DolphinBar

[DolphinPC]

I plan to get the dolphin bar because I heard it's the easiest and best solution to connect a wii sensor to PC. I have some Questions:

If that matters I'll buy it from play asia (http://www.play-asia.com/wireless-sensor-dolphin-bar/13/702hmb)

1. The Sensor Quality is good? Is it a good sensor bar?

2.It's harder today to buy a wii remote plus since less retailers sell it. (http://www.play-asia.com/wii-remote-control-plus-tsuika-pack-black/13/705ep5) This pack is nintendo official? will it work with the dolphin bar (It's says it's japanese, and my games are NTSC-U), or I have nothing to worry about?

[Internets]

Are you located in North America? I picked up both DolphinBar and 2x Wii Remote Plus on Amazon. DolphinBar is a great sensor and my preferred method of connecting Wiimote to a PC.

[DolphinPC]

(07-15-2015, 10:04 PM)Internets Wrote: Are you located in North America? I picked up both DolphinBar and 2x Wii Remote Plus on Amazon. DolphinBar is a great sensor and my preferred method of connecting Wiimote to a PC.

My question is if it matters feom what region I will get my wiimote itself (the controller only)
I actually live in europe, but I had a NTSC wii back in 2008, so I purchased my games from the U.S.

[mimimi]

I never heard about the wiimote's region to matter.

The Dolphinbar is great for connecting your original wiimotes in Dolphin. The sensorbar stuff is also great, but only as long as it works. Mine partially boke, and a few of the leds are dead now, so it's not working that great anymore.

[Raptorxdei]

(07-16-2015, 03:01 AM)mimimi Wrote: I never heard about the wiimote's region to matter.

The Dolphinbar is great for connecting your original wiimotes in Dolphin. The sensorbar stuff is also great, but only as long as it works. Mine partially boke, and a few of the leds are dead now, so it's not working that great anymore.

Did it break from use? or do you mean from some sort of physical act?

[Bighead]

The problem is they are either using crummy LEDs and most likely over-volting the inner ones (or both). This mostly only affects the 3 inner LEDs. I was going to do a write-up on how to repair them but never got around to it and figured most people wouldn't care to do such a repair.

The conclusion I came to is the inner LEDs are probably getting more voltage than they should. The inner and outer LEDs are separate series circuits. The voltage reading across the outer LEDs shows 2.65V, and the drop across each one is obviously half, or around 1.33V. The inner LEDs on the other hand, the reading across all 3 yields 4.45V, so the drop across each one ends up as 1.48V. This doesn't seem like a huge difference, but it can be depending on what the LED is rated at. My guess is the LEDs are rated at 1.5V or the like, and Mayflash is pushing that to the limit which ends up in an extremely short life.

Here are some pictures I took during one of my repairs. There are no instructions or anything, I just quickly threw together an Imgur album. So far I've had to replace 2 LEDs. The ones I have laying around are much bigger which required grinding out a fitting space with a dremel, but they got the job done.
http://imgur.com/a/2Rq7s

[DolphinPC]

(07-17-2015, 10:57 AM)Bighead Wrote: The problem is they are either using crummy LEDs and most likely over-volting the inner ones (or both). This mostly only affects the 3 inner LEDs. I was going to do a write-up on how to repair them but never got around to it and figured most people wouldn't care to do such a repair.

The conclusion I came to is the inner LEDs are probably getting more voltage than they should. The inner and outer LEDs are separate series circuits. The voltage reading across the outer LEDs shows 2.65V, and the drop across each one is obviously half, or around 1.33V. The inner LEDs on the other hand, the reading across all 3 yields 4.45V, so the drop across each one ends up as 1.48V. This doesn't seem like a huge difference, but it can be depending on what the LED is rated at. My guess is the LEDs are rated at 1.5V or the like, and Mayflash is pushing that to the limit which ends up in an extremely short life.

Here are some pictures I took during one of my repairs. There are no instructions or anything, I just quickly threw together an Imgur album. So far I've had to replace 2 LEDs. The ones I have laying around are much bigger which required grinding out a fitting space with a dremel, but they got the job done.
http://imgur.com/a/2Rq7s

I'm using a windows PC' keep that in mind. If the dolphin bar isn't a great sensor bar what do you suggest? It's really complicated to connect a sensor bar in another way, and I don't even know if it's possible to connect the original sensor bar to pc and how if that's indeed possible.
Besides the problem with the leds, I heard that as a sensor bar(and not just as a easy way to use wiimotes with dolphin), it has a really high quality. What's your opinion? It's as good as dolphin and other people say? If the extremely short life is the only problem, buying 2 of them in case one will break is better (money isn't the issue, they are pretty cheap) is a better option?

[Bighead]

It depends on your wiimote goals. Here are my opinions on it.

Pros
- For a transmitter/receiver for Dolphin it is a great investment because it works with the TR wiimotes, standard bluetooth adapters require the Toshiba stack. That alone can make it worth buying, even if you are using a separate sensor bar. I have all normal wiimotes, but I still bought two of them in case I ever do own TR wiimotes.
- Using it to turn the wiimote into a PC controller is decent and gets the job done, but there is no customization beyond the predefined inputs of each button. This should be fine for about 85% of people.
- It has a "mouse" mode that enables the wiimote as a mouse by pointing at the IR sensors. Neat little feature, but very jittery and A/B are reversed from what I like. I have made a GlovePIE script that has much better mouse movement and configuration, but it won't work with DolphinBar.
- You can connect wiimotes simply by pressing the "Sync" button. There are far more steps than "push a button" when using a standard bluetooth adapter.
- It is very easy on the eyes. It is definitely one of the nicest looking sensor bars available.

