How to wire a Wii's Bluetooth Module to a PC USB Port

[Seeds]

Hello all, I am pretty new here, I have a few question and am hoping to get a little input from some of the modders and the collective minds. I apologize if I repeat some questions that had been asked before.

Some background on myself- have been working on an all in one PC gaming/emulator rig for the past 6 months or so. My idea from the get go has been to use the wii remotes to complete an entirely wireless set up. The wii remotes are so versatile with the many adapters available it makes the most sense to me. I have fiddled around with two "wireless wii to usb" controller hubs, the mayflash sensor bar, an external bluetooth adapter and thus so far none of these solutions have been very promising for varying reasons.

I have come across this post in the past and I have so far ignored it because I absolutely hate soldering. I am terrible at it; I never seem to have the correct tools, I can never find proper soldering equipment at the stores in my city, it hurts my back to be hunched over so long and I am never happy with how my final product looks (even though it's usually covered up with the case afterwards).

Anyways I am at the end of the rope on this one, and I am going to have to suck it up, and give this a shot.



First off a couple questions:

1)Using the official bluetooth adapter; does the sync button work outside of Dolphin, and do the controller show up as a controller in the windows USB game controllers list like this?:
https://www.julianloehr.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Extension_EN.png
or will it show up like this
https://www.julianloehr.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Blank_En.png
I think I have read conflicting information on this one. If it shows up as a normal controller it makes configuring my emulators much easier.

I have a bunch of parts ordered from ebay. For my build I plan on using a "blank" 5.25" optical drive to install the bluetooth module + guts into, and I plan to have a single pole momentary push button installed on the front for the "sync" button.

This drive->http://www.istarusa.com/en/istarusa/products.php?model=RP-5HDD2535I

This switch->https://www.ebay.ca/itm/6pcs-Lockless-Momentary-OFF-ON-Push-button-Switch-16MM-Round-reset-switch/152480275238?hash=item2380885b26:g:Ej4AAOSwdGFY0RFW

2)Will this switch work in place of the SMD tact switch, or do they operate differently?

3)I had ordered a nice small DC-DC "Buck" step down voltage regulator with nice holes for the wires: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1A-DC-DC-Buck-Step-down-Converter-Volt-Regulator-5V-16V-9V-12v-to-3-3V-Fixed-Out/323172847607?hash=item4b3e9a4ff7:g:a-sAAOSwQ19auhSq

If that one doesn't work I also ordered a linear voltage regulator:

If that regulator is a bad idea I also ordered this one just in case:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/3-3V-Out-4-5V-to-12V-In-AMS1117-3-3-Step-Down-Linear-Voltage-Regulator-Module/191810305698?hash=item2ca8c8fea2:g:hBEAAOSwfJJZaml7

Will the buck regulator work? It's a nice size and it has nice holes for the wires, and if not, did I get a good linear voltage regulator?

4) Last question I had is if anyone had any other good ideas, or maybe point out something I am missing? I would like to maybe put something else on the exterior of the 5.25" drive because it might look a little odd just to have one little button, but I have yet to come up with any other ideas.


Thank you for your time, I will post up any and all my progress for others to see! .

[mbc07]

Well, let's try answering your questions...


1) The Sync button will only work while running a Wii game/app in Dolphin on Bluetooth Passthough mode. In any other scenario pressing the button won't do anything. Regarding how Windows will see the connected Wiimotes, it depends. Keep in mind that the Wii Bluetooth module will get recognized on Windows the same as any other BT Adapter, so, out of the box, any Wiimote paired to it won't show any button on control panel, but if you install HID Wiimote driver then it'll properly show the buttons and you'll be able to use it without much trouble on other emulators and PC games. But then, there's the issue that in order to Bluetooth Passthrough work in Dolphin, you would have to override the BT Driver with Zadig, and that would essentially render the adapter usable only in Dolphin.

Another option you have and that theoretically would provide the best of both worlds would be installing UsbDk instead of overriding the driver with Zadig. On that scenario, you could use the BT adapter normally, even with HID Wiimote, and upon booting a Wii game in Dolphin would temporarily "eject" the BT Adapter from Windows and get full control of it for Bluetooth Passthough (you wouldn't be able to use the adapter for anything else while emulation is running). Upon stopping the emulation or closing Dolphin, the BT Adapter would magically appear again in Windows allowing you to continue using it for normal. Buuuut that's only in theory, UsbDk unfortunately isn't too stable and while it works as advised for some users, for others it simply fails miserably, either by not ejecting the adapter when Dolphin runs or in some cases always softlocking the emulator whenever you try to boot a Wii game. And assuming it works for you, you would probably need to repair the Wiimotes whenever you switched from Dolphin usage to Windows usage as the link keys would change, forcing you to repair them.

