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Insignia NS-PCY5BMA Bluetooth 4.0 – El Capitain

Posted on 21st January 2016

Insignia NS-PCY5BMAOSX El Captain has been full release now for a handful of months and has even had a few updates since it’s release. Current version is now at 10.11.2. As we have seen with past OSX upgrades and the Insignia NS-PCY5BMA Bluetooth 4.0, edits have to be done in order for the system to recogize the bluetooth dongle. However, changes in 10.11 have also brought a slight change to the patch needed in order to get functionality restored for the dongle.

This guide will only cover what is needed to get the dongle recognized by El Capitan. For more indepth information on how to get this to work in Yosemite with Handoff, please look at my previous article: http://www.dersoldat.org/?p=1286

Edit Kext to Recognize the Dongle

To get the builtin Kext for the Broadcom BCM20702A0 to recognize the Insignia dongle, we need to add the devices Product and Vendor ID to the kext file. The kext that we need to modify is /System/Library/Extensions/IOBluetoothFamily.kext. Make a copy of it and place it on the Desktop. Once it is copied, right click on it and select “Show Package Contents” to reveal the folder “Contents”. Open the “Contents” folder and then the “Plugins” folder. In there you will see another Kext called “BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport.kext”.  Right click on that and select “Show Package Contents” and then navigate to “Contents”.

You should now see the “Info.plist” which is where we will make our edits. Open this with TextEdit (You may need to right click and select Other to pick TextEdit) and add the following code:

<key>PID 569 0x0239 VID 6655 0x19FF</key>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport</string>
<key>Dongles</key>
<dict>
<key>Best Buy</key>
<string>NP4.0</string>
<key>Insignia</key>
<string>BT V4.0</string>
</dict>
<key>IOClass</key>
<string>BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport</string>
<key>IOProviderClass</key>
<string>IOUSBHostDevice</string>
<key>idProduct</key>
<integer>569</integer>
<key>idVendor</key>
<integer>6655</integer>
</dict>

This will work for the Insignia model that we have here, but the same edit should work for most that use the same chipset. You just need to find the Product ID and Vendor ID and convert it from Hex to Integer. In our example the Product ID in hex is 0x0239.

Bluetooth should now show the adaptor and it's settings.

Bluetooth should now show the adaptor and it’s settings.

To convert it to an integer, go to this converter and input the Product ID minus the 0x. 0239 should come out as 569. Do the same for the Vendor id which 19ff becomes 6655 (again, omitting the 0x at the beginning).

Once you have the proper IDs in the Info.plist file, you can save it then close all windows. Now, you will need to use a Kext installer to replace the original IOBluetoohFamily.kext that still exists in your /System/Library/Extensions folder.

If the edits are correct, you should be able to reboot the computer and see the Device in the System Information window under Bluetooth.

A huge thanks to Guito Mendez, as he reported back to me about the edit that shows that IOUSBHostDevice has changed in El Capitan.

Handoff Activation

In Yosemite, I was able to to use CAT (Continuity Activation Tool) to allow older and non-support WiFi and Bluetooth cards to support Apple’s handoff. Unfortunately, the current Git version with experimental El Capitan support causes a kernel panic with my system. If you plan to try to use CAT (AT YOUR OWN RISK), then you need to at least make sure that you have a backup of IO80211Family.kext and a suitable way to boot into a recovery enviornment to remove the bad kext.

NOTE: You need to disable Apple’s SIP for you to be able to do a lot of these direct edits with the kexts. Look for documentaiton around that for Clover here at some point, but it is documented in other places already.

If a activation for El Capitan becomes available, I will post accordingly.

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Jurassic Systems

Posted on 5th March 2014

20140305-210438.jpgI typically do not write about specific links, especially which just being able to share the original post, but this gets an exception.

Most of us grew up watching Jurassic Park as kids. And we also remember Samuel L Jackson yelling PLEASE and a computer system that would not give him access to the main security grid. Heck, some have even wanted to mimic the iconic scene in our own loves. Well, now we can!

Venture over to Jurassic Systems and have a bit of 90’s nostalgia as you try to repair the damage to the Jurassic Park systems, only to be told that you did not say the magic word.

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From 2007 and into 2008

Posted on 3rd January 2008

2007 will always remain the year that presented new ways of thinking and challenges. If there was ever a year that was consistent in change, this would be it for me. The year started out with my parents moving to York, PA. I remained in Columbus for three months. In late March, I ended a 5 year career with UPS and packed up everything I could fit in my car and traveled to New York City to live with my sister. That proved to be a rough yet fun 5 months. In September, I once again packed everything in the car and returned to Columbus. The 8 months prior to this helped me find out who I was and what I wanted to do. My intention by returning to Ohio was to finish school. This is my only objective now. I began the process of returning to Ohio State and began exploring my career field more deeply. As the year came to a close, I changed into a more responsible and humble person. I now have motivating goals and dreams. I know have the courage to finish what I started. I met loads of new friends, experienced things I could never experience living in one city, and learned valuable lessons that will remain with me for ever. As I move into  2008, I know my goals and know what needs to be done to meet these goals. 2008 will now be the year of rebuilding and hard work. Come 2009, I will be almost half way to my goals.

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Christmas and Weddings

Posted on 19th December 2007

December is proving to be a month full of activities. I don’t mind this, but I do miss how slow it seemed that Christmas came. As a child, it always took too long. As an adult, it comes and goes quicker then a passing car.

This past weekend, my good friend and past rommate, Karl, got married. I had the honor of being his best man. This entailed not only a speech, but ensuring that everything is taken care of while they enjoy a nice week in Jamacia.

I can not wait to see my family in a few days. I am planning a trip to Pittsburgh for Christmas. It will be short since I have work to do back here, but it will be worth every sparing minute.

I inherited a laptop this week. It sports a pentium 4 3.0Ghz processor and ATI graphics. The WXGA screen is nice and is just as good as my monitors on the desktop machine. Ubuntu installs smoothly and detects the ATI card just fine. The only thing that needed down was to install the bcm43xx firmware. That too 2 seconds once plugged into the internet. So far I am happy.