2021 Model S and TeslaUSB

[touchton]

I've had my Model S (2021 MF455) for a little over a week now. I've configured a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with the latest TeslaUSB build and I'm having some issues. I've configured TUSB for both camera and music functionality. The music portion is working. However, I'm not getting any video transferred to the NAS. When I return home from a drive and TUSB connects to my home WiFi, everything appears to work as intended. Looking at the archiveloop log it states that the current snapshot and the pervious snapshot are identical so nothing is transferred.

I have the TUSB plugged into one of the USB type C ports in the center console. I didn't unplug the Tesla provided USB storage device in the glovebox. From inside the car I can view dashcam and Sentry videos, so it's storing to the Tesla USB device in the glovebox. If I disconnect that device and try to access the dashcam, it says the dashcam is unavailable. In the entertainment app it still shows a USB device with two folders. One folder shows the songs on the TeslaMusic folder of the TUSB device. The other folder appears to be empty. I assume that empty folder is the TeslaCam folder.

How do I direct the dashcam to use the TelsaCam folder on the TeslaUSB device? Another question I have is: what's the deal with the Tesla provided USB storage device? It seems to have some gender identity issues. I've never seen a port like that. Ultimately, I would like to have the TUSB device in the locked glovebox, but getting the proper cable may be problematic.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

 

[rkmvca]

Did you ever figure this out? I'm thinking of doing what you did, using a Pi Zero 2 W with TeslaUSB on my (older) Model S. Is there another forum to deal with these issues?

 

[touchton]

Did you ever figure this out? I'm thinking of doing what you did, using a Pi Zero 2 W with TeslaUSB on my (older) Model S. Is there another forum to deal with these issues?

I did get this working. I have the Pi Zero 2 in the glovebox and it's working fine. I'm not using the music function anymore. With SiriusXM, Spotify, and local stations there's more than enough for me to listen to. If you have any questions about this, let me know. I'm happy to help. The biggest problem today would be finding a Pi Zero 2 in stock. They're hard to find.

 

[FatherTo1]

I did get this working. I have the Pi Zero 2 in the glovebox and it's working fine. I'm not using the music function anymore. With SiriusXM, Spotify, and local stations there's more than enough for me to listen to. If you have any questions about this, let me know. I'm happy to help. The biggest problem today would be finding a Pi Zero 2 in stock. They're hard to find.

@touchton, what kind of transfer speeds are you seeing with the Pi Zero 2? I set up TeslaUSB with the original Pi Zero W in the past and it was only transferring at 1 MByte/sec, taking 3+ hours to transfer a 1-hour outing with the car (~10 GB between RecentClips and SentryClips).

 

[touchton]

@FatherTo1 I haven't actually measured the transfer speeds, but it never took 3+ hours to transfer anything. I did reconfigure mine to only transfer Sentry and Saved clips. I found that transferring everything was taking up more storage space than it was worth. If I need anything from RecentClips, I just mount the TeslaUSB as a share and pull it over. It's very rare that I do that. The car is configured to save clips when I honk the horn, but most of the time I just use the voice command to save a clip.

My guess is there's a real improvement in network throughput with the Zero 2W because of the quad core processor. I'm running a test now by transferring almost 10GB of recent clips to my NAS. I'm getting peaks >5MB/s and the calculated transfer time is 30 minutes. Assuming you don't have WiFi issues, I certainly think an upgrade to the 2W is $15 well spent. If you can find one.

Let me know if you want me to do any additional testing.

 

[FatherTo1]

@FatherTo1 I haven't actually measured the transfer speeds, but it never took 3+ hours to transfer anything. I did reconfigure mine to only transfer Sentry and Saved clips. I found that transferring everything was taking up more storage space than it was worth. If I need anything from RecentClips, I just mount the TeslaUSB as a share and pull it over. It's very rare that I do that. The car is configured to save clips when I honk the horn, but most of the time I just use the voice command to save a clip.

