Wii Booster

[ciper]

Oh you mean an "adjustable" sensor bar. Good idea.

I bought a package of 10 high brightness IR led from Ebay, a high wattage resistor that I had spair (a small unit would work fine) and used a C battery holder. The only problem with the simple layout is that the LEDs are ran constantly and waste battery. It would be far better to pulse them but I was lazy and cheap.

edit: Here I found a page that explains why you should include the resistor. Too many of the home made sensor bars do not have one http://www.coilgun.info/levitation/infraredemitter.htm

 

[dogon1013]

I have also been thinking about an adjustable width sensor bar. I hate that Raving Rabids makes you stand very close to the projected screen.

I have been thinking of making some periscopes to make the existing sensorbars IR lights effectively farther apart to prove that it will work. (like 2 submarine persicope on their side)

 

[RJU690]

Okay all of this is very confusing so let me get this straight:

1. The sensor bar has two sets of IR sources on each side.
2. It's best if the IR sources are really bright, have a lot of power, there are more IR lights on each set, and that there are no other sources of IR light, correct?
3. Somehow you need to triangulate yourself (the player) with each set of IR lights.

My questions are:

1. What's the formula for the triangulation part? I doubt both IR sources and the player have to be equal distances apart so it forms an equalateral triangle.
2. What components would you recommend for the IR sources that are powerful enough?
3. Does anyone know of a tutorial for making an effective sensor bar?

 

[mym6]

Not really. Most of the walkthroughs incorrectly focus on creating an exact replica of the original sensor bar. I created my own custom measured bar for my projector using a protractor and string. I can't remember the angles at the moment but its easy to find out. The documentation from Nintendo gives a specific range for the Wiimote, 6-8 feet I think, so I chose the middle of that range. I then held a string from the two IR LED in the sensor bar to that distance and measured the angle. I then did the reverse with my new distance for the projector and the sensor bar had to be lengthened by only a couple inches.

This guy speaks the truth. By making the IR sources farther apart, it fools the remote into thinking it is closer to the screen than it really is. There is a trade off of course. If you set it too wide then you limit how close to the screen you can get. But if you're going to build a custom wii sensor bar that is wider then you should already know this.

 

[mym6]

Okay all of this is very confusing so let me get this straight:


The sensor bar has two sets of IR sources on each side.

It's best if the IR sources are really bright, have a lot of power, there are more IR lights on each set, and that there are no other sources of IR light, correct?

Somehow you need to triangulate yourself (the player) with each set of IR lights.

My questions are:


What's the formula for the triangulation part? Do both IR sources and yourself have to be equal distances apart so it forms an equalateral triangle?

Does anyone know of a tutorial for making an effective sensor bar?

Contrary to the name of the device, the "sensor" is nothing but a set of IR lights. Most everyone knows this now. All of the work is being done by the remote and the sensor bar is a completely passive device.

What ciper is referring to is triangulation which refers to the systems ability to figure out how far away from the screen you are. Now in reality, real triangulation requires 3 points of reference, hence the name, but the remote is able to compensate by "seeing" the IR light. Because it can see the light, it can see how far apart the two light sources are. The closer together they are, the farther the remote is away from the screen, and the farther apart the light sources are the closer it is to the screen. Combine this with the ability to see if the lights are to the left/right or up/down and it can tell approximately where it is "pointing" at the screen.

The problem you have at a distance farther than 8' is that now the IR sources are so far apart that it's difficult for the remote to determine of it's a single light or still two lights; this affects the remotes ability to rotate AND keep the cursor in the right spot. Also, once you get too far back, the rate at which the IR lights grow closer together as you move back slows down, further limiting the remotes ability to determine that it's distance from the screen is increasing or decreasing.

If you want to see how this all works, just go into the wii settings menu and adjust the sensitivity. Move the remote farther away, move it left and right, then move far away. You can see right on the screen what the remote sees.

 

[RJU690]

Thank you for your explanation. Essentially what you are saying is that if you get too close, it might not see both of the lights because they're so far apart. If you're too far, the remote might mistake the two lights which are now appearing to be very close to each other be one light.

Does anyone know the formula for proper triangulating? For example, how would you configure the distance of the two IR sources if you are say ten feet away from the television?

 

[ciper]

http://www.geocities.com/mathfair2002/school/trig/trig0.htm

With the original bar you know the dimensions of a right triangle that is made from the middle of the sensor bar to where you site and the middle of the sensor bar to one end. Using this information and cosine you can find the length of the third side of the triangle. With that you can find the angle of longest side (from IR emitter to person) and shortest side (from IR emitter to center of bar).

Now you have to create a triangle with the same three angles but with a 10 foot side which will tell you the length of the distance between the middle of the bar and your new IR source.

 

[Olorin90]

awesome

 

[RJU690]

http://www.geocities.com/mathfair2002/school/trig/trig0.htm

With the original bar you know the dimensions of a right triangle that is made from the middle of the sensor bar to where you site and the middle of the sensor bar to one end. Using this information and cosine you can find the length of the third side of the triangle. With that you can find the angle of longest side (from IR emitter to person) and shortest side (from IR emitter to center of bar).

Now you have to create a triangle with the same three angles but with a 10 foot side which will tell you the length of the distance between the middle of the bar and your new IR source.

I practically had a brain aneurysm attempting to understand your post but I finally comprehend it. I greatly appreciate your thorough explanation.

 

[hsam]

Let's not forget about the Nextronics wireless sensor bar. IGN did a review, and it had a range of 30 feet during there tests.

It can be found here:
www.videogamebundle.com

 

[Trulen]

I'd get it for the smart power-off feature.

But that's when I ever get a room bigger than the one I have....

Which is going to be never.

The current sensor bar cable from the original on mine is like, 5 feet more than I need!

Well maybe 2.

 

[billcsho]

As Ciper said, the distance between the 2 side of IR LEDs are critical for playing game at a long distance. I found there is roughly a factor of 12 (i.e. placing the 2 LEDs 10" apart gives a 10ft range, 16" apart for a 16ft range). My Nyko wireless sensor bar never let me play fishing or other game with pointing at screen over 8-10 ft away. The absolute limit is at the signal intensity of the IR LEDs. A single high intensity IR LED has a range of around 10-25ft. Putting in more would increase the range. Multiple LEDs in serial may have intensity in each, but the WiiMote see the whole group as one spot and does not care as long as the 2 groups on each side provide approximately the same level for optimal calibration.

See my test result here.

Forget of buying those after market sensor bars, make one yourself. It costed me only $3 to make one that would really work at 25ft away. I think the WiiBooster just has 2 sets of IR LEDs placed at different distance. Making 2 IR LED boxes allows you to place them at any distance apart.

No need to calculate the sine, cosine, or the angle of the triangle, it is simply proportional when you enlarge a triangle.