Converting a Wii Sensor Bar to Using a Wall Outlet

Can I Fix It is back with another Wii sensor bar video! This time I take a broken Wii sensor bar, remove the broken cord, and replace it with a wall adapter. Not only can you use this method to replace a broken cord, this is also very useful for those that are using their Wii with a projector. This allows you to have the Wii at the back of the room by the projector and the sensor bar plugged into a wall outlet at the front of the room by the screen.
Here's a link to the screwdriver set I used in this video:
www.amazon.com/YIBIDINAY-Prec...

[@dmedford5]

Great video! Easy to understand and follow along!

[@masterlampro]

Wii sensor bar (5 leds) can used with adapter 9v - 10v without buch converter.

[@yourmomsbf878]

it's two LEDs 5v is enough or any USB supply would work fine, maybe they would be slightly dimmer but that will eventually blow the LED's for sure.

[@emmettturner9452]

1:39 "Now the first thing I'm going to have to do is get rid of this cord" ...only to add the wires back later for attaching the buck converter? Should've just reused the gray wire by leaving it connected and stripping the other end back to attach to the buck converter. The white string you burned back with a lighter is probably there to keep the metal wires from taking all the strain when the cord gets tugged but you also see it in some cables for splitting insulation (pull the string down to split). You did not actually solder the wires to anything. You need to apply solder directly and not transfer it with your solder-tinned iron tip. That's because the surfaces of each strand are oxidized and don't really absorb solder without flux, which is built into the solder but burns away when it contacts the soldering iron. You heat the pad with the iron and then add fresh solder to the pad. A tinned iron is good for conducting heat into the pad but you still need to add fresh flux-core solder or flux from a flux dispenser. Anything else is just a temporary tack that may not last. I probably would've wired the LEDs to USB but a buck converter seems excessive if all you need to do is connect them to 15v. I'd use the meter to find the resistor value on the board then plug that in to an online LED calculator with 7.5v. I'd then see what the calculators recommend replacing it with when you increase the voltage to 15v. A resistor is quite a bit simpler than a buck converter. ;)

[@canifixitofficial]

Hey man, first off I will say that I really appreciate the constructive criticism. I am definitely an amateur with this stuff and have only been messing around with basic electronics stuff for under a year now. To your first paragraph, I elected to use new wires instead of the old grey one because I did a different video on fixing a Wii sensor bar where I found that there was a protective coating on the grey wire that made it really hard for me to solder them (that combined with my poor soldering practices that you mention in paragraph 3). Using new wires meant not having to deal with that coating and was just easier for me with my current skill level. I didn't know that about there being flux built into the solder that I was burning away with my tip before applying to the wires. That'll definitely change the way I solder in the future so thanks for that! With your last paragraph, I thought about doing it to USB but wasn't sure if 5 Volts from a USB port would be enough to power the LEDs. Do you think it would? Also I didn't think of just using a resistor but that does sound a lot simpler haha. So when is it good to use a buck converter instead of a resistor to achieve a voltage drop?

[@emmettturner9452]

@@canifixitofficial I didn't want it to come off as critical... just informational. :) The flux core inside the solder burns away frustratingly fast and it seems like you need three hands to hold things in place while adding fresh solder. If you keep adding solder when you need more flux you will eventually have too much solder, so without extra flux on hand it becomes a balancing act. Still, when you have a dull connection, cold solder joint, or a tail/wisp of solder you need to deal with, a dab of fresh solder will usually do the trick without needing extra flux. Tinning the iron with solder definitely helps with heat transfer but you don't want to apply solder that way without adding fresh solder since there will be no flux to remove the oxides and make the connection. Flux is what lets solder "wet" a connection so if you had trouble getting stranded wires to accept solder then that's likely all it was. My understanding of buck converters is that they are usually used to increase voltage so that a device and work with a lower input voltage. A resistor drops voltage but generates some heat in the process so a buck converter may be used to drop voltage if even a little heat is an issue. It's all above my head and resistors are the standard way to do it for LEDs. :)

[@WilliamLDeRieuxIV]

​@@emmettturner9452 There would be voltage drop across a resistor, but they are used with LEDs for current-limiting. Basically you will see a voltage drop across the LED (since it is a diode) and you need to subtract the LED's forward-voltage from the supply voltage in order to determine the current provided to the LED given some value of resistor. EG. R = (VCC-VF) / I. If your supply was 5V and the LED had a forward voltage of 2V, then you would need a 10 ohm resistor to limit the current to 30 mA.

