So like many here, I have a front projection system that I game on and also picked up a Wii on Sunday to end up disgusted at the 11' sensor bar cable and general lack of component cables. Good job Nintendo, way to keep up the shortsightedness. We're not all 12 years old playing on 19" combo dvd/tv's in our bedrooms. Anyway, I digress.

Stuck without a way to make the console work as I needed a 30' sensor bar connection and not seeing anyone else take the plunge yet, I snipped my sensor bar wire in order to splice in an extension.

The wire is 2 conductor stranded and very thin. There's white fabric shielding around the wires and a couple strands of white shielding wrapped up with the wires. The 2 conductor wires are twisted. So, I stripped the lines back and separated to the two wires. Again, they are very fine, thin strands. One is red and one is orange.

I cut a short segment of 24 gauge, 2 conductor wire I bought at Radio Shack, and proceeded to solder it in for testing. I figured no sense using a huge wire length just to verify if this works. The sensor bar wire doesn't take to solder too well. It was resistant to sticking. Finally, though, I got the solder to stick and went to test.

I just got failure. The system wouldn't respond to the controller at all. I did all kind of tweaking. Power cycles and so on, but nothing fixed it. I thought maybe I had a bad solder connection as I did it myself and it was difficult to hold the wires.

So, I cut that splice out and re-soldered a new one. This time my wife assisted to hold the wires together and get a better connection. I went to test that splice and again failure. I was getting some voltage readings on the exposed wire this time, but it was intermittent. When I did get a stable reading, I got 7.8 volts DC.

Again I tried power cycling and different placement. Still the sensor bar ignored the controller. Finally I gave up and went to lead my World of Warcraft raid.

After the raid, I figured I'd give it one more time before bed. This time IT WORKED!!! I really don't know what changed or what was different, but the system responded to the Wii remote like nothing had changed. It was quick, responsive, and accurate.

Tonight, I'm going to cut the splice out and put in a full 20' extension and run the line through my basement to my gear closet properly.

As far as why it went from not working to working, I'm still at a loss. The instructions say to connect the sensor bar before powering on the system, and I was connecting and unconnecting the bar earlier without always power cycling. I guess it has some load detection/fault handling electronics logic perhaps. I do have some bright lights that can shine into my living room as well, so I'm not sure if they played a part.

Anyway, splicing the cable does work. You can also buy replacement bars from Nintendo.com for $10, so if you're stuck like I am and don't want to wait for months until some 3rd party solution is released, you can fix it yourself.

you might want to use solder flux if you can't get the wires to "stick."

The flux is what wouldn't stick. I wasn't taking 2 bare wires and heating them with a soldering iron hoping to make them stick together LOL. :)

It probably felt sorry for you for having to run a raid in WoW.

Sorry, recovering MMORPG addict, couldn't resist :P

A quick way to determine if your sensor bar is working is to look at it through the display of a digital camera. You should be able to see a cluster of five LEDs at each end of the bar.

It probably felt sorry for you for having to run a raid in WoW.

LOL, feels like that sometimes, but I enjoy it. We're progressing into Naxx now with a few bosses down so far. I GM a guild that's almost a year old.

A quick way to determine if your sensor bar is working is to look at it through the display of a digital camera. You should be able to see a cluster of five LEDs at each end of the bar.

I read that somewhere as well. Thanks for reminding me cause I forgot to try it later. I tried it with my original solder job and saw no lights. I should try it again with the working splice before I break it to extend it.

Certaintly shouldn't have any trouble with that distance if it's powering it with 7.8 volts DC. Resistance should be almost non-existant at 20'. I got a 9V battery to make a 120 ft loop a couple weeks ago with no loss or degradation. So good luck!!!

So is it possible to hook the bar itself to a power source instead of to the system itself? instead of even running a 20' cable you could have a 9v batter attached to it or something from 1' away.

This is what I want to know.

So is it possible to hook the bar itself to a power source instead of to the system itself? instead of even running a 20' cable you could have a 9v batter attached to it or something from 1' away.

Nice work - keep us posted on the 20' version.

If the sensor bar isn't attached - does the Wii still function? Or does it think there's a problem and stop you from playing?

This is what I want to know.

If the remote communicates directly to the wii, and the IR is only there to determine a coordinate to send back, this sounds like a great and easy solution. You may have to insert the male end into wii with a resistor, as I think the system checks to see if the connection is there.

Awesome! Thank goodness people are already playing around with this. I'd be perfectly willing to hack my cable and connect it to a battery if it can be done. I've never soldered anything in my life, but I'd be willing to try. If it is done, pictures would be really helpful! ;)

So is it possible to hook the bar itself to a power source instead of to the system itself?

I bought a switchable AC/DC power supply that runs up to 7.5 V as well. It's something I plan to hook up and try.

If the sensor bar isn't attached - does the Wii still function? Or does it think there's a problem and stop you from playing?

Yes, it stuff functions, but you can't access anything. Without the Wii-mote being used a pointer, you don't have any interface to select anything from the main menu, so the system is basically useless as you can't launch anything. I had hoped they'd let you use the analog stick on the nunchuk or the Wii-mote d-pad as alternate menu control, but nope.

Luckily, I did find out that pointing the Wii-mote just off axis from my kitchen light will operate the cursor for me.

I'll be playing with it a lot more tonight and tomorrow and should have pictures to follow as well.

I see - at least it doesn't put a big "Sensor bar not connected" sign up there, which means that if you manage to power the bar, it should work (providing the Wii doesn't need to receive any info).

So, what if you used five remote controls laid out to mimic the sensor bar and taped down a button on each to get the LED light on ... would that work? :)

So, what if you used five remote controls laid out to mimic the sensor bar and taped down a button on each to get the LED light on ... would that work? :)

It'll work with two. :)

An intrepid Wii user has posted an online video showing intermittent pointer reception using two TV remote controls in place of the sensor bar.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/21/tv-remotes-demystify-wii-sensor-bar/

My hack job works like a charm.

Radio Shack Power Adapter #273-1696
Radio Shack 6" Power Lead #273-1742

Cut your sensor cord.
Strip it back and separate the wires.
Red is power, orange is ground.
Solder the red wire to the black/white stripe wire of the power lead.
Solder the orange wire to the black wire of the power lead.
Set up your sensor bar by your screen.
Plug in the brick.
Play Wii.

Note that the Wii normally puts out 7.8 v. I have the adapter set to 7.5 and it works fine.

If you don't like this route, you can easily snip the wire and solder in an extension splice. I haven't tried this yet more than a 6" splice to test it out, but I have no reason to think longer lengths would fail.

I followed your directions to the letter JaremyP, even bought the same radio shack parts, and it works beautifully! Even with my old hand-me-down soldering iron and general lack of skill.

Now I can play on my projector's 100" screen with the wii tucked behind the couch along with the rest of my equipment.

Thanks for being the first one to bravely cut your sensor cord.

JaremyP you should wright that up and get pics and send it to a mod site so they can see what you did or make a ac adapter that just plugs into the connector and runs it that way you can make a lot of money

i just had another idea, leds get brighter the more voltage is applyed right? so it you use a external power supply you might bump the voltage up to increase the range on the ir leds so projection people can stand farther away.

JaremyP: awesome!! :) Thanks for the easy-to-follow directions. I think I'll pick up an extra sensor bar and give it a whirl. I'd also like to buy stick-on magnets to attach to the bottom of my projector screen.

My hack job works like a charm.

Radio Shack Power Adapter #273-1696
Radio Shack 6" Power Lead #273-1742

Cut your sensor cord.
Strip it back and separate the wires.
Red is power, orange is ground.
Solder the red wire to the black/white stripe wire of the power lead.
Solder the orange wire to the black wire of the power lead.
Set up your sensor bar by your screen.
Plug in the brick.
Play Wii.

Note that the Wii normally puts out 7.8 v. I have the adapter set to 7.5 and it works fine.

If you don't like this route, you can easily snip the wire and solder in an extension splice. I haven't tried this yet more than a 6" splice to test it out, but I have no reason to think longer lengths would fail.

Truly a pioneer - congrats - I shall be extending mine as soon as it arrives. (easier to hide than another power adapter for me).

My hack job works like a charm.

Radio Shack Power Adapter #273-1696
Radio Shack 6" Power Lead #273-1742

Cut your sensor cord.
Strip it back and separate the wires.
Red is power, orange is ground.
Solder the red wire to the black/white stripe wire of the power lead.
Solder the orange wire to the black wire of the power lead.
Set up your sensor bar by your screen.
Plug in the brick.
Play Wii.

Note that the Wii normally puts out 7.8 v. I have the adapter set to 7.5 and it works fine.

If you don't like this route, you can easily snip the wire and solder in an extension splice. I haven't tried this yet more than a 6" splice to test it out, but I have no reason to think longer lengths would fail.
Wow. A record. I was expecting a hack within weeks, not days. Well done, and thanks for sharing!

Nice finding. Just curious on how much amp is really needed. That radioshack adaptor, rated at 2000 mA, seems like overkill. Most 500-800 mA universal adaptors cost a fraction of that one.

My hack job works like a charm.

Radio Shack Power Adapter #273-1696
Radio Shack 6" Power Lead #273-1742

Cut your sensor cord.
Strip it back and separate the wires.
Red is power, orange is ground.
Solder the red wire to the black/white stripe wire of the power lead.
Solder the orange wire to the black wire of the power lead.
Set up your sensor bar by your screen.
Plug in the brick.
Play Wii.

Note that the Wii normally puts out 7.8 v. I have the adapter set to 7.5 and it works fine.

If you don't like this route, you can easily snip the wire and solder in an extension splice. I haven't tried this yet more than a 6" splice to test it out, but I have no reason to think longer lengths would fail.


so a question on this. so you're saying you don't have to have the sensor bar plugged into the Wii at all for it to work then? you simply cut the wire, provided power to the sensor bar and you're good to go?!

One thing I read though is that the Wii doesn't actually provide constant power to the sensor bar and instead flicks it on and off in a certain pattern. I think someone suggested that this was to remove the shakyness of the player's hands from the equation. Have you noticed that this is more of a problem using the sensor bar with an always on power source?

so a question on this. so you're saying you don't have to have the sensor bar plugged into the Wii at all for it to work then? you simply cut the wire, provided power to the sensor bar and you're good to go?!Yes that's right, as I did this mod to my sensor bar this afternoon so I could place it where I wanted (on top of my projector's 106" screen ;)). That universal power supply is definitely overkill for this application as there's no way it should need even remotely close to its 2A limit for this but I just bought that exact one anyway. :p

So who will be the first to hook it up to a rechargeable battery?

I can see Pelican selling replacement battery powered sensor bars aimed at people with projectors.

Nice. I did this this afternoon, replacing the power adapter with a 800mA multi-voltage from radio shack at 7.5v (pn 273-1667). Works like a charm, and is now sitting on top of my screen where I get much better response than the previous spot on my coffee table.

Another note is that I had to melt off the plastic coating on the red and orange wires, after they were seperated, before they would work.

Good job Nintendo, way to keep up the shortsightedness
While I agree that I wish Nintendo had supported more of high def.
That said, Nintendo isn't being shortsighted they are being different. This system isn't intended for high definition show off type graphics or giant 100 inch screen projectors.
Despite the fact that we are here on AVS forum I would say that most people aren't looking to play game systems on giant front projector screens.
The Wii will probably fit in very nicely with most set-ups. In fact, going by statistics more people probably have regular old Tv's than anything else.
Ultimately though why they chose to sell their digital cable online like the gamecube and not promote it in stores is beyond me.

I vote EXTREME shortsightedness.

Reggie said the other day that they expect 5 or 6 years from the Wii. HDTV penetration is just under 20% in the U.S. in Holiday 2006. By half of the Wii's lifespan 50% of U.S. homes will have HD. Japan has over 50% TODAY. By half the Wii's lifespan they will probably be near 100%.

