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/802... that says that you might be able to reinstate bluetooth by taking SIP on and then off, etc. - problem is that DOSDUDE sierra patch tool requires SIP to be off at all times for teh patch to work. So I am guessing that this solution will not work) ??

Maybe @nandor690 can help here. Until now, - I have never installed Sierra at an original ALU iMac line. This could be also a GPU driver related issue. So far I know the old Radeon HD 2x00 series is not officially supported by Mac OS Sierra. You could try to use the Save Mode of OS X and see if that brings somewhat.

thanks for your reply. i see. so far ive unfortunatelly not had the chance to plug in a corded keyboard to try save mode :/ ive got an nvidia graphic card tho.

What version of macOS Sierra are you on right now? Still having same issue?

Im on 10.12.5 and yes, still having the same issue. kind of annoying =(

Hi, I did the osxwifi upgrade at the beginning of the year and, so far, I haven’t had any WiFi/bluetooth problems. I am currently running High Sierra beta 6. My only problem is, as the ambient temperature is close to 40 Centigrade during the day, I occasionally have overheating problems, especially when using video. I installed smcFanControl which works well but is noisy so I have ordered a Sanyo San Ace B76 blower fan which I will attach externally over the warmest vent to suck the heat out. This should be a much quieter option.