Either driving video or sentry video?

[Col Falls]

When Sentry Mode is off, I get video of the car moving on the road. If Sentry Mode is on, I'm only getting video from the parked car. The Sentry Mode video, as has been discussed, is almost worthless when trying to recover the clip of a Sentry Mode Event Report. Are others getting video of both? Any progress in making Sentry Mode user friendly?

 

[WilliamG]

Elon tweeted that they're working on Sentry Mode. This is still a VERY new feature, the first of its kind built in to any car - so I'd just say have patience, - upgrades will come.

 

[SMAlset]

@Col Falls are you saying nothing new is being recorded in the RecentClips folder? Doesn't make sense because the footage for the Sentry Mode SavedClips comes directly from the RecentClips folder 1-hour buffer. In fact if you look at the time stamp of a very recent Sentry Mode clip and then go to the buffered folder you will notice that 10 minute gap in the recordings there.

I have a feeling that maybe you don't comprehend how the system works and don't mean to offend you by saying so. Why do you say that the Sentry Video is almost worthless? Whatever triggered it (loud noise, car bumped, broken into, people or cars or in one case I saw a bear walking past or near) will be in the last minute or two of the 10-minutes saved off on one of the three cameras. It records up to ~9 minutes before that so that you have a longer chance to identify the person/car/bear.

I've been using TeslaCam and Sentry Mode since they were released and have never had a problem with how it functions (apart from video glitches or occasional video file corruption on one of the cameras). Both folders of video clips are there and accounted for.

 

[Lindamon]

I pulled my usb today to view the recordings. I have been driving for 5 days or so with it installed. I didn’t turn on my Sentry mode until two days ago.

I also have no driving videos. When I open the recent clips folder there is absolutely nothing there. The only clips I have are 45 to 50 second clips of the parked car, and those when I cycled the icon to remove the stick. No damage to the car, or alerts to me, nor was there anything remotely suspicious on any of the videos that might have set off sentry mode.

 

[FielderJones]

I'm getting video of both. In the SavedClips folder, I will typically see someone walking close to my car in the second-to-last set of front/left/right camera clips. I get driving clips as well as long as the red light camera icon is visible on the display. SR+ HW2.5 April 2019 build.

 

[SMAlset]

Yes, I guess @FielderJones brought up an important question to ask? For those not seeing driving videos in the buffer RecentClips folder do you have TeslaCam activated?? When you plug in your flash drive, the camera icon will come up but if you don't touch it to turn it on (in the manual you need to do this), then it won't be on. I leave my TeslaCam on all the time and when needed turn on the Sentry Mode (red eye icon).

 

[SMAlset]

I pulled my usb today to view the recordings. I have been driving for 5 days or so with it installed. I didn’t turn on my Sentry mode until two days ago.

I also have no driving videos. When I open the recent clips folder there is absolutely nothing there. The only clips I have are 45 to 50 second clips of the parked car, and those when I cycled the icon to remove the stick. No damage to the car, or alerts to me, nor was there anything remotely suspicious on any of the videos that might have set off sentry mode.

Sentry is activated, when On of course, and will be triggered by something as simple as someone or thing passing near enough the car since it could be someone who walks between cars and keys your car (been videos captured of that). Since the car doesn't have the intelligence to know if they are going to do anything negatively to affect your car, it will trigger and save the clip in case you need to see it. Call it preventative I guess and it has been found to be valuable to alot of people already who saw some damage and checked their SavedClips to find video evidence of it happening. People have been arrested in some of these cases.

Sentry does not send a notification to your phone if Sentry sets off just an "alert" -- this is just a detected movement or sound nearby. You will see a notification on your car's display when you enter it. BTW you should check and see if you have under your app Settings under Notifications that Car Alarm is turned on. However if your car senses movement of it such as being hit by another vehicle, bumped by someone getting into their car, a broken window or a loud vibration (can be from jets flying overhead--saw in one video--or in my "Alarm" case a vehicle with it's windows rolled down blasting music with loud base and with the car in a parking garage and probably intensifying the sound), it will send 2 Notifications to your phone. 1) Sentry Mode has triggered the alarm state and 2) Car alarm has been triggered (headlights will flash, horn will start honking and music inside your car will blast--deterrent to anyone inside it.

