Is there a way to use your Wii sensor bar from the Wii/WiiU

[Alexandy1]

Is there a way to use your Wii/Wii U sensor bar on your PC (Not USB one's the Offcial one that came in your Wii/WiiU)

[ExtremeDude2]

As long as you have a way to power it.

[MayImilae]

A sensor bar is just IR lights, so in theory you just need a power lead. The easiest way to use an original sensor bar is to just turn a wii on to power it, I did that for several years! Now I just use a Power A licensed battery powered sensor bar for the Wii U, and it's fine.

If you really want to use the original sensor bar and not rely on a wii for power, you're going to have to do some modding. Unfortunately they draw a higher power than USB provides* (higher voltage, probably higher amperage too), so a straight wire adapter is possible but the lights would be very dim. There are a number of options just searching online, with tutorials for custom circuits and things, but they are all pretty advanced. The easiest option is to just wire it up to a 9V battery, as that's very very simple. It might be a little high voltage though, so wiring in a resister to get it to 7.5V would probably be a good idea. I'm not an expert at this though. YYMV, and if you want to go the modding route, good luck!

*: (Show Spoiler)

USB PD (a new power spec that the Switch and some other things use) can deliver 20 volts and 5 amps, so in theory you could power an original wii sensor bar off of USB PD. But USB PD is pretty complex on its own so I doubt a simple wire splicing setup is possible for USB PD. Also you'd have to be careful that you don't send the sensor bar too much power: they'd be brighter but they'll probably burn out over time. It would take a lot of work, but in theory you could just plug it into a computer or USB PD power supply and it would just work. In theory. I'm pretty sure no one has done this before.