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Dashcam failure when needed!
- Thread starter G4WFT
- Start date
MrBadger
Badger out
Pretty much any modern card will be up to the task, but its a matter of time before they fail. Flash media has a limited number of times they can be overwritten without starting to fail, so along with usage patterns, its a matter whether they will fail within months or years. Unfortunately, its not always obvious that the media has failed until its too late. Some media is better for continuous recording (as is the case when the car is driving or sentry is on) than others. I wouldn't put the Tesla supplied media in that category. You really should be looking at Endurance type media, or SSD. They will have on average a much longer lifespan before failing. But any recording can fail for a whole host of reasons, it doesn't have to be permanent media failure.
imho, media cards should be treated as a consumable and TeslaCam not treated as a primary dashcam device. It was an after thought and suffers as a result. As an example of how much of an afterthought TeslaCam was, we only got in car viewing of footage within the last year or so. Prior to that you had to remove the media from the car to view. Its 10x better now, but need to be 100x better.
curmudgeon
Member
Yes, this is true. If installing a proper dashcam then it needs to connect to the 12v socket, aka the cigartte lighter, but the 12v socket is not powered when the vehicle goes to sleep, which in turn means the dashcam cannot go into parking mode. Early youtube videos show dashcam installers connecting directly to the 12v battery to overcome this. The model 3 has no fusebox so this seemed the only option to get a permanent 12v supply. This turned out to be a bad idea however, the car doesnt like the drain when asleep and resulted in 12v system failures. To be avoided.
I'm pretty sure the only way to get parking mode working is to install a battery. I did this recently with a celllink neo hidden inside the base of the centre console. This works really nicely, I think. To recharge the battery for extended hours of parking mode on I can just switch sentry on for an hour, which switches on the 12v socket, which puts another 24 hours of charge into the battery. At a fraction of the sentry phantom drain energy cost.
I have fitted a Next base dashcam to my M3LR. Its original power cable came with the usual cigar plug.
I used a long USB lead terminated in a mini-USB plug to one of the rear USB-C sockets along with an inline switch.
I think the rear USB sockets are permanently powered so use the switch to power off when parked.
I used a long USB lead terminated in a mini-USB plug to one of the rear USB-C sockets along with an inline switch.
I think the rear USB sockets are permanently powered so use the switch to power off when parked.
curmudgeon
Member
You're right you know, the rear usb ports do appear to be powered when the car is asleep so very useful for proper dashcam if parking mode is required.
Wol747
Active Member
Wouldn't that possibly screw up the drive? Certainly with Windoze you must exit the drive before pulling it.
jimbo_hippo
Member
I’ve been having intermittent issues with dashcam too. In our a model 3 I’ve been running a Sandisk 64Gb card in a genuine sandisk adaptor for 18months. It’s the same kind of card I use in my 4K cameras and it’s been fine despite the usual concerns people have with them. Bought a model S recently and repeated this setup with a new card of the same spec. Dashcam icon kept disappearing and took the plunge this week with a brand new Samsung T5 which is overkill but wanted to be safe. Does the same. I work with T5s, T7s and SSD cards a lot (video cameraman and editor) and know how to format/handle them. I'm also running MCU2 in the Model S in case anyone asks. Haven’t driven the Model 3 for a bit as the girlfriend now uses it but would be interesting to see if it’s doing the same.
just done a 200 mile drive to family stuff so haven’t had time to investigate more but I’m seeing a pattern with the disappearing icon. Will see if it’s recording to the drive by removing and viewing on my laptop tomorrow.
just done a 200 mile drive to family stuff so haven’t had time to investigate more but I’m seeing a pattern with the disappearing icon. Will see if it’s recording to the drive by removing and viewing on my laptop tomorrow.
Wol747
Active Member
My 2019 M3 didn’t blink at my Samsung T5 and had zero Issues. M3 refresh 2021, kept getting random errors. Same SSD both cars.
“Concern: USB intermittently beeps and comes up not connected when going over bumps in the road even though nothing is connected??
Reviewed logs and found several alerts regarding 'USB drive too big' and communication issues. Found customer was using a 500GB external SSD (Samsung T5 external storage) in the glovebox port. Please only use USB drives which are formatted to FAT 32 and do not exceed storage limitations. Further info can be found in owner's manual. Disconnected and removed unit from glove box.”
Odd because page 143 of the manual says “Use a flash drive with as much available storage as possible. Video footage can occupy a large amount of space.”.
My SSD did have a partition for music maybe that was the issue with the newer hardware or maybe software changed again.
OEM usb stick now working fine but keeps getting full.
“Concern: USB intermittently beeps and comes up not connected when going over bumps in the road even though nothing is connected??
Reviewed logs and found several alerts regarding 'USB drive too big' and communication issues. Found customer was using a 500GB external SSD (Samsung T5 external storage) in the glovebox port. Please only use USB drives which are formatted to FAT 32 and do not exceed storage limitations. Further info can be found in owner's manual. Disconnected and removed unit from glove box.”
Odd because page 143 of the manual says “Use a flash drive with as much available storage as possible. Video footage can occupy a large amount of space.”.
