I know that if Sentry Mode went into the alarm state that you get a notification on the mobile app. But what if it just entered the alert state and made a recording? How do you know when you get back to the car (or before) that it did that? Will the HAL 9000 display still be on? Will there be any other sign? Having to take the USB out and put it into a computer to find out is a nonstarter.
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How do you know if Sentry Mode activated?
- Thread starter pjscott
- Start date
TiggerTime
Member
Currently the only option is to pull the USB and pull it up on a computer. There are a couple threads on here talking about setting DIY access using raspberry/Pi computer but there is no way via Tesla or 3rd party option.
bsietz
Member
If you use TeslaFi, there is an option to enable sentry mode at all tagged (known) or untagged locations. I personally have it enabled for all untagged locations as a default, and for specific tagged locations you can override the setting if you edit that location's tag. For instance, one of my tagged locations is the local mall, so I would want to make sure sentry mode is enabled there. Best of all, TeslaFi will send you an email when it is about to enable sentry mode, and when it actually does so you always know for sure!
TeslaFi (www.teslafi.com) is a great site that tracks all of your usage - drives, charges, idles, costs, and savings over gas.
It comes with a two week trial, but if you use my referral code 'bsietz' you get an extra two weeks. Give it a try!
-Brian
TeslaFi (www.teslafi.com) is a great site that tracks all of your usage - drives, charges, idles, costs, and savings over gas.
It comes with a two week trial, but if you use my referral code 'bsietz' you get an extra two weeks. Give it a try!
-Brian
x t2m x
Member
My experience has been that every time Sentry Mode is triggered, the screen displays Sentry Mode warnings, which is visible from a distance, so I know it wasn't me triggering it. This happens even with someone walking much too close but not touching the car. (...as seen on the video clips).
I have not tested nor received push notifications yet (I have limited data and have it auto-off when my phone sleeps).
I have not tested nor received push notifications yet (I have limited data and have it auto-off when my phone sleeps).
Sentry mode will go into an alert state and make a 10 min. recording whenever cars, people, etc have movement in front of your cameras from what I've seen. Others have reported that even a loud sound like a motorcycle going by can send it to alert recording. It's pretty sensitive. The software isn't that old, maybe since October, and has been rolled out to Model 3s and more recently to MS/MXs with HW2.5. Additionally on the HW3 that is now being installed in new cars. They keep tweaking it and making improvements. Going to take some time and hopefully when things are more firm we'll see the rear camera added as well. Until changes are made you'll have to view your alert Saved recordings off your computer. If you go with a USB-A/USB-C card reader and microSD card instead of the USB drive, you can plug into android phones. There is a USB drive out there (Sandisk) with a lightning connector for iPhones but you'll need a third party app the manufacturer sends you to on the App Store for your recordings to be viewable on iPhones.
yes, true, but the newest software has a warning that comes up on your screen when you start the car and tells of the number of sentry mode alerts when you were gone.
x t2m x
Member
Great, can't wait for it to hit this area (or my car).
I find that as soon as I turn ON Sentry Mode, it starts to record immediately and records continuously (according to all the clips on the USB), and the screen alert (and notifications) initiate only upon being triggered.
I wish Tesla would clarify a bit more on how it works. In examining the saved clips it seems I get at least 10 minutes of video each time I have Sentry mode on, but that's about it. I have never received a sentry mode notification via the app. So something triggers video at a level below sentry mode app notification it seems.
You don't get a notification if the Sentry mode goes to alert. You do if the Alarm gets triggered. Takes more of a vibration for the car to sense a possible intruder, like someone pounding on your glass trying to break your window.
Not that I wanted to be a test subject tonight but while eating dinner out downtown, car parked on 3rd level garage in an nearby building, and waiting for dessert to be brought out, I got this on my iPhone:
Notifications do work. I'll post video later in a separate thread and post a link to it back on this thread so you can see the footage, but my husband went to check it out and said he heard a car alarm beeping as he approached the garage structure. When he got to where the car was he didn't see anything wrong with my car, but I can tell you that from reviewing the footage, it was caused by a car passing by. He said he had heard some really loud car motor revving sounds as he was getting to that level so it might have been from that car that passed by or since we don't have sound recorded with our TeslaCam it could have been loud music generated by the passing car I suppose, can't remember but his windows might have been down. But from the video you can see the headlights flashing during this time. Don't know if the car was playing Elon's music too inside (wish I knew) but glad it was a false alarm and the car was fine. Probably had an elevated heart rate on my Apple Watch until I heard back from my husband
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I took an immediate screen capture of the two notifications I got simultaneously which helped identify the exact time to look for in the SavedClips folder. The first one triggered the state, then seemingly set the alarm off, and subsequently sent the 10 minute clip from TeslaCam's RecentClips to the SavedClips folder to preserve it. Any action should be near the end of the videos.