 

[Lindamon]

Yes, I guess @FielderJones brought up an important question to ask? For those not seeing driving videos in the buffer RecentClips folder do you have TeslaCam activated?? When you plug in your flash drive, the camera icon will come up but if you don't touch it to turn it on (in the manual you need to do this), then it won't be on. I leave my TeslaCam on all the time and when needed turn on the Sentry Mode (red eye icon).

Ah...I saw the red dot on the icon and assumed that meant it was recording my driving as well. I missed that you need to touch it for a few seconds. So I will try it again today. Thanks!

 

[Vipercat]

Ah...I saw the red dot on the icon and assumed that meant it was recording my driving as well. I missed that you need to touch it for a few seconds. So I will try it again today. Thanks!

A red dot means 'recording'. Pressing it once shorty will save the last 10 minutes of recording and shows a green checkmark, followed by the red dot to indicate recording has resumed. Pressing for a long time results in a burst of brightness under your finger and a Grey dot, allowing you to safely remove the USB stick.

 

[SMAlset]

Ah...I saw the red dot on the icon and assumed that meant it was recording my driving as well. I missed that you need to touch it for a few seconds. So I will try it again today. Thanks!

ah, sure that solved the issue then but let us know for sure. Yes two distinct components of the security feature, each with its own icon on your screen at the top. Both needing to show the red dot to be turned on. I guess it's nice you can turn off TeslaCam's buffer portion for example...why record/write to your flashdrive when your car is sitting in your driveway for hours on end as it does burn into your flashdrive media. You might still want to have Sentry Mode set however, should anyone want to check out your car to burglarize it and you'd want that video saved.

 

[Lindamon]

ah, sure that solved the issue then but let us know for sure. Yes two distinct components of the security feature, each with its own icon on your screen at the top. Both needing to show the red dot to be turned on. I guess it's nice you can turn off TeslaCam's buffer portion for example...why record/write to your flashdrive when your car is sitting in your driveway for hours on end as it does burn into your flashdrive media. You might still want to have Sentry Mode set however, should anyone want to check out your car to burglarize it and you'd want that video saved.

Sentry mode is activated.

The problem is, the red dot has been on the whole time I have been driving, but still nothing in the Recent folder. The dot comes on as soon as I insert the drive, so I suppose that means I am recording, but the only thing I have is in the Saved folder, from Tuesday night parking downtown, several 45-50 second clips from Sentry mode.

 

[Lindamon]

A red dot means 'recording'. Pressing it once shorty will save the last 10 minutes of recording and shows a green checkmark, followed by the red dot to indicate recording has resumed. Pressing for a long time results in a burst of brightness under your finger and a Grey dot, allowing you to safely remove the USB stick.

Yep. discovered this today and went and re-read the manual. I now understand clearly how it works, and can cycle through the settings. The problem is, the red dot was on for several days, and as far as I can tell nothing has been recorded. The Recent folder is completely empty

 

[SMAlset]

Sentry mode is activated.

The problem is, the red dot has been on the whole time I have been driving, but still nothing in the Recent folder. The dot comes on as soon as I insert the drive, so I suppose that means I am recording, but the only thing I have is in the Saved folder, from Tuesday night parking downtown, several 45-50 second clips from Sentry mode.

My experience is the TeslaCam camera icon when you first insert the drive will show a red dot but then it goes away, I assume letting you know it's operational and allowing you decide if you want to turn it on or not. Does your Camera icon dot stay red the whole time? If not, touch the camera so that it starts recording and shows constant red.

Sometimes a photo worth 1000 words:

 

[Lindamon]

My experience is the TeslaCam camera icon when you first insert the drive will show a red dot but then it goes away, I assume letting you know it's operational and allowing you decide if you want to turn it on or not. Does your Camera icon dot stay red the whole time? If not, touch the camera so that it starts recording and shows constant red.

Yes, the dot stays red the entire time.

I did some more research, and back in March there was a thread that said HW3 does not support Dashcam, the software had not caught up. I've had my X for 3 weeks, ordered it July 16, so I am assuming it has HW3. Perhaps the software is still not available for my car?

 

[Kitfox]

I think....

Records driving from the PAST HOUR ONLY (In the Recent directory) unless you save the past ten minutes by tapping (not holding) the icon. When the icon is tapped, the prior ten minutes are moved to the Saved directory.

