Hi Barry

A group of us (all school principals) have been working on this and other practical problems for a while now. We have a commercial website (3P Interact) which I will post a link to in the For Sale section of the site. We have been testing our products in classrooms over the last six months and will hopefully be able to list an effective ceiling mount in the next two weeks.

If you want to make your own, you need to get a piece of pipe (we use aluminium), attach it to a plate that can be screwed to the ceiling, and use an adjustable mount of some sort to attach the wiimote to the other end. Like you, we have found that in 'real' classrooms the wiimote is best positioned well out of reach!
Dave

I am using Neodynium magnets to mount a rod to the ceiling and another magnet to mount the Wiimote to the rod - similar described above...

i could figure out a way to mount the Wii mote but I do not know how you are going to sync it consistantly...

I have to push the buttons on the wii mote in order for my PC to connect to the Wii mote every day.....

so if it were on the ceiling that would provide for a small problem.  is there a way to make the wii mote connect w/o pushing a button?

how do you all deal with syncing it to the PC every day?

I'm a student at Gaithersburg High School in Maryland. How could i recommend this idea to the school or Montgomery County Public School system? It would be great and would save alot of money replacing those ridiculous smart boards. I've already turned my pc into one. It's really interesting, the possibilities with this technology.

Hey Y'all,
I found a product at Home Depot that I'm sure is also available at Lowes and other stores of that ilk.  It's a clip specifically designed to hang stuff from the T-bar that holds the panels of so many classroom ceilings.  Many schools are built with drop ceilings, meaning that the ceiling in the classroom has space above it, just above the lightweight panel, filled with pipes, wires and whatnot.  The metal bars that hold those lightweight panels are what I'm attaching my wiimote to.
I have the clip meant for these T-bars which has a screw coming out the bottom that I put through a PVC T connector that I drilled a hole in.  That screwed on using a locking nut I stick a piece of PVC pipe into the T connector and another T connector at the bottom which is about 7 feet from the ground.  From this lower T connector I insert a 4 inch length of PVC pipe onto which I used electrical tape to attach a strong rectangular magnet (super glue did NOT hold it).  I also taped a matching magnet to the back of the Wiimote and snap it onto the PVC's magnet.  Since I did not cement the PVC at the bottom I'm able to rotate the 4 inch length until the Wiimote is pointed correctly at the whitebaord for the best resolution.
With the magnets holding the Wiimote 7 feet off the ground it's easy to put the Wiimote away when not in use, easy to sync with the bluetooth, easy to change batteries, yet is high enough to not be in the way while in use.  I'm quite happy with this result.  Once I've adjusted the 4 inch PVC to the correct position I don't really need to move it and can just pop the Wiimote on and go.
The whole set up weighs less than a pound, costs about three dollars and works great.  If anyone wants more details I can post pictures and list brands, prices, etc.
Thanks to everyone for posting their thoughts and solutions, I've used many of them.
Bill
Tigard, Oregon, USA

Hey. Don't know if you guys have solved your problems, but I use a custom built (no camera at the moment I'm afraid) mount for my wiimote that could easily be attached as a ceiling mount. It looks identically to the mount on the picture, but smaller.


Maybe this is something for you? It was real easy to make if you know a little about "home carpenting" :-)

Edit: Some specifications
I mounted the wiimote using two small screws through the battery gap on the backside of it, fixating it real good to the mount.