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Just turned off sentry mode

SoManyM3s

Member
Apr 21, 2019
312
225
28262
So, this is pretty crazy. I’ve been using sentry mode ever since I got the car in June but this is a first for me.

This morning, I’ve lost 12 miles in 2 hours and was losing a mile every ten minutes. Checked the car and sentry activations. The parking lot at my work is mostly empty where my car is parked.

This is the first time I’m using sentry mode since the latest update.
Anybody notice this?
Do I need to clean a camera or something!
 
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Reactions: MarkBrokeIt

SoManyM3s

Member
Apr 21, 2019
312
225
28262
Nvm. Turning off sentry mode didn’t help. Went from 187 to 184 in 24 minutes after turning off sentry mode. At this rate I won’t be able to get home after my 12 hour shift. Geez what do I do?
 

PostalM3

Member
Jun 15, 2019
16
32
Bend
If you park in a warmer garage and then park outside in the cold, the battery will show less miles after a couple hours of being colder...if you were to go back into the warmer garage, it'll come back up after sitting for a couple hours.
 

SoManyM3s

Member
Apr 21, 2019
312
225
28262
If you park in a warmer garage and then park outside in the cold, the battery will show less miles after a couple hours of being colder...if you were to go back into the warmer garage, it'll come back up after sitting for a couple hours.
The battery was already cold soaked when I started my drive this morning. Started at 250 miles range. Drove 35 miles at around 65-70 miles and hour. Got here with 200 miles left on the battery at 6:50 AM. It’s 9:32 and range left is 183 miles. This is very abnormal compared to my experience a couple weeks back when there was a cold front. But maybe this is normal and I just wasn’t aware. If you’re wasting more than half your battery in just keeping the battery warm. This is really not good for the environment. Or at least not much better than using just gas. Oh well, just gotta live with it I guess
 

srs5694

Active Member
Jan 15, 2019
1,024
1,148
Woonsocket, RI
Be sure to not check your app too often. Whenever you do, the car will wake up (or be prevented from going to sleep), and no matter what the cause, a Tesla that's awake uses more power than one that's asleep. I don't know for certain if there's an interaction between wakefulness and temperature, but I think there probably is. I've noticed that when my car is awake and plugged in when the temperature is low, my EVSE (which is network-enabled and so records energy use for me) reports periodic brief bursts of electricity use; but when it's asleep, this doesn't happen. I haven't yet tried to track range loss when unplugged in the cold in awake vs. asleep conditions. My (very tentative) hypothesis is that the car is trying to keep the battery warm when it's awake, but it stops doing this when it's asleep. If it does the same when unplugged, then you'd see accelerated range loss when the car is awake in cold weather, but not when it's asleep. Note that I've had my car only since late March of this year, so my experience with cold temperatures is still limited. Also, I live in Rhode Island, just to help calibrate my climate. I have a driveway but no garage, so my car is exposed to whatever Mother Nature throws at it. I know you probably want to track what's happening so you can take action before you end up stranded, but I suggest you exercise restraint. In a worst-case scenario, when the Model 3's SoC drops below 20%, it goes into an ultra-low-power mode, so you should have enough power to reach an EVSE, or ideally a Supercharger, to get more juice to get home.

Note also that at least much of the reason Sentry Mode uses more power than not using it is that it keeps the car awake whenever it's in use. Thus, if my hypothesis is correct, the range loss associated with Sentry Mode will be much greater in cold weather than in warmer weather, since you'll get the hit not just of keeping the car awake per se, but also the hit of extra battery warming.

On the plus side, if the battery is warm, you'll get more in the way of regenerative braking, and in extreme cases better acceleration, since a cold battery performs poorly and will limit both of these features. Of course, you can wake up the car and precondition the cabin temperature a few minutes before you want to drive to get the same improvement.

FWIW, I noticed something similar, but not identical, with the Chevy Volt that I drove before my Model 3 -- over the winter, if it was plugged in when it was cold outside, I'd see brief spikes of electricity use every hour or two, so I suspect it was warming the battery when plugged in. If I unplugged the car, I saw no range loss, so I suspect that it was not trying to warm the battery using only battery power.
 
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Reactions: strykeroz

SoManyM3s

Member
Apr 21, 2019
312
225
28262
Be sure to not check your app too often. Whenever you do, the car will wake up (or be prevented from going to sleep), and no matter what the cause, a Tesla that's awake uses more power than one that's asleep. I don't know for certain if there's an interaction between wakefulness and temperature, but I think there probably is. I've noticed that when my car is awake and plugged in when the temperature is low, my EVSE (which is network-enabled and so records energy use for me) reports periodic brief bursts of electricity use; but when it's asleep, this doesn't happen. I haven't yet tried to track range loss when unplugged in the cold in awake vs. asleep conditions. My (very tentative) hypothesis is that the car is trying to keep the battery warm when it's awake, but it stops doing this when it's asleep. If it does the same when unplugged, then you'd see accelerated range loss when the car is awake in cold weather, but not when it's asleep. Note that I've had my car only since late March of this year, so my experience with cold temperatures is still limited. Also, I live in Rhode Island, just to help calibrate my climate. I have a driveway but no garage, so my car is exposed to whatever Mother Nature throws at it. I know you probably want to track what's happening so you can take action before you end up stranded, but I suggest you exercise restraint. In a worst-case scenario, when the Model 3's SoC drops below 20%, it goes into an ultra-low-power mode, so you should have enough power to reach an EVSE, or ideally a Supercharger, to get more juice to get home.

Note also that at least much of the reason Sentry Mode uses more power than not using it is that it keeps the car awake whenever it's in use. Thus, if my hypothesis is correct, the range loss associated with Sentry Mode will be much greater in cold weather than in warmer weather, since you'll get the hit not just of keeping the car awake per se, but also the hit of extra battery warming.

On the plus side, if the battery is warm, you'll get more in the way of regenerative braking, and in extreme cases better acceleration, since a cold battery performs poorly and will limit both of these features. Of course, you can wake up the car and precondition the cabin temperature a few minutes before you want to drive to get the same improvement.

FWIW, I noticed something similar, but not identical, with the Chevy Volt that I drove before my Model 3 -- over the winter, if it was plugged in when it was cold outside, I'd see brief spikes of electricity use every hour or two, so I suspect it was warming the battery when plugged in. If I unplugged the car, I saw no range loss, so I suspect that it was not trying to warm the battery using only battery power.

thank you! the notification pop up on the iPhone automatically updated the miles as soon as you swipe to the notification screen when the car is awake. Because sentry mode was on, the car was awake. I’ve turned off sentry mode so car is asleep more and hopefully won’t have anymore range loss. Won’t check till I get off shift because I have a 70 mile drive planned when I get off and don’t want to stop for charging.
 
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Reactions: strykeroz

Type 5

Member
Nov 24, 2019
62
33
Colorado
Teslas, at least in the USA, have a higher rate of vandalism, not to mention, the parking lot damage that happens, I am sure anywhere.
I'm happy that I have Sentry and I am using it! It may save me thousands of dollars in future body shop repairs by being able to match someone with an accident they ran away with.
If I was worried about the environmental impact of Sentry - well, I'd probably hang myself.
 

BentheRed

Member
Dec 3, 2019
21
11
AUSTIN
I parked at a hotel and took advantage of their free J1772 charger. I stopped my car charging (via the app) at 235 miles at about 9 pm, this morning it had 223 miles and by midday it was down to 216! I switched off sentry mode and it’s staying around 215. Sentry Mode is not worth it, too much drain and too sensitive. I can’t park in a supermarket car park without coming back to 10+ Sentry incidents. The first time this happened I watched all of them back and it was nothing but 10 minutes of people walking past my car ;-(
 

JamBiscuit

Member
Nov 23, 2019
20
9
Phoenix
I will keep it on as long as I'm not in dire need of the extra miles. If someone walks by your car and keys it no additional sensors would pick that up so the movement detection by the cameras is the best we can hope for. I do a quick walk around of the car and if all is good i disregard the sentry clips. No need to review them unless something is amiss.
 
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