Noob questions (1st post) - wii sensor bar

[asheenlevrai]

Hi everyone,

I want to try the dolphin emulator.
I want to use real wiimotes (with integrated motion+) that I already have.
Could I mix real wiimotes with other BT controllers for multiplayer games? For instance, players 1 & 2 play with real wiimotes while players 3 & 4 play with generic BT controllers compatible with dolphin (if there is such a thing)
I guess I need to read about BT pass-through (I could find some info on the wiki but maybe someone could point to a detailed tutorial).

What about the Wii Sensor bar? I haven't understood very well yet.
Do I need to purchase the Mayflash W010? (AFAIU its BT module is not comaptible with BT passthrough)
OR could I use any others? (nextronic still a no-go?)
"The situation with sensor bars has been so bad, just turning on a Wii and using its sensor bar is the preferred solution for many." source

Maybe something along these lines?

Thank you very much in advance for your help.
Best,
-a-

[Jack]

(09-13-2021, 09:01 AM)asheenlevrai Wrote: Could I mix real wiimotes with other BT controllers for multiplayer games? For instance, players 1 & 2 play with real wiimotes while players 3 & 4 play with generic BT controllers compatible with dolphin (if there is such a thing)

Yes, you can. Go to “Controllers” and under the “Wii Remotes” section, and then manually select and configure controllers for player 1,2,3 and 4. You can choose both real Wiimote and other BT controllers.

(09-13-2021, 09:01 AM)asheenlervai Wrote: What about the Wii Sensor bar? I haven't understood very well yet.
Do I need to purchase the Mayflash W010? (AFAIU its BT module is not comaptible with BT passthrough)
OR could I use any others? (nextronic still a no-go?)
"The situation with sensor bars has been so bad, just turning on a Wii and using its sensor bar is the preferred solution for many." source

Maybe something along these lines?

So, if you have a Wii Sensor Bar and also a Wii, then just power on the Wii with the sensor bar plugged to Wii, sensor bar only needs power. It will work for your Wiimote even when playing in Dolphin. (Just make sure that your Wiimote is connected to Dolphin, and not Wii.)

If you have a Wii Sensor Bar, but not Wii, then maybe try converting your Wii Sensor Bar to USB Powered or Wireless (Battery powered). Personally, I don’t prefer this.

There are other options that are cheaper to buy than a Mayflash DolphinBar, like USB-powered sensor bars and battery-powered ("wireless") sensor bars which can be found on Amazon. You can even create a homemade DIY Battery powered Sensor Bar. Or you can simply use two candles.
https://www.cnet.com/news/replace-your-wii-sensor-bar-romantically/

[mimimi]

A wii sensor bar does not actually contain any sensors. There are 2 arrays of IR blasters, which you can see with a digital camera, if it does not filter IR light(iPhones filter it out, i think). The front of the wiimotes contains a sensor to detect IR light sources.


Most 3rd party sensor bars are said to be of bad quality, which means your wiimotes might have trouble detecting them properly. I'm happy with my PowerA Ultra Sensor Bar, but i think it's kinda impossible to get today, and it eats batteries like crazy.

The Mayflash DolphinBar is a sensor bar combined with a bluetooth adapter, that is not exposed as a bluetooth adapter to your computer. This means you can't use it for passthrough, but on the hand hand it works pretty well out of the box without messing with drivers much. If you go that route, make sure it's on the latest firmware and automatically turns off when no wiimote is connected. Otherwise you'll run into the problem that one or more IR LEDs burn out, making it useless as a sensor bar, which might happen anyway, if you are unlucky. Combining real wiimotes using a DolphinBar and other bluetooth devices shouldn't be a problem, but you need another bluetooth adapter for this, as the DolphinBar does not support other controllers(at least as far as i know).

Using wiimotes and BT controllers at the same time might work, but only in the non passthrough mode, which i have never tried personally. In passthrough mode, the passthrough driver for the bluetooth adapter replaces the normal bluetooth driver and you can't use that dongle at the same time for normal bluetooth devices. If you have 2 BT adapters, you could mix regular bluetooth devices with passthrough, although that's a bit more complicated to setup and i'd recommend 2 different BT adapters for this.

