Increasing wireless strength in wireless genesis controller

[CDiablo]

I just got a pair of the official SEGA wireless genesis controllers. I am very dissapointed in the wireless range, you have to have the controller pointing almost directly at the receiver. If you move your wrist a bit then the thing wont register. Does anyone know how to make the signal stronger or better. Thanks all.

[kendrick]

You get that this is an infrared (IR) signal and not a radio frequency (RF) signal, right? It's like a TV remote control, which is why line-of-sight is required. These things have a range of like 75 feet, but they still have to be pointed right at the receiver. The manual spells it out pretty clearly.

I suppose it's theoretically possible to use a reflector or a big omnidirectional IR LED array to make each wireless controller output a giant cone of IR output, rather than a thin beam. Of course, the effect of such a mod would be to reduce your battery life to about 45 seconds and add a big unbalancing weight to the top of the pad.

[Tiido Priimägi]

I used 3 IR diodes in my TV remote control, works nicely. Only drawback is batteries dying quicker. I got the idea from an old Russian TV which remote had 4 IR diodes in it, and which had incredible range, you could even point the remote totally away from the TV...

[CDiablo]

You get that this is an infrared (IR) signal and not a radio frequency (RF) signal, right? It's like a TV remote control, which is why line-of-sight is required. These things have a range of like 75 feet, but they still have to be pointed right at the receiver. The manual spells it out pretty clearly.

I suppose it's theoretically possible to use a reflector or a big omnidirectional IR LED array to make each wireless controller output a giant cone of IR output, rather than a thin beam. Of course, the effect of such a mod would be to reduce your battery life to about 45 seconds and add a big unbalancing weight to the top of the pad.

It does us IR, but Im pretty sure so does my TV remote(it has the ruby plastic cover over the IR part just like ths genny controller), which I can aim in nearly any direction and use

[kendrick]

How old is the TV? I'm guessing it wasn't manufactured in 1994, which is likely when the Genesis wireless pads were sold. Even a technology as pedestrian as IR transmission has made significant progress in the last fifteen years.

I've been thinking about this problem, and I wonder if the problem isn't with the reception and not the transmission. Unlike other wireless pads, this is a one-way transmission since the pad doesn't need or ask for confirmation or acknowledgment from the console. In your place, I'd open up the receiver unit and see if there's something obstructing the phototransistor. It might be an interesting exercise to put a parabolic reflector in there and reverse the receiver, so that it's processing signal from all over the room and not from just in front of it.

[CDiablo]

To be honest I dont think I have the technical knowhow to do such a thing. I can solder......but do would not know how to set up a parabolick reflector, or where to buy one that is compatible with the reception unit.

[kendrick]

Here's a page with some basic information. If you got a C in high-school physics you should be able to follow along.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Elec_p040.shtml

Radio Shack used to sell an excellent parabolic reflector that was intended as a solar cigarette lighter. Many techs repurposed it as an IR collector. Probably you'll have to make due with another reflector from a different source. Here's one that's intended for diffusing light, but if you mount the LED in it backwards then it'll collect light just as well.

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16334