How to use a bluetooth dongle instead of built-in BT?

I'm having this exact issue on a 2013+ Mac Pro bought in 2014. Whenever I try to select the broadcom USB dongle and click activate the selection just changes back to the onboard bluetooth. Did you figure out how to get around this? There must be something in the policy that needs to be changed.

eatsnow wrote:

Just got an "Ultra Long Range Industrial" bluetooth dongle (BTD Bluetooth Dongle BT-6610). I want to use it instead of the built-in bluetooth because it has a much longer range.

How do I disable the built in bluetooth and enable the BT-6610?

I hunted down the "dongle" you mention and found it here. Based on what I see there I have a few questions:

1. What model Mac are you using? I know that with my late 2010 Mac Pro when I plug in my IOGear GBU421 BT dongle it disables the Apple built-in BT (which can be veified using that Host Selector in the BT Explorer as you discovered). However I've read in other discussion on BT dongles that this is not true for earlier models and the internal BT antenna needs to be disconnected.

2. Based on that page for your Bolutek device I see a picture of all the stuff that comes in the box. It shows a CD which it says contains drivers. Are there drivers on that CD required for the Mac? Did you install them? If your Mac is a 64-bit model are those drivers 64-bit?

And while not directly related to your problem, and somewhat off topic, I'm curious how these Chinese outfits can legally sell this stuff in the US. I thought unlicensed BT devices were legally limited by the FCC to about 30 feet (3 meters). Of course it begs the question why do you need such a range anyhow? Or maybe, contrary to the published specs, these things have been made legal to restrict their range to 30 feet and using the words "long range" is sort of equivalent to TV antennas being advertised as "HD" or "digital" 😀

Hi X42:

Your last paragraph intrigued me as I had the same impression:

I thought unlicensed BT devices were legally limited by the FCC to about 30 feet (3 meters)

Actually, 30 feet is 10 meters. 😉

Anyway, I researched and found this as part of a Wikipedia item:

Bluetooth is a standard wire-replacement communications protocol primarily designed for low power consumption, with a short range (power-class-dependent, but effective ranges vary in practice; see table below) based on low-cost transceiver microchips in each device.^[7] Because the devices use a radio (broadcast) communications system, they do not have to be in visual line of sight of each other, however a quasi optical wireless path must be viable.^[2]

Class	Maximum Permitted Power		Range (approximate)
	mW	dBm
Class 1	100	20	~100 meters
Class 2	2.5	4	~10 meters
Class 3	1	0	~5 meter

The effective range varies due to propagation conditions, material coverage, production sample variations, antenna configurations and battery conditions. In most cases the effective range of class 2 devices is extended if they connect to a class 1 transceiver, compared to a pure class 2 network. This is accomplished by the higher sensitivity and transmission power of Class 1 devices.^[8]

Apparently there are BT devices that will transmit about 300 feet. I did look at the FCC site, but quickly became confused in the technbabble.

Barry

Interesting. Thanks for looking that info up (and correcting my mistake).

So since the device's specs say its raw transimit power is 19dBm then that would imply it's a class 1 device according to that table from wiki. But the specs also say its range is anywhere from 2km to 30km depending on the kind of antenna used but the wiki chart says max range ~100 meters. Go figure 😉

I'm using usb dongle with broadcom chip.

open Bluetooth Explorer

Just select 'Bolutek" on "Host Controller Selecter" and push "Activate".

Then restart the computer.

I think this is only thing you need to do.

It seems while usb dongle is active, builtin BT is automatically being turned off.

I have the same problem, but I'm using a GBU421 dongle from IOGear. This device is widely recommended for macs, and the users manual says it works on 10.3.9 and higher. But when I called tech support, they told me it's not supported on 10.8. I used this device with no problems on 10.8 for 6 weeks, until one day it suddenly stopped working. When I plug it in, the Console reads:

10/6/12 3:13:22.000 PM kernel[0]: [BroadcomBluetoothHCIControllerUSBTransport][start] -- completed

10/6/12 3:13:22.000 PM kernel[0]: [IOBluetoothHCIController][staticBluetoothHCIControllerTransportShowsUp] -- Received Bluetooth Controller register service notification

10/6/12 3:13:22.000 PM kernel[0]: Using bluetooth controller switch policy "default"

Until today, I was able to switch using Bluetooth Explorer whenver I wished, but now it's stuck on the Apple controller. I don't know what the problem is, but I'm going to file a bug report.

I have this exact same problem! I also tried to use Bluetooth Explorer and the newest version I downloaded I don't believe has the ability anymore to switch your host controller. I cannot find the host controller option in the menu anymore. I am following steps from other threads and the images of the menus don't match up.

In 10.6 and lower the Assistant would setup an attached Bluetooth dongle, but he has been removed form the Utilities folder in 10.7 +. (He was the butler with the suite and tie icon.)

I work for a large company that uses 75% Mac. We have an Apple Rep and we have the ability to ask questions to Apple Engineers. I am working with my contact to find out how Apple expects us to connect an external host controller (BT Dongle).

I will share what I find out.

I am trying to connect this product

http://www.iogear.com/product/GBU321/

to a 2011 Mac Mini.

This thread/topic maybe long dead, but just in case. The current BT Explorer (4.0.9) does have thi option, its in the utilies menu -> HCL Seletion. And it appers to work, but my goal of using a BT dongle plugged into USB on a KVM switch to access a magic mouse on two differnt Macs has not been achived. The dongle is shown as active and appears to be connected to the magic mouse on one MBP, but when I swtich to the other even though it too shows the (now connected) dongle as acrivce, it can not find the magic mouse. or at least that is my current status.

The dongle I am using is a Kinivo BTD-300 (BT 3.0) which uses a Broadcom BT device.

Hi eatsnow

Did you ever find out how to disable your onboard bluetooth. I'm having an issue where I can select my iogear 4.0 from the list but after I click activate it just jumps back to the apple one

Bluetooth Explorer

You have to install Bluetooth Explorer, then open it, then in Bluetooth Explorer press command+K/utilties menu HCI Controller.

From there you can change the BT controller.

However, when you restart it will go back to the internal controller.

I have read that in 10.9 if you use the Bluetooth Explorer to change the controller it will stay on a restart. I have not updated the one machine I use the Bluetooth Explore for so I don't know if that is true or not. We just never turn it off! LOL