2) You shouldn't have any issues with the drive bay, but if it's entirely made of metal, it might affect the signal range of the Bluetooth module. About the button, as long as the one you linked works as a push button (e.g. the terminals on it keep shorted only while you hold the button pressed) it should work fine too.

3) I don't have a lot of experience with voltage regulators but both of them should work equally well for feeding the Wii Bluetooth Module. In fact, a lot of people on this thread successfully modded their modules using the same linear voltage regulator you linked.

4) Considering you plan on having the module permanently installed inside your PC, perhaps you could completely ditch the sync button. It will only work with Dolphin in Bluetooth Passthrough and you can easily configure a hotkey in the emulator to do exactly the same the physical sync button would do...

[Seeds]

Thanks for your reply mbc07

Is there any chance the Dolphin team could/would ever create a secondary app to open USBkd to run the wiimotes that would run at startup of windows, and run 24/7? In this case the user would have the option to have the wiimotes act like a windows controller, and then smoothly transition to exclusive passthrough Dolphin mode without the ejection/reopening of new drivers, keeping the same controllers synced? This is my dream set up =P.

----------------
quote:
4) Considering you plan on having the module permanently installed inside your PC, perhaps you could completely ditch the sync button. It will only work with Dolphin in Bluetooth Passthrough and you can easily configure a hotkey in the emulator to do exactly the same the physical sync button would do...
-----------------

I may skip it, but I kind of like the idea of anyone in the house being able to sync it without knowing hotkeys and such. Also, I tend to forget things =P. I am using a front end program to launch my games (launchbox https://www.launchbox-app.com/ ) I try to keep the hotkeys to a minimum, as my whole set up is intended to act keyboardless.

[mbc07]

(04-11-2018, 10:04 AM)Seeds Wrote: Thanks for your reply mbc07

Is there any chance the Dolphin team could/would ever create a secondary app to open USBkd to run the wiimotes that would run at startup of windows, and run 24/7? In this case the user would have the option to have the wiimotes act like a windows controller, and then smoothly transition to exclusive passthrough Dolphin mode without the ejection/reopening of new drivers, keeping the same controllers synced? This is my dream set up =P.

Due the way Bluetooth Passthrough works, that's veeeeery unlikely. It's basically the emulated Wii game talking directly to the adapter like it would do on a real Wii, AFAICT there's no way to do that without "ejecting" the Windows Bluetooth Stack every time you run Dolphin... That's also the same when running Dolphin on Linux or macOS, the difference that the transition between the two modes is way smoother and stable than on Windows with UsbDk...

[wiimodule]

(02-17-2018, 07:30 AM)LuismaSP Wrote: Finally, I managed to make my own adapter thanks everyone in this post for helping with images and diagrams  

hi I have the same regulator as you, did you solder usb cable ground to the regulator in, then solderd ground out from the regulator to all the points on module? if you can submit drawing, thank you

[mccorkled]

What is going on with this production? I don't understand how it has taken this long. I am about to start a kick started, have the boards printed for a few dollars, and slap them in a case. People here have said time and time again they are willing to pay for one. I am starting to think the person making them has no clue how to do it.

[Armada]

(06-30-2018, 02:55 AM)mccorkled Wrote: What is going on with this production? I don't understand how it has taken this long. I am about to start a kick started, have the boards printed for a few dollars, and slap them in a case. People here have said time and time again they are willing to pay for one. I am starting to think the person making them has no clue how to do it.

Dolphin is not a business, why would you expect the dongle to be produced just because people want to pay for it?

[AnyOldName3]

Dolphin devs had said they were working on making an official one. I think that's why he's expecting it to be produced, not because there're people wanting to spend money. It's been quite a while since the last update about it.

[chriskant]

I also wanted to give the Dolphin Modul a shot and tried it today, but without luck. I am unsure what I did wrong, if it is not a hardware issue itself.

first I wanted to go with this diagramm
   

but later in this thread I read that a switch is not needed, so I did that
   

at the end it looks a bit professional   like this
   

I made all the cabling (what a macro work) and put this into my pc, but windows 10 is not reconizing it.

Does someone have an updated diagram so I can double check this or some other helpful hints?


best regards,
Chris

update:
I did recheck the cables and now it looks like Windows is finding something with the name "BCM2045A" and now I stuck again, because just after starting a game the black game screen closed immediately

[mccorkled]

(06-30-2018, 03:59 AM)Armada Wrote: Dolphin is not a business, why would you expect the dongle to be produced just because people want to pay for it?

Specifically?

Because for nearly 2 years you have been hyping people about about you producing boards. :facepalm: