Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

Re:Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepa... by heavyset_go on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @04:00AM (#36415723)

. Edit: The bit mentioned above is at 0:37 in this video: https://youtu.be/ClkytJa0ghc?t=37 - "we keep a couple of spares on board just in case", that's great but I'm wondering who in that sub knows how to pair an ancient Logitech gamepad and remap XInput like a kid playing Diablo.

They don't, in the BBC Travel episode "Take Me to Titanic" about this team and their sub, they did a dive with customers and almost had to abort because the controllers stopped working.

Then, when they reached the bottom of the sea, they were stuck going around in circles on the sea floor because the keymappings on the controllers stopped working. They almost had to abort the dive until someone on the surface had troubleshooted the issue and found out that the keys were incorrectly mapped to the sub's controls.

It turned out that the 'left' direction key on the gamepad actually mapped to the 'forward' motion of the submarine, and all of the gamepad controls were incorrectly mapped.

They only found out about the incorrect mapping after a dozen hours underwater and once they reached the seafloor.

It was amateur hour from the get-go.

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Re:Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepa... by sfn42 on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @07:29AM (#36417127)

Fucking hell that's terrifying

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Re:Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepa... by heavyset_go on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @11:17AM (#36419611)

That's just the insanity that happened with the gamepad, the entire dive experience was littered with potential and actual emergencies that were only averted due to luck.

To find their way around, they were literally dead reckoning on the bottom of the seafloor without any navigation systems. They had no voice or video communications with their team on the surface, and they relied on that team's text messages to help them adjust their dead reckoned position.

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Re:Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepa... by carbine on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @05:45PM (#36425083)

Watched this too. I am alarmed by the CEO's assertion in the CBS video segment that only the hull was critical, everything else could break and you'd be safe. We know for a fact that other submersibles have gotten caught in wreckage down at the site. Being able to control your thrusters and steer could be the difference between life and death.

I'll admit I absolutely don't have this adventurous spirit, and I admire those who do. I'm sincerely praying for their successful rescue. But some of this does seem careless and possibly negligent.

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