Just an update to this - I bought a 'Plugable' BCM20702 dongle, stuck it in a 2009 iMac, and it works fine when the CSR one doesn't... So it looks like that's your solution.
Espruino is a JavaScript interpreter for low-power Microcontrollers. This site is both a support community for Espruino and a place to share what you are working on.
Just an update to this - I bought a 'Plugable' BCM20702 dongle, stuck it in a 2009 iMac, and it works fine when the CSR one doesn't... So it looks like that's your solution.