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Dell Truemobile bluetooth connector pinout?

post #1 of 18
6/24/08 at 3:12am
Thread Starter 
Hey guys, from what I have read and researched, the Dell Truemobile bluetooth connector on the motherboard just appears to be a USB port. What I wanted to do was use a generic bluetooth module and wire it to the Dell Truemobile bluetooth connector but I need the pinouts. There seems to be 10 pins but on USB there is only 4. Could someone help me out here? Thanks. And anyone know where to get the cable for really cheap?

PS. I have an Latitude X300 and disassembled the laptop entirely looking for a contact points for a possible USB connection on the motherboard. I thought there would be some because there are many USB hubs listed in device manager but only 2 ports on the actual laptop itself, but I couldn't find any so I am trying to work with the Truemobile connector.
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post #2 of 18
6/24/08 at 7:42pm
The Latitude X300 uses a different Bluetooth adapter than the newer Laptops do AFAIK. I think it's similar to the D600's BT module that uses a ZIF connector rather than the little cable.

But yes, that port is USB, and USB is technically 5 pins if you count the 9th shielding pin on a motherboard header.
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post #3 of 18
6/24/08 at 9:17pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I have disassembled the laptop and found that the connector is not the ZIF one. It is one just like a lot of Dell laptops like the Inspiron 9300.
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post #4 of 18
6/24/08 at 9:33pm
Thread Starter 
I think I may have found the pinouts. I found the one for some Dell Bluetooth module named RD530 and have only found the pinouts for that module but not the pinouts for the motherboard connector. I heard that on some laptop there are only 8 pins so would anyone have the pinouts for dell laptop motherboards?
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post #5 of 18
6/25/08 at 2:48pm
I'm pretty sure the pin-out for the motherboard end is the same as the Bluetooth module end. In fact I know this because I've often had to migrate the BT cable to a new motherboard and haven't bothered remembering which end is which. So the connector on the mainboard is the same too.

Now, if you use a USB Bluetooth adapter you'll have the four pins for the USB device. HOWEVER your BT Indicator won't work and you won't be able to deactivate the BT the same way as the Dell module.

That being said, I don't think the Dell BT adapters are that expensive on fleabay. But to each his own.
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post #6 of 18
6/25/08 at 2:53pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrEvil View Post
I'm pretty sure the pin-out for the motherboard end is the same as the Bluetooth module end. In fact I know this because I've often had to migrate the BT cable to a new motherboard and haven't bothered remembering which end is which. So the connector on the mainboard is the same too.

Now, if you use a USB Bluetooth adapter you'll have the four pins for the USB device. HOWEVER your BT Indicator won't work and you won't be able to deactivate the BT the same way as the Dell module.

That being said, I don't think the Dell BT adapters are that expensive on fleabay. But to each his own.
Yeah I see them going for about $25 on Ebay and with the cable is an extra $10. Other bluetooth dongles can be had for $5 and wish to incorporate that into the laptop. Do you know where I can get the cables for really cheap? The laptop itself does not have the cable already in there.
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post #7 of 18
6/26/08 at 12:54am
Thread Starter 
Actually, I just found a cable inside my Inspiron 9300. Can someone please tell me which color wire corresponds to pin 1 according to the word document that I posted.
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post #8 of 18
6/26/08 at 8:58am
I'll check on my D820 and see, I can't do it right now, but I beleive Pin 1 is marked on the motherboard. I can tell you what color the wire is, but I can't guarantee that our laptops will have the same color code.
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post #9 of 18
1/4/09 at 8:37pm
Thread Starter 
Sorry to bring this old thread back but I now have a D430 and wish to do this again. As I was looking at the cable, the connector is labeled on which end is pin 1. The odd thing that I have found is that they are different on both ends, they are actually reversed on either side of the connector. So Pin 10 on one side is Pin 1 on the other side, this has me really confused not and am unsure of where to go from here. I just need to know which pins are ground 5V and the USB data pins.
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post #10 of 18
1/5/09 at 10:10am
Pics, please? Quite an interesting project to share.

cheers ...
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post #11 of 18
1/7/09 at 2:07pm
Unfortunately, I don't think there's any consistency with the color scheme on these cables. My cable on my D820 is a rainbow. The color order (as best as I can see, these are some DAMN TINY wires) is as such:

Pin1
Black
Brown
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
Grey
White
Pin 10

The pins are in the same order on the motherboard end.

