03 Wiimote and sensorbar guide (prevent sleeping mode)
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:43 pm
The wiimote communicates via bluetooth with your wii/wiiu and is both a bluetooth sender and receiver.
It can receive commands to vibrate, play a sound through the wiimote's little speaker or to turn on/off the 4 little lights on the wiimote.
It can also send status reports to your wii/wiiu. The status reports include which buttons are pressed or released, the gyro information of both the wiimote & nunchuk and the infrared sensor information i.e. the direction/pointing position of the wiimote.
Likewise the Titan One can communicate via bluethooth with your wiimote by inserting a usb bluetooth dongle in the Titan One. After the Titan One is inserted in the PS/XBOX usb port it acts like a man in the middle and the wiimote is used to simulate/mimic a ps/xbox controller so you can use the wiimote + nunchuk on the PS/XBOX.
The sensorbar is in fact just 2 arrays of 5 infra led lights (or in later generations of the sensorbar: 2 sets of 3 infra red led lights) that are powered via the wii/wiiu cable or by batteries when you buy a wireless sensorbar.
The wiimote's built in infrared sensor uses these lights as a reference (think 2 lighthouses) to determine it's position. So the sensorbar is needed for the wiimote to operate correctly (so the titan one dongle does not use the sensorbar itself or directly).
In my scripts I used led 4 to indicate that the sensorbar is out of reach (or switched off) and this can be used to put your sensorbar on the right spot.
If you use a wii or a wiiu (with the power saving stuff turned off and put into Wii mode), the wii/wiiu will not go into sleep mode and the sensorbar will stay on. Another way to prevent the sensorbar being swichted off by the sleep mode of wii/wiiu is to connect the sensorbar to an (universal) ac/dc adapter (and another advantage is that you don't need a wii/wiiu to power your sensorbar anymore).
I read that the first versions of the nintendo sensorbar has 10 lights (using 12v from the wii/wiiu cable) while the second generation has only 6 lights (and uses 4v - 7v which can be also be achieved via usb powering).
I tested an original nintendo sensorbar, a non nintendo sensorbar and a non nintendo wireless sensor (operated by 4 x 1.5 aaa batteries).
I had the best results with the original nintendo sensorbar (10 good quality sharp leds, 7.5v was ok)
See the pictures made with a philips webcam that shows infrared (that is not visible to the human eye).
The very thin wire of the sensorbar is to be stripped by using a lighter and burning the coating away.
I hooked the sensorbar up to a:
vivanco universal AC/DC power adapter PS 600
input 100-240v 60/50hz max 0.16A
Max output power/current 7.2W 600mA max
Output voltages: 3 / 4.5 / 5.0 / 7.5 / 9.0 / 12 V
I put the output voltage on 7.5 v, performed a test with the philips webcam and the brightness of the leds of the ac/dc power powered sensorbar seemed the same as the brightness of the wiiu powered sensorbar. So 7.5v seems OK.
It can receive commands to vibrate, play a sound through the wiimote's little speaker or to turn on/off the 4 little lights on the wiimote.
It can also send status reports to your wii/wiiu. The status reports include which buttons are pressed or released, the gyro information of both the wiimote & nunchuk and the infrared sensor information i.e. the direction/pointing position of the wiimote.
Likewise the Titan One can communicate via bluethooth with your wiimote by inserting a usb bluetooth dongle in the Titan One. After the Titan One is inserted in the PS/XBOX usb port it acts like a man in the middle and the wiimote is used to simulate/mimic a ps/xbox controller so you can use the wiimote + nunchuk on the PS/XBOX.
The sensorbar is in fact just 2 arrays of 5 infra led lights (or in later generations of the sensorbar: 2 sets of 3 infra red led lights) that are powered via the wii/wiiu cable or by batteries when you buy a wireless sensorbar.
The wiimote's built in infrared sensor uses these lights as a reference (think 2 lighthouses) to determine it's position. So the sensorbar is needed for the wiimote to operate correctly (so the titan one dongle does not use the sensorbar itself or directly).
In my scripts I used led 4 to indicate that the sensorbar is out of reach (or switched off) and this can be used to put your sensorbar on the right spot.
If you use a wii or a wiiu (with the power saving stuff turned off and put into Wii mode), the wii/wiiu will not go into sleep mode and the sensorbar will stay on. Another way to prevent the sensorbar being swichted off by the sleep mode of wii/wiiu is to connect the sensorbar to an (universal) ac/dc adapter (and another advantage is that you don't need a wii/wiiu to power your sensorbar anymore).
I read that the first versions of the nintendo sensorbar has 10 lights (using 12v from the wii/wiiu cable) while the second generation has only 6 lights (and uses 4v - 7v which can be also be achieved via usb powering).
I tested an original nintendo sensorbar, a non nintendo sensorbar and a non nintendo wireless sensor (operated by 4 x 1.5 aaa batteries).
I had the best results with the original nintendo sensorbar (10 good quality sharp leds, 7.5v was ok)
See the pictures made with a philips webcam that shows infrared (that is not visible to the human eye).
The very thin wire of the sensorbar is to be stripped by using a lighter and burning the coating away.
I hooked the sensorbar up to a:
vivanco universal AC/DC power adapter PS 600
input 100-240v 60/50hz max 0.16A
Max output power/current 7.2W 600mA max
Output voltages: 3 / 4.5 / 5.0 / 7.5 / 9.0 / 12 V
I put the output voltage on 7.5 v, performed a test with the philips webcam and the brightness of the leds of the ac/dc power powered sensorbar seemed the same as the brightness of the wiiu powered sensorbar. So 7.5v seems OK.