You don't need the sensor bar at all, because it doesn't sense anything. All the bar does is shoot out two (actually, four, two on each side) IR beams that your wiimote picks up. That wire doesn't send any information. The Wii remotes work just as well if you set any bright object up in it's place. For instance, if you set a candle on either side pf the screen, it will also work. The Wii Remotes just uses the beam coming out of the sensor bar as it's "limitations guide". So feel free to unplug the bar and use something else in it's place. The name is quite misleading though. "Sensor Bar". Heh. ok.