Building Simple Sensor-Bar

From WiiLi

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WARNING

This is one of the simplest designs, no care was taken to increase the life span of the leds, save energy nor anything else

Soldering can be dangerous, do it on your own risk, also playing with AC outlets can also be dangerous, I take no responsibilities over any damages or injuries you may suffer directly or indirectly from following this instructions (this include damaging your leds, wiimotes etc...)

1 Materials
2 Building it:
3 Another Method
4 External Links

[edit] Materials

1 to 4 infra-red leds (number depends on your use, for most cases 2 will be enough)
Small gauge electric wire
Soldering iron and solder, or isolating electrical tape , or a "breadbox" (that grill like board you stick electric and electronic components on the holes to connect one to the other)
Battery holder for wireless use or some way to connect the circuit to an AC adapter of the correct voltage (like a plug, or even just open wires connected to the AC adapter (DO NOT CONNECT YOUR STUFF DIRECTLY ON THE AC OUTLET IT WILL NOT JUST DAMAGE YOUR STUFF BUT CAN BE DEADLY!)
Material to hold the leds and stuff in place (I myself made a small structure out of cardbox paper)

[edit] Building it:

put the leds in position and measure how much wire it will take to connect them in series (each leg connected to just one other led or to the power source)
cut a bit more wire than you measure for each piece (so in case you miscalculated or went too far when exposing the wires you will still have enough length to work with)
to calculate the voltage required for this simply add the voltages of the leds used, so if for instance you used 4 leds each being of 1.5 volts you will need about 6 volts, if you are using batteries, just add together their voltages to see if they match your needs
wire the leds in series, by connecting each led shorter leg to the longer leg of the next led with the wires, leaving the end and the begin of the chain not connected to any leds, with batteries in the battery holder (or with the ac adapter plugged in) and test the wires on the tips of the chain with a webcam, digital camera or cameraphone (well,actually almost any camera with a ccd sensor can view infrared radiation, if you are unsure if your camera of choice does it try testing it with an actual wii sb or if you don't have access to one most tv remote controls will do, but since tv remotes blink it might be harder to view the ir coming form them) pointing at the leds, if they don't seem to light up one way try inverting the wires, once you know which wire goes where finish soldering/tapping/sticking them in place
now glue, stick, tape or whatever your leds and stuff on the structure you build ( or simply to the tv or computer monitor)

[edit] Another Method

This is for people who have no patience whatsoever and/or don't trust themselves with a soldering iron and/or an electrical socket. Just light two candles and set them a small distance apart near the monitor (best not to put them on top for obvious reasons). Tea candles are the best because they're small and are almost impossible to knock over. If you're worried about this being a fire hazard, put them on a sheet of metal, like a cookie tin or a pan. (a YouTube video is here)