U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscopes aboard submarines

Re:U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscop... by GunlogAlm on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @06:24AM (#15283258)

I personally doubt that scarcity will be too big an issue with Xbox 360 controllers for the foreseeable future — development of new 360 hardware only ended in April last year. I can think of no piece of consumer electronics cheaper to source and repair than the 360 controller.

I'm sure, though, that both 1. and 2. are concerns the US Navy will have given ample consideration before making this move.

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Re:U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscop... by rmc on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @07:23AM (#15283569)

The SNES came out 27 years ago. Can you still get controllers for it?

(Imagine if current submarines were using SNES controllers... )

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Re:U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscop... by chuckdries on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @07:59AM (#15283812)

Did the SNES controller become a de facto standard? Because the xbox 360 controller is one. There are plenty of xinput compatible gamepads from different manufacturers, the largest right now is Logitech. Xinput became pervasive because of PC gaming, it had really good support within windows, and support has been implemented now in Linux and directly in Chrome and Firefox. It's also really popular in the robotics world for exactly the reasons the navy outlined, a group I worked with used 3rd party xbox controllers almost exclusively. The tooling support is there as well, labview has built in xbox 360 controller support, and idk about other competing software but it probably does as well.

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Re:U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscop... by foldr on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @09:03AM (#15284230)

Yes, very easily and cheaply:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TRIXES-Retro-Replacement-Controller...

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Re:U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscop... by vlunkr on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @09:14AM (#15284294)

To be fair that controller is probably garbage. I've bought similar ones before.

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Re:U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscop... by foldr on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @09:20AM (#15284325)

True. This one has good reviews, FWIW:

https://www.amazon.com/CirKa-S91-Premium-Controller-SNES/dp/...

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Re:U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscop... by ngz00 on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @07:08AM (#15283477)

can you fix my controller? last I checked they were like $60

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Re:U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscop... by GunlogAlm on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @07:20PM (#15289583)

You can buy 360 controllers for £25 ($33) new here in the UK.

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