• MrMonkey@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I can’t speak to the sub, but many Navy ships were retrofitted with systems to be controlled by XBox 360 controllers. Turns out training new people on the controller had huge improvements over the old systems.

    EOD also has robots controlled by a “game controller”. So do many drones.

    This isn’t a “crazy” thing to do. (except if it’s wireless. Keep that cable)

    https://thegamingwatcher.com/pages/articles/best-xbox/2023/6/21/gamepads-military-xbox-controllers-gaming

    • Barbarian772@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      You’re right if it would have been an xbox controller, it wouldn’t have been crazy.

      It was actually a basically ancient Logitech Controller, which had connection problems even when you use it inside your home in front of your pc.

      • flux@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I guess they can be pretty safe from radio interference there, at least :).

        I doubt the connectivity issues need to exist, though, probably works just fine in some configurations. What I’m wondering though if they had a spare, and maybe a second spare, and space batteries, on the boat. Or possibly manual override (doesn’t sound like it).

        I think the device itself is fine, though it might be indicative of too aggressive cost cutting measures.

        • PickTheStick@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          An article on APNews said there were multiple backups onboard… Which sort of engenders the thought of why they needed multiple backups. I’d be sure to have A backup, sure, but multiple?

          • Bowen@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            My thought is are they from different lots and are the batteries from different manufacturers and different lots? You don’t want to have 5 devices and them all from the same batch and all fail in the same way. A company not concerned by safety probably wouldn’t consider any of this. I also bet their SOP didn’t include changing batteries every time, so you have to rule out that these spares probably weren’t getting charged up or have their batteries replaced either.