hey guys, it seems as though there has been alot of interest in light guns recently...i know i have been dying to play some good gun games recently. i have been trying to satisfy my urges using my PS2 and timecrisis 3 and vampire night. the guncon 2's work great, but i only have a 26" TV with composite video input, so it doesnt look that great.
all of my other consoles are connected to a DLP projector, and played on a 102" 16x9 screen. this setup just doesnt work with traditional light guns, and according to EMS, the screen is too big for the LCD topguns as well. so the other day i decided to give the wii another chance. i already had house of the dead 2 and 3 for the wii..which is fun, however i was unable to calibrate the guns properly, because the wiimote couldn't see the sensor bar when i pointed at the top corners. (sensor bar was below the screen) i couldn't put the sensor bar above the screen, because it added a little distance and would cause the wiimote to function in a non consistant manor.
my couch is about 10 feet from the screen...even at that distance, the wiimote doesnt always work well...and i cannot even play Far Cry, because it says i am too far away from the screen. but i had a feeling that if i could move back a few more feet, i could accurately calibrate the guns, due to the increased field of vision of the WiiMote's ir camera.
i adjusted the sensitivity in the wii menu, but it still wasnt working properly all the time at 10ft. when you are adjusting it, you see 2 little dots on the screen, which are the clusters of IR LEds that the sensor bar contains. the problem is at that distance, they seem like they are really close together. so it didn't look like a brightness issue, but rather a spacing issue... so, i found the replacement wii sensor bar that i purchased at circuit city right before they closed, for $6. i intended to use it with my cabinet, but that never happened. i opened it up, and there are two small circuit boards, one at each end that has 5 IR Leds on it. they are connected by a 2 strand piece of wire. by simply cutting this wire and splicing in a new piece of wire, i added about 6 to 8 inches to the distance between them. then i simply placed it on top of the screen and secured it temporarily with electrical tape. now i can easily stand 15 ft back from the screen and it never once seems to have a problem. more importantly, at that distance, i can go into house of the dead, or ghost squad and calibrate the cursor accurately. i was able to disable the on screen cross hairs and accuratly shoot the zombies/enemies with no problems at all.
sure, 15 ft is a pretty big distance to stand away from the screen, but when it is over 100 inches, it really isnt bad at all. i havent tried link's crossbow training yet, but since it doesnt allow for calibration, it will probably suck.
for what it is worth, house of teh dead 2 and 3, and ghost squad are both a ton of fun on the wii once it is properly calibrated (using the nyko perfect shot pistol grip attachment). if you have a smaller screen, it may not be an issue..but for anyone using a large tv or projector..getting those extra few feet out of your wiimote can make all the difference. you can purchase replacement sensor bars for around $10 if you dont want to ruin your original, and as long as you can strip a few wires and use electrical tape, you will have no problem doing this mod...it is well worth the time.
i think i will eventually make some kind of enclosure for it, but for now i will just keep it taped to the top of the screen frame
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Topic: easy 5 minute mod to increase the IR range of your wiimotes... (Read 14980 times)
