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Anyone still rocking a Pi Zero W smart drive for TeslaCam on Sentry Mode?

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Hi @dub1ous ,

I have recently installed the Teslausb system on my 2018 Model X.
I am on 2022.4.5.21 and I have used the latest marcone github image.
It is teslausb-20211106
It was a pain to setup but it works well now...
He does support a partition for music files.

I followed the troubleshooting instructions with the files on Github.
I did need extra help because I am not an SSH person.
Marcone was very fast to respond to my rookie questions.

He has a WONDERFUL WEB INTERFACE... Easily accessed by the command http://teslausb
Where "teslausb" is the default name in the package or whatever you decided to name your Raspberry Pi
it in your setup file...
I use "cifs" to transfer the files using a Windows (10) file share on my laptop...

I used to use "Roadies" but the Teslausb is more robust and error tolerant.
I currently backup even the "RecentFiles" and I use Sentry to keep the power
on while the backup or transfer is occurring...

The software is currently compatible with Raspberry Pi Zero W, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W,
and Raspberry Pi 4. There is a good equipment list under another project "Sentry DashCam for Teslas."
The app is in the Apple App store - I just used it for an equipment list.
I like the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W...

Good luck,

Shawn
 
Hi @dub1ous ,

I have recently installed the Teslausb system on my 2018 Model X.
I am on 2022.4.5.21 and I have used the latest marcone github image.
It is teslausb-20211106
It was a pain to setup but it works well now...
He does support a partition for music files.

I followed the troubleshooting instructions with the files on Github.
I did need extra help because I am not an SSH person.
Marcone was very fast to respond to my rookie questions.

He has a WONDERFUL WEB INTERFACE... Easily accessed by the command http://teslausb
Where "teslausb" is the default name in the package or whatever you decided to name your Raspberry Pi
it in your setup file...
I use "cifs" to transfer the files using a Windows (10) file share on my laptop...

I used to use "Roadies" but the Teslausb is more robust and error tolerant.
I currently backup even the "RecentFiles" and I use Sentry to keep the power
on while the backup or transfer is occurring...

The software is currently compatible with Raspberry Pi Zero W, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W,
and Raspberry Pi 4. There is a good equipment list under another project "Sentry DashCam for Teslas."
The app is in the Apple App store - I just used it for an equipment list.
I like the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W...

Good luck,

Shawn
How’s the performance nowadays? I tried it a year ago with a Pi Zero W but it was just too slow and limited to 1 MB/s transfer speed no matter what settings I used. This despite having strong WiFi signal and my NAS hardwired to my router. It took 2-3 hours to finish transferring files from a brief drive back then. I got fed up waiting for a particular file I wanted to view and went back to an SSD. I read a Pi 4 transfers files at 4MB/s but even that is painfully slow by today’s standards.
 
Not sure if anybody can help troubleshoot why teslausb is never seeing any sentry or saved clips, even though those recordings do exist on the USB key.

I have the USB stick (the one that came with the TMY) with TeslaUSB on a RPi Zero W both on the same USB hub in the glovebox. TeslaUSB is running fine, I have the webserver up and running and connected to my SMB share also. The car also sees no issues with recordings and the USB flash drive either.

Issue I'm having is that teslausb never sees any event files to archive.

Any idea where the problem could be? Is TeslaUSB supposed to find the USB key connected to the car automatically? Is confirmation that it can see the USB key in any of the TeslaUSB logs?

Here is what archiveloop shows:
Code:
=============================================
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:11 EDT 2023: Time adjusted by 7969.076416 seconds after 0.170000 seconds
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:11 EDT 2023: not keeping car awake.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:11 EDT 2023: Archiving...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:11 EDT 2023: Ensuring cam archive is mounted...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:11 EDT 2023: Mounting /mnt/archive...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:11 EDT 2023: Mounted /mnt/archive.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:12 EDT 2023: Ensured cam archive is mounted.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:12 EDT 2023: Checking saved folder count...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:12 EDT 2023: There are 0 event folder(s) with 0 file(s) and 0 track mode file(s) to move.  0 short recording(s) will be skipped.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:12 EDT 2023: Ensuring cam file is mounted...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:12 EDT 2023: Disconnecting usb from host...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:12 EDT 2023: Disconnected usb from host.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:13 EDT 2023: Mounting /mnt/cam...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:13 EDT 2023: Mounted /mnt/cam.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:13 EDT 2023: Ensured cam file is mounted.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:13 EDT 2023: cleaning cam mount
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:15 EDT 2023: done cleaning cam mount
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:15 EDT 2023: Trimming free space in /mnt/cam, which has 5 extents
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:15 EDT 2023: Trim complete, image now has 5 extents
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:15 EDT 2023: Unmounting /mnt/cam...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:15 EDT 2023: Unmounted /mnt/cam.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:16 EDT 2023: Finished archiving.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:16 EDT 2023: Music archive not configured or unreachable
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:16 EDT 2023: unmounting /mnt/archive
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:16 EDT 2023: Connecting usb to host...
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:16 EDT 2023: Connected usb to host.
Sat  1 Jul 20:30:21 EDT 2023: Waiting for archive to be unreachable...