Mind you that's what's on my D820, which I am looking at right now (Disclaimer: Never disassemble your laptop while it is running. I pretend to be an expert but I am just a professional idiot, don't try this at home.).

The D430 and D420 shipped with pretty much the same BT card I have in my Laptop so the connector on the mainboard should be the same. I hope that helps, if you have the cable you should be well on your way.
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post #12 of 18
3/23/09 at 6:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by imjohnphan View Post
Yeah I see them going for about $25 on Ebay and with the cable is an extra $10. Other bluetooth dongles can be had for $5 and wish to incorporate that into the laptop. Do you know where I can get the cables for really cheap? The laptop itself does not have the cable already in there.
I did exactly that with the following pin out,
Quote:
Originally Posted by imjohnphan View Post
I think I may have found the pinouts. I found the one for some Dell Bluetooth module named RD530 and have only found the pinouts for that module but not the pinouts for the motherboard connector. I heard that on some laptop there are only 8 pins so would anyone have the pinouts for dell laptop motherboards?
Pin#
Module Pin Name
Usage for Platforms
Description
1
GND
GND
Ground
2
USB_D+
USB_D+
USB Data +. Must be routed with USB_D- as a 90 Ohm differential pair.
3
USB_D-
USB_D-
USB Data-. Must be routed with USB_D+ as a 90 Ohm differential pair.
4
USB_PWR
USB_PWR
This is a 5V rail that is used by bus-powered USB devices. The module does not actually draw power from this pin, uses this pin to detect whether the USB host port is powered so as to avoid latch-up conditions.
5
RSVD
Test Point, COEX1
Reserved. This pin may be used for resolving coexistence with the 802.11 radio(s) on the MPCI card in the platform.
6
HW_RADIO_DIS#
HW_RADIO_DIS#
Active low input from the platform to the card to disable all the radios onn the module from transmitting.
7
RSVD
Test Point, COEX2
Reserved. This pin may be used for resolving coexistence with the 802.11 radio(s) on the MPCI card in the platform.
8
+3.3V
+3V_SUS
This is the rail from which the module powers itself (as a self-powered USB device
9
LED_BT_RadioState
BT_RADIO_ON
Active-high LED drive signal for indicating the state of the Bluetooth Radio. This LED should not have a flashing feature
10
GND
NC



I use a JST 1.0 mm connector and hook up pin 6/8/9 together, solder corresponding pin to USB BT dongle.

It works in M1330 just fine except I can't turn on/off the BT led using either the side panel switch or Fn F2. Anyone knows how the get this part working?

The Dell driver (Widcomm) does not recognize the hardware. Vista native driver works and IVT works.
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post #13 of 18
3/23/09 at 10:42pm
Only the Dell Bluetooth cards work with the switch, it's a hitch in their drivers and firmware. If you're using another brand that's hacked to the port it won't work with those features.
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post #14 of 18
3/24/09 at 11:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrEvil View Post
Only the Dell Bluetooth cards work with the switch, it's a hitch in their drivers and firmware. If you're using another brand that's hacked to the port it won't work with those features.
I was hoping the 3.3 V supply pin is switch off when BT is disabled like it did in a ACER3680. It appears there may be a layer of software/firmware between the switch and the pinout signal to prevent that fro happening. There is a older version of Widcomm driver out there that is supposed to support CSR, do you think that would make the switch work?

Well, try it and the Widcomm 5.xxxx works with CSR in Vista. However, the switch and Fn F2 do not work. Out the CSR dongle mod.
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post #15 of 18
6/6/09 at 7:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by s95136 View Post
I did exactly that with the following pin out,

Pin#
Module Pin Name
Usage for Platforms
Description
1
GND
GND
Ground
2
USB_D+
USB_D+
USB Data +. Must be routed with USB_D- as a 90 Ohm differential pair.
3
USB_D-
USB_D-
USB Data-. Must be routed with USB_D+ as a 90 Ohm differential pair.
4
USB_PWR
USB_PWR
This is a 5V rail that is used by bus-powered USB devices. The module does not actually draw power from this pin, uses this pin to detect whether the USB host port is powered so as to avoid latch-up conditions.
5
RSVD
Test Point, COEX1
Reserved. This pin may be used for resolving coexistence with the 802.11 radio(s) on the MPCI card in the platform.
6
HW_RADIO_DIS#
HW_RADIO_DIS#
Active low input from the platform to the card to disable all the radios onn the module from transmitting.
7
RSVD
Test Point, COEX2
Reserved. This pin may be used for resolving coexistence with the 802.11 radio(s) on the MPCI card in the platform.
8
+3.3V
+3V_SUS
This is the rail from which the module powers itself (as a self-powered USB device
9
LED_BT_RadioState
BT_RADIO_ON
Active-high LED drive signal for indicating the state of the Bluetooth Radio. This LED should not have a flashing feature
10
GND
NC



I use a JST 1.0 mm connector and hook up pin 6/8/9 together, solder corresponding pin to USB BT dongle.

