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Comment by nonethewiser | Hacker News Reader

I'm just imagining it running out of batteries. Then the user non-chalantly asks the pilot/guide for the spares. But they get a blank look. They repeat themselves. They must not have heard. They get a grimace this time and they suddenly realize what a precarious situation they were in all along.

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They had spare controllers. Part of the idea of using off the shelf components like this, is the ease of replacement. If you have a 100k controller, and it fails, you need to think how to fix it. If your controller costs 30 bucks, throw it away and change for a new one.

Do you _know_ they had spare controllers?

Yes.

In a 2022 interview with CBC, Rush added the Bluetooth game controllers were durable — “it’s meant for a 16 year old to throw it around,” he said, tossing the controller to the floor — and that they kept spares on board “just in case.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/06/20/video-game-co...

Also, the controllers appear to be only to control the periscope. Which is not a critical component of this submarine. Everybody is fixating on them, but that's not what caused them to sink/get lost. It was probably the rest of the shoddy engineering.

Having spares is one thing. The question is do they test spares on a regular basis, make sure they have been charged between every mission and rotate them to test battery life?

No, controller on Titan is for movement as he talked about it (they don't have a periscope).

But he also mentioned a touch screen when talking about the controller so I bet that they can use the touchscreen to control the submarine as well.

Still most likely cause of failure is that the viewport failed and they died immediately.

but does a controller fail recoverably? Does the computer recieve old input (up/down) forever untill new controller is pligged in? how long does pairong proceas take? What if it fails at a critical moment?

Do they have spare batteries? Have the batteries been stored in an environment where they won't degrade? Are they rechargeable? If so, has their state of charge been confirmed before sailing, etc., etc., etc.

COTS stuff is awesome, but it doesn't absolve you from having proper procedures in place and knowing what those procedures should be in the first place.

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