Here is diagnostics.log:
Code:
====== summary ======
hardware: Raspberry Pi Zero W Rev 1.1
OS: Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
CIFS archiving selected
lun0 connected, from file /backingfiles/cam_disk.bin
1 snapshots mounted
Gadget state: not attached. 44.9 seconds ago: mass storage ready, but not connected to host (check cable)
====== disk / images ======
Model: SD JD4RT (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 128GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 
Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      4194kB  266MB   262MB   primary  fat32        boot, lba
 2      266MB   2414MB  2147MB  primary  ext4
 3      2414MB  128GB   126GB   primary  xfs
 4      128GB   128GB   105MB   primary  ext4
cam disk image has 5 extents
Model:  (file)
Disk /backingfiles/cam_disk.bin: 114GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 
Number  Start   End    Size   Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  114GB  114GB  primary  fat32        lba
no music disk image found
no boombox disk image found
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mmcblk0p1  247M   49M  199M  20% /boot
/dev/root       2.0G  1.2G  683M  63% /
/dev/mmcblk0p3  117G  895M  116G   1% /backingfiles
/dev/mmcblk0p4   95M  1.6M   86M   2% /mutable
 
TeslaUSB doesn't use a USB stick, it uses the SD Card installed in the rPi. What's probably happening with you is the car is using the USB Stick and ignoring your TeslaUSB, because it will be ready before the TeslaUSB, which has to boot Linux before it's ready. Unplug the USB stick, and it should start working.
 
TeslaUSB doesn't use a USB stick, it uses the SD Card installed in the rPi. What's probably happening with you is the car is using the USB Stick and ignoring your TeslaUSB, because it will be ready before the TeslaUSB, which has to boot Linux before it's ready. Unplug the USB stick, and it should start working.

That makes sense. Somehow I was under the impression that the SD card was used as intermediate storage between the raw files from the USB drive and the copying off the car via Teslausb.

Is there a process I show follow to have the car see the RPI and SD after I remove the USB key? Currently I get the x on the dash cam icon and pressing it says “Dashcam unavailable, check USB drive”
 
That makes sense. Somehow I was under the impression that the SD card was used as intermediate storage between the raw files from the USB drive and the copying off the car via Teslausb.

Is there a process I show follow to have the car see the RPI and SD after I remove the USB key? Currently I get the x on the dash cam icon and pressing it says “Dashcam unavailable, check USB drive”
Like I said, the rPi takes time to boot. a few minutes. I generally have to wait until I turn a corner or two before the x changes to a red light.
 
Don’t think it’s a boot up problem. Like I mentioned the TeslaUSB is accessible via web interface which means the rPi is fully booted. In any case I drove 30 minutes today and still have the dashcam x. Will try plugging it into my computer to check it out.
 
I can see a drive that appeared, with 2 folders (TeslaCam and TeslaTrackMode) and a file .metadata_never_index. Not sure what else it could be? This is on a TMY '23 connected to the glovebox USB port.





  1. [6:21 PM]
 
Just found this thread after looking all over to see if a solution for this was still alive. Which version are you guys using that still works today?
A bit of a late reply but I’ve only just got hold of a pi zero 2w and installed TeslaUSB tonight. I used the most recent marcone image which is teslausb-20211106 but I believe it downloads more recent updates when you install it on the SD card.

I’ve got it to the point where the car recognises it and is recording to it. I can also remotely ssh to it from inside the house so I know it’s got a good connection to my network and the internet. It was nearly midnight by the time I got it plugged in so haven’t yet tested to see if it will transfer the files. I’ve configured it to transfer to Microsoft OneDrive with rclone so will see if that works tomorrow.
 
Anyone here using TeslaUSB and is a current TeslaFi subscriber?

I just finished implementing a new function using TeslaFI API (instead of using the Tesla API) to keep the car awake while archiving to server. Here's an excerpt out of the configuration notes I added, explaining the advantages of using TeslaFi (if you have it):

# If you're a TeslaFi user, you may prefer to keep your car wake using TeslaFi API
# instead. The advantage is not having to expose Tesla's Token and other info in this
# file as plain text, which is a vulnerability should this file gets compromised.
# The TeslaFi API token can easily be revoked and a new one generated at anytime.
# TeslaFi also allows selective command(s) enablement (e.g. wake only), further
# decreasing vulnerability.
#
# GENERATE/REVOKE TESLAFI API TOKEN: To generate the token, log into your TeslaFi account.
# Navigate to Settings -> Tesla API -> API Token (tab)
#
# ENABLE/DISABLE TESLAFI API COMMANDS: Verify the command(s) of interest (e.g. wake) is
# Navigate to Settings -> Tesla API -> Commands (tab)

Before I make a Pull-request to the owner of TeslaUSB on Github, I'd like others to test and make sure it also works for them. Please let me know here if you're interested so I can provide instruction.