The fact that Nintendo sold out of their Component cables os fast is certainly an indication that they were less than on the ball with their estimate of how many people who game have HDTVs.

Wireless Sensor Bar Mod:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/24/diy-wireless-wii-sensor-bar/

I can see Pelican selling replacement battery powered sensor bars aimed at people with projectors.
I checked amazon and I seen something called, "sensor bar extender" it cost like 13 dollars coming soon though.

1. I only have an AC adapter of 6V and 800mA.
Will it work with the sensor?

2. Do you need to cut the plug and leave it within the Wii?

Thanks.

Here's another sensor bar mod using candles...

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/26/todays-hottest-game-video-a-candle-in-the-wii/

wow, dr. k and frank are totally way wrong. res isn't everything. this is the perfect example. and imo, anybody putting a time on the wii is dumb. this is not your little brother's console. i'm playing it on a 92" screen off of an in72. no component cables. upscaled from 480i to 1080i through my pioneer elite 84 and it's incredible. aside from the nintendo servers being hammered, i've had zero issues. this is innovation. and it's pretty frickin' cool.

I would say that most people aren't looking to play game systems on giant front projector screens.

this is simply not true. EVERYBODY IS LOOKING to play game systems on giant front projection screens. and if they're not, someone ask them why not please.

1. I only have an AC adapter of 6V and 800mA.
Will it work with the sensor?

2. Do you need to cut the plug and leave it within the Wii?




I love talking to myself... :)


1. Yes, it works just fine.

2. It works without anything plugged to the Wii.


... and of course, thumbs up to JaremyP! He saved the Wii for all of us! :D

Great stuff.
So is there absolutely no difference during operation using external power?

Just to confirm a few things.

I notice no issue in terms of pointer steadiness. Others have, but it's usually been only for the first 10 minutes they use the Wiimote. I've noticed people tend to dip the controller when they push A and then complain that it isn't responsive. Well, duh, don't move and click at the same time... Anyway, I have no issue with the LED's constantly on.

The amps rating on the power supply I purchases is overkill. Again, I bought that one because it's flexible and I may use it for other projects too. You can probably save a few dollars to buy a lower amp, 7.5+ V supply. Radio Shack had a whole wall of them.

You do not need anything plugged into the sensor bar port on the Wii itself.

You could just as easily buy an open lead battery pack and make a wireless sensor bar as well. Again, just make sure you're giving it 7.5 V or better with reasonable current and it will work.

Thanks for the props everyone. :) It's fun to do something seemingly first, although I never did get pictures or information submitted so there'll be dozens of links available to other people doing the same thing as it's pretty easy to figure out.

HDTV penetration is just under 20% in the U.S. in Holiday 2006. By half of the Wii's lifespan 50% of U.S. homes will have HD. Japan has over 50% TODAY. By half the Wii's lifespan they will probably be near 100%.


I thought the US HD market was just under 6%?

Most people i know dotn have HD..i thought it was smart on their part to deliver a lower cost product to the masses..HD has not hit critical mass yet.

As a shareholder, that sounds like good business to me.

Hey guys,

I just became interested in the Wii the other day actually.... I was just looking forward to the ps3 before. Now I just want a Wii.... could care less about a ps3 right now.

Anyways, just thought I'd chime in and say I have a 120 inch screen with a Hi-def projector & why the hell would the average user not want to play on this?? :rolleyes:

Wow I really want a Wii..... Can Someone please pm me or let me know what's my best bet of getting hold of a wii this week??

6% penetration number is a few years old. Last year, or this year is the first year that there are more HDTVs sold than non-HDTVs in the US. Penetration is just about 20% now.

Of course a substantial percentage of those HDTV owners have no source for HD programming (and a substantial percentage of those think they are watching HD anyway) :rolleyes:

I did this mod yesterday and it works great. Only thing I noticed was that the option screen for sensor bar sensitivity works differently. I cannot get the 2 dots to blink like I did before. They are solid and only begin to flash at a sensitivity level of 1. But at this setting using the controller is a mess. I put it back to my "pre-mod" level of 5 and it works fine. So...I suggest calibrating sensitivity prior to doing this.

So do we know for sure that the Wii pulses the LEDs? Do we know what rate?

So wait..are you saying 20% of Americans buying a TV are getting HD? or that 20% of Americans have an HD tv?

60 million HD owners in the US? Can you give a source (not picking a fight, just curious)?

EDIT: I did find this at tvpredictions.com

" Washington, D.C. (November 22, 2006) -- High-Definition TVs are now in roughly 25 million U.S. homes, but they are often a source of confusion rather than contentment."

not quite twenty %, but thats surely a hell of a lot more than what I thought :). I still think it was the right move to stay from HD right now, however in five years it would be stupid not to support it.

That said, Im glad I got my component cables the day after the Wii launched.

25 million homes may be twentyish percent...remember they are looking at households not population...following numbers are made up....400 million people...3 people per household = 133 million households....20% would be 26.7 million households. My numbers don't come from any data, but I'm sure an entrepid young poster will be happy to track down real data :)

since i grajumacated from college, i figured you could put some resistors and a capacitor on the circuit to make it blink. would this work?

Okay, here is my situation and idea. I have a 92" rear projection in-wall system, and a 29" monitor in a cubby in the wall to the right of it. To preserve lamp life my 5 year old mostly plays games and watches TV on the small one. I have a matrix switcher so I can send any source to either display. With the Wii, this is troublesome as to where to put the sensor bar. Also, with the 3rd output on my switcher and my XBox 360, I can also send the signal upstairs to my bedroom. Great on the 360 since the bluetooth controller allows me to keep the console down in the main room and still works upstairs. For now, the Wii is going to both displays downstairs, with the sensor bar mounted under the 29" since it's the main use one for my son. It will work there for the projector too, but you are aiming the remote off to the side slighly for the menus, etc..

My idea is to get one extra senor bar (or two, if the Wii remote has stong enough wireless range for upstairs like the 360.) Mount one under each display. Power all from wall-wart (or multiple) outputting the proper voltage, then somehow get an IR relay switch (like an A/B speaker switch) that can shut one on and one off via remote. Build that into the Harmony remote macro for "Wii on 29" and "Wii on PJ", so only the right one is powered at that time. Anyone have any ideas for the proper cheap IR switch to turn these on and off, let me know. also, does anyone have a link for the URL to order extra sensor bars? Finally, anyone know anyplace to score extra controllers as of now?

Thanks

Extra sensor bars can be ordered from nintendo directly. I bought my extra controller on release day, and haven't been able to find any since.

I checked amazon and I seen something called, "sensor bar extender" it cost like 13 dollars coming soon though.

I need this thing but I see one that says it's not available till march 07. That cant be right

Mike,

I hopefully will have a similar situation soon (don't currently have Wii, but planning on getting it). My big worry though was how a duel monitor (projector and 29"tv in the same room) setup would work. I assumed that the way the Wii tracked where the wiimote was pointing was using the signal from the sensor bar as a point of reference, after calibrating for a particular screen size and location relevant to the sensor bar. I guess I assumed you had to calibrate it right after you set up, and where locked into that, so that it would get confused if you switched between the projector screen and the tv. From your note it sounds like my assumptions were wrong. If all you need is a second sensor bar and a switch, this would be much easier.

I'm interested in what you find out. Out of curiosity if you just picked up the sensor and put it in front of the projection screen instead of the TV while the Wii is running would you no longer need to point the controller off to the side? I know this would not be a permanent solution, but it would verify that just having a switched sensor would work.

Have fun!!

John

So do we know for sure that the Wii pulses the LEDs? Do we know what rate?

The Wii only pulses the LEDs during the sensitivity test. During normal operation, the Wii does NOT pulse the LEDs.

If you don't believe me, get a digital camera and turn on the Wii at night. Turn off all the lights in the room and hold the camera close to the sensor bar, watching the LCD display on your camera. You will see five lights on each side that do not blink.

This is why the Wii works fine if you completely remove the sensor bar and use candles instead.

This is what the LED arrangement looks like on each side of the sensor bar. (this is just one side)

http://www.realmsoftracon.com/wet/sensor.jpg

One thing to realise is that the LEDs on either side of the middle three actually aren't any dimmer than the middle three. It just appears that way because I was holding the camera close to the sensor bar to take that picture, and LEDs have a tendancy to focus their light a little. So they do appear dimmer if you don't look straight at them.

Thanks Dan
So as long as we use the sensitivity test with the normal sensor bar, and then start hacking - we're fine?

I don't think the normal sensor bar would be required for the sensitivity test. The blinking is probably just to differentiate hilight where the sensor bar is. It seems that all the sensitivity adjusts is the sensitivity of the Wiimote's camera, so it should work fine with a sensor bar hack.

I'll have to buy some candles tonight and do some preliminary tests.

My parts list, all from Radio Shack:
2 project boxes
2 small bread boards
2 10k Ohm potentiometers (Waaay overkill. Do your math first)
4 IR LED's (#276-079)
Dual strand wire.
1 Power Adapter, 6V, 300mA (#273-1758)
1 Power lead

I put two LEDs and a pot in series in each project box and connected the project boxes to the power supply via the wire. The circuit simply looks like this:

6V
| 60 Ohm
+---/\/\/\----|>|----|>|---+
+---/\/\/\----|>|----|>|---+-GND

Now I can plug my home made sensor bar into the wall that I'm projecting on, but keep my Wii at the back of the room. There's nothing very special about the spacing between the LEDs, so one can vary the distance between the left and right IR clusters (one cluster in each project box) in order to more accurately map what I'm pointing at to the actual screen. Seperating the boxes until they are almost at the edge of screen seems to work fairly well.

I have pictures on flickr of the final product if anyone cares to see them.

And the link to your pictures in flickr would be... ?

Replace the :) with an 'o' in the following URL:
flickr.c:)m/photos/94996066@N00/

I apologize for the obfuscation (and the shoddy camera work). The forum rules here prevent someone from using a link until they've made 5 posts.

Since the sensor bars are only $10 on nintendo's store (store.nintendo.c :) m/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&langId=-1&currency=USD&ignoreCrumbs=N&crumb1=&crumb1Ignore=&crumb2=%253CA%2BHREF%253D%2522javascript%253APassOn%2528%252 7X%2527%252C%2B%2527ChooseView%2527%252C%2527%2527%252C%2B%2 527%2527%2529%253B%2522%253EWii%253C%252FA%253E&crumb2Ignore=&crumb3=%253CA%2BHREF%253D%2522javascript%253APassOn%2528%252 7C%2527%252C%2B%2527CategoryDisplay%2527%252C%252762707%2527 %252C%2B%2527N%2527%2529%253B%2522%253EParts%2B%2526%2BAcces sories%253C%252FA%253E&crumb3Ignore=&translateFrom=%C8%C9%C7&translateTo=EEC&usrSearchText=&searchText=&selSrchType=&page=&view=&productId=117713&categoryId=62707&lastAction=ProductDisplay&orderTotal=null), would it be possible to just buy 2 of those, then cut the cable and power them via AC adapter?

Yep.

My hack job works like a charm.

Radio Shack Power Adapter #273-1696
Radio Shack 6" Power Lead #273-1742

Cut your sensor cord.
Strip it back and separate the wires.
Red is power, orange is ground.
Solder the red wire to the black/white stripe wire of the power lead.
Solder the orange wire to the black wire of the power lead.
Set up your sensor bar by your screen.
Plug in the brick.
Play Wii.

Note that the Wii normally puts out 7.8 v. I have the adapter set to 7.5 and it works fine.

