Comment by jerf
4 hours ago
The major problem with sticking an Android tablet on to exercise equipment is the difference in life spans. Android tablets are generally going to last you 4-5 years. Weight equipment should be able to last decades. There is some simple & cheap hardware that can last decades, but it is legitimately harder to program.
Even worse was an article some months back about Android tablets hooked to heating & cooling systems expected to last 20 years. There's no way those things are making it at scale.
> Weight equipment should be able to last decades.
"should" or "actually can"? Do you have references to show that's the actual lifespan of the equipment, mechanically?
Weight training equipment lasts decades all the time. It's just big piles of metal, it's not hard to get right.
What actually prompted the engineering-CYA "should" is if the Android tablet is controlling some sort of robotic system for selecting weight sizes, that that system might have an expected life span on par with a tablet, being a physical thing moving around some pins or something in a potentially hostile user environment. That'll break long before anything else would.