Wiimote problems, any help appreciated

Norion12 · 05-12-2022, 11:57 AM #1

Hi everyone,

I have posted a few times before and am appreciative of all help, but I am at the end of my rope getting 4 Wii motes to work. If anyone could help I would love any suggestions. Here is what I have done so far:

Got 4 off-brand Wii motes, Bluetooth adapter (USB dongle) - result: could do passthrough and get 1 to 2 remotes to sync, only could get more to sink by turning the first one off. overall patchy connection, but worked if I only used one wiimote.

Bought another USB dongle on approved list - same issues, no more than 2 remotes to sync.

Bought a 3rd USB dongle on list - same issues,

Bought an original Wii bluetooth card and made my own usb dongle with the instructions I found online. Same issues, works well for 1 maybe 2 but cuts out.

Gave up and came back to the project about 6 months later to try one last time. I bought 4 official Wii motes, and after trying with the USB dongle and home-made Wii dongle, much the same issues.

I am able to reset the sink, and get 3 connected at the same time, but they will cut off randomly. If I open a game, sometimes they will connect when I hit a button, sometimes just blink, sometimes one will connect and the second one will just blink. Once, it connected 1 remote to both player 1 and 2 and up would move one cursor up and one cursor right on Smash Bros. This happened when turning the controllers back on after they disconnected. I at one time got 3 to work at the same time, but had 1 extra player that was registered but was not moving or controlled by any player. I moved the Bluetooth adapter to several different usb ports, and even ran an extension to have it further up the wall for better connectivity. Same issues, even if I am 1 foot away from the adapter.

I have used the diag program to set the driver manually, and forced the usb adapter through the dolphin.ini file, and am able to get the 1st remote to work every time, so I know that it is functional. I'm not sure what I am missing here. I even deleted all unused drivers on the computer and started from scratch. I even tried the emulated controllers but had similar issues. I would like to use the passthrough so that the machine remembers the Wii motes, as this is for a BIGBOX setup with about 15 TB of games, and I would like to avoid having a keyboard and mouse set up, as that's the point of the frontend. The only thing I can think of is that there is some sort of interference in my house around that Ghz, or that Dolphin just has an issue with more than 2 controllers.

Has anyone had luck with more that 2 controllers through passthrough? Anyone know what I might be missing? Is more that 2 controllers easier with emulation? (also haven't been able to run more than 2 through emulation)

Thanks!

**mbc07** · 05-12-2022, 12:35 PM #2

Just to make sure, you couldn't connect more than 2 Wiimotes even when using the Bluetooth module from a real Wii? If that's the case, something is definitely wrong...

Norion12 · 05-12-2022, 12:49 PM #3

(05-12-2022, 12:35 PM)mbc07 Wrote: Just to make sure, you couldn't connect more than 2 Wiimotes even when using the Bluetooth module from a real Wii? If that's the case, something is definitely wrong...

Yes, that is correct. I got 3 working at once one time, but it took reconnecting over and over after the connection was dropped.

Norion12 · 05-13-2022, 08:50 AM #4

(05-12-2022, 12:35 PM)mbc07 Wrote: Just to make sure, you couldn't connect more than 2 Wiimotes even when using the Bluetooth module from a real Wii? If that's the case, something is definitely wrong...

I am able to sync all of the wiimotes now through opening a game, and hitting sync, then sinking the controllers. I think I had assumed it would remember the wiimotes. After reading it seems that you need to do this each time you start up Dolphin? I couldn't get a clear read of this, there was mention of save states but I wasnt sure if that was saving the controllers.

Is there any way to sync these controllers without the use of a keyboard? I was going to assign a sync button to my xbox360 controller which is always connected via wireless, but it doesn't appear to take input from that. Also, is there any setup method that remembers the controllers? Thanks so much

**mbc07** · 05-13-2022, 10:06 AM #5

The Wii Bluetooth Module should remember the pairings of all Wiimotes connected to it. The only instances I experienced where this didn't work is when the game didn't stop gracefully (e.g. Dolphin crashed or the game froze and you had to click the Stop button two times to force the shutdown).

About the hotkeys, you should be able to assign the button of any controller recognized by Dolphin, but you might need to use the advanced input panel and select the desired controller (right click the binding to open it)...

Norion12 · 05-13-2022, 02:38 PM #6

(05-13-2022, 08:50 AM)Norion12 Wrote: I am able to sync all of the wiimotes now through opening a game, and hitting sync, then sinking the controllers. I think I had assumed it would remember the wiimotes. After reading it seems that you need to do this each time you start up Dolphin? I couldn't get a clear read of this, there was mention of save states but I wasnt sure if that was saving the controllers.

Is there any way to sync these controllers without the use of a keyboard? I was going to assign a sync button to my xbox360 controller which is always connected via wireless, but it doesn't appear to take input from that. Also, is there any setup method that remembers the controllers? Thanks so much

(05-13-2022, 10:06 AM)mbc07 Wrote: The Wii Bluetooth Module should remember the pairings of all Wiimotes connected to it. The only instances I experienced where this didn't work is when the game didn't stop gracefully (e.g. Dolphin crashed or the game froze and you had to click the Stop button two times to force the shutdown).

About the hotkeys, you should be able to assign the button of any controller recognized by Dolphin, but you might need to use the advanced input panel and select the desired controller (right click the binding to open it)...

Thanks, I was able to get things working. I moved the original Bluetooth dongle about 5 feet up the wall behind the tv, there was some serious interference at my emulator computer. I think the problem was my Xbox 360 wireless receiver. I was not able to get the passthrough to remember Wii motes though. I could get all wii motes synced, but if i closed Dolphin and opened it up they would just flash and never connect. Although I got the emulated Bluetooth to work and remember the Wii motes, so I will run with that. I'm not sure why the passthrough refuses to work. But just in case anyone has issues the more controllers you add, the cause seems to be interference with other devices. I looked some info up on this and apparently it could also happen on the original Wii. I think I will just stick to the emulated controllers using real Wii motes, as it has worked perfectly now after several restarts.