It works in M1330 just fine except I can't turn on/off the BT led using either the side panel switch or Fn F2. Anyone knows how the get this part working?

The Dell driver (Widcomm) does not recognize the hardware. Vista native driver works and IVT works.
Why did you join pins 6, 8 and 9? It seems like the pin 9 drives the LED showing whether or not the bluetooth module is on which on my D420 and D430 is green so I assume 2.2V to that line would turn the LED on because it seems to drive the actual LED itself based on the description. And why did you draw power from the 3.3V line? I thought you would use the 5V line because that is what USB uses, and thus you could possibly disable the bluetooth to save power through the device manager in the OS. It seems like pin 6 sends the signal to turn on or off the module which I would assume most USB dongles don't have.

USB modules are now about $2.50 including shipping and are super small so it seems like this route would be a cheap way to go, especially when I have 3 laptops to do this to (D420, D430, and Latitude XT)

I have the bluetooth module installed in a XPS M1330 and will see if my theory on pin 9 directly powering the LED. And if that's the case, you could simply solder the pin 9 line to the LED indicator on the module thus lighting the LED.
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post #16 of 18
6/15/09 at 2:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by imjohnphan View Post
Why did you join pins 6, 8 and 9? It seems like the pin 9 drives the LED showing whether or not the bluetooth module is on which on my D420 and D430 is green so I assume 2.2V to that line would turn the LED on because it seems to drive the actual LED itself based on the description. And why did you draw power from the 3.3V line? I thought you would use the 5V line because that is what USB uses, and thus you could possibly disable the bluetooth to save power through the device manager in the OS. It seems like pin 6 sends the signal to turn on or off the module which I would assume most USB dongles don't have.

USB modules are now about $2.50 including shipping and are super small so it seems like this route would be a cheap way to go, especially when I have 3 laptops to do this to (D420, D430, and Latitude XT)

I have the bluetooth module installed in a XPS M1330 and will see if my theory on pin 9 directly powering the LED. And if that's the case, you could simply solder the pin 9 line to the LED indicator on the module thus lighting the LED.
As I mentioned in last post, I was counting on being able to switch off the 3.3 V power to the Bluetooth module. This way it would also turn off the LED and pin6. It works great for the Acer3680. Although external USB port may use 5V supply, internal one most likely use 3.3V. I had this one working just fine, sending and receiving from my cell phone. My only problem is not being able to turn on/off the BT led using either the side panel switch or Fn F2.

If you have sucess, please post to share.
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post #17 of 18
6/23/09 at 1:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by s95136 View Post
As I mentioned in last post, I was counting on being able to switch off the 3.3 V power to the Bluetooth module. This way it would also turn off the LED and pin6. It works great for the Acer3680. Although external USB port may use 5V supply, internal one most likely use 3.3V. I had this one working just fine, sending and receiving from my cell phone. My only problem is not being able to turn on/off the BT led using either the side panel switch or Fn F2.

If you have sucess, please post to share.
After reading this thread I got confused about Power pin connection to the bluetooth USB dongle. Can you please tell if 3.3V wire or 5V wire from the motherboard should be connected to the 5V pin on the dongle? According to USB specification, 4 pin USB dongle has VCC (5v), D-, D+, & GND pins. So I'm talking about VCC pin connection to the motherboard (see attached DOC file with pins layout on the previous page):

VCC----> to pin #4? OR VCC--->to pin #8?
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post #18 of 18
6/26/09 at 12:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by juzzie View Post
After reading this thread I got confused about Power pin connection to the bluetooth USB dongle. Can you please tell if 3.3V wire or 5V wire from the motherboard should be connected to the 5V pin on the dongle? According to USB specification, 4 pin USB dongle has VCC (5v), D-, D+, & GND pins. So I'm talking about VCC pin connection to the motherboard (see attached DOC file with pins layout on the previous page):

VCC----> to pin #4? OR VCC--->to pin #8?
I use pin#8 (3.3 v) ---> Vcc on the mini USB dongle. It works fine. I didn't try pin #4 (5V).
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