If you don't like this route, you can easily snip the wire and solder in an extension splice. I haven't tried this yet more than a 6" splice to test it out, but I have no reason to think longer lengths would fail.

so my 2nd sensor bar should be here today and i'm wanting to do the hard wired plug-in adapter hack. some questions:

are we in agreement that the power adapter from jeremy's post is a good one to use for longer range front projection setups? i'm at about ~13-14' back.

also if i want to eliminate the need for solder, can i simply cut the plug off of the adapter and use crimp style butt connectors instead? or is there enough lead on the tip of that adaptaplug (273-1742) to insert into a crimp butt connector? it's hard to tell from the picture. i guess i could solder, but i'm being lazy. ;)

lastly, can someone confirm that this setup will allow me to stand about ~13-14' back no problem from a 92" diag screen?

i tried the 9-volt battery hack and while it works well, the battery doesn't last too long. i forgot to unplug it the other day and after 24 hours my reception distance decreased by quite a bit, almost half. i don't want to have to keep buying 9-volt batteries obviously.

thanks again for the replies.

/edit, oh and one more thing, this may seem dumb, but do you actually have to set the voltage on that adapter?

...
also if i want to eliminate the need for solder, can i simply cut the plug off of the adapter and use crimp style butt connectors instead? or is there enough lead on the tip of that adaptaplug (273-1742) to insert into a crimp butt connector? it's hard to tell from the picture. i guess i could solder, but i'm being lazy. ;)
...

I tried several times to get my splice working with just butt connectors and wasn't able to get it working. The little cable is SO thin that some fine soldering might be the only way to go. If you screw up, you're only out $10 :)

I tried several times to get my splice working with just butt connectors and wasn't able to get it working. The little cable is SO thin that some fine soldering might be the only way to go. If you screw up, you're only out $10 :)

were you able to finally get it to work with solder? how's the range? did you use the same power adapter jeremy lists?

any tips on stripping the sensor bar wire?

Why strip the sensor bar wire? Why not simply connect the battery / power converter to the sensor bar connector?

Why not simply connect the battery / power converter to the sensor bar connector?

That's a great idea - some third party should sell a portable power pack with an input for the sensor bar. But I guess if you went thru that trouble you may as well just create a standalone sensor bar with no wires...

On the 9V battery thread - that's exactly what some people have done - by jamming trimmed down pieces of pencil into the connector. I think I'm going to try this first (but with an adapter).
We don't have a Nintendo online store in the UK, so getting spare sensor bars might be more tricky.

so my 2nd sensor bar should be here today and i'm wanting to do the hard wired plug-in adapter hack. some questions:

are we in agreement that the power adapter from jeremy's post is a good one to use for longer range front projection setups? i'm at about ~13-14' back.

also if i want to eliminate the need for solder, can i simply cut the plug off of the adapter and use crimp style butt connectors instead? or is there enough lead on the tip of that adaptaplug (273-1742) to insert into a crimp butt connector? it's hard to tell from the picture. i guess i could solder, but i'm being lazy. ;)

lastly, can someone confirm that this setup will allow me to stand about ~13-14' back no problem from a 92" diag screen?

i tried the 9-volt battery hack and while it works well, the battery doesn't last too long. i forgot to unplug it the other day and after 24 hours my reception distance decreased by quite a bit, almost half. i don't want to have to keep buying 9-volt batteries obviously.

thanks again for the replies.

/edit, oh and one more thing, this may seem dumb, but do you actually have to set the voltage on that adapter?


bump

I was unable to get my splice working even with soldering :(
I'd order a new sensor bar from nintendo for $10 but what's the point until extension cables are available.

how about some tips for soldering jeremy?

I would think that if you just strip enough of the wires on both sides and just twist them around each other (then make sure you wrap each with insulating tape so that the 2 wires don't touch) you should be ok. It's just DC power.

i just got a spare sensor bar from nintendo today so i could do the DC wall wart mod so i could finally put the wii in the theater closet at the back of the room (front projector here, too.)

i started with a fixed 6V / 800mA brick and could not get that working. knowing that digicams see IR was quite helpful; i left my digicam pointing at the sensor bar so i could see the LEDs come on. just touching the bare wires to the contacts of a 9V battery got them to light up, but it was not easy -- i had to tin the wires a bit with solder first. maybe that just melted off a coating.

i couldn't get it working with the 6V brick, and finally gave up and returned it and got jaremy's suggestion, the variable voltage 2000mA one and set it at 7.5V. but it still didn't work, and i think it was just tricky to solder. those wires on the sensor bar are so thin it's really finicky. i don't think you could just twist them around each other. i just kept working my way down with the 9V battery -- first touching it to the bare wires, then soldering them and touching it to the solder to make sure that was making contact, then touching to the pins on the other side of the power lead cable, and once that worked, plugging it into the wall wart worked.

it's so much nicer having it neatly up at the front, sensor bar on top of center speaker, excess cable hidden behind the speaker, little DC brick right against the outlet a foot away. thanks for doing the voltage testing and all that for me!

I think one of the problems is that with wires this thin it's very common for them to be coated in a transparent sheath - makes soldering really difficult - even my local electrical fixit shop has trouble with these. I'll ask him if he's got any tips.

so would taking a lighter to the end being of any help? get it really hot and then maybe wipe with a paper towel? i'm hesitant to go spend $30 on that adapter when people have had such a discouraging time getting this to work. i guess it is possible, but can take some time to get it right. right?

is there any special type of solder i need? just something very thin? i'm going to go there today.

I've just picked mine up, but I've got some urgent work to do.
I'm as worried as you are Billymac - therefore I'm going to try the 'matchsticks in the connector' mod first. This leaves the bar/cable/connector intact. I've got a multi-voltage transformer I'm going to use - if that doesn't work I'll try a 9v battery.

Those of you who are having issues with soldering should try the butt connectors mentioned in my 9V battery variation of JaremyP's approach. Just substitute the DC power source for the 9V leads and you should be good to go. Stripping the tiny wires is a bit tricky, but connecting the leads within the butt connectors with a crimp is a snap--I think this is much easier than soldering (which I tried, unsuccessfully, and I do have prior soldering experience).

Cheers,

KK

Quick question about attaching a power supply to the sensor bar. I just rec'ed my 2nd sensor bar from the big N. I plan on placing a powersupply on it. The only power outlet close is directly behing the tele.

Does anyone have any opinions on leaving the sensor bar pluged in all the time?

Think THIS (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4529474) will work for the sensor bar? Alittle cheaper still than the Radio shack one mentioned earlier :)

FYI, I found that the quickest way to check the bar for power is with a cell phone camera.

Yup, I was wrong, you can't just twist them around, you have to solder them. I guess there's some kinda coating around the wires. So I ended up splicing in a 30' long length of small speaker cable. Works great!

Just so people know what they are getting into before they go snip snip, here's some pics.

and a last one after the splice

I see a lot of you are having trouble soldering these wires, there is a coating on them that prevents shorting. You need a soldering iron that gets to 700+ degrees to melt through this stuff easily. The little radio shack ones probably won't work well. I used one of my Weller pro irons at work and had no trouble. You may be able to melt the coating off with a lighter or torch first if you don't have a good iron.

Jeff

okay, so i did it today first try. i bought the two parts listed in jeremy's post. about ~$34 with the little lead. i was able to get it right the first time and i'm a total noob when it comes to soldering. i cut the plug end of the wire about 10" up. that never does not feel weird by the way. ;) anyway, then i stripped off the outer shielding and then split the two wires apart. then i took a lighter and carefully burned off the outer coating. take extra care not to let it burn to far. it will run so be very careful. then i took a knife sharpener out of our wood block and used my thumb to drag each wire over the sharpener. this will clean up the wires and remove any carbon from the burn or anything else still stuck on there (you could use fine sand paper too i imagine). your wires should look shiny by the time your through. it doesn't take long. then i simply went for it. i had a little spring loaded clip that came with my iron and i simply held each end together on the correct wire of the lead and dabbed some solder on the joint. plugged it in making sure the two wires weren't touching and turned on my camera phone. ka-bam!! lights! unplugged it, taped it up and i'm good to go. :) piece of cake. thanks to everybody who pioneered this. this is super handy for me. now i just have to remember to unplug it. ;)

Just in case anyone is intersted, I was able to break apart the sensor bar adaptor/plug itself and solder directly to power lead and then placed a heat shrink over the whole connection.
Soldering directly to the gold connectors was easy wors perfectly

Thanks for this great solution

@Scott Farkis
How did you break apart the plug? It look like you need to squeeze two pins with something pretty small.

I cut my sensor bar wire last night (to extend it) before reading on the net. Oops. As others have found, you can't just twist the red and orange wires to an extension line.

I'm curious why the sensor bar wires are the way they are. It looks like the red and orange are in contact with each other. Shouldn't that prevent it from working? I guess the reason it works is the thin coating others have had to melt off the copper. Why are both wires twisted together with strands of nylon?

great tip about the plug. never actually thougth about trying to break it down.

if you did cut and are having trouble though, all you have to do is carefully melt off the coating on the wires and then sand them clean. piece of cake. if i can do it, ANYbody can do it. ;)

So does this mean you can't get accuracy on a large screen because the sensor is too small or just that the console has to be near the screen because of a short wire?

Just in case anyone is intersted, I was able to break apart the sensor bar adaptor/plug itself and solder directly to power lead and then placed a heat shrink over the whole connection.
Soldering directly to the gold connectors was easy wors perfectly

Thanks for this great solution

I too would love to know how you managed to take apart the plug. Sounds MUCH easier than the soldier the wires method :)

I found soldering the original wires easy. The conductors are coated, much like windings in a transformer. Luckily enough the stuff melts away when you solder it. It’s very fine and you need to be careful, but its far from impossible.

I cut the sensor bar wire and attached an RJ12 phone lead cut in half in the middle so that I could run the sensor bar over a CAT5 run I already had running from near my screen to the cupboard where my Wii is.

I now want to replace the sensor bar with LEDs mounted into my screen's frame, one so that it’s neater and two so that I can use the remote from further back. Rayman Raving Rabbids complains when I am more than about 2M from the sensor bar. I assume it figures this out by measuring the distance between the LEDs on the sensor bar. I'm hoping that if I space the LEDs out about 1.5 times the length of the original bar I should be able to get back to my couch without it complaining.

Does anyone have a diagram (with resistor values) of what’s in the genuine sensor bar so that I can replicate it? ie. Run my replacement off the Wii without woe...

if I already have an IR up in the front for my other stuff do I even need the sensor bar or will it work of that IR (house is not finished yet or I would check my self of course)

The Wii sensor bar is not actually a sensor at all - it just has 2 clusters of IR LEDs in it. So your existing IR sensor doesn't do the same job.
You will have to either include the original sensor bar or do some modifications as found on a few threads on here.

6% penetration number is a few years old. Last year, or this year is the first year that there are more HDTVs sold than non-HDTVs in the US. Penetration is just about 20% now.

Of course a substantial percentage of those HDTV owners have no source for HD programming (and a substantial percentage of those think they are watching HD anyway) :rolleyes:

Not to mention WHAT is considered a HDTV. That %20 includes 640x480 small 15" screens and even smaller units.

I have to agree with the poster that MOST people with HD aren't running projectors. I know personally only 1 person with a HD projector and about 40 with HD crts, lcds, rptvs. Most of those HD displays are 32" or smaller.

I have a 55" HD RPTV. I got the Wii last Thursday. I can't imagine trying to play it with a front projector system. Most of the time I'm standing up in front of the image and I would think that my body would "shadow" the projection.

What I want is a longer range on the remote. 8' is about max for the sensor bar and Wiimotes in my family room. I don't care if it's wireless or not since the sensor bar sits on top of my TV just below the center channel speaker. I want to be comfortable in my recliner which is about 14' front the TV screen. I'm hoping a homemade IR projector will give me that.

Soemthing else. People keep mentioning going to radio shack and buying a multi-voltage AC adapter.

