IR sensor distance apart vs power?

[AnyOldName3]

(10-02-2013, 04:48 AM)0118999 Wrote:

(10-01-2013, 07:14 AM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: A) The Wii voltage ranges from 6-12 V depending on the resistance of the bar. It isn't a great power supply

B) No reasonably priced LED can survive that much voltage with any reasonable current flowing through it. There are resistors in series with the LEDs to drop the voltage to a different level.

Really, when has anyone ever put a resistor in series with a diode?

Quote:C) While it's true that the total voltage across a bar will vary between the Wii and a USB port, the manufacturers of Wii bars know this, and put in weaker resistors to balance this.

D) This means that any bar bought as a USB bar powered by USB should work as well as any bar bought for the Wii powered by the Wii.

E) The only explanations for differences are a poor quality bar (meaning its designers didn't know Ohm's Law/ the specs of their LEDs) or that it's a home converted bar and it's owner didn't know they needed to swap out the resistors.

I'm not confident second-hand manufacturers took the same care as Nintendo. It would not surprise me if they used identical resistor values to the official Wii sensor bars, which would explain the weak output. Never underestimate the potential stupidity of a company trying to save money. Why hire an engineer when you can just copy Nintendo's design?

I wasn't trying to give this guy a course on diodes. I was trying to give this guy a general idea of what he would need to do to improve the range on his bar. With these after-market sensor bars, you can generally increase their intensity by increasing the voltage input. If you raise the voltage too much, you run the risk of destroying the diodes, but that's a risk you take when fiddling around with this stuff. I mean, I doubt he has the specs on those LEDs.

Nintendo use reasonably high quality LEDs, so even off Wii voltage, this tactic of direct copying wouldn't work with cheap LEDs.