So i was trying to put my old Wii back to work after quite some time in the not-so-proverbial dusty box. The wiimotes didn't work but i managed to fix them with plenty of patience and some tin foil.
My problem now is with the sensor bar. I guess some rat must've chewed on it, because the outer isolation was damaged next to the sensor bar, and the red wire inside was cut. No big deal, just gotta screw the two loose red ends together (yeah, i know it would be much better to just resolder the wires to the circuit board, but i don't have the right screwdriver to open the thing, so i just went with the simple but effective "gambiarra" way), put some electric tape around the damaged part and be happy with a working sensor bar.
Well, it didn't work and i couldn't figure out why. I tought maybe the wires could be cut somewhere else but i didn't want to disect the entire isolation to know, so i grabbed my trusty old multimeter, cut a small part of the isolation next to the plug and checked for continuity between the two open bits. As expected, no continuity, neither in the red nor the orange wires. Maybe my improvised amending was faulty? checked and no continuity as well. Out of curiosity i tested continuity between two points of the orange wire (about half an inch apart). No continuity as well.
Yes, i suspected the multimeter, but it seems to be working fine, even for really thin wires. I tried screwing the two loose red ends to the ends of a jumper i had, the jumper was working fine but still no contuctivity on the red wire, nor the orange one.
I'm really at a loss here. I researched a bit on repairing Wii sensor bars and for what i could gather, there's just those two (i guess copper) wires on the cable wich supply source and ground voltage to the infrered LEDs in the sensor bar so they sould be conductant right? I could make a small LED circuit to know for sure if they're not conducting, but i would have to cut part of the wires out for that, wich i'd rather not. I tested the wire's resistence with the same multimeter and to my surprise the previously conductive wires are now practically insulating.
I've never heard of something like a wire losing it's conductivity due to age, but that's my best crazy guess here... Does somebody have a clue as to why this is happening?
Edit: Just figured it out. The wires were enamelled with some insulating material so they wouldn't short circuit inside the cable. i just had to scratch and heat them a bit to damage the enamelling before screwing them together.
So yeah, if someone is having the same problem, that could be it. The thread is resolved.
My problem now is with the sensor bar. I guess some rat must've chewed on it, because the outer isolation was damaged next to the sensor bar, and the red wire inside was cut. No big deal, just gotta screw the two loose red ends together (yeah, i know it would be much better to just resolder the wires to the circuit board, but i don't have the right screwdriver to open the thing, so i just went with the simple but effective "gambiarra" way), put some electric tape around the damaged part and be happy with a working sensor bar.
Well, it didn't work and i couldn't figure out why. I tought maybe the wires could be cut somewhere else but i didn't want to disect the entire isolation to know, so i grabbed my trusty old multimeter, cut a small part of the isolation next to the plug and checked for continuity between the two open bits. As expected, no continuity, neither in the red nor the orange wires. Maybe my improvised amending was faulty? checked and no continuity as well. Out of curiosity i tested continuity between two points of the orange wire (about half an inch apart). No continuity as well.
Yes, i suspected the multimeter, but it seems to be working fine, even for really thin wires. I tried screwing the two loose red ends to the ends of a jumper i had, the jumper was working fine but still no contuctivity on the red wire, nor the orange one.
I'm really at a loss here. I researched a bit on repairing Wii sensor bars and for what i could gather, there's just those two (i guess copper) wires on the cable wich supply source and ground voltage to the infrered LEDs in the sensor bar so they sould be conductant right? I could make a small LED circuit to know for sure if they're not conducting, but i would have to cut part of the wires out for that, wich i'd rather not. I tested the wire's resistence with the same multimeter and to my surprise the previously conductive wires are now practically insulating.
I've never heard of something like a wire losing it's conductivity due to age, but that's my best crazy guess here... Does somebody have a clue as to why this is happening?
Edit: Just figured it out. The wires were enamelled with some insulating material so they wouldn't short circuit inside the cable. i just had to scratch and heat them a bit to damage the enamelling before screwing them together.
So yeah, if someone is having the same problem, that could be it. The thread is resolved.
Last edited by PudimEXTREMI,