Am I the only person in the world who saves all those old AC adapters from other electronic devices like cordless phones, kids toys, etc. when they died?

I have at least 6 which put out 800ma and 7.2v.

If the sensor bar is just to allow the remote to triangulate the position in 3D, then to get further distance than the 8' stated in the manual, set the LEDs wider?

Soemthing else. People keep mentioning going to radio shack and buying a multi-voltage AC adapter.

Am I the only person in the world who saves all those old AC adapters from other electronic devices like cordless phones, kids toys, etc. when they died?

I have at least 6 which put out 800ma and 7.2v.

Need to know how much ma the sensor bar needs. If too little, then you get nothing. I think some had too little amp and it didnt power up.

Need to know how much ma the sensor bar needs. If too little, then you get nothing. I think some had too little amp and it didnt power up.

The sensor bar draws 85mA, and runs from the 12V rail in the Wii via a 50 ohm resistor. Therefore you could perfectly emulate the Wii supply to the sensor bar with any 12V DC supply with a 50 ohm resistor. The redish coloured wire in the sensor bar cable is positive, the copper coloured one is negative. The resistor could be in either wire, it’s not important.

I've extended my sensor bar, cut the wire and spliced a telephone cable in the middle. This way I can run the sensor bar over the CAT5 run that goes from my hall cupboard (where the Wii and my media PC is) to the front of the lounge where the screen is.

Rayman complains about sitting too far from the screen (sensor bar) when I'm 3m back on the couch... so I’ve now built my own sensor bar, of sorts. I've mounted two groups of three standard IR LEDs in my alloy projection screen frame. The groups are 400mm apart (1.5ich times the length of the standard sensor bar) and the three LEDs are 10mm apart. The frame is black, the LEDs are black, as are their bezels so they are almost invisible. I can now play Rayman from my couch perfectly. The only issue is that I have to be fairly centred on the couch relative to the screen because the LEDs are quite narrow beamed. I've ordered some wider beam LEDs from Radio Spares which should be here next week.

As I said above the sensor bar is driven from the +12VA rail in the Wii. There is a 50 ohm series resistor in the Wii to protect it from any shorts or other stupidity. I did the sums and calculated that a 100 ohm resistor in series with three LEDs (in series) puts the right current (40-50mA) through the LEDs to get good output. So there’s a 100 ohm resistor for each group of 3 LEDs in my replacement sensor bar.


I have a 55" HD RPTV. I got the Wii last Thursday. I can't imagine trying to play it with a front projector system. Most of the time I'm standing up in front of the image and I would think that my body would "shadow" the projection..

I don't have a problem standing 3.5m from my screen playing tennis with my front projector mounted on the ceiling about 4m from the screen. It’s awesome.

I don't have a problem standing 3.5m from my screen playing tennis with my front projector mounted on the ceiling about 4m from the screen. It’s awesome.


i'll second that! :)

nice work by the way.

I have a central component rack in the basement, my wii is located there, so all i did was split the sensor bar cable, solder cat-5 cables with jacks at the end, and plugged the cables into the cat-5 outlet that interconnect themselves.

Easiest thing to extend my connection.

I have a slightly different setup: no Wii... just the sensor bar and the Wiimote. I want to use them with a Mac mini that I hooked up to my LCD TV... so I can use the Wiimote as a mouse.
I could use a power brick as suggested here but it seems a little wasteful to have the power brick plugged in all the time.

So instead I'd like to use one of the free USB or Firewire ports in the back of the computer (clever!).
The Firewire port gives ~25 V. Too much.
The USB port gives 5 V. Has anyone tried powering the sensor bar with 5 V? Does it work?

Mine is running off 4.5V from an AC/DC adapter...

I have cut the wire for the sensor bar, i used about a 10' CAT5 cable to extend it. i separated the two wires from the wii sensor bar. i spliced them together to 2 CAT5 cables to extend the sensor bar, i don't have a solder kit so i figured i would just twist the wires together until i get a chance to solder them. I've done this numerous times and i can't get the sensor bar to work properly. I can only get it to work if i put the wiimote right up to the sensor bar but when i move back it doesn't detect it. I also changed the sensitivity on the wii sensor bar to the max and still no success.. any ideas what i could be doing wrong? I am getting frustrated, what seems like a simple task has been a headache for me.
Please give me some advice

The fine cables in the sensor bar are coated - have you made sure you've got rid of the coating before twisting? (it's almost invisible).

The fine cables in the sensor bar are coated - have you made sure you've got rid of the coating before twisting? (it's almost invisible).

The coating melts with solder, so the easiest way to make the connection reliably is with a soldering iron.

Hey all--thanks for the confidence booster

Just a heads up to those whom don't want to solder.

It just took me about 5 minutes to make my sensor bar a plug in. I took an old 7.5 V power adapter I had sitting around from a switch. Stripped wires from the power supply, stripped wires from the sensor bar. Hit the wires from the sensor bar with a match--don't let them burn too long, just half a second. You will know the coating is gone if the coloring of the wires goes away. Don't let them burn all the way down to the insulation of the wire--you only need half an inch.

Then I just twisted--taped--and was up and running just right!

Mike

Thanks for the hackjob JaremyP. I gave you props on my little page. You saved my Wii installation!

This is my first post with this account. No idea what my old account was. Anyway just go to my username (brickwagon) and add in the most common web extension, starts with a c, ends with an m and has an o in the middle.

does anyone else's sensor bar get hot? I have it hooked up to a 7.5v 650mAh DC adapter and mine gets nice and toasty.....if it is the power adapter is their a better one anyone recommends?

(I went and hooked it up to the power adapter before I had a chance to compare it to how it feels when connected directly to the Wii.....)

does anyone else's sensor bar get hot? I have it hooked up to a 7.5v 650mAh DC adapter and mine gets nice and toasty.....if it is the power adapter is their a better one anyone recommends?

(I went and hooked it up to the power adapter before I had a chance to compare it to how it feels when connected directly to the Wii.....)

I had the same results with the 12v adapter...freakin hot to the touch.

I found an old power adapter for my obsolete bluetooth headset (Jabra) that is rated at 5-6v (variable) and the solved the heat issue and it still works well.

Seems that anything over 7v is too much and will shorten the life of the LEDs in the bar.

I had the same results with the 12v adapter...freakin hot to the touch.

I found an old power adapter for my obsolete bluetooth headset (Jabra) that is rated at 5-6v (variable) and the solved the heat issue and it still works well.

Seems that anything over 7v is too much and will shorten the life of the LEDs in the bar.guess I will pick up a 6v radio shack adapter then.....so increasing voltage does nothing for range?

Hey guys,

I am using my WII ona projector and of course, the sensor bar cable is too short. I cut the sensor bar, spliced the 2 wires and soldered them to 2 CAT5 10' cables and the sensor bar only works when i point the wiimote extremely close to the sensor bar anything further than 6" and it won't work.
I played around with the sensitivity and still no success from anything further than 6"
when i use candles it works better, but i don't wanna be lighting candles everytime i play. does anybody have any idea what could be causing this? it worked fine when it was at it's orignal state just a little too short.
has anybody had this problem?

Hey guys,

I am using my WII ona projector and of course, the sensor bar cable is too short. I cut the sensor bar, spliced the 2 wires and soldered them to 2 CAT5 10' cables and the sensor bar only works when i point the wiimote extremely close to the sensor bar anything further than 6" and it won't work.
I played around with the sensitivity and still no success from anything further than 6"
when i use candles it works better, but i don't wanna be lighting candles everytime i play. does anybody have any idea what could be causing this? it worked fine when it was at it's orignal state just a little too short.
has anybody had this problem?
A couple thoughts come to mind, but take them with a grain of salt, as I'm no expert. First - check to see the polarity is correct. Positive to Postive, Negative to Negative. If you've double-checked that, perhaps the twisted cat5 cable is canceling out the signal. Again, I'm no expert, but you might try a shorter cable as a test. Sorry if I wasn't any help.

Of these two which would you recommend?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049708&cp=&sr=1&origkw=6v+power+adapter&kw=6v+power+adapter&parentPage=search

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049706&cp=&sr=1&origkw=6v+power+adapter&kw=6v+power+adapter&parentPage=search

A couple thoughts come to mind, but take them with a grain of salt, as I'm no expert. First - check to see the polarity is correct. Positive to Postive, Negative to Negative. If you've double-checked that, perhaps the twisted cat5 cable is canceling out the signal. Again, I'm no expert, but you might try a shorter cable as a test. Sorry if I wasn't any help.

Hey,

well, I separated the CAT5 cables because it made sense that maybe with them being intertwined together would cancel the signal, i also made the CAT5 cables shorter to about 7' and soldered together with the sensor bar and again!!!! it only works from 6" away.. as soon as i move the wiimote back it loses the pointer on the screen. What seemed to be a simple task has become a pain in the ass.. i really dunno what is causing the WIImote not to be dectected at anything farther then 6 inches.. can anyone advise me please!! very frustrated!!

is there like a burn in period or something? because I have yet to change my power adapter and now my sensor bar barely gets warm compared to a few days ago where it was ridiculously hot.....

Hey,

well, I separated the CAT5 cables because it made sense that maybe with them being intertwined together would cancel the signal, i also made the CAT5 cables shorter to about 7' and soldered together with the sensor bar and again!!!! it only works from 6" away.. as soon as i move the wiimote back it loses the pointer on the screen. What seemed to be a simple task has become a pain in the ass.. i really dunno what is causing the WIImote not to be dectected at anything farther then 6 inches.. can anyone advise me please!! very frustrated!!
Are you splicing the Cat5 back into the Wii connector and Wii? If so, before connecting the Sensor bar back up, check to see that the voltage is the same at the end of the cat5 as it is coming out of the Wii. I think someone posted earlier in this thread around 9-11 volts. If not, the length might be causing the problem, even at 7'. (I doubt it, but maybe) Can you confirm that the bar is even on after you've soldered everything?

Of these two which would you recommend?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049708&cp=&sr=1&origkw=6v+power+adapter&kw=6v+power+adapter&parentPage=search

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049706&cp=&sr=1&origkw=6v+power+adapter&kw=6v+power+adapter&parentPage=search

Either will do. The cheaper one will do fine.

Are you splicing the Cat5 back into the Wii connector and Wii? If so, before connecting the Sensor bar back up, check to see that the voltage is the same at the end of the cat5 as it is coming out of the Wii. I think someone posted earlier in this thread around 9-11 volts. If not, the length might be causing the problem, even at 7'. (I doubt it, but maybe) Can you confirm that the bar is even on after you've soldered everything?

Yes I am splicing the CAT5 and soldering it to the sensor bar and the other end to the WII connector. I made sure that the polarity isn't crossed.
How can I check the voltage? How do i know what voltage it's coming out at?

Thanks for your help.

You'll need what is called a Multimeter. (Here) (http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@0972839030.1170438256@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdhaddkdehhjdgcefecemldffidfmm.0&pid=03482146000&sid=I0084400010000100383&sid=I0084400010000100312&AFFL=Y&AFFL=Y&cat=Electrical+Shop&subcat=Multi-Meters,+Testers+&vertical=TOOL&ihtoken=1) To measure it from the Wii, plug the connector back in and measure it at the wires. Then splice in the Cat5 and measure again, and make sure they're the same. If not, there is either something wrong with your soldering or the cat5 isn't carrying the electricity properly and you may need another kind of wire.

I have finally finished my sensor bar conversion. Here are some images of what I have created, This first image shows the guts of the simplistic box. I have added a red LED to indicate power as well as a switch allowing me to turn the bar off. You can see the LEDs in the sensor bar lit up in this image.

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3922/wiisensorbar0001oy0.jpg

However, this image with the flash disabled shows them better:

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/2291/wiisensorbar0003op3.jpg

Now let's box it up:

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/2503/wiisensorbar0004az4.jpg

Turn it over to hide the screws:

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5020/wiisensorbar0005xj9.jpg

And test that switch out. Do the Sensor bar LEDs go off?

