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Bluetooth USB Dongle Hack

Bluetooth Audio Dongle Hack

garethgareth
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Cheap BT audio dongle was missing any ability to enable pairing.
This quick hack made a junk part usable.

I bought this USB-powered BT audio adapter online a few months back for a couple of dollars.

I was puzzled when it arrived, as unlike other similar units, it did not seem to have any way to initiate BT pairing.

When powered it showed a nice blue LED - and that is all it did..  The enclosed 'manual' was useless.

Examining the PCB did not even show a location for a missing button. I could not find anything helpful online so I chucked it in the drawer and forgot about it.

This project write-up documents my efforts to make this device usable and hopefully will help someone else stuck with a similarly crippled Bluetooth USB audio adapter.

  • Read the silkscreen carefully..!

    gareth • 07/14/2025 at 03:54 • 0 comments

    I was initially inspired by [dmitry]s blog to see if I could maybe connect to the unit via it's UART and enable pairing-mode from there.

    I was able to find a relevant datasheet for the BT SoC (BK3256) and connected to the UART test-points (marked URX & UTX on the silkscreen).

    While doing this, I noticed that TP4 had a tiny label "ONKEY".. Could this be the button pad?

    Pulling this high with the device powered got me a flashing LED and the device popped up in my BT devices list! Success!

    I added a tiny switch from the parts bin, and with some hot-glue and a minor case-mod effected a working paring button.

    It is not uncommon for this 'throwaway' hardware to be shipped unfinished or in an unusable state, so I hope this simple fix helps save something else from the landfill/back of the drawer.

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Ken Yap wrote 07/14/2025 at 03:59 • point

I bought a USB BT dongle too. Initiating pairing was done from the PC. I think software activation is the norm these days.

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