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03 Wiimote and sensorbar guide (prevent sleeping mode)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:43 pm
by OFC-Giorgio
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.

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Re: wiimote and sensorbar guide (prevent sleeping mode)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:44 pm
by OFC-Giorgio
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Re: wiimote and sensorbar guide (prevent sleeping mode)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:50 pm
by OFC-Giorgio
By using (i.e. cutting a) a sensorbar extension cable and hooking the female side to the ac/dc power adapter one can just plug any sensorbar into the other side.

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Re: 03 Wiimote and sensorbar guide (prevent sleeping mode)

PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2015 9:46 am
by OFC-Giorgio
I tried both a "wireless aka battery operated" non nintendo sensorbar and an original nintendo sensorbar (powered by cable) and the non nintendo sensorbar's infra red lights are not as good. See also above.

Double check with the cod script loaded on titan one if you see the 4th led being on (=the wiimote can not see the sensorbar ir lights) while you move the wiimote in the direction of the sensorbar.

It might be that the sensorbar is off. Try to use the camera of a phone to see the infra red lights on your sensorbar (since ir light is not visible to the human eye).