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/623/wiisensorbar0007qw6.jpg

Why yes they do! It's hard to tell in the image, but the red LED goes off as well. Yaaay! Project complete. Now I'll just toss this into my theater, plug it into the wall and game away.

reaper

Very nice reaper.

In case someone isn't comfortable making their own, there is a wireless sensor bar on Amazon, release data March 5. Search for "Wii Wireless Sensor Bar"

Nice. I did this this afternoon, replacing the power adapter with a 800mA multi-voltage from radio shack at 7.5v (pn 273-1667). Works like a charm, and is now sitting on top of my screen where I get much better response than the previous spot on my coffee table.

Another note is that I had to melt off the plastic coating on the red and orange wires, after they were seperated, before they would work.


I concur. I picked up this radio shack unit, hooked up positive and grounds to their respective wires on the sensor bar, and it worked perfectly. I do unplug the thing when it's not in use (I'm EXTREMELY paranoid about fires), but I couldn't ask for a better solution.

I plan on doing the same and plugging the AC adapter into the switched AC outlet on my A/V receiver so when I shut off my system the sensor bar will be shut off. The Wii audio goes through the receiver as well.

Planning on making my own Wii IR LED sensors to use on top of of my projector screen. Any advice? We figured we could use 2 IR LEDs in both "sensor" powered by 2 AA batteries. Also will be able to switch on and off. Is this enough (LED wise and power wise? I'll be standing about 12 feet away in my HT room. Everything will bought at Radio Shack. Any info would be appreciated. Figure the project will only cost about $20 total.

That way I can have 2 portable IR LED arrays to put any distance I want apart on top of any size screen I intend to use. Thanks in advance.

I plan on doing the same and plugging the AC adapter into the switched AC outlet on my A/V receiver so when I shut off my system the sensor bar will be shut off. The Wii audio goes through the receiver as well.

If your receiver is close enough to the screen to plug the sensor bar in, why is the wii not over there as well? I am confused you you'd need this mod if your equipment is that close to your screen.

If your receiver is close enough to the screen to plug the sensor bar in, why is the wii not over there as well? I am confused you you'd need this mod if your equipment is that close to your screen.

You're right. I can just make the sensor bar wire longer and just plug it into the Wii. The Wii is in the rack with the receiver. My train of thought was definately going down the wrong track when I posted that. :o

I just extended my sensor bar. I was going to add an adapter to plug the sensor bar into an outlet, then I realized I would have to remember to unplug when I was finished. Rather than fooling with that, I just put in about 15' of wire. I used telephone station wire.

I read through this post and used a lot of the tips like burning the coating off of the sensor bar wires. It was very difficult getting the solder to stick, but I was able without too much hassle. After splicing both ends, I plugged it into the Wii, looked at it through a digital camera, and it was working - the first try!

I mounted the sensor bar on the wall under my projector with double sided tape, then ran the cable to the Wii in the back of the room. Tested it with several games, and it works great!

Thanks to everyone who posted tips and their stories on this forum!

Well it looks like my damn cat is forcing me to extend my sensor bar cable as she chewed through to the wire before I caught her... and I'm glad I did before she zapped herself like I did to myself! So I'm looking through the house for wire I can use and I'm wondering this, can I use speaker wire, or is the power running through it too much for speaker wire to handle? Thanks. :)

i have tried this numerous times, is telephone wire different than CAT5? i don't understand, i burned the coating off the wires, separated the 2 wires, soldered two 8' CAT5 cables, made sure that i didn't cross them and for some reason it only works when i point 6 inches away from the sensor bar. anything farther than that and it doesn't detect the pointer.. i also played around with the sensitivity and still can't get it to work. almost seems like the wii doesn;t have enough power to ignite the led's or something.. anybody know what is going on? has anyone experienced this?

i have tried this numerous times, is telephone wire different than CAT5? i don't understand, i burned the coating off the wires, separated the 2 wires, soldered two 8' CAT5 cables, made sure that i didn't cross them and for some reason it only works when i point 6 inches away from the sensor bar. anything farther than that and it doesn't detect the pointer.. i also played around with the sensitivity and still can't get it to work. almost seems like the wii doesn;t have enough power to ignite the led's or something.. anybody know what is going on? has anyone experienced this?

I believe CAT5 is higher quality then telephone wire.

CAT5 has 8 strands inside it 4 of which are striped with matching colors of the solids strands. Are you sure that you aren't accidentally soldering the stripe stand when you meant the solid or vice versa? Why do you need two cables?

I believe CAT5 is higher quality then telephone wire.

CAT5 has 8 strands inside it 4 of which are striped with matching colors of the solids strands. Are you sure that you aren't accidentally soldering the stripe stand when you meant the solid or vice versa? Why do you need two cables?

Out of the 8 cable strands i only use 2 of them, one for the red cable from the wii sensor bar and the other from the copper cable from the wii sensor bar. i have soldered them both with care making sure that they match up on both ends but still no success

Mine is running off 4.5V from an AC/DC adapter...

Confirmed here, if anyone is still doing this. The two wires are easily soldered with a 60watt iron. I found this cheap 4.8v 200mA brick for most R/C cars that works well with the sensor bar as well. The LEDs are not overbright as the 9V makes them.

I guess no one took on my suggestion earlier that a wider placement of the IR leds will extend the range. I just proved this with two sensor bars. My Wii finger is stable across all edges of my 145" screen.

I guess no one took on my suggestion earlier that a wider placement of the IR leds will extend the range. I just proved this with two sensor bars. My Wii finger is stable across all edges of my 145" screen.
I don't think the width matters, but how far you are from the bar. My cursor is stable across my 110" screen as long as I don't go farther back than 10-12 feet.

i have tried this numerous times, is telephone wire different than CAT5? i don't understand, i burned the coating off the wires, separated the 2 wires, soldered two 8' CAT5 cables, made sure that i didn't cross them and for some reason it only works when i point 6 inches away from the sensor bar. anything farther than that and it doesn't detect the pointer.. i also played around with the sensitivity and still can't get it to work. almost seems like the wii doesn;t have enough power to ignite the led's or something.. anybody know what is going on? has anyone experienced this?
Cat 3 (aka telephone wire) is lower quality than Cat 5. Cat 5 has more twists per foot, and is rated to carry higher frequencies. For Wii use, I would expect the two of them to perform identically, given both are solid (not stranded). Cat3 would be easier to work with since there are less wires. Otherwise copper is copper at the same diameters. The wii cord is so tiny I can't imagine someone running into problems with stuff short of thin magnet wire. Speaker wire is rated to carry 100's of watts, so I'm sure it will work. The stuff in your walls carrying power (120v, 2400w) is probably 14awg. Speaker wire is usually 18-14awg.

At 6 inches away, it sounds like not enough power is getting through to the bar. If you're extending the wire, it may not be pushing enough juice from the wii or your power source to make it all the way through. Check your connections, use thicker wire (check voltage on the wire before and after to find your voltage drop), get an independent power source, or buy an aftermarket bar.

I don't think the width matters, but how far you are from the bar. My cursor is stable across my 110" screen as long as I don't go farther back than 10-12 feet.

Have you tried this? You will not see a problem with a 110" screen. Also, I am 14' back.

I have two bars and adjusted the width to give me very solid performance.

I just got it working off of a 9v power supply from an old Sony Discman (circa 1990 - this is why I don't throw out old AC adapters). I checked the voltage coming out of the Wii and got 12v, which matches exactly the voltage from the adapter. The digital camera check went well, and it seems to be happy.
Has anyone else tried it with the full 12v? I don't foresee any problems, but it's always good to check!

A couple of other notes: I connected the power without any solder or cutting the Wii connection. I simply stripped the two leads from the AC adapter to about 3/16", jammed a quarter of an expanding earplug (those yellow things they sell for a buck at rock concerts) into the sensor bar connection, then used a jeweler's screwdriver to "moosh" a spot for each wire lead by the contacts. I popped the wires in, let the earplug expand, and then taped the heck out of it with electrical tape.

As for Todd's comment about plugging it into the switched power of the receiver, I think I'll do the same thing. Yes, it does mean that I have to run the power cable all the way back to the receiver, but it's a lot easier to find a 20' extension cord than a 20' sensor bar extension. Since... they don't exist, right? :-)

I thought it wasnt 12v really, since there was a resistor in the line from the Wii. My original bar powers up with 4.8v so clearly 12v is way too much. With a 9v, it lit very brightly, putting doubts it'll last long at that rate.

The soldering issue isnt really that hard. You just let the wires dip in a solder pool for a few minutes and you can see it smoke and burn off the cover. I only have a 60watt iron so I have no idea why so many post difficulties. You can actually power up the bar with the 9v just by touching the tips of the red and orange wires after stripping. The tips are exposed.

I checked the contacts on the Wii itself and got 12v. If the resistor is in the line (perhaps right at the connector?), making the connection without cutting the wire leaves it in place.
I didn't notice any difference in brightness between the AC adapter and the Wii power, so maybe that's the reason?
Since I'm giving it the same power at the same connection spot, my only real concern is with amperage. Being by no means an electrical expert, will a high mA-rated adapter (mine's a whopping 600, compared to the required 50, if I remember correctly) burn it out? Or will that same resistor keep that from happening?
Sorry for the newbie-ish question, but I'd rather not have to start lighting candles to play golf!

Have you tried this? You will not see a problem with a 110" screen. Also, I am 14' back.

I have two bars and adjusted the width to give me very solid performance.
My main row of seating is at 16' and when sitting in the chair to play Excite Truck, I actually have no shaky cursor. Its only when I'm in the main screens that I see the cursor shake. Not a big deal really since I can't back up any more and most of my play is around the 8-10' spot. Do you have both bars plugged into the Wii or are you using external power? I ended up splicing the extension bar cable with cat5 and plugging back into the Wii itself so adding a second bar would be more effort.

Both bars are externally powered of course.

Excite Truck doesnt use the sensor bar. The shakiness I'm describing is the pointer shaking and FPS games that use the sensor bar.

The solution I have is to resolve the pointer being shaky at the edges of a large 145" screen. I do notice it doesnt not shake with one sensor bar (Nintendo's) if it was about 130". So those with a smaller screen probably wont see this issue unless you are further away than the advertised range of the sensor bar.

You can reproduce the issue by standing at 8ft or more away. 8ft is the advertised max. If you go beyond that and the pointer at the Wii menu starts to shake, that is what I have. Now if you note the distance and if you had another sensor bar, you can adjust the width of the bars and give it a wider stance, you'll notice that the range is longer because the pointer is stable.

The FPS games like Red Steel, COD3, etc are affected. Now I can play it sitting down without the gun pointing all over the place. I tested the range to go beyond my couch by two feet. Previously the single bar range was just before the couch.

Another thing I noticed is the cluster of LEDs the Nintendo bar has is optimal at a distance. Those 3rd party bars (which I also have) with less LEDs fade out at a shorter distance, which also contributes to the pointer's shakiness. I dont recommend either 3rd party sensor bars.

I checked the contacts on the Wii itself and got 12v. If the resistor is in the line (perhaps right at the connector?), making the connection without cutting the wire leaves it in place.
I didn't notice any difference in brightness between the AC adapter and the Wii power, so maybe that's the reason?
Since I'm giving it the same power at the same connection spot, my only real concern is with amperage. Being by no means an electrical expert, will a high mA-rated adapter (mine's a whopping 600, compared to the required 50, if I remember correctly) burn it out? Or will that same resistor keep that from happening?
Sorry for the newbie-ish question, but I'd rather not have to start lighting candles to play golf!

econo,

I think the resistor is in the bar. I read from other posting here that the bar got super hot at 12v and it was not recommended. Then someone else told me that it wasn't 12v but there was a resistor inline to lower the voltage. Yet another post said he got his powered up at 4.8v. Regardless I went what I thought is the safest way - lowest power because I intend to keep it plugged in. My sensor bars have no heat on them. I think this is ideal.

