So, one night, I went to play the Wii, and noticed that my cat had lovingly chewed through the cord connecting the sensor bar in three places. Needless to say, I was angry, then decided to search the net for ways to rewire the bar. It quickly became apparent that I could wire the sensor bar with batteries, but the details were sketchy. I found that each page and forum I read had different info and each was making different assumptions. So, I proceeded to tear into my useless sensor bar and see if I could bring it back to life. The following process is what I did to get the bar working again, and make it portable. Enjoy!

  1. First, open up the sensor bar via the screws on the bottom. The sensor bar is held together with multiple screws, two of which are hidden under the sticky tape on either end. These screws are not your usual screws, and I ended up using a drill and a very small bit to bore into the screws until the head popped off. Once the screws are gone, open up the sensor bar and lay the top to the side.

  2. Next, if your sensor's wire hasn't been bitten in half, use the pliers to snip the wire. It doesn't really matter where you cut it because the wire is useless at this point anyway. You should strip the end of the wire a little and peel back the insulation to uncover a red and copper wire. Trace the two wires back to the sensor, and make a note of the two points where the wires are soldered.

  3. Plug up the soldering iron and let it be heating up. While it is getting ready, get your red and black wire, and cut a piece of each wire to your desired length. Strip each piece of wire at both ends. Grab your 9 volt battery connecter, and using the wire nuts and electrical tape, connect the red wire of the connecter to the red wire you just stripped. Repeat this step for the black wire.

  4. Now for some soldering. ***THE IRON IS VERY HOT, PLEASE BE SAFE AND CAREFUL WITH THIS STEP*** I removed the boards and wires from the sensor bar, and taped them down on my table. This allowed me to lock down the areas to be soldered, and have both hands free to solder. First though, hold the iron to the glob of solder where one of the current wires is attached. Eventually, it will liquify, and you will be able to pull the wire out of the glob. Repeat this for the other wire and completely remove the old wires from the sensor bar.

  5. Now, pick up the soldering iron with one hand, and the stripped end of the red wire with the other. Gently hold the iron on the corresponding glob of solder, which should have cooled and reformed by now, and watch for it to liquify again. Once it liquifies, quickly place the stripped end of the red wire into the glob. If you did this correctly, the glob should reform and the red wire should be firmly attached to the contact point on the board. Repeat this for the black wire taking care not to let the two wires touch in any way once that are soldered.

  6. After both wires are firmly soldered into their correct positions, place the boards and wires back into the Wii sensor bar. Be careful to make sure the LEDs and the and the wires go back where they originally were. Thread the new red and black wires through the bar, and out the hole the original ware was using. Take your time, and gently place the bottom back on the sensor bar. At this point, you can use electrical tape, like I did, or any other means to keep the bottom on the bar.

  7. Finally, plug a 9 volt battery into the battery connecter. I used my cel phone camera to check the LEDs. Since most of those cameras are not filtered, the IR light can be seen quite well. After checking the lights with the 9 volt battery hooked up, I placed the bar back under the TV, adjusted the sensitivity, and played some Zelda.

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***This site is for informational purposes only and in no way should be viewed as an instructional tutorial. Any damage caused by using this information is the responsibility of the reader, not this site or it's owners. Thank you.***