171–180 of 216 posts
> The company says the photonic mast handgrip and imaging control panel that cost about $38,000 can be replaced with an Xbox controller that typically costs less than $30. I'm curious if their supplier will give them the bargain US-government-only price of $1999.95 per controller.
I also am one to agree that I think this is a great step forward with maybe trimming off our huge military expenditures, particularly ones that come out as "leaks" because they are so embarrassed of them. I'm sure the U.S. navy will be taking a look at the hardware and maybe even flashing their own firmware on them, lest we open ourselves up for a catastrophic backdoor.
In the overall cost of the periscope, I'd be surprised if the original $30K controller was even 1% of the total. It's still $30,000 saved, but in the scheme of things this sort of economizing is not going to have any impact. What's more important is they found a more familiar, intuitive, hence better controller device. That it was also much cheaper was just a little bonus. If the savings in training hours are to be b…
I worked at a military contractor one summer, decades ago. Back then, nothing went out that wasn't mil-spec. My novice understanding of this was that equipment used by the military must be able to withstand a much wider variety of stress, and exhibit a much greater degree of usability under every possible scenario, than could be provided by consumer-level products. Specifically, my job at the time was sitting in a da…
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> If the Xbox 360 controller becomes hard to source then I'm sure a replacement xinput derived device will still be around. If not, it's a well documented standard and new devices can be made. First of all, I want to say I agree with you. That said, you didn't really refute GP's point. The IBM XT was well documented, had many clones and alternatives, but still you can't find parts at most electronic stores 33 years l…
One thing I'd point out is that the only relevant objections are things that are true about the XBox controller that aren't true about all the alternatives. One-off bespoke custom hardware at dozens of thousands of dollars a pop are not necessarily going to be better supported at these time scales, because even if you sign an iron-clad contract with an entity to do whatever maintenance you could dream up, they still…
Further more, I agree with your parenthetical that the malware angle is the more important argument. I disagree that it's a solveable problem though, but I feel the Xbox controller isn't the reason it isn't solvable. Any platform can be hacked given sufficient motivation.
Honestly I think using these controllers are likely the best approach, but let's not pretend it doesn't have issues (it's just the it's the same issues or less cumbersome issues than alternatives).
Did development engineering in the air force. Worked with xbox360 drivers as a PoC for bomb defusal bots. The troops loved the ergonomics, and the product was cheap. iirc i think irobot does use these for our bomb bots
And many youth will already be trained on the controller. I've seen this subject come up before. It makes sense. I believe it was even considered for UAV controls.
And if they're not, give the troops XBOXs and Halo, and they'll be more than happy to train THEMSELVES on it in their free time!
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That is because the supply rooms are crammed full of XBox 360 controllers.
Food, actually. They cram food all over them. When the embark, they don't have room for all the food in the galley. So, it gets tucked into every nook and cranny. They don't just get to stop at neighborhood grocery stores, after all.
> The company says the photonic mast handgrip and imaging control panel that cost about $38,000 can be replaced with an Xbox controller that typically costs less than $30. I'm curious if their supplier will give them the bargain US-government-only price of $1999.95 per controller.
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1) I don't really understand this criticism - why would a bespoke milspec controller be any more likely to be around than a widely documented consumer controller? Which do you think is easier to replace today, or get a manufacturer to remake: a model M from 1984, or a custom machine keyboard from 1984. Hell, wind the back another 10 years - I worked in a hospital with a really old bit of kit. It was a Siemens EEG mac…
Is Microsoft going to be willing to share their original specs so you can build an identical controller years down the track? Given we're talking military here reverse engineering to remake wouldn't be acceptable.
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Food, actually. They cram food all over them. When the embark, they don't have room for all the food in the galley. So, it gets tucked into every nook and cranny. They don't just get to stop at neighborhood grocery stores, after all.
This is true (Former submariner here). We store food in the torpedo room, engine room, fan rooms, etc...pretty much anywhere that won't impede dealing with casualty response.
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This is true (Former submariner here). We store food in the torpedo room, engine room, fan rooms, etc...pretty much anywhere that won't impede dealing with casualty response.
Yeah, I grew up in a family of Navy and Marines. I'd do my service in the Marines. I also watch way too many documentaries. Submarines are firmly on my nope-list.
It was hard to imagine living in there for months at a time. One person in my tour group almost started freaking out just in the ten minutes we were inside.