[asheenlevrai]

(09-13-2021, 06:56 PM)Jack Wrote: Yes, you can. Go to “Controllers” and under the “Wii Remotes” section, and then manually select and configure controllers for player 1,2,3 and 4. You can choose both real Wiimote and other BT controllers.


So, if you have a Wii Sensor Bar and also a Wii, then just power on the Wii with the sensor bar plugged to Wii, sensor bar only needs power. It will work for your Wiimote even when playing in Dolphin. (Just make sure that your Wiimote is connected to Dolphin, and not Wii.)


If you have a Wii Sensor Bar, but not Wii, then maybe try converting your Wii Sensor Bar to USB Powered or Wireless (Battery powered). Personally, I don’t prefer this.

There are other options that are cheaper to buy than a Mayflash DolphinBar, like USB-powered sensor bars and battery-powered ("wireless") sensor bars which can be found on Amazon. You can even create a homemade DIY Battery powered Sensor Bar. Or you can simply use two candles.
https://www.cnet.com/news/replace-your-wii-sensor-bar-romantically/

Thanks,

I'd rather not use my wii at all. The idea of using an emulator is that I can make some room under the TV set.
Now modding the sensor bar could be an option.
The dolphin bar is $32 in my region while a replacement wii sensor bar is less than $10, so... I mean if the dolphin bar brings any added value or convenience, let me know.
On the other hand, I LOVE the idea of using candles like you mentioned (and as this brat demonstrates), but obviously not on a regular basis

Thanks a lo-a-

[asheenlevrai]

(09-14-2021, 11:42 PM)mimimi Wrote: A wii sensor bar does not actually contain any sensors. There are 2 arrays of IR blasters, which you can see with a digital camera, if it does not filter IR light(iPhones filter it out, i think). The front of the wiimotes contains a sensor to detect IR light sources.


Most 3rd party sensor bars are said to be of bad quality, which means your wiimotes might have trouble detecting them properly. I'm happy with my PowerA Ultra Sensor Bar, but i think it's kinda impossible to get today, and it eats batteries like crazy.

The Mayflash DolphinBar is a sensor bar combined with a bluetooth adapter, that is not exposed as a bluetooth adapter to your computer. This means you can't use it for passthrough, but on the hand hand it works pretty well out of the box without messing with drivers much. If you go that route, make sure it's on the latest firmware and automatically turns off when no wiimote is connected. Otherwise you'll run into the problem that one or more IR LEDs burn out, making it useless as a sensor bar, which might happen anyway, if you are unlucky. Combining real wiimotes using a DolphinBar and other bluetooth devices shouldn't be a problem, but you need another bluetooth adapter for this, as the DolphinBar does not support other controllers(at least as far as i know).

Using wiimotes and BT controllers at the same time might work, but only in the non passthrough mode, which i have never tried personally. In passthrough mode, the passthrough driver for the bluetooth adapter replaces the normal bluetooth driver and you can't use that dongle at the same time for normal bluetooth devices. If you have 2 BT adapters, you could mix regular bluetooth devices with passthrough, although that's a bit more complicated to setup and i'd recommend 2 different BT adapters for this.

Thanks a lot

"The Mayflash DolphinBar is a sensor bar combined with a bluetooth adapter, that is not exposed as a bluetooth adapter to your computer."
But the BT adapter from the W010 still allows to connect wiimotes to the PC, right?
I'm not familiar with the hardware bur according to what you mentioned afterwards, I guess that's a yes.


"Combining real wiimotes using a DolphinBar and other bluetooth devices shouldn't be a problem, but you need another bluetooth adapter for this, as the DolphinBar does not support other controllers"
This sounds reasonable.



