How-To Bluetooth 5.0 USB Dongle [guide]

[stevee2112]

So this is very interesting and a concern that I was starting to land on.

On a separate thread: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/broadcom-wifi-bluetooth-guide.242423/

I have gone so far to switch to a more native card (but that has its own issues) to get the quality that I am seeking.

Regarding this dongle your response might in fact be the end of it, but that still does not really solve the issue of the hang on usage when attempt to actually use the microphone as an input device. But that could also be related to the air pods chip. /shrug

Any thoughts there?

Thanks you very much for your response and continued help!

 

[tokyocpu]

So this is very interesting and a concern that I was starting to land on.

On a separate thread: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/broadcom-wifi-bluetooth-guide.242423/

I have gone so far to switch to a more native card (but that has its own issues) to get the quality that I am seeking.

Regarding this dongle your response might in fact be the end of it, but that still does not really solve the issue of the hang on usage when attempt to actually use the microphone as an input device. But that could also be related to the air pods chip. /shrug

Any thoughts there?

Thanks you very much for your response and continued help!

I've now upgraded to Catalina, and on BOTH catalina and mojave I have 2 brands of Bluetooth 5.0 earbuds ---> Boltune and SoundCoreX, both earbuds and both versions never worked for Microphone input. When I go into the input in Sound preferences I can't get the microphone to work. If you go into twitter and search "Catalina Bluetooth" everyone with REAL MACs say Bluetooth is buggy under Catalina. I have the Xcode Bluetooth developer tool installed which works fine under Mojave, but now under Catalina if I choose audio options it crashes the tool. ALSO.... under Catalina I can't turn off Bluetooth (not really that much of a problem for me). I dont use microphone to do voice apps, I use my bluetooth earbuds with my iPhone to make calls on FaceTime, or cell, or on a VOIP app. But its not working for me either in Catalina, and wasn't working under Mojave.

 

[tokyocpu]

hey @tokyocpu/everyone, Quick question.

I also bought the FV-T919 BT along with the Laird because I wanted bluetooth 5.0. My plan is to use it with Mojave 10.14.6. From my understanding, I will need to disable the onboard wifi and BT disabled via the motherboard's bios right? So how do i go about disabling the FV-T919's bluetooth function so it picks up only the Laird's 5.0 bluetooth along with the Fenvi's wifi?

Sorry for the delayed response... The Fenvi-T919 bluetooth module is USB and works via a USB to motherboard-header cable. This is bad because it uses up a motherboard header that is really for the front panel usb. As long as you dont connect a USB motherboard cable to the Fenvi, you are fine. The Laird works out of the box in catalina, so just plug it in. Let me know how it goes!

 

[theah23]

I got this device in today. I've got the BCM94360CD and adapter like mjban, and it works just fine (mostly), but I wanted BT 5.0 because of some of the limitations in 4.0 (in 4.0 when you put it in microphone mode like for a Zoom chat, it knocks the headphone quality down to 8khz (very unacceptable! - SCO codec)), whereas with 5.0 it won't (fresh and clean! - well, mSBC has it at 16 kHz)). I got it working using the BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext method, but it's nowhere near as fast to respond as the Broadcom. For example, pairing is much slower. Also, Handoff and Continuity are much noticeably slower/less reliable with the Laird than with the Broadcom. I've still got some tinkering to do to see if it's something in my config or placement, but I may just be putting this back in the box and sending back if I can't make much headway soon.

Also for what it's worth I couldn't get Apple Watch unlock working with either the BRCM or the Laird.

Actually I rebooted without loading those kexts or patches and I can see the device and it pops up as my preferred bluetooth device out of the gate. Still same sluggish handoff stuff (if I open Safari or Mail on the iPad it takes four to five seconds to register on the Mac desktop; with the Broadcom it's immediate. The interesting thing is that switching apps on the Mac desktop register immediately on the iPad with either the Laird or the Broadcom. Hmmm)

I have the same issue--I am actually on a laptop using the BCM94360NG card from Fenvi. It has native BT/handoff/continuity support but I can't get mSBC to work on macOS. This card only supports BT 4.0, but on Windows, I can get the full 16 kHz microphone audio whereas on macOS, I can't (using Galaxy Buds+).

Is BT 5.0 a requirement for mSBC on macOS? Seems weird that it works fine on Windows--it would be annoying if BT 5.0 was the limitation on macOS.

 

[Dersnap]

I also have this Laird USB Device and it seems it is recognized in the Bluetooth panel. Problem that I have though is that it will see other BT devices but when I go to connect it sort of starts to connect then never really does. Keeps repeating this process.
Other BT dongles I tried also do this so I am thinking it is not really device related?
When it connect to something like iPhone it will get as far as the passcode but nothing more.

Forgot to mention I am on Catalina 1015.6 and have tried various USB ports

 

[sruiz123]

I cannot get the microphone of my Bose QC35 working with the Laird dongle. Audio does work. When I try and select the microphone it freezes. The same thing happens when I use the BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext from @mjban. I am running Mojave.

 

[Dersnap]

I will add something in what I believe might be the problem. When I edit the kext I realized it is not saving. I turned of SIP but it seems I still can not get access right to save. Even with :! commands in VIM.
Anyone know away around this?

 

[Feartech]

I will add something in what I believe might be the problem. When I edit the kext I realized it is not saving. I turned of SIP but it seems I still can not get access right to save. Even with :! commands in VIM.
Anyone know away around this?

copy the kext to your desktop, make your changes and then save and then install the kext

 

[Dersnap]

Tried this, rebooted and I am still in the same situation where it connects to a device for a few seconds but never fully finishes and then restarts the connecting process.

I am sure there is something simple I missed but no clue where.

 

[ibizalove]

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.