I dont think having a high mA like yours will harm anything. Does your bar get very warm or hot with 600mA? If not then I think youre fine. Most here ran with 7v at 600mA but its not necessary.

I just got my wii. I went the route of extending the sensor cable. for my theater. I am reading 12VDC of of the wii console. I entended the cable and it works great. I don't know where the 7.5V came from unless they beefed up the voltage on a newer version of the console. Anyway thanks for all the advise. I cut the cable about 8" from the sensor and got a 12v reading at that point from the console.

has anyone tried running the signal thru cat 5 wire back to the wii and just splicing it twice?
I am considering a wii and have a cat 5 running from below the screen to the av rack in the room behind my theater. Will this work? Will the wii wifi work, in the room behind by theater. 10 Feet away from players.

I believe someone in this thread got it to work with cat 5. There no loss in the power from the Wii.

Yes, the wifi will work. Wifi's work best leveled antenna to antenna.

In case anyone doesn't want to bother splicing, I finally found someone selling extension cables. They are only 6' long, but can be daisy chained. I just ordered mine, I'll post a follow up when it arrives. They are $9.99 each.
http://www.consolesource.com/ecomm/catalog/Nintendo-WIi-Sensor-Bar-Extension-Cable-p-2602.html

econo,
I dont think having a high mA like yours will harm anything. Does your bar get very warm or hot with 600mA? If not then I think youre fine. Most here ran with 7v at 600mA but its not necessary.

From a little self-induced crash course in amperage, I don't think the bar will draw any more amperage than it needs, so technically, the sky should be the limit. That said, I wimped out on seeing how hot the bar would get and unplugged it.

I did a quick test building my own bar using old remote control LEDs and a 12v power supply. Worked like a charm - for about 4 hours. Now it's just 4 burned out LEDs. I figured out afterward that each LED is rated at 1.2 volts, so I was just asking for it.
I think I'll give that approach another try (if I can find a Radio Shack that actually has the LEDs in stock!) and give it a whirl with a 4.5 or 4.8v supply.
I'll report back with my results.

In case anyone doesn't want to bother splicing, I finally found someone selling extension cables. They are only 6' long, but can be daisy chained. I just ordered mine, I'll post a follow up when it arrives. They are $9.99 each.
http://www.consolesource.com/ecomm/catalog/Nintendo-WIi-Sensor-Bar-Extension-Cable-p-2602.html

I hope you don't get screwed by them. I did a little research on them because I want to buy the extension cable too. They have a less than stellar rating. Slow shipping, items never shipped, never answering phones etc. They are located in Canada, so packages may get held at customs too.

I will be looking elsewhere in the meantime.

EDIT: There are many sites that have this item listed for pre-order for October. I don't even think they are available yet.

EDIT: www.gamersection.ca I just instant messaged them and they confirmed to have them in stock at $7.95 I just placed an order for one.

Hrmm . .well, I am in Canada, so I shouldn't have to worry about customs. My order was confirmed, so we will see. . . There aren't any specs on the one you ordered, do you know how long it is? Let me know how it goes for you. Thanks.

I had my 4.8v bricks plugged in since I started my own splicing experiment and its been lighting well with no heat to the touch at all. I have two nintendo sensor bars with two 4.8v bricks. This gives me stability with the pointer beyond 14ft.

Some note about using 3rd party sensor bars. I looked through my Canon G2 and my cell phone cam at the Niko sensor bar at 14ft - initially trying to figure out why my remotes start to stutter at that range. I was surprised to see that the Niko's lights disappeared from the camera's view at that range but the nintendo's still was bright because the clustering of the 5 LEDs made it look like one solid light at that distance. I figured the remote's camera isn't any better than my cell phone's so I bought another nintendo bar. Low and behold my theory is right. The nintendo's use of 5 LEDs provide a much more solid beam that the remote's cam can see easily at any angle of view to the screen.

Hrmm . .well, I am in Canada, so I shouldn't have to worry about customs. My order was confirmed, so we will see. . . There aren't any specs on the one you ordered, do you know how long it is? Let me know how it goes for you. Thanks.

Got my sensor bar today. It's 6 feet long. The wire is at least double the thickness of the Wii sensor bar wire and the connectors are of equal quality to Nintendo's. I can finally hide the sensor bar wire inside the wall now. :cool:

I highly recommend www.gamersection.ca very fast shipping. They also sell the Blacknight Wii housings.

I just got mine tonight to. It came in a box with poor a english translation "High quality efficient of transmit cable". Right. Anyway the company that makes it is "Dragon". The cable is 6 ft long, and sounds about the same as yours, Todd. So it sounds like their are 2 sources, yours shipped a bit faster, and was 2 dollars cheaper, so it sounds like they win. I can finally put my sensor bar above my screen so that all my empty beer bottles don't block the signal! yay! Anyway, off to play some Super Paper Mario!

I just got mine tonight to. It came in a box with poor a english translation "High quality efficient of transmit cable". Right. Anyway the company that makes it is "Dragon". The cable is 6 ft long, and sounds about the same as yours, Todd. So it sounds like their are 2 sources, yours shipped a bit faster, and was 2 dollars cheaper, so it sounds like they win. I can finally put my sensor bar above my screen so that all my empty beer bottles don't block the signal! yay! Anyway, off to play some Super Paper Mario!

Yeah, that's the same one I got. I was very entertained by all the "Chinglish" all over the box. :D

Hello everybody. I was about to cut my wired sensor bar cable to attach it to an DC power, but now i have a doubt. I tried with 2 candles, and the wii won't show the "selection hands" on the screen. So before i proceed, if i disconnect the sensor bar from the wii, but i give it power either by a 9volt battery, or by some connection to the electricity on my house, if i have done all fine, would it work? For sure? Or do i still need a second sensor bar connected to the wii? Thanks.

Hello everybody. I was about to cut my wired sensor bar cable to attach it to an DC power, but now i have a doubt. I tried with 2 candles, and the wii won't show the "selection hands" on the screen. So before i proceed, if i disconnect the sensor bar from the wii, but i give it power either by a 9volt battery, or by some connection to the electricity on my house, if i have done all fine, would it work? For sure? Or do i still need a second sensor bar connected to the wii? Thanks.

For sure. I have one of third party wireless sensor bars and everything works fine despite nothing being actually plugged into the Wii sensor bar port.

No electrical experience here, so pardon the dumb question: if I hooked up 2 sensor bars to the one wire coming from the Wii (by cutting, stripping, and splicing together so that the positive from the Wii is connected to the positive of both bars, etc.) would that work? There seems to be enough power to do it, but am I missing something from a basic electrical standpoint?

JoshuaL: You'd want to run a wire from the notched side of the Wii to the notched side of sensor 1, then the unnotched side of the wii to the unnotched side of sensor 2, and a jumper between the unnotched side of sensor 1 to the notched side of sensor 2. It will create a circuit in series-- similar to stacking batteries in a remote nipple-to-butt. :)

Also, I just got my Nextronics wireless bar. It has a 3v 200ma AC adapter with it (I hadn't seen power posted anywhere on it so here it is). It works, but no better than my Nintendo stock sensor bar I wired to a 9 volt battery-- matter off act, it acctually gets a shorter range than my stock unit. Very disappointing.

For my stock unit, I used the 'fill the connector' method, but did it more in the spirit/idea of Christmas lights using a piece of speaker cable, an off on switch, and 9v battery. I basically just stripped the end of the speaker wire, folded the stripped ends to the outside like hair (very similar to how the small Christmas tree lights connect to their socket with the 2 pieces of wire coming out from underneath the bulb's base), and shoved it in and taped it-- worked great, and is still solid after 2 months.

I'm still not getting the stability or range with the sensor I'd like-- I'm on a 112" screen at 16:9. The Nextronics unit makes the finger 'disappear' at a shorter distance than my Nintendo&9V solution. Interested to see what other non-battery solutions have been concocted. Still like the idea of a 5 or 7 led cluster on a wider (maybe 24-30"?) base. Anyone done that yet? Or more importantly, anyone shared their results of that yet?

Open to other suggestions too. :)

Murph

JoshuaL: You'd want to run a wire from the notched side of the Wii to the notched side of sensor 1, then the unnotched side of the wii to the unnotched side of sensor 2, and a jumper between the unnotched side of sensor 1 to the notched side of sensor 2. It will create a circuit in series-- similar to stacking batteries in a remote nipple-to-butt. :)

Also, I just got my Nextronics wireless bar. It has a 3v 200ma AC adapter with it (I hadn't seen power posted anywhere on it so here it is). It works, but no better than my Nintendo stock sensor bar I wired to a 9 volt battery-- matter off act, it acctually gets a shorter range than my stock unit. Very disappointing.

For my stock unit, I used the 'fill the connector' method, but did it more in the spirit/idea of Christmas lights using a piece of speaker cable, an off on switch, and 9v battery. I basically just stripped the end of the speaker wire, folded the stripped ends to the outside like hair (very similar to how the small Christmas tree lights connect to their socket with the 2 pieces of wire coming out from underneath the bulb's base), and shoved it in and taped it-- worked great, and is still solid after 2 months.

I'm still not getting the stability or range with the sensor I'd like-- I'm on a 112" screen at 16:9. The Nextronics unit makes the finger 'disappear' at a shorter distance than my Nintendo&9V solution. Interested to see what other non-battery solutions have been concocted. Still like the idea of a 5 or 7 led cluster on a wider (maybe 24-30"?) base. Anyone done that yet? Or more importantly, anyone shared their results of that yet?

Open to other suggestions too. :)

Murph

I followed SpeedyHTPCs suggestion for putting two sensor bars together end to end with the 2 LEDs in the center covered by electrical tape to extend the range and it worked perfectly for a larger screen and a greater distance. My cursor is now rock solid at about 16 feet back from my 92" screen. Since you have both the Nintendo sensor bar and the Nextronics bar (same as I do) give this a try.

Thanks, Bear. I also couldn't resist opening the nextronics bar-- it's just the 2 LED's on each side with a 50 ohm resistor on a circuit board on each end (4 led's, 2 resistors, run in series). Not an electronics wiz, but thinking about running the 2 nextronics clusters stacked to give a 4 LED cluster and hte Nintendo bar at the other of the 'extended' bar to see what happens. I'll report back with my results. I'm in roughly 12 feet from the screen when playing normally, or maybe as far as 20 feet if I'm behind the couch and such. So far, the nentendo bar and 9 volt have been the best combo-- not sure if a 9 volt battery is strong enough to limit the life of the sensor bar, nor have ai disassembled the sensor bar (it's pretty wrapped up in electrical tape from my battery hack). I may even try ot post a picture if everything seems to be working out.... (crossing fingers)

Murph

Hello everybody. I was about to cut my wired sensor bar cable to attach it to an DC power, but now i have a doubt. I tried with 2 candles, and the wii won't show the "selection hands" on the screen.

This depends on how far apart you placed the candles. The remote's camera isn't wide angled so it cannot see two points that are far apart.

There is a limit to the end to end sensor bar placement that I have. You can't play within 3 ft of the screen. The remote cannot see.


JoshuaL: You'd want to run a wire from the notched side of the Wii to the notched side of sensor 1, then the unnotched side of the wii to the unnotched side of sensor 2, and a jumper between the unnotched side of sensor 1 to the notched side of sensor 2. It will create a circuit in series-- similar to stacking batteries in a remote nipple-to-butt.


Wouldnt hooking it up in series double the resistance? There are resistors suited for 12v coming from the Wii in the bar.