"Using wiimotes and BT controllers at the same time might work, but only in the non passthrough mode, which i have never tried personally. In passthrough mode, the passthrough driver for the bluetooth adapter replaces the normal bluetooth driver and you can't use that dongle at the same time for normal bluetooth devices. If you have 2 BT adapters, you could mix regular bluetooth devices with passthrough, although that's a bit more complicated to setup and i'd recommend 2 different BT adapters for this."
I got lost here. I'm not familiar with the details of what BT passthrough mode is but I assume it makes the BT adapter "invisible" to the OS and only the dolphin emulator can interact with devices that are connected to this BT adapter, right?
 - Now Wiimotes can work with passthrough BT adapter while other BT controllers cannot? I guess... That's why I would need to different BT adapters? One in passthrough mode for the wiimotes and one in regular mode for the other BT controllers?
 - And in this case you would recommend NOT using 2 units of the same BT adapter but rather 2 BT adapters of different brand/model?

Let me know if I'm completely off here

Thanks
-a-

[mimimi]

Quote:But the BT adapter from the W010 still allows to connect wiimotes to the PC, right?
I'm not familiar with the hardware bur according to what you mentioned afterwards, I guess that's a yes.

You can think of the Mayflash DolphinBar as a proprietary usb dongle that allows you to connect wiimotes to your PC. To your PC, the DolphinBar is an usb device and Dolphin knows how to use it as wiimote(s).

Quote:I got lost here. I'm not familiar with the details of what BT passthrough mode is but I assume it makes the BT adapter "invisible" to the OS and only the dolphin emulator can interact with devices that are connected to this BT adapter, right?

 - Now Wiimotes can work with passthrough BT adapter while other BT controllers cannot? I guess... That's why I would need to different BT adapters? One in passthrough mode for the wiimotes and one in regular mode for the other BT controllers?
 - And in this case you would recommend NOT using 2 units of the same BT adapter but rather 2 BT adapters of different brand/model?

In order to use bluetooth passthrough with an adapter, you need to install a special driver for it, which is not a bluetooth driver. Your PC still sees the adapter, but not as a bluetooth device, which is why it can't connect to regular bluetooth devices when that driver is installed.

So if you have 2 adapters, where different models make it easier to use 2 different drivers, you can use one for passthrough and one for regular bluetooth devices.

Dolphin has a mode to use real wiimotes with a bluetooth adapter and a regular bluetooth driver. Since i have never used that, i don't know how well it works, or if it works together with other bluetooth controllers at the same time.

[asheenlevrai]

(09-16-2021, 03:41 AM)mimimi Wrote: You can think of the Mayflash DolphinBar as a proprietary usb dongle that allows you to connect wiimotes to your PC. To your PC, the DolphinBar is an usb device and Dolphin knows how to use it as wiimote(s).




In order to use bluetooth passthrough with an adapter, you need to install a special driver for it, which is not a bluetooth driver. Your PC still sees the adapter, but not as a bluetooth device, which is why it can't connect to regular bluetooth devices when that driver is installed.

So if you have 2 adapters, where different models make it easier to use 2 different drivers, you can use one for passthrough and one for regular bluetooth devices.

Dolphin has a mode to use real wiimotes with a bluetooth adapter and a regular bluetooth driver. Since i have never used that, i don't know how well it works, or if it works together with other bluetooth controllers at the same time.

Thanks a lot!
It all makes sense now.
I guess the one inconvenience of using the passthrough mode is that I need another BT adapter If I want to use the regular controllers for a different emulator or a different game, for instance,right? Unless I repair them with the appropriate adapter each time I need to switch.
Anyways, I'll look into all that and it's good to know there are several options available
Best,
-a-

[jvook]

(09-16-2021, 05:57 AM)asheenlevrai Wrote: Thanks a lot!
It all makes sense now.
I guess the one inconvenience of using the passthrough mode is that I need another BT adapter If I want to use the regular controllers for a different emulator or a different game, for instance,right? Unless I repair them with the appropriate adapter each time I need to switch.
Anyways, I'll look into all that and it's good to know there are several options available
Best,
-a-

I think the DolphinBar is great.  It always works for me plug & play.  It also includes extra features like using wiimotes as normal controllers, or even using it as a mouse on your TV.  Just have to remember to turn you wii controller off because if you leave the dolphinbar plugged in then the wiimote will stay connected forever and the batteries die.