Apple iBook That lacks factory-installed Bluetooth Bluetooth USB adapter Such as the Blue2 from

Orange Micro

Wire-wrapping wire

Electrical tape

Dremel tool

Small screwdrivers

Multimeter

Soldering equipment

that if you are going to try this, you do so at your own risk! You could seriously damage your lovely Apple product.

I originally figured that I would have to crack open the Bluetooth adapter and install just the tiny chip inside of it somehow. But a look inside the iBook showed that there was enough space for the entire adapter. I found the perfect spot behind the CD/DVD drive, near the fan.

Also note that there are a few new screws on these models, as compared to the ones shown on PowerBook Tech. Especially note the 3 next to the CD/DVD drive. Keep track of these. I always somehow end up with one left over.

 

Hack the Port

If you are looking at the bottom of the logic board with the USB ports on your left, you’ll see that each USB port has 6 solder points. The 2 outside points are power and ground, and are used to secure the port. The 4 tiny inside points are the actual connections you need to make. The illustration (on previous page) shows how they line up, facing the bottom of the logic board with the USB ports on your left.

It turns out that you can get to the solder points for the iBook’s USB ports without all of the unscrewing around, but I wanted to get a meter in there and be sure that I had the correct connections.

After finding where the points were, I took my handy Dremel to the plug on the Bluetooth adapter to remove some of the metal plug and expose the connections, as shown. I only removed a little bit of the metal; I didn’t have to go too far and didn’t want to risk cutting the connections.

For the connections to the USB contacts, I went to an electronics supply store (Main Electronics here in Vancouver) and asked for the thinnest wire they had. They recommended Wire Wrapping

Wire, which they said “the kids use for mods to PS2s and things.” Good enough for me!

This wire is thin enough to run over the logic board without taking up space, and the case cover fits over it just fine.

I soldered 4 wires to the Bluetooth unit, then connected them to the 4 corresponding contact points on the logic board. I didn’t need to use any additional solder on the contact points, since the wires were so fine.

I wrapped the connector end of the Bluetooth unit in electrical tape for insulation, and set it in the space I’d found for it. I then taped it in place, just like Apple does with its cables. A quick boot showed I had Bluetooth, so I screwed it all back together.

The only thing “bad” about this mod is that you can’t use the hacked USB port for other devices. I was hoping things would be daisy-chainable, but no luck.

 

Timothy B. Hewitt is a longtime Mac user who can’t leave well enough alone.

 

WONDERS OF MINUTE WORKMANSHIP

In the 20th year of Queen Elizabeth, a blacksmith named Mark Scaliot made a lock consisting of 11 pieces of iron, steel, and brass, all which, together with a key to it, weighed but one grain of gold. He also made a chain of gold, consisting of 43 links, and, having fastened this to the before-mentioned lock and key, he put the chain about the neck of a flea, which drew them all with ease. All these together, lock and key, chain and flea, weighed only one grain and a half.

Oswaldus Norhingerus, who was more famous even than Scaliot for his minute contrivances, is said to have made 1,600 dishes of turned ivory, all perfect and complete in every part, yet so small, thin and slender, that all of them were included at once in a cup turned out of a peppercorn of the common size. Johannes Shad, of Mitelbrach, carried this wonderful work with him to Rome, and showed it to Pope Paul V, who saw and counted them all by the help of a pair of spectacles. They were so little as to be almost invisible to the eye.

From Burroughs’ Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889.

Download a copy from manybooks.net/titles/ burroughsb1409114091-8.html.