I thought hooking it up in parallel is the best way. The AC adaptor would be able to handle both bars. I'm not certain if the Wii can handle it.


thinking about running the 2 nextronics clusters stacked to give a 4 LED cluster and hte Nintendo bar at the other of the 'extended' bar to see what happens.


I also have the nextronics bar and I noticed that it does not have good angle of refraction. Try tilting the bar up so that it is facing your remote directly instead of laying flat. In my experiment the Nextronics bar is crap because I found that the remote cannot see the LEDs at an angle.

So with that, stacking two Nextronics bars wouldnt work that well either. But you may be able to get by since your screen is smaller and distance is closer. By stacking the bars you increase the angles a bit.

So, Nobody else sells a better sensor bar yet? I've read all over and cant find something that is good for 15+ feet. I have a 119" front projector. The stock unit jitters a bit. I'm hoping to find a better 3rd party sensor bar. I thought the Nextronics one was the best, but I keep reading posts like this one that shoots it down. I moved my glass coffee table out of the way, but it still mostly sucks when I'm all the way to my back wall/couch.

I read the Kyko one is the most powerful unit but is battery powered only. Does anyone sell a AA to AC adapter? (fake batteries with wires attached) I can live with that if the Nyko is truely the most powerful sensor bar money can bay. (non home brew, ready to use) I read the Nextronics one is more powerful in battery mode too so ????

EDIT: I found this guys blog post but he doesnt list what the brand name is or who makes it
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/ACsault_20and_20Battery
(this guy added the link below after I emailed him)

EDIT2: Ok this is close, but it uses AUTO power
http://www.qcavionix.com/be-aa.php

EDIT3 The Battery Eliminator guys said they have a new AC option that is not yet listed on the web site but they are taking orders.

"Jon,
Thanks for your inquiry.
Yes, we do have AC options for our standard battery eliminator products. They are just not yet on our site. How many AA cells does your application require? We have a 2 cell unit and one that will do
1-6 cells. We also have 9v.
-Scott
QC Avionix"

Anyone Anyone?

Wouldnt hooking it up in series double the resistance? There are resistors suited for 12v coming from the Wii in the bar.

I thought hooking it up in parallel is the best way. The AC adaptor would be able to handle both bars. I'm not certain if the Wii can handle it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
So with that, stacking two Nextronics bars wouldnt work that well either. But you may be able to get by since your screen is smaller and distance is closer. By stacking the bars you increase the angles a bit.

On the resistors, I didn't think it mattered, since they are simply there to keep too much current from flowing and burning up the IR LEDs. Could be wrong on that though.

Also, the stacking method, although I haven't had time to try yet, was theoretically to be used to give the IR effect a larger cluster to be picked up by the Wiimote. It wasn't about distance or screen size. I'ev also noticed that the wiimote picks up IR signal from my halogen tracklighting I use in the basement viewing room. Haven't tweeked or played with the brightness though-- but should be fun, they're on a dimmer. :)

Hopefully I can post back some info by the weekend. Thanks all for the good conversation and suggestions. :)

Murph

I see - at least it doesn't put a big "Sensor bar not connected" sign up there, which means that if you manage to power the bar, it should work (providing the Wii doesn't need to receive any info).


The Wii doesn't get any input from the sensor bar at all (as far as I know) it just powers the infared leds in the sensor bar that the wiimote picks up on. Makes a whole lot more sense when you realize that the remote is a receiver instead of a transmitter like i originally thought.

Also means you can use the sensitivity setting screen on the console options to go find random IR sources around your house.

Does anyone use the Nyko? I had a few questions.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11255830#post11255830

The LEDs are all DC powered. So yes you should be able to power the Nyko with a wall brick. Just find one that has the same power as the sum of all the batteries.

The LEDs are all DC powered. So yes you should be able to power the Nyko with a wall brick. Just find one that has the same power as the sum of all the batteries.

Once the Nyko is on AC power full time, can we disable the power savings beep?
(cut wire inside, or remove speaker etc)

Wouldnt hooking it up in series double the resistance? There are resistors suited for 12v coming from the Wii in the bar.

I thought hooking it up in parallel is the best way. The AC adaptor would be able to handle both bars. I'm not certain if the Wii can handle it.

OK, I just tried hooking 2 sensor bars in series connected to the Wii. It worked close up, but was not bright enough past 6 feet or so. I'm going to try parallel, but want to make sure I understand the concept... Is that just hooking the positive from the Wii to the positive of both sensor bars and same with negative? Or is there something else to it?

No electrical experience here, so pardon the dumb question: if I hooked up 2 sensor bars to the one wire coming from the Wii (by cutting, stripping, and splicing together so that the positive from the Wii is connected to the positive of both bars, etc.) would that work? There seems to be enough power to do it, but am I missing something from a basic electrical standpoint?

Impatient person that I am, I tried what I originally proposed above (I assumed that that was the basic definition of parallel). And, it worked! Viewing through my Sony camera looked to be equally as bright as the non-modified sensor bar. I moved as far back as our living room would allow (10-12 feet) and there was no issue with stability at all. So, to answer my original question: it looks like the Wii can power two sensor bars at the same time. Cool.

Now, I'm going to transfer it to the basement (where my home theater is mid-construction) and use it for my future 114" screen. I'll likely be putting it on top of the screen, unless anyone has encountered any problems with top positioning on a large screen.

PS This thread is awesome.

Once the Nyko is on AC power full time, can we disable the power savings beep?
(cut wire inside, or remove speaker etc)

Sorry I'm not sure how the beep works. I guess you can just cut the speaker without harming anything. It is annoying.

Impatient person that I am, I tried what I originally proposed above (I assumed that that was the basic definition of parallel). And, it worked!

Yes, thats what I mean too. I was referring to Murphy's method of end to end which is in series - a method that will drain the voltage of the Wii. In parallel, the amps are drained but voltage is constant. I was pretty sure the Wii can supply two bars worth of amps (but I didnt want to experiment).

You also verified that a cluster of LEDs is better than one.

So, to answer my original question: it looks like the Wii can power two sensor bars at the same time. Cool.

Now, I'm going to transfer it to the basement (where my home theater is mid-construction) and use it for my future 114" screen. I'll likely be putting it on top of the screen, unless anyone has encountered any problems with top positioning on a large screen.

To update, I successfully transferred the dual sensor bars to the top of my 114" Carada screen in the basement (wires routed through drop ceiling). Played Metroid Prime 3 for a few hours and everything was rock solid from 15 feet back. Very happy the Wii supports dual bars on its own, as it made things much simpler!

Regarding the idea of using the USB bus' power for the sensor bar: As is known, it provides 5 V. On an original Nintendo bar this was not bright enough. 7 V or so is needed, so I'm looking into a DC-DC booster chip (want to avoid the power brick... seems very wasteful).

Its not? funny..Why am I able to power it with 4.5v plus im at 16ft back? Also why are you using the USB to power it?

I want this for a HTPC, not a Wii, so I thought it'd be nicer and cleaner to use a free USB port instead (the power brick thing works, but it seems wasteful to me, plus if you use USB and the PC is off - then the bar is off). I wonder if they've made different versions of the sensor bars. I got this one from Nintendo directly.

There used to be P/S for PCs with a plug ala receiver style where it would turn off when the P/S is off. I would think thats easier to do. Anyway I think the USB doesnt have enough amps.

I tried the "wii by candlelight" thing, and IT IS TIGHT!

I also experimented with wiring some lcds to 9v batteries, and the only problem is the light causes distractionunless "invisible" leds are used.

Speedy HTPC: USB can provide 2.5 Watts of power. At 5 V this is more enough than enough "amps" to turn on those pesky little IR LEDs. The problem here is not the current, but that 5 V was not enough voltage.

So a friend wired the original sensor bar to a 9 V AC/DC adapter brick. This worked well but after leaving it on overnight, it looks like the sensor bar died. Perhaps one of the LEDs burned. So it seems that 9 V may be too much for the sensor bar. I can see if I can repair the sensor bar but at this point I think it might be easier to buy a cheap third party bar. I only found "wireless" (read: battery operated) sensor bars out there. Does anyone know of a Wii sensor bar replacement that just comes with a wall plug?

Also, SpeedyHTPC, can you elaborate on this P/S thing? I'm not sure what you are talking about.

One more thing: for this project (which is on a Mac mini) I used RemoteBuddy. The software is surprisingly good and worth checking out.

I have assembled a pair of wireless sensor box for play Wii on projector. I did some test on the distance and placement of the boxes. http://www.wiichat.com/nintendo-wii-hardware/33224-diy-wireless-sensor-bar-distance-test.html

The difficulty with the soldering connections may be due to
the insulation coating on the thin wires in the wii sensor bar cable.

I snipped our wii sensor cable and peeled back the plastic and connected
the two wires inside to a 12V DC power adaptor with alligator clips.
It worked momentarily we think, but then stopped working.
(We used the "adjust sensitivity" mode in the wii settings to experiment
because it gives a clear picture of whether the wii sensor bar is working.)
Thinking that the problem might be the colored wire coating,
I held each of them over a gas flame in my kitchen for a couple seconds,
(kids don't try this at home...).
This seemed to burn off the coating leaving scorched copper.
Then I reconnected the alligator clips to the scorched wires
(red +, copper -), and it worked fine!

Ironically, the wii "sensor bar" is not a sensor at all.

I apologize if this has been posted already....

So I was browsing this thread yesterday and this morning since my wireless sensor bar goes through batteries like crazy (kids leave it on alot) and actually ordered the power supply from the RatShack and was going to mod my OEM sensor bar. I then saw the post putting two end to end and though about doing that. I mentioned this in my build thread since there was some discussion on the Wii. A fellow AVSer posted a link to this:

http://www.videogamebundle.com/sensorbarhd.html

Here are the specs (wider than the standard bar):

Size: 15" x 1/2" x 3/4"
Color: Grey, Black, or White
Range: up to 30 feet.
Power: AC adapter, or optional battery pack (sold separately)

Not sure if it has an on/off switch though, but its an easy mod. I just ordered one and will report back.

Bud

Definitely let me know how that works for you. I built my own last weekend trying to get farther range. Unfortunately I ma not sure the specs on the LED's I got. I hooked ti up to a wall wart at first, putting out 17 volts, and I was able to go back 25 feet, but hooking into the Wii's 12v gave me less range than the standard bar. At this point I would just like to buy one that works well. It would be nice to find something that I could use hooked to the Wii for on/off. Maybe I could wire up a transistor to turn the bar on through the Wii Sensor port.

Absolutely.

Bud

I apologize if this has been posted already....

So I was browsing this thread yesterday and this morning since my wireless sensor bar goes through batteries like crazy (kids leave it on alot) and actually ordered the power supply from the RatShack and was going to mod my OEM sensor bar. I then saw the post putting two end to end and though about doing that. I mentioned this in my build thread since there was some discussion on the Wii. A fellow AVSer posted a link to this:

http://www.videogamebundle.com/sensorbarhd.html

Here are the specs (wider than the standard bar):

Size: 15" x 1/2" x 3/4"
Color: Grey, Black, or White
Range: up to 30 feet.
Power: AC adapter, or optional battery pack (sold separately)

Not sure if it has an on/off switch though, but its an easy mod. I just ordered one and will report back.

Bud


Now that's very interesting. I have the regular wireless sensor bar from that company, but hadn't heard about this new "HD" version. Looks like it's 15" wide vs. 9". The one I have works well, but I'm curious if this one would work better. The one I have doesn't have an on/off switch, but since it plugs into AC it's not as big of a deal.

Certainly let us know how it works.

Guy

The HD part is just to say its for the bigger TVs. It has nothing other than its wider. I dont know about having two LEDs on each side. Might not be bright enough for 30 feet.

Still waiting for it.. hopefully another couple of days.