My SSD did have a partition for music maybe that was the issue with the newer hardware or maybe software changed again.
OEM usb stick now working fine but keeps getting full.
MrBadger
Badger out
I found, and could reproduce by 'wiggling the connection' that the USB plug/socket was a poor electro-mechanical fit - issue likely to be Model 3 socket as confirmed with multiple USB devices which were good in other sockets. I resolved the issue by stopping the USB lead 'flapping in the wind' and subsequently fitting a rigid USB hub. Not so much of an issue if media plugged directly into the USB socket as less likely to be an issue with socket being strained. I also discovered that lighter USB cables themselves can be a point of failure over time.
Quite possibly 2 issues - #1 USB device worn out - more likely if high proportion of sentry mode use. #2 electro-mechanical connection of socket/plug on new SSD.
Quite possibly 2 issues - #1 USB device worn out - more likely if high proportion of sentry mode use. #2 electro-mechanical connection of socket/plug on new SSD.
MrBadger
Badger out
It shouldn't get full unless you keep recording dashcam clips and not deleting them after checking. The oldest sentry mode clips should be automatically deleted to maintain a working amount of free space on the drive enough to maintain media performance. Slowing down of media can result in media too slow or media too full messages.
At the end of the day, the only thing that should fill the drive is stale/undeleted dashcam clips which will ultimately affect a drive of any size. Solution - delete dashcam clips once checked.
MrBadger
Badger out
Assuming card you are using is nominal 128GB. Speculation that Tesla try and use no more than 70% media capacity (30% free) for performance reasons, so on a 128GB drive, thats ~90GB usable. 50GB well within the suggested usable capacity. Certainly it should not be saying that its full and with only 7GB of dashcam, it should never get full as sentry clips should self manage and stale clips auto delete.
Has anyone tested the power output of the USB port in the glovebox? If people are having problems using an SSD in there, or random disconnects, etc, it could be that it only provides a nominal amount of power, not enough for some storage devices?
Nick77
Deep Blue Model 3 LR (2021 MIC)
Very glad I installed my dashcam out my old car now as the Tesla one is very flaky. It didn't record any of my drive yesterday, and often sentry events will just be 1s of footage repeating over and over.
And playback is hit and miss. Sometimes it's OK, other times it jumps and skips around and won't let you manually skip to different sections.
I installed a new 128Gb MicroSD card via an adapter that I formatted as FAT32. I've read that exFAT is what is best. The car wouldn't even let me format the new card, just wouldn't recognise it at all.
So I might try putting the original Tesla USB back in to see if that's a bit more reliable.
And playback is hit and miss. Sometimes it's OK, other times it jumps and skips around and won't let you manually skip to different sections.
I installed a new 128Gb MicroSD card via an adapter that I formatted as FAT32. I've read that exFAT is what is best. The car wouldn't even let me format the new card, just wouldn't recognise it at all.
So I might try putting the original Tesla USB back in to see if that's a bit more reliable.
Bantam
Member
I had an incident over the weekend where I was driving along a dual carriage way where the road goes from 2 lanes to 1 (left hand lane stops so you have to merge into right hand lane), although no signs specifically saying merge in turn or signs/road markings saying the road goes from 2 to 1 lane for that matter! I knew the road so slowed down so I could merge after the last car in the right hand lane to find an idiot in a Ford ST racing up the right hand lane stopping any left hand lane cars merging, which caused me to slam on my breaks to avoid me crashing into the side of him or riding up the curb (I honked my horn to save the footage).
About a mile up the road I came up level with him at a roundabout (he was turning right and me turning left) so gave him a what the F*** was that about stare. He then proceeded to cut up the person behind me to follow me down the left hand turning, dangerously over take me, slam on his breaks, causing me to emergency break and then get out his car, inviting me to get out my car for I imagine a ruck (which I politely declined, although I did point out to him I have dashcam running in the event he wanted to start a fight with my car).
Any ways I am pleased to report all footage saved successfully on the Tesla Dashcam (I have a Samsung T5), clearly showing his number plate and as a bonus he helpfully got out the car so have his face too. Uploaded the footage to the Humberside Police Dashcam reporting website. I am no expert but I have spotted at least 2 instances of dangerous driving, see where it goes.
About a mile up the road I came up level with him at a roundabout (he was turning right and me turning left) so gave him a what the F*** was that about stare. He then proceeded to cut up the person behind me to follow me down the left hand turning, dangerously over take me, slam on his breaks, causing me to emergency break and then get out his car, inviting me to get out my car for I imagine a ruck (which I politely declined, although I did point out to him I have dashcam running in the event he wanted to start a fight with my car).
Any ways I am pleased to report all footage saved successfully on the Tesla Dashcam (I have a Samsung T5), clearly showing his number plate and as a bonus he helpfully got out the car so have his face too. Uploaded the footage to the Humberside Police Dashcam reporting website. I am no expert but I have spotted at least 2 instances of dangerous driving, see where it goes.
Bantam
Member
I was going to, but not worked out how to blank out number plate/face on the video :-(
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