Cons
- The LEDs are prone to burning out because of the issue I mentioned before. These types of repairs are nothing new to me, but to some it could be make or break. As a sensor bar it probably falls short compared to some other options, as there are other USB powered sensor bars on the market with hopefully better quality LEDs, or you can even make your own with 4x IR LEDs and a USB cord that you can pick up at Radio Shack, or even using 2 candles.
- It is hidden from the bluetooth stack, so it won't work with GlovePIE. This is a deal breaker for me because GlovePIE allows you to fully customize the wiimote through scripts (and I love my scripts), so most of the time my wiimote is connected through my bluetooth adapter/broadcom stack.

In short, I use both options depending on my goals. If I don't feel like messing with bluetooth and just want to game on Dolphin, then I use my DolphinBar. If I want more advanced functionality or better mouse movement, then I connect through my bluetooth adapter and use GlovePIE. Whether or not you have TR wiimotes can easily influence the decision, because getting them to work with anything PC is not as simple as pressing connect on the DolphinBar. And I don't own one so I never really tested if they work with things other than Dolphin with the Toshiba stack (or any stack for that matter).

Also I once did some experiments with an original Wii sensor bar but I didn't come to any good conclusions. The Wii outputs 12V for the sensor bar (or very close like 11.94V). So I tried to hook the bar up to a 12V power supply, which worked great but it felt like it was getting far hotter then it should. My guess is the Wii somehow limits the amount of current going to the bar, but hooking it up to a non regulated source, the LEDs will draw as much power as they can. Fearing I would kill the bar, I didn't mess with it any further.

Edit: Rereading your post I'm not sure if you know this, but the sensor bar does not actually send or receive any data as it's just a bunch of Infrared LEDs. All data is sent/received via bluetooth. The sensor bar itself is only used by the wiimote to triangulate the current position. So anything that outputs infrared can technically work as a sensor bar. Data transmission on the other hand, only the DolphinBar does both. Other sensor bars will still require a bluetooth adapter with TR remotes only fully working with the Toshiba stack.

[DolphinPC]

(07-17-2015, 01:22 PM)Bighead Wrote: It depends on your wiimote goals. Here are my opinions on it.

Pros
- For a transmitter/receiver for Dolphin it is a great investment because it works with the TR wiimotes, standard bluetooth adapters require the Toshiba stack. That alone can make it worth buying, even if you are using a separate sensor bar. I have all normal wiimotes, but I still bought two of them in case I ever do own TR wiimotes.
- Using it to turn the wiimote into a PC controller is decent and gets the job done, but there is no customization beyond the predefined inputs of each button. This should be fine for about 85% of people.
- It has a "mouse" mode that enables the wiimote as a mouse by pointing at the IR sensors. Neat little feature, but very jittery and A/B are reversed from what I like. I have made a GlovePIE script that has much better mouse movement and configuration, but it won't work with DolphinBar.
- You can connect wiimotes simply by pressing the "Sync" button. There are far more steps than "push a button" when using a standard bluetooth adapter.
- It is very easy on the eyes. It is definitely one of the nicest looking sensor bars available.

Cons
- The LEDs are prone to burning out because of the issue I mentioned before. These types of repairs are nothing new to me, but to some it could be make or break. As a sensor bar it probably falls short compared to some other options, as there are other USB powered sensor bars on the market with hopefully better quality LEDs, or you can even make your own with 4x IR LEDs and a USB cord that you can pick up at Radio Shack, or even using 2 candles.
- It is hidden from the bluetooth stack, so it won't work with GlovePIE. This is a deal breaker for me because GlovePIE allows you to fully customize the wiimote through scripts (and I love my scripts), so most of the time my wiimote is connected through my bluetooth adapter/broadcom stack.

In short, I use both options depending on my goals. If I don't feel like messing with bluetooth and just want to game on Dolphin, then I use my DolphinBar. If I want more advanced functionality or better mouse movement, then I connect through my bluetooth adapter and use GlovePIE. Whether or not you have TR wiimotes can easily influence the decision, because getting them to work with anything PC is not as simple as pressing connect on the DolphinBar. And I don't own one so I never really tested if they work with things other than Dolphin with the Toshiba stack (or any stack for that matter).

Also I once did some experiments with an original Wii sensor bar but I didn't come to any good conclusions. The Wii outputs 12V for the sensor bar (or very close like 11.94V). So I tried to hook the bar up to a 12V power supply, which worked great but it felt like it was getting far hotter then it should. My guess is the Wii somehow limits the amount of current going to the bar, but hooking it up to a non regulated source, the LEDs will draw as much power as they can. Fearing I would kill the bar, I didn't mess with it any further.

Edit: Rereading your post I'm not sure if you know this, but the sensor bar does not actually send or receive any data as it's just a bunch of Infrared LEDs. All data is sent/received via bluetooth. The sensor bar itself is only used by the wiimote to triangulate the current position. So anything that outputs infrared can technically work as a sensor bar. Data transmission on the other hand, only the DolphinBar does both. Other sensor bars will still require a bluetooth adapter with TR remotes only fully working with the Toshiba stack.

Wow, you really described everything. So because i don't even know what GlovePIE is, and I will only use it for dolphin, I will definitely buy one or even 2 in case one of them will burn or something.

But just to be sure: There is no difference in game experience and responsiveness/lag compared to the original sensor bar or any other sensor bar right?

[JosJuice]

(07-17-2015, 10:59 PM)DolphinPC Wrote: But just to be sure: There is no difference in game experience and responsiveness/lag compared to the original sensor bar or any other sensor bar right?

Exactly. A sensor bar is just a bunch of IR lights, it doesn't handle input at all. The only way for a sensor bar to be significantly worse than another is if the lights are broken.