Reddit mentions of Nextronics Sensor Bar USB for Wii / Wii U / PC

The Sensor bar doesn't send any info to the Wii/Wii U, it's just a couple of infrared lights. If you can't find a 'wireless' one maybe this USB one will work for you, the reviews indicate you can just plug it into any USB port on your TV / nearby device / USB -> AC plug. http://www.amazon.com/Nextronics-Sensor-Bar-USB-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001UAAX60

I was poking around for quite sometime on dolphins compatibility page trying to find a dongle that was all green and in stock. A lot of what's on their listed seems to be out of stock, or just not a viable option. (Didn't wanna screw with the PCIe bluetooth card and there is little info online for the original Wii bluetooth adapter). I eventually settled on the UGREEN dongle and the USB Sensor Bar, both of which are known compatible devices with dolphin.

After setting up the devices I can say that I am very satisfied with both products. All I need to do to pair my wiimotes is simply press the red sync button on the bottom of the controller when dolphin is open and it's paired in a few seconds.

There are a few things to note with this setup though.

1. Keep in mind that with USB sensor bars you will need to unplug them when you aren't using them. The Wii sensor bar is designed to turn off when the Wii is off to avoid burning out the infrared leds. (I tried setting my computer up to turn off the USBs when the PC is off but I couldn't get it figured out for the life of me)
   
2. The included instructions for the USB dongle that I linked are garbage. It comes with a CD for drivers (but it's 2019, and my SFF build doesn't know what CD is), but the website in the manual is NOT the correct place to find the drivers. After a bit of research, I finally found the correct driver for the adapter. Once it's plugged in, just follow dolphins passthrough instructions and you're off! And for under $20, prime eligible too!

Wireless sensor bars are cheap, what exactly is expensive to you? A regular USB one is about $10 and I got my wireless one for $20

Get a Wii Sensor Bar then you can configure it with Dolphin emulator

For the GC Controllers I use an unofficial adapter for WiiU which is directly recognized by Dolphin (I have never need to change it from WiiU mode, so an official one should work too). But of course, this is PC, so as long as there is a way to recognize the input from a port, you can get it working eventually (as has been the case since time immemorial).

For the Wiimotes, a USB bluetooth 4.0 dongle is more than enough as long as you let it interface directly with the emulator through continual scanning (once synced everything works, speaker included). Also, for the sensor bar I use an old wireless baterry powered one with rechargable AAA batteries, but if I were looking for one now I'd get a USB powered one.

Oh, and btw, that same bt dongle can also support DS4 / DS3 / Ouya / generic controllers connected to it at the same time as the Wiimotes, so it's definitelly worth the $10 (I didn't include newer Xbox controllers for the simple fact I've never tried them over bluetooth, but they should work too).

You can connect a wiimote to an emulator such as dolphin (the best wii emulator out there) via bluetooth. You might need to upgrade your bluetooth software so that it can discover wiimotes. I use the Toshiba bluetooth Stack(though I had to use other search means to find a version that worked on non-toshiba computers). Once it's discovered you can add it to the emulator and it will read all of the button presses. I think for it to read motion you need to buy a computer infrared sensor bar like what the wii has.

You can read more on how to set up the dolphin emulator on that first link I gave you.

http://www.amazon.com/Nextronics-Sensor-Bar-USB-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001UAAX60/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347564625&sr=8-1&keywords=Nextronics+Sensor+Bar+HD

I'm fairly certain this is the one I bought. I believe mine came with an AC adapter even though it didn't say it back when I ordered it. They're easy to find, though.

Sensor bar is literally just two infrared lights that the wiimote uses internally to track its position, it doesn't do any processing itself. You can either just use two infrared LEDs or (more realistically) buy a usb sensor bar (e.g. here https://www.amazon.com/Nextronics-Sensor-Bar-USB-Wii-Nintendo/dp/B001UAAX60).

Also, if the game doesn't require pointing (mario galaxy actually falls into this category if you don't mind not being able to collect starbits or play some of the motion-control minigames) you can actually just play without a sensor bar by mapping buttons to spin etc.

It's entirely possible. You just use a Wii sensor bar, like you would on a Wii. You can buy USB ones like this online for $10-20.

Hopefully I'm not too late.

They have USB powered Wii Sensor bars on Amazon. I have this one plugged into the usb port on my TV and it works as good or better than my original bar.

Nextronics Sensor Bar USB https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UAAX60?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

You can get USB wiimote bars now. No need to buy a wii just for the sensor

you can actually get knock-off USB IR blasters emitters

https://www.amazon.com/Mayflash-W010-Wireless-Sensor-DolphinBar/dp/B00HZWEB74

https://www.amazon.com/Nextronics-Sensor-Bar-USB-Wii-Mac/dp/B001UAAX60/ref=pd_sim_147_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B001UAAX60&pd_rd_r=HND3SPKBWV7RPX064TCV&pd_rd_w=JoqVU&pd_rd_wg=lq1X5&psc=1&refRID=HND3SPKBWV7RPX064TCV

you also got it reversed, the sensor is in the controller if it works like a wiimote

Pick up a "wireless" version that runs off USB and use with a wall wart?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001UAAX60/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1426294475&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=wii+usb+sensor+bar

Edit: added link