[@LMT069]

You should put the Buck Converter name and maybe a link to amazon with the known working one you have used, it could help people see exactly what it is called and find an alternative if it becomes unavailable.

[@canifixitofficial]

They are pretty easy to find on Amazon or any electronics parts site. The specific one I bought is no longer there, but all you have to do is search for "buck converter" and find one that has the right voltage range. They will say things like "4-40V to 1.5-35V Buck Converter" which means that it can step down anything between 4 and 40 volts to anywhere from 1.5 to 35 V. In this case we were stepping down from 15 V to 7.5 V which falls in those ranges so that one would work.

[@LMT069]

@@canifixitofficial exactly my point, with info like that in your description you will save people that are less inclined from making a possible blunder.

[@ConsumerOfCringe]

How many amps should the adapter be? does it matter?

[@canifixitofficial]

It shouldn't matter too much, but using some rough estimates online, IR LEDs use anywhere from 20 to 50 mA. Let's use 50 to be safe. 50 mA times 10 LEDs would give 500 mA. So as long as you have at least 500 mA, you should be fine. The one I used in the video was 800 mA.

[@MrMagitor]

If i had a 7.5V power supply, could i just hook up the sensor bar directly. Would the amperage of the power supply make a difference?

[@canifixitofficial]

That would work perfectly. Amperage of the power supply shouldn't make too much of a difference as long as it's not too low of an amperage. It's worth a shot though, you won't hurt the sensor bar at all as long as you are using 7.5V. Worst that can happen is it can't supply enough amperage and the light's won't be bright enough to work.

[@krypton1142]

@@canifixitofficial would it not blow if you added too high of an ampage? Surely adding 2a to something that only needs 200mah would make it blow

[@WilliamLDeRieuxIV]

​@@krypton1142 No you won't blow-up the device by using a power supply with a higher current rating (that's just the max current the power supply can provide).. The device in question could cause the power supply to trip/blow if it pulls more current than the supply is rated for (such as the device having an internal short).

[@josealex4326]

Some days ago I bought a Nintendo Wii that I found in Facebook's market place, but the cable of the sensor bar had no plug. I have a PS1 power supply, it has 7.5 volts and 2 amps, it should work on the sensor bar? If it works, can I use the same cable of the sensor, or I must replace the cable? Sorry for my poor english, Greetings from Brazil

[@canifixitofficial]

If your PS1 power supply is 7.5 V then yes, it should work great! I don't understand your second question though. You can use the cable of the sensor bar if you want, but it has a protective coating on it that you will have to burn off.

[@yourmomsbf878]

@@canifixitofficial how on earth is he supposed to wire it to nothing at all, your logic and repair video's are flawed. These are 2 leds, they probably need at most 5v, stop telling people to burn houses down with overvolted wii bars.

[@canifixitofficial]

@@yourmomsbf878 If you watch the video, you'll see that the Wii sensor bar had 10 LEDs. Original Wii sensor bars do run off of 7.5V, and so supplying 7.5V is not going to burn anyone's house down. I appreciate your concern though, and viewers should know that my videos are for entertainment. I definitely don't consider myself an expert.

[@WilliamLDeRieuxIV]

That's a bit more complicated then what I did......I just solder a USB plug to the battery contacts -- the only thing left to do now would be modify the internal circuit to disable the off-timer. For the power input you could just connect the usb-plug up to a wall-wart running 5V at 2A, etc.

[@oinkycomments122]

Yay!

[@Raptor_animation]

Wait isnt it more Efficient if you use usb ? Like U can plug it into a wii u A pc And a chargin cable But i mean it also kinda Use full if u dont have a usb charging cable

[@canifixitofficial]

USB generally runs at 5V, while original Wii sensor bars are 7.5V. It would probably still work but the LEDs might be more dim so I don't know if the bar would work as well.

[@Raptor_animation]

@@canifixitofficial ah, i see But what if The volt of the usb is higher Than 7.5v ?

[@canifixitofficial]

@@Raptor_animation If it was higher than 7.5 volts, that could be a problem. You wouldn't want to burn out your sensor bar

[@MyProSpaceYT]

what if I use 8,5v?

[@canifixitofficial]

You might be able to get away with it, but I would still recommend using the buck converter to get it down to 7.5.

[@samuelward9905]

Firstttttt