Bud

Sensor bar arrived yesterday (I got home about 1:30 AM, so not opportunity to hook it up). I'll try and hook it up and post some pictures today at some point. Looks like it'll work out nicely. Doesn't have an on/off switch, so I'll see if I can tie it into my switched outlet on the receiver. I bought the extra 30 ft extension cable cable, now I just need to get the cable from the rack to behind my screen wall. I suppose it could stay plugged into an outlet behind my screen wall and just stay on 7x24, but not sure if it'll burn out (sensor bar or AC adapter). One thing I don't like is its grey, which means it'll stick out in front of the black velvet on the screen during a moving. Easily remedied though.

I also sent them an email do see if you could extend the bar past the 30 feet (if you ever had to, but would expect an outlet to be readily available within 30 feet). Anyone know what the max distance the remotes will work away from the console itself?

Bud

So here are a few teaser shots I took just to get something out for you guys to see. Even though its longer than the standard bar, it's "girth" is much smaller, probably because it doesn't need the room for the batteries anymore. I tossed a quarter in there for scale. One nice thing is that the bottom comes with double sided tape installed so you stick the sucker anywhere. In these pictures, I hook it up with the optional 30 ft extension. The AC power supply is tiny and has about 6 feet of cord with it.

http://images31.fotki.com/v1086/photos/6/649633/3402899/DSC01081-vi.jpg
http://images32.fotki.com/v1109/photos/6/649633/3402899/DSC01082-vi.jpg
http://images36.fotki.com/v1134/photos/6/649633/3402899/DSC01084-vi.jpg
http://images36.fotki.com/v1134/photos/6/649633/3402899/DSC01085-vi.jpg

Bud

So after a day with the new sensor bar, I'd highly recommend it. Seems to make the cursor a lot less shakey. Having no batteries is a big plus as well. I just plugged it in and let it go. I don't plan on doing anything special about trying to trigger it or turn it on/off. It is what it is.

Bud

Yes being wider does stabilize the shake but I dont see anything helping the claim of 30 ft. Can you go that far back?

My room is only 19 feet deep. I' try and exit the room and see what happens...

Bud

One thing I don't like is its grey, which means it'll stick out in front of the black velvet on the screen during a moving. Easily remedied though.

Bud

On their website it can be ordered in black, gray, or white. I have the black non-HD version and it's almost invisible under my screen.

Guy

You're correct, I missed the pull down and ended up with the grey, but not a big deal. I was not able to test it more than about 15' since I don't have line of site to the bar from outside the room.

Bud

Thanks for the report. So at 15ft, do you get any shake at all, even when turning the Wiimote sideways? I find that is when I get the most jitters.

No, no shake, but don't recall specifically turning it sideways to test. Very stable, definitely works well. I'll take a stab at it tonight and see what happens.

Bud

Cool, thanks. Think I might order one.

Sideways works just fine, no shaking.

Bud

Nextronics company is great, really easy to work with. I would recommend the HD sensor bar for sure.

I'm here to debunk all other instructions on how to add an AC adapter to the Wii sensor bar. I'm sure you've heard conflicting information about the correct voltage AC adapter to buy. THESE IS THE CORRECT INFORMATION:

*************
You need to use a 12V adapter with a 47 ohm resistor (1 watt) in series with the sensor bar.
*************

This should be familiar to you if you've ever built a power supply for a LED. Many of the other suggestions I have seen in this thread or on Google will CAUSE DAMAGE to the sensor bar. Send me a PM if you want the raw data supporting this conclusion. Suffice it to say that this is the Thevenin equivalent circuit and will function identically to the Wii connection. Note that the resistor might get a bit warm, this is normal (and the reason to use a 1 watt part). Don't wrap it in tape or it might overheat.

Just an FYI, after cutting the Wii sensor bar cable, and attaching it to the back the of wii with the bare wire leads, I pulled 12.04v DC off it. (Red +, Copper - ) So adding in a power adapter not at 12v seems strange to me.

2ndly, I easily extended my wii sensor bar cable over a cat5e+ pre-wired in my walls to home theater system. My equipment is approx 50' away (of cable length, 35' linear) in a back room.I soldered the Wii cable onto a cat5e+ cable, and plugged it into a cat5e jack, which ran over the 50' cable, to another cat5e jack behind my TV. Before I connected it to the sensor bar, I metered the voltage and came up with 12.03v DC. Being this was in range, I soldered the cat5 wire onto the sensor bar wire, and no problems with my WII from ranges of 1' to 10' away.

In short, I'm not sure what people are needing the additional power for. Just my .02 worth.

The Nextronics HD sensor bar comes with a power source or your choice and one of those choices is a USB power source.

Can it be plugged into the USB on the Wii?

Also.. would splicing the existing sensor wire provide enough power to power the bar?

thanks.

The Nextronics HD sensor bar comes with a power source or your choice and one of those choices is a USB power source.

Can it be plugged into the USB on the Wii?

Also.. would splicing the existing sensor wire provide enough power to power the bar?

thanks.

anyone have any idea?

The existing sensor bar uses roughly 12v, and USB provides 5V, so you probably wouldn't want to splice. I don't see why using their USB solution wouldn't work, though. I am not sure if the Wii's USB ports turn off when it is in standby, so you might want to check that.

The existing sensor bar uses roughly 12v, and USB provides 5V, so you probably wouldn't want to splice. I don't see why using their USB solution wouldn't work, though. I am not sure if the Wii's USB ports turn off when it is in standby, so you might want to check that.

The company has an option for USB power so I imagine their bar works with 5V.

How many volts does the sensor bar cable (the one on the Wii) put out? I read a few reports that it puts out 11V. Is so that would be a nice alternative since it would turn the bar on and off.

I got 2 sets of Dragon Sensor Bar extension cables for around $5 each, shipped. They extend it 6'... no cutting or mods... no turning the bar on and off...

Like Untamo, I also extended my Wii sensor bar cable with simple CAT5e - I didn't even solder it, just tight twisting of the multi-stranded Wii copper lines to the solid CAT5e and checked it for operation before I taped the lines off. I ran the CAT5e from the front wall of my theater screen, where the sensor bar is located, through my attic and back to the AV rack...about 35' total. Then, plug and play! It works perfect, exactly as it did before I extended it. It seems like everyone is making this way more complicated than it has to be.

I'm curious, of the max distance the Wii can be from the sensor bar to work. Also, could I create other Wii sensor bars in other rooms.

A client of ours is wired for an A/V closet on one side of their basement near their recording studio. the theater room is also on this floor, probably within 100' where the main sensor bar would be located. However they would also like to utilize the Wii in other rooms up on the 2nd or 3rd floor. probably within 200' distance. Now we ran extra cat5e behind every display and wall panel. Im assuming that having them all connected up at once would cause confusion as to which ir's (sensor bars) to use at that given time and the Wiimote coordinates would be off. but what it we devised some sort of switcher to switch from one sensor bar to another. even if it were more of a manual operation like keeping all cat5e lines disconnected, but plugging the one you want to use in in the room you want to play the Wii in.

I'm curious, of the max distance the Wii can be from the sensor bar to work. Also, could I create other Wii sensor bars in other rooms.

A client of ours is wired for an A/V closet on one side of their basement near their recording studio. the theater room is also on this floor, probably within 100' where the main sensor bar would be located. However they would also like to utilize the Wii in other rooms up on the 2nd or 3rd floor. probably within 200' distance. Now we ran extra cat5e behind every display and wall panel. Im assuming that having them all connected up at once would cause confusion as to which ir's (sensor bars) to use at that given time and the Wiimote coordinates would be off. but what it we devised some sort of switcher to switch from one sensor bar to another. even if it were more of a manual operation like keeping all cat5e lines disconnected, but plugging the one you want to use in in the room you want to play the Wii in.

Having multiple ones hooked up won't matter, as long as only one is seen by the Wii remote, or if multiple bars are seen they are in a configuration that looks like the original sensor bar (a set of two IR sources at each end). The name "sensor bar" is a misnomer. It's just a set of 4 IR LEDs. There is no communication between it and the Wii, other than for the Wii to sense that current is flowing out the sensor bar port. The real sensing and communication is done in the Wii remote.

There are many wireless sensor bars out now. The bar does not have to be even remotely close to the Wii. The limiting factor on placement of the console is the ability to communicate via Bluetooth with the controllers.

Are there any advantages to the Flexonic HD sensor bar to other sensor bars, so far as picture quality or sensitivity of the IR signal processing, or both? I have front projection and would be placing the sensor bar above the screen on a shelf that is a shadow box over it.
Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

Has anyone used that Nextronics HD bar with a 52" (or smaller TV)? Or, is it just designed for projectors?

I think it'd be nice to add a little stability to the wiimote, especially since I've been playing these rail shooters (HOTD:O is awesome, btw). I'm afraid, though, that having 15" of space between the sensors (instead of 9") will only be good if you're sitting 15 feet from a very large (projector sized) screen.

I saw a sensor bar on sale at amazon with an ac adaptor, $14.99 plus shipping. I think they caught on to what has been done here.

Has anybody tried making their own sensor bar that uses the sensor bar plug from the Wii for power? I have a 120” projector screen setup with my Wii in a stereo cabinet. I am using a Cat5 cable to extend my Wii sensor bar. That all works great but the distance I sit from the sensor bar is too far. Since I have the Cat5 ran and that works I was wondering if there is a way to modify the sensor bar or make one that can use the power from the Wii but have a farther range (up to 25 feet)? If anyone has done this could you provide circuit diagrams, pictures or description on how it was made?

Thanks

Sorry to thread resurrect, but I just did a sensor bar mod and wanted to share a couple of details.

I used a Canon 7.5vdc wall wart from a long forgetten printer or scanner or who-knows-what (always save wall wart power supplies!).

Instead of messing with the thin, stranded, funky-coated Wii sensor bar wire, I opened up the sensor bar and desoldered the Wii power lead from the printed circuit board. Use a very small, jewler's flat head screw driver on the weird Wii screws...six of them, two below the white stickers.

I soldered in a new, 2 conductor lead, reassembled, and threaded the new lead thru the drywall at the base of my home theater screen. Joined that lead to the 7.5vdc power supply and plugged in to an outlet in my workshop on the opposite side of the wall that is my HT screen.

One other detail: I was able to mount the sensor bar below the bottom frame of my HT screen. Once you have the sensor bar open to do the wiring, you see lots of space and opportunity to drill for mounting screws.

Well worth taking it apart rather than messing with the wiring Nintendo used.

Like Untamo, I also extended my Wii sensor bar cable with simple CAT5e - I didn't even solder it, just tight twisting of the multi-stranded Wii copper lines to the solid CAT5e and checked it for operation before I taped the lines off. I ran the CAT5e from the front wall of my theater screen, where the sensor bar is located, through my attic and back to the AV rack...about 35' total. Then, plug and play! It works perfect, exactly as it did before I extended it. It seems like everyone is making this way more complicated than it has to be.

This is what I was considering and figured would work. I already have Cat5e running to a low voltage box under my screen...I ran it for my IR sensor.

I was hoping to just splice the Wii sensor bar wire into that Cat5e on both ends and consider it done?

Awesome fix for this problem. Anyone have details on how to make a connection that can be powered on and off like the one shown here, --http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9696724#post9696724? I have no idea how to do that and would prefer a switch over plugging and unplugging all the time. Any help would be appreciated.

Great hack/solution guys. I bought the power supply and my sensor is working like a charm. Didn't have to use the solder. Just cut it, melt the thin plastic around the red and orange wires (you cannot see it, but the red and orange color are actually a thin plastic cover), attach it to the power supply wires(red is the positive, yellow is the ground) and tape it.
Since the my power supply sits behind the TV, kind of a pain to have it disconnected, i will add a small led switch so it does not stay turned on all the time.
Thumbs Up from your Brazilian friend!