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The gravity of this situation aside it annoys me a bit when some ‘reporter’ offers his less than helpful opinion of the design of such a complicated device. Most folks in the ‘journalism’ business don’t know a crowbar from a cow but he feels that using scrap metal pipes for ballast qualifies as jerry-rigging. What does he think ballast is for? Ballast is usually dropped when the sub wants to return to the surface. Is the sub owner supposed to use custom designed gold bars for something that is going to be dropped into the depths and never retrieved? idiots ...

The same for the game controller that manages the sub’s navigation. Has anyone watched their kids play video games? There are more than enough switches and buttons to control a small sub’s attitude, speed, and direction. IMHO the game controller is a far better option than a laptop running Windoze 11.

Check out the link in Post #28. The expert in that video seems to have no problem with using a video game controller for navigation. It’s the use of a wireless controller on a vessel operating thousands of feet below the surface that he considers reckless and irresponsible. Too many things can go wrong with it even under benign circumstances in an office or bedroom — dead batteries, syncing problems with the other hardware, interruptions of the signal, interference from other on-board systems, etc.

“Has anyone watched their kids play video games? There are more than enough switches and buttons to control a small sub’s attitude, speed, and direction.”

Have you ever played video games yourselves on one of those controllers?

They aren’t exactly built for quality. Drop them on the floor and they might completely cease to function. Not exactly the type of thing I would risk my life on.