Unofficial wiimote and dolphin bar

[ganon]

I was thinking of buying an unofficial wiimote, would it work with dolphin bar? Is dolphin bar still the only way to use a sensor on PC?

[JosJuice]

I was thinking of buying an unofficial wiimote, would it work with dolphin bar?

Don't count on it working.

Is dolphin bar still the only way to use a sensor on PC?

It never has been. Regular sensor bars work fine, as long as you also have a Bluetooth adapter that you can use.

[ganon]

Don't count on it working.


It never has been. Regular sensor bars work fine, as long as you also have a Bluetooth adapter that you can use.

Oh I thought that's why it was made because there was no other way.

Can I use a laptop with built-in Bluetooth and a standard sensor bar, would that work?

[JosJuice]

Can I use a laptop with built-in Bluetooth and a standard sensor bar, would that work?

That should work for official Wii Remotes. For unofficial ones, you should use Bluetooth passthrough, and I'm not sure if that works correctly with built-in Bluetooth.

[ganon]

That should work for official Wii Remotes. For unofficial ones, you should use Bluetooth passthrough, and I'm not sure if that works correctly with built-in Bluetooth.

Ok I'll get an official one. Is there a guide on how to do this? Or just plug play a usb sensor bar?

[ExtremeDude2]

The sensor bar only needs power, so just plugging it in to a USB for power should be fine.

[ganon]

The sensor bar only needs power, so just plugging it in to a USB for power should be fine.

Thanks but then why did dolphin bar exist in the 1st place?

[bomblord]

Thanks but then why did dolphin bar exist in the 1st place?

An external company wanting to cash in on the emulation craze. They did have some contact with the dolphin team to make sure everything worked but I wouldn't call it the best option anymore (can you even still buy them new?). It's just a bluetooth adapter built into an IR emitter and it doesn't even support standard bluetooth peripherals only wii remotes.

[mbc07]

That's not accurate. MayFlash developed the Dolphin Bar with zero input from us, and in fact, the first time we heard about it was through this thread where an user who bought it asked why it didn't work anymore, later discovered to be due some Wiimote changes we did between Dolphin 3.5 and 4.0 that inadvertently broke compatibility with the (until then unknown) Dolphin Bar. 

Advance a few months and MayFlash itself approached us, and after some collaboration, not only the support for it was restored as well as it quickly got support for the -TR Wiimotes, which were getting more and more widespread. Let's recap this was back in 2014, a time where Windows BT Stack was a mess and the only way of connecting these -TR Wiimotes to Dolphin was either switching to Linux or macOS or through the proprietary Toshiba BT Stack on Windows, which had a 30 days limitation when used with non-certified BT Adapters and even then it was hit or miss. Having a relatively cheap accessory available that simply worked hassle free (well, most of the time) and that also doubled as a very good 3rd party sensor bar, since it performed as good as the official Nintendo Sensor Bar, was indeed a pretty good package and of course we recommended it to anyone who asked at that time and was having issues.

Fast forward a few years and not only Windows fixed their BT Stack so it can pair -TR Wiimotes properly (as long as you don't try to manually pair them and let Dolphin do the job instead) but we also got Bluetooth Passthrough, which when paired with the right BT Adapter is by far the best Wiimote communication method currently available in Dolphin, as everything that works on a real Wii will also work on Bluetooth Passthrough, even cheap/knock-off/fake and 3rd party Wiimotes, it's also the only way of getting Wiimote Audio working properly regardless of what model (non -TR or -TR) of Wiimote you have. Dolphin's "Simulate a BT Adapter" mode and MayFlash Dolphin Bar are only guaranteed to work with genuine Nintendo Wiimotes, other brands are a shot in the dark, some work, many don't.

TL;DR the Dolphin Bar was a cheap and effective way of bypassing a lot of connection headaches that existed at the time it was created, it still has some use nowadays (AFAIK it's the only way of using real Wiimotes with the Android version of Dolphin) but you're better off using other connection methods with a cheap Sensor Bar-only accessory.

Edit: just remembered about the review posted on our blog at that time. Would have saved me precious minutes I took to dig those old threads if I just went there directly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[bomblord]

That's not accurate. MayFlash developed the Dolphin Bar with zero input from us, and in fact, the first time we heard about it was through this thread where an user who bought it asked why it didn't work anymore, later discovered to be due some Wiimote changes we did between Dolphin 3.5 and 4.0 that inadvertently broke compatibility with the (until then unknown) Dolphin Bar. 

Advance a few months and MayFlash itself approached us, and after some collaboration, not only the support for it was restored as well as it quickly got support for the -TR Wiimotes, which were getting more and more widespread. Let's recap this was back in 2014, a time where Windows BT Stack was a mess and the only way of connecting these -TR Wiimotes to Dolphin was either switching to Linux or macOS or through the proprietary Toshiba BT Stack on Windows, which had a 30 days limitation when used with non-certified BT Adapters and even then it was hit or miss. Having a relatively cheap accessory available that simply worked hassle free (well, most of the time) and that also doubled as a very good 3rd party sensor bar, since it performed as good as the official Nintendo Sensor Bar, was indeed a pretty good package and of course we recommended it to anyone who asked at that time and was having issues.

Fast forward a few years and not only Windows fixed their BT Stack so it can pair -TR Wiimotes properly (as long as you don't try to manually pair them and let Dolphin do the job instead) but we also got Bluetooth Passthrough, which when paired with the right BT Adapter is by far the best Wiimote communication method currently available in Dolphin, as everything that works on a real Wii will also work on Bluetooth Passthrough, even cheap/knock-off/fake and 3rd party Wiimotes, it's also the only way of getting Wiimote Audio working properly regardless of what model (non -TR or -TR) of Wiimote you have. Dolphin's "Simulate a BT Adapter" mode and MayFlash Dolphin Bar are only guaranteed to work with genuine Nintendo Wiimotes, other brands are a shot in the dark, some work, many don't.

TL;DR the Dolphin Bar was a cheap and effective way of bypassing a lot of connection headaches that existed at the time it was created, it still has some use nowadays (AFAIK it's the only way of using real Wiimotes with the Android version of Dolphin) but you're better off using other connection methods with a cheap Sensor Bar only accessory.

Edit: just remembered about the review posted on our blog at that time. Would have saved me precious minutes I took to dig those old threads if I just went there directly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Mayflash approaching you is what I was referring to not that you had input in the actual design. I read about them approaching you in the blog post from your edit.