BTW I will point out that last night I had charged at home so battery wasn't an issue. If we would have gone out last night and this happened before charging, I was down to my 20% battery level and Sentry Mode would not have been available to me to use. So just a word to the wise, not to let your car get so low on battery if you will be parking in a spot that Sentry mode might get triggered in.
Not that I wanted to be a test subject tonight but while eating dinner out downtown, car parked on 3rd level garage in an nearby building, and waiting for dessert to be brought out, I got this on my iPhone:
Notifications do work. I'll post video later in a separate thread and post a link to it back on this thread so you can see the footage, but my husband went to check it out and said he heard a car alarm beeping as he approached the garage structure. When he got to where the car was he didn't see anything wrong with my car, but I can tell you that from reviewing the footage, it was caused by a car passing by. He said he had heard some really loud car motor revving sounds as he was getting to that level so it might have been from that car that passed by or since we don't have sound recorded with our TeslaCam it could have been loud music generated by the passing car I suppose, can't remember but his windows might have been down. But from the video you can see the headlights flashing during this time. Don't know if the car was playing Elon's music too inside (wish I knew) but glad it was a false alarm and the car was fine. Probably had an elevated heart rate on my Apple Watch until I heard back from my husband
.I took an immediate screen capture of the two notifications I got simultaneously which helped identify the exact time to look for in the SavedClips folder. The first one triggered the state, then seemingly set the alarm off, and subsequently sent the 10 minute clip from TeslaCam's RecentClips to the SavedClips folder to preserve it. Any action should be near the end of the videos.
BTW I will point out that last night I had charged at home so battery wasn't an issue. If we would have gone out last night and this happened before charging, I was down to my 20% battery level and Sentry Mode would not have been available to me to use. So just a word to the wise, not to let your car get so low on battery if you will be parking in a spot that Sentry mode might get triggered in.
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Actually it is TeslaCam that is recording to it's one hour buffer, not Sentry mode. Turning Sentry mode on via your app, sets it to monitor the car while it is parked and if something does send it into the alert state or alarm state, it will remove those 10 min. of video from TeslaCam's RecentClips and put them into the SavedClips folder. If you look at the stamped file folder names, you will see the gap in TeslaCam's RecentClips folder and see them instead in SavedClips.
Well looked at the footage from TeslaCam on tonight's Alarm event that I got a phone notification for. Turns out to be caused by a vehicle passing that we believe was either revving his engine as he passed or was playing loud music with his windows down. My husband had thought maybe it would be due to activity from one of the two cars parked on each side of me but it wasn't the case. Not exciting footage so decided to just post the footage here in this thread and not dedicate a thread to it. The most exciting thing was seeing the headlights come on (parking with a wall in front of the car made them visible and pretty much tagged when the triggering happened). The footage is from the last 20 seconds of the next to last minute of recordings and the first 17 seconds of the last minute of recordings edited together. The screen capture on my phone nailed the time to check.
Although there's only a sliver of view from the front camera of the ramp going up to the next parking level you can see while the headlights are flashing the offending car heading to the next level. Better view of the car as it passes by the right and left repeaters. As you can see he was the only car or movement during that time.
For people still waiting to get TeslaCam and Sentry mode, here's what the video files look like that the footage is from. Note the file date YYYY-MM-DD followed by Hour (24-18=6pm) and Min. (military time) and then which camera.
Although there's only a sliver of view from the front camera of the ramp going up to the next parking level you can see while the headlights are flashing the offending car heading to the next level. Better view of the car as it passes by the right and left repeaters. As you can see he was the only car or movement during that time.
For people still waiting to get TeslaCam and Sentry mode, here's what the video files look like that the footage is from. Note the file date YYYY-MM-DD followed by Hour (24-18=6pm) and Min. (military time) and then which camera.
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turok3000
Member
Not quite - teslacam keeps the last hour on your usb flash continuously at all times (except when the car is sleeping). You can turn this off by long pressing the teslacam icon until the red dot disappears. It has nothing to do with sentry mode.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
Today? Nothing. It's not on.
Eventually it's intended to monitor the interior when the car is used as a robotaxi
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