Wii snesor bar placement.

reddrob36

WiiChat Member
Feb 5, 2009
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I installed the Wii today. Since I have a wall mounted flat screen I chose to mount it centered with tv to the bottom of the set. Seems to work ok. Is this or upper placement better, or does it matter? It is a bit sensitive, should I keep it on the default setting of 3?
 
mine is on default setting 3. TV is nearly mounted at eye level when standing (lcd).
i hot glued my sensor bar to the bottom center of the tv, but told the wii it was at the top of the tv. this keeps my wrist angle in a more natural position while playing. sensitivity? you'll find what works well for you :) hope this helps. --from my pinkberry
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since i play in bed and the tv is about bed level, i have mine on top. the reason i have it on to is because sometimes my sheets and blankets bunch up at the foot of the bed and there is no line of sight for the remote. i like to point and click on things, not aim somewhere off into space so i have the wii settings for above tv also. it takes the guesswork out of it for others that arent used to a different setup.

idk about sensitivity. i've never adjusted it.
 
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changing a setting

Thanks for both of your input. My plasma tv is at eye level, and I sit on my sofa to watch. I am going to set the wii sensor bar for upper placement even though the bar is mounted to the bottom center of the set.
 
back to my laptop...

sensitivity:
if you are 10ft or further from the sensor bar you may have to raise the sensitivity.

this can cause interference from other items near your tv or reflections of light from shiny things that surround your tv.

be sure as you set your sensitivity that you only see 2 specs of light as you point the remote the furthest point away from the sensor bar (the remote's peripheral vision)
 
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Thanks I currently sit back 15.5 feet from the screen. I am finding out now that the wii mote is just out of range. If I sit up and scoot forward a foot it comes in fine. I have it set for the bottom of tv placement and it works good. But if I go back to my relaxaed position the wiimote goes out. Ironically my PS3 and 360 work fine at my preferred 15.5 foot position. I will see if the sensitivity make a difference.
 
Ironically my PS3 and 360 work fine at my preferred 15.5 foot position.

This comparison does not apply to the Wii's sensor bar.
The Wii Remote connects to the console the same way the 360 and PS3 controllers do, via bluetooth. This is good for up to a 30' range (can be more depending on any interference issues). If a game does not use the IR pointer, you can stay just as far back from the console as you can on the others.

The sensor bar is only IR light, so being further away diminishes the ability of the IR camera in the Wii Remote to see the lights from the sensor bar as well as distinguish between the left and right arrays of the bar. The further you are from the sensor bar, the closer together the lights appear to the camera, and this is what causes the range issues since the camera can't pick out the two dots it requires (you can see this in the sensitivity setting, when the remote moves close, the dots get further apart, when you move further away, the dots get closer). You can cheat and simply move the sensor bar closer to you, it does not need to be directly on top of or below the TV as long as it is in the line of sight from the remote and centered with the TV. You could also try to modify your sensor bar and split the left and right arrays to give more space between them. I believe the sensitivity adjustment for the sensor bar only changes the power applied to the lights in the bar, making them brighter or dimmer (this more or less compensates for light interference depending on the light in the room you are in, ie. turn it down for a dimly lit room and up for a brightly lit room), so it would not help too much when you are far away from the sensor bar (which requires more space between the left and right arrays).

*Edit: I just remembered that you can try to simulate having the IR arrays further apart by simply using candles instead of the sensor bar (unplug the sensor bar, and set up a couple of candles above the TV if you can, further apart than the sensor bar arrays). Anything that gives off IR light can be used in place of the sensor bar, and there are plenty of DIY sensor bars you could make yourself, generally running off a 9 volt battery or some AA's (or you could wire up an appropriate power adapter of 6-9 volts), so you could make a bar wide enough for your needs. Here is one that someone built because of the exact problem you are having: http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-Another-DIY-Wii-Sensor-bar/
 
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Thanks this info it was very helpful to me. As mentioned I prefer to be 15-16 feet back from my tv. I did not know that the wiimote's bluetooth works fine at this distance unless I am playing a pointer funtion game. So I see why I have to sit closer to the tv to play mario galaxy for example. However if I am playing mario kart would I be able to steer using the wii mote from 15-16 feet back, as I am not doing any pointing functions? I use my wavebird control for 75 percent of my gaming and this eliminates my wiimote issue. I am very happy with the placement of my sensor bar below the tv. It looks as though it just melts into the display. I even have the wire running up under the tv into a hole behind the tv and into the wall, fished through the wall,and back out right where I have the console. So there are no wires all around my mounted flat panel. So I am not going to try and mod the sensor bar. I will simply have to sit forward 1-2 feet when I want to play games that use the pointer features. Thanks!
 
However if I am playing mario kart would I be able to steer using the wii mote from 15-16 feet back, as I am not doing any pointing functions?

To humor myself, and to make sure I give you a definite correct answer, I just booted up MK, and stood at the other end of my room (about 20' away from my screen/console) and can assuredly say yes, you should not have a problem playing a game that does not require the pointer at these greater distances (given that you do not have any interference issues due to other 2.4GHz devices like wireless phones and such).
 
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To humor myself, and to make sure I give you a definite correct answer, I just booted up MK, and stood at the other end of my room (about 20' away from my screen/console) and can assuredly say yes, you should not have a problem playing a game that does not require the pointer at these greater distances (given that you do not have any interference issues due to other 2.4GHz devices like wireless phones and such).

+1. the ir is more distance limiting than the BT. ive played tennis from about 30 ft awat.
 
...So I am not going to try and mod the sensor bar. I will simply have to sit forward 1-2 feet when I want to play games that use the pointer features. Thanks!

so did you try to raise the sensitivity of the remote from 3 to a higher number?
this could solve the leaning forward... :)
 
Being totally new here and to Wii reading this does explain a bunch to me.
I was wondering if you can use 2 bars, the wired one and a wireless one? TIA
 
Being totally new here and to Wii reading this does explain a bunch to me.
I was wondering if you can use 2 bars, the wired one and a wireless one? TIA

This is actually a good question and can pose a solution for redrobb.

Yes, you can use two sensor bars (they are just light, there is no information fed back from the bars to the system). However, you will want to tape over the arrays in the centre, and only use the two most outlying arrays. The camera is only looking for two points of light, so if you leave the two centre arrays uncovered, it will get confused and the tracking will not work very well at all. But to get a wider sensor bar so you can play at a greater distance from the screen, that set-up may work well.
 

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This is actually a good question and can pose a solution for redrobb.

Yes, you can use two sensor bars (they are just light, there is no information fed back from the bars to the system). However, you will want to tape over the arrays in the centre, and only use the two most outlying arrays. The camera is only looking for two points of light, so if you leave the two centre arrays uncovered, it will get confused and the tracking will not work very well at all. But to get a wider sensor bar so you can play at a greater distance from the screen, that set-up may work well.

This is a great tip, I had no idea this worked! (though it makes perfect sense)
 
This is a great tip, I had no idea this worked! (though it makes perfect sense)

It should work. You might have to play around to find the best distance between the two ends for a given distance. I think if you look at the home made lights I linked in a post above, that guy had a spreadsheet calculator to determine optimal distance between the ends for a given distance from the screen.
 
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