My guess is there's a real improvement in network throughput with the Zero 2W because of the quad core processor. I'm running a test now by transferring almost 10GB of recent clips to my NAS. I'm getting peaks >5MB/s and the calculated transfer time is 30 minutes. Assuming you don't have WiFi issues, I certainly think an upgrade to the 2W is $15 well spent. If you can find one.

Let me know if you want me to do any additional testing.

Thanks for getting back so soon, @touchton. Glad to see there's improved throughput on the Zero 2W. You also make a good point about RecentClips. I was transferring both RecentClips and SentryClips, but I'll change it to just Sentry and Saved clips like yours. Didn't realize the RecentClips was 90% of the transferred data. This will greatly reduce the time needed to complete the transfer if I exclude RecentClips, even at the slow speed of the gen 1 Zero W. I have 10TB on my NAS so storage isn't really an issue, but the time to transfer is definitely annoying. Looking forward to when the Zero 2W comes back in stock. Thanks again for sharing your experience.

There's also another project someone created, using Azure cloud computing, to stitch together the Sentry recordings and making it easier to browse/search through. When I have time I plan to look into that as well.

 

[FatherTo1]

I just reflashed TeslaUSB with the latest image and all is working well in our Y. It backs up files to our Synology NAS, but the time stamps are still 7 hours off even though I selected Los Angeles time zone in the config file. Anyone else encounter this issue? I was like this back in the 2020 build too and I had hoped a the newest build had it resolved. The file name still has the correct time reference so that helps, but the file’s uploaded time stamp seems off.

 

[miles267]

The RPi Zero 2 W (wifi version) is significantly faster than its predecessor though it is prone to dropping wifi connections with teslausb.

 

[aniv]

I just reflashed TeslaUSB with the latest image and all is working well in our Y. It backs up files to our Synology NAS, but the time stamps are still 7 hours off even though I selected Los Angeles time zone in the config file. Anyone else encounter this issue? I was like this back in the 2020 build too and I had hoped a the newest build had it resolved. The file name still has the correct time reference so that helps, but the file’s uploaded time stamp seems off.

Could you post any tips you might have to configure the Synology share/users/smb tweaks if any? Can it mount a NFS share?

I don't have the car yet; supposed to pick up on the 8th but was leaning towards using TeslaUSB w Pi Zero 2 W instead of a 2TB T7 SSD.

Also, I am not interested in syncing music, just cam videos.

 

[touchton]

Could you post any tips you might have to configure the Synology share/users/smb tweaks if any? Can it mount a NFS share?

No real tips necessary as it's pretty simple. I'm not using a Synology NAS, I have a homemade concoction using NUC/Ubuntu/Samba for file and printer sharing. In the config file I just entered the IP Address, share path, and user credentials. I'm only transferring sentry and saved clips on a regular basis. If I want something from the 'recent clips', I have TeslaUSB setup as a network share too, (SAMBA_ENABLED=true) so it's browsable. Just read through the options in the configuration file. You shouldn't have to change much and it's pretty well documented. If you don't already have one, your greatest challenge will be acquiring a Pi Zero 2 W.

 

[aniv]

No real tips necessary as it's pretty simple. I'm not using a Synology NAS, I have a homemade concoction using NUC/Ubuntu/Samba for file and printer sharing. In the config file I just entered the IP Address, share path, and user credentials. I'm only transferring sentry and saved clips on a regular basis. If I want something from the 'recent clips', I have TeslaUSB setup as a network share too, (SAMBA_ENABLED=true) so it's browsable. Just read through the options in the configuration file. You shouldn't have to change much and it's pretty well documented. If you don't already have one, your greatest challenge will be acquiring a Pi Zero 2 W.

Awesome! Thanks for the info.

I did manage to get a Pi Zero 2 W from a friend earlier today. Waiting for the MicroSD card and heatsink to show up tomorrow.