Alternative Wii Sensor Bars (slight rant)

[Querjek]

At the beginning of the year, my Wii sensor bar stopped working. After disconnecting it, I found a tear in the cord, so I went to Gamestop to try to solve the problem. They only had a third-party wireless sensor bar at their location and I had a gift card to burn, so I bought the "Wii Ultimate Sensor Bar", thinking it would be a sound investment.

I didn't use my Wii too much until a few weeks ago when I picked up Mario Galaxy 2. I went through roughly 24 AA batteries in a four week period, averaging ~8 hours per four--both brand-name and flea market-quality ones. Considering that the sensor bar only needs to give off an IR signal to be usable as a pointer from (presumably) LEDs, the battery life of the device seemed ridiculous.

One day around noon, frustrated with dead batteries, I was sitting on my bed, lights off, facing a window and a mirror (TV against the wall to my right), watching something on Netflix through my Wii, when I noticed a slight blip of movement on the tv when I moved my Wiimote quickly through the air. Slowly moving the pointer revealed a small area between the window and the mirror where I had a working sensor bar.

That night, the window was still open but the overhead fan light was on. After searching for a minute or two, I was able to find another working area. Turning the light off made the pointer disappear.

Has anybody out there worked out any other alternative Wii sensor bar schemes? Apparently two candles will suffice, but I don't have any lying around to try it!

[rlemmon]

I don't know of any alt. methods but you can pick up an official wired sensor bar from nintendo's online shop for $7.50. There refurbs but They should work though.

http://store.nintendo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&langId=-1&currency=USD&ignoreCrumbs=N&crumb1=&crumb1Ignore=&crumb2=%253CA%2BHREF%253D%2522javascript%253APassO n%2528%2527X%2527%252C%2B%2527ChooseView%2527%252C %2527%2527%252C%2B%2527%2527%2529%253B%2522%253EWi i%253C%252FA%253E&crumb2Ignore=&crumb3=&crumb3Ignore=&translateFrom=%C3%88%C3%89%C3%87&translateTo=EEC&usrSearchText=&searchText=&selSrchType=&page=&view=&productId=&categoryId=62707&lastAction=CategoryDisplay&orderTotal=null&tranId=0&jktranid=&rpComment=&dropOff=

[Icarus Moonsight]

IDK if they'd supply sufficient power to IR emitters, but a solar calculator cell has come to mind. One each side if needed. Wireless and no battery drain. How the wireless bars eat through batteries, I'd think the idea is not workable. Or the solar cell type required would up the cost far too much to be feasible.

[kedawa]

When my friends sensor bar got chewed up by his dog, I just installed some IR LEDS in the bezel of his TV. Works great.