When you park, Sentry Mode takes over and starts watching instead. The "Past hour" loop in the Recent directory continues, and when Sentry Mode goes "Alert", it saves files before, containing, and after the alert event into the Saved directory. After an hour parked, all of the driving videos in the Recent are gone.

It's undergoing more work, so things may change of course. I'm going to the car to see if I'm completely full of it or might be right. ...
Okay, yes, it looks like it'll save up to ten minutes BEFORE the alert in one directory, and then split up into directories of up to ten minutes' worth of files with repeated alerts. So for example the first alert I triggered was the end of ten minutes of boredom. Then the second alert was the end of the next directory, and the third alert of the three alerts continued recording for 1.5 minutes after the alert into the saved directory.

So if you want to have driving from more than an hour ago, you need to save it manually by tapping the icon.

 

[Lindamon]

Well, it seemed to work on the way home from PT today. Lots of 59 second clips of the trip home. I'm still not sure why it didn't work on the way there, though it's a 30 minute drive, 1 hr round trip, so the whole trip, or at least part of the trip there should be on it. I didn't do anything different, although I didi forget to check it when I left this morning from home. When I got to the car after PT I did check the status, and it showed both the camera and sentry mode were on, when I put the car in D, sentry mode went off, but the camera stayed on. I didn't manually touch anything though, so it should have been on when I left home, but perhaps it wasn't on until sentry mode tuned on when I parked at PT. Anyway, I know it works at least sometimes, maybe I just haven't figured out if I still am doing something wrong. No surprises there!

 

[Lindamon]

I may have figured this out. I looked at the time stamps, and the earliest recording starts at at 9:33, and it recorded from then until I got home. I arrived at PT at 8:55, and didn't get back to the car until just after 10, so my guess is something set off sentry mode, and it started recording at 9:33. I have 59 second clips of the cameras sitting in the parking lot for 27 minutes, and then 59 second clips of my entire drive home, so that is nearly an hour of recording, and perhaps it recorded my drive there but was erased because something started it recording in the parking lot almost half an hour before I left. I didn't notice the sentry alert on the dash when I got in the car, but could have easily missed it. Make sense?

 

[japhule]

The RecentClips folder only keeps clips of the last hour. If you pull the drive at 7pm, it will only have footage that was recorded between 6pm and 7pm. If you got home from work at 5pm and went to your car at 7pm and pulled the drive out, no footage before 6pm will be available. If you want footage of your drive then then press the camera button to save the last 10 minutes (which will go into the SavedClips folder) otherwise any non-manually saved footage in the RecentClips folder will be discarded if its older than an hour.

 

[SMAlset]

The RecentClips folder only keeps clips of the last hour. If you pull the drive at 7pm, it will only have footage that was recorded between 6pm and 7pm. If you got home from work at 5pm and went to your car at 7pm and pulled the drive out, no footage before 6pm will be available. If you want footage of your drive then then press the camera button to save the last 10 minutes (which will go into the SavedClips folder) otherwise any non-manually saved footage in the RecentClips folder will be discarded if its older than an hour.

Or if you saw something while driving in the past hour while it was buffering and forgot to push the camera to Save, but you pulled the drive out before the flashdrive would record over that scene, then you can still put your flashdrive in your computer, locate it and save it off to your computer so not a total loss if you act quickly enough before it gets overwritten. One of the reasons to have another flashdrive handy to plug in if you need to pull this one out to review or whatever.

 

[morningstar]

I am also experiencing this. Sometimes I do have driving videos and sentry videos. But today I pulled the drive to see something that I saw while driving and there were no driving videos in the recent folder at all, but there were about a dozen clips of my car parked in the parking lot at the grocery store in the recent folder. When I looked in the saved folder there were more sentry clips of my car parked in various places and I did find the last few minutes of driving that i did click to save. So it did save when I wanted it to, but there should have been other driving videos in the recent folder and not sentry videos. It's weird. But I hate to complain because this is the first time I've taken the drive out and not had any corrupt videos so I guess it's an improvement over what it was doing? LOL

Edit to add: Also, i have it set to not record sentry at home, but it does. Every time someone goes into the garage, I have a recording of it.