How-To Bluetooth 5.0 USB Dongle [guide]

[theah23]

THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!! I went through several failed attempts at a BlueTooth dongle for my Mac Pro and this baby worked. Literally I bent down to plug it in and when I raised my head back up Bluetooth was already in the menu bar and my headphones were connected!!! I have not tried this on my Hackintosh EliteBook but will follow your steps if needed. With the Mac Pro it was plug and play! Thanks again for this beautiful and affordable solution!

UPDATE: I plugged the dongle into my Hackintosh EliteBook 840 G3 and it worked right out of the box with no configuring neccessary. I don't even see the internal BroadComm BlueTooth card when I have the dongle plugged in which is excellent because that thing is aweful as far as Bluetooth reception and connection. This dongle automatically takes pesedence which is really convenient.

That's awesome! Glad it worked--I'm also thinking about pulling the trigger and picking one of these up. Does the microphone on your BT headphones work with this dongle? I've heard mixed stories so just wanted to get another data point!

 

[ibizalove]

That's awesome! Glad it worked--I'm also thinking about pulling the trigger and picking one of these up. Does the microphone on your BT headphones work with this dongle? I've heard mixed stories so just wanted to get another data point!

So it looks like this dongle is audio output only. I could not get it to work at all with cellular calling from my Desktop and my Laptop. When making a call with my BT851 donge connected bluetooth headphones as the audio device there is no audio output or input from the headphones. I think Apple has specific protocols to get audio working with desktop cellular calling. Let me know if you have different results.

 

[theah23]

So it looks like this dongle is audio output only. I could not get it to work at all with cellular calling from my Desktop and my Laptop. When making a call with my BT851 donge connected bluetooth headphones as the audio device there is no audio output or input from the headphones. I think Apple has specific protocols to get audio working with desktop cellular calling. Let me know if you have different results.

Aw darn, I see. I was actually thinking of picking one of these up because the Bluetooth audio quality is horrendous on my Hackintosh when using the mic. I know the 2018+ MacBook Pros have better quality (for some reason, Apple only enabled it on BT5 Macs it seems) so I was thinking of trying a BT5 module. Others have reported the same mic issue as you so looks like no luck on that front.

 

[tschwicht]

Anyone get the mic working? This was plug and play for me and the connection is great. Haven't installed the T8E I just picked up super cheap used for handoff but I don't really use it anyway and connect via ethernet, just wanted to try and get it working.

My bluetooth 4.0 adapter isn't working with mic either unfortunately with this new set of headphones. I wonder if I just need to get a fenvi card.

 

[NotMexican]

New to the hack scene.

How did you find this BT adapter @tokyocpu ?

I was doing digging of my own and found this page on digikey with a few more cypress-broadcom m.2 adapters

I'm fairly certain these are not for personal computing, but could one be used in a hack with appropriate meddling as done in this thread ?

 

[tokyocpu]

New to the hack scene.

How did you find this BT adapter @tokyocpu ?

I was doing digging of my own and found this page on digikey with a few more cypress-broadcom m.2 adapters

I'm fairly certain these are not for personal computing, but could one be used in a hack with appropriate meddling as done in this thread ?

I was looking for bluetooth 5.0, and the chip number "20704" is the same/similar to Broadcom. There was other versions that were bluetooth 4.2, and DigiKey had the 5.0 version. This chip DOES NOT NEED FIRMWARE INJECTION.... its ready to go when it turns on, unlike other bluetooth usb. I am not sure on the m2 adapters, they would need to have the same exact chip most likely.

 

[ibizalove]

Any updated instructions for Catalina? The Laird BT851 dongle won't connect under Catalina 10.15.7. I had to add three kexts to my Clover kexts "other" folder manually to get the internal Broadcom bluetooth to work but unfortunately those three kexts did not work for the Laird dongle. The Laird BT851 shows up and connects quickly to my headphones but without the confirmation bleep sound and then it quickly disconnects.

UPDATE: Switched to OpenCore deleted and re-added my BlueTooth headphones and working fine now!!

 

[mdecorte]

I purchased the Laird BT851 and it's working fine with my headset for audio out, but no luck with the microphone. I tried with different headsets (Sony WI-SP510 and Beats Flex) , and on both my Hack and 2015 Macbook Pro. Everything works fine when using GMYLE Bluetooth 4.0 USB adapter, or the Macbooks internal BT.

I see several references to issues with microphones and the BT851 and no confirmation of it working.

Has anyone been successful in getting the microphone working with the BT851?

thanks

 

[coniman97]

Hi guys, I would like to buy this BT851 for my Hackintosh. I currently have a Fenvi T-919 but bluetooth range is horrible. My Magic Mouse is laggy and the Magic Keyboard misses some keys. I use OpenCore and I also have Windows 10 installed. The problem is that if this dongle doesn't have HID Proxy I won't be able to control the keyboard until the OS has loaded, so I can't boot to Windows or BIOS. Can someone confirm if the dongle has this function?
Thanks.

 

[Hackintoshron]

Hi guys, I would like to buy this BT851 for my Hackintosh. I currently have a Fenvi T-919 but bluetooth range is horrible. My Magic Mouse is laggy and the Magic Keyboard misses some keys. I use OpenCore and I also have Windows 10 installed. The problem is that if this dongle doesn't have HID Proxy I won't be able to control the keyboard until the OS has loaded, so I can't boot to Windows or BIOS. Can someone confirm if the dongle has this function?
Thanks.

The Laird from Digikey works fine on my Hackintosh plugged into a USB port on the front (works on the back too). I unplugged my Fenvi T-919 completely taking it out and plugged in a WiFi adapter USB key. Works fine, just no AirDrop or Continuity features work. When I had the Fenvi in, the BT851 was sporadic. Later I saw that I needed to delete the Bluetooth plist file and the BT851 started to work very well. I'll try it again with the Fenvi to see if I can get it to place nice and restore Continuity. I'm in Big Sur too.

EDIT:

Hope this helps:

First, I have a Fenvi T-919 card and it works. Hand Off and Continuity and everything. But, sometimes my Apple Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Keyboard (mostly the mouse) lagged or dropped off sometimes. I've been wanting to upgrade to Bluetooth 5.0 in order to alleviate this behavior with Bluetooth but there is no Broadcom-based Bluetooth 5 pcie adapter that I could find that is compatible. Unfortunately, the Fenvi is a package deal with both Wifi and Bluetooth and HandOff and Continuity don't seem to work with anything but the broadcom chipsets. So I decided it was time to separate the two but keep the Fenvi's WiFi. I did this by unhooking the little cable that plugs into the USB motherboard header (or splitter if you are like me and have more than one internal device) and that effectively disables the Broadcom card's Bluetooth hardware in favor of my new $11 USB Bluetooth 5.0 BT851 chipset adapter I got from Digikey (https://www.digikey.com/en/products...8251358?s=N4IgTCBcDaIEIBUAcBWAjAWgHIBEQF0BfIA) which I found because of this thread: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/how-to-bluetooth-5-0-usb-dongle-guide.287115/. The adapter is compatible with Big Sur out of the box. I did have to re-pair all my Bluetooth devices and erase the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file from the /Library/preferences folder (the one where you first open your boot drive, not the one in your user folder). After that, I'm using the USB adapter's Bluetooth 5 now and the Fenvi's wifi together with HandOff and Continuity still intact. Seems to work pretty well. Hope this helps.