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Embedded NOW is the official blog of Embedded Computing Design magazine, where editors and special contributors sound-off on the latest buzz in the embedded computing industry. Embedded Computing Design is the industry's resource for the latest news, engineering methods, new products, and tools necessary for the design of small embedded modules to distributed, large-scale embedded systems.

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4 comments

RTLS - who needs it?

Posted July 21, 2008 11:48 AM by mavella

Apparently the US Army does. How on earth do you lose 4 helicopter engines worth $13M?

Real-time location systems only work if you're actually on a network, and most I've seen work with Wi-Fi which suits them for campus-type environments but not the expanse of the great outdoors. But an RTLS working on a military comm network shouldn't be that hard, right? Blue Sky Network does it on Iridium with GPS.

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#1

Re: RTLS - who needs it?

07/21/2008 4:16 PM

WHO CARES ABOUT THE $13,000,000.00 ENGINE,

I want to know where my $500.00 hammer is I order a month ago.

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#2

Re: RTLS - who needs it?

07/22/2008 12:47 PM

"...How on earth do you lose 4 helicopter engines..."

By having several hundred in your inventory, some of which are located in hostile territory, I expect. They're not really all that pilferable, since the aftermarket is real slow on Cobra gunships right now. My guess is they sit in a warehouse in Galveston or suchlike awaiting shipment to Kabul or wherever. Still, the Army definitely could use a good lo-jack system.

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#3

Re: RTLS - who needs it?

11/20/2008 6:42 PM

Having spent several years in the military, I tell you exactly where the engines went: to the same warehouse where the Army sent it's common sense.

I have seen some of the most asinine breaches of security and lost paperwork in my time serving.

A non-sensitive case in point: at one of the bases that I was stationed at we were enduring an "inspection", (for those of the readers who have served, I need not elaborate) when an official form relating to "missing or damaged" non-combat related material, (yes there is a form just for that, it happens often enough) crossed my CO's desk. The "missing or damaged" item was referred to in the paperwork as an "OFFOG".

The entire engineering division was in an uproar trying to figure out what the H*** an "OFFOG" was and how it had gotten missing or damaged.

Luckily for my CO, he decided to resubmit the paperwork for a clarification.

The resubmitted form was returned. You see, "OFFOG' was a typo. The actual item was "OFF. DOG, one German Shepperd". My CO's pet, who was the OFFICIAL camp mascot.

Regards Dragon

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#4
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Re: RTLS - who needs it?

11/21/2008 7:42 AM
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