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MASTER THREAD: USB drives that work with Sentry and TeslaCam

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#461
Apprunner said:
almost everyone I know personally has issues with USB eventually. I’ve converted them to SSD and no issues so for a little more money, seems like a better bet. It’s only $90.
Click to expand...
And it's not even 90$ if you look around a bit. I've seen the 250gb sandisk extreme ssd on sale for around 50$ in the past. I've had one since January, and it hasn't had any problems.
(and now I'm wondering.. would the counterfeiters bother with making fake ssd's?)
 
#462
sduck said:
And it's not even 90$ if you look around a bit. I've seen the 250gb sandisk extreme ssd on sale for around 50$ in the past. I've had one since January, and it hasn't had any problems.
(and now I'm wondering.. would the counterfeiters bother with making fake ssd's?)
Click to expand...
Yeah. I think most people with SSDs have had great luck with them. Everyone I know that has converted is very happy with them with no failures.
 
#470
hmmwv said:
This seems to be a low cost SSD, right now it's $32.99 after coupon, on paper it should work, correct?
https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-SD600Q-Ultra-Speed-External-ASD600Q-240GU31-CBL/dp/B07PLM9K7W/
Click to expand...


QLC flash, meaning the lowest endurance on the market... rated for ~50 TBW, which on a 240GB drive is 208.3 write cycles.

Assuming 9 hours a day of use you're gonna write 64.8GB per day so you'll use one write cycle every ~3.7 days.

That means you'll reach the rated life of the drive in just over 2 years (and obviously faster if you run dashcam/sentry more than 9 hrs/day but that seems a decent average for 8 hours work 1 hour driving)

Drive has a 3 year warranty- you can expect to likely need it.


For a similar or slightly lower price you can get USB keys from Samsung and others using TLC flash with much higher endurance and a 5 year warranty... (or for a few bucks more TLC SDcards with a USB adapter)

Benchmarks won't be as fast- but given either can exceed what the USB2 port on the car can do that shouldn't matter.
 
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Reactions: trisk and hmmwv
#471
Knightshade said:
QLC flash, meaning the lowest endurance on the market... rated for ~50 TBW, which on a 240GB drive is 208.3 write cycles.

Assuming 9 hours a day of use you're gonna write 64.8GB per day so you'll use one write cycle every ~3.7 days.

That means you'll reach the rated life of the drive in just over 2 years (and obviously faster if you run dashcam/sentry more than 9 hrs/day but that seems a decent average for 8 hours work 1 hour driving)

Drive has a 3 year warranty- you can expect to likely need it.


For a similar or slightly lower price you can get USB keys from Samsung and others using TLC flash with much higher endurance and a 5 year warranty... (or for a few bucks more TLC SDcards with a USB adapter)

Benchmarks won't be as fast- but given either can exceed what the USB2 port on the car can do that shouldn't matter.
Click to expand...

Great info! But if this drive should last 2 years then why we hear all those people buying the Samsung TLC flash USBs still failing within a few months? I won't need sentry mode when the car is parked right in front of my office, so I'll be using average 1.5 hrs per day. I'm wondering if those high endurance MicroSD cards for camera paired with a USB reader will work better? Or should I get a better SSD in a USB enclosure?
 
#472
hmmwv said:
Great info! But if this drive should last 2 years then why we hear all those people buying the Samsung TLC flash USBs still failing within a few months?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure you do.

You hear some getting the "too slow" message...but that's been happening across all varieties of storage on a hit or miss basis... (my own Samsung TLC flash for example has been in use over a year now with 0 issues).

One possible reason that came up in another thread- every 2-3 months I pull the drive (swapping a cheap 32GB kingston that also works fine in for the day) and clear off all the old video files I don't need... so the drive never gets more than 1/3-2/3 full. All flash storage slows down as it fills up, especially in the 75-90% full range or more.



I can only recall one or two folks having the actual drive fail though, and everyone builds a lemon on occasion.

hmmwv said:
I won't need sentry mode when the car is parked right in front of my office, so I'll be using average 1.5 hrs per day. I'm wondering if those high endurance MicroSD cards for camera paired with a USB reader will work better? Or should I get a better SSD in a USB enclosure?
Click to expand...


Oh, 1.5 hours a day including driving time? Then yeah even QLC will be fine, it'd take you over a decade to hit the rated write limit at that rate.

Only other concern would be rated operating temp only goes down to 41.... so assuming it gets colder than that where you'll use it you might still wanna consider an SDcard or USB key rated for a wider range of temps.... as little use as you're hitting it with there's no real reason to pay for an "endurance" card, though if you find a sale where it's only a couple bucks difference it won't hurt anything.
 
#473
What is considered a reliable tool (on Windows) to measure the sustained write speed of a USB stick?

I've got two drives (both less than three months old) that are reporting issues and I'd like to confirm what their performance is before submitting for replacements.
 
#476
jdw said:
Another good site for TeslaCam info:

Tesla Dashcam Advice, Recommendations and more! – TeslaTap's Dashcam Guide
Click to expand...
Yes, and here is a link to the page on that site with specific recommendations for SD cards and adaptors, stick style flash drives, and SSD drives.

I just ordered the Defini adaptor and SanDisk High Endurance 128 GB SD card (designed for dash cam use, read/write 20/30 MB/s, temp range -13 to 185°F). Will post again when I have tried them out.

https://www.amazon.com/Difini-Light...d=1574438460&sprefix=Difini+Sd,aps,194&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Endu...k+High+Endurance+128+GB&qid=1574438619&sr=8-1
 
#478
So there are 24 pages in this thread, I went through the last 8 or so, and am not really any clearer as there are a lot of contradicting opinions.

I am getting the 4mb write speed error intermittently. I have one of the higher end usb sticks, so would have thought it should be fine. It was fine for the first few weeks. Until around the time v10 came out, but also when it started to get colder... so it could be either.

So is this a software issue, and I just need to sit tight for a release to fix it, or do I need to fork out for a Micro SD or SSD? But I saw a couple of comments that these haven’t been completely issue free. It can become an expensive game of trial and error.
 
#479
Bezza4 said:
So there are 24 pages in this thread, I went through the last 8 or so, and am not really any clearer as there are a lot of contradicting opinions.

I am getting the 4mb write speed error intermittently. I have one of the higher end usb sticks, so would have thought it should be fine. It was fine for the first few weeks. Until around the time v10 came out, but also when it started to get colder... so it could be either.

So is this a software issue, and I just need to sit tight for a release to fix it, or do I need to fork out for a Micro SD or SSD? But I saw a couple of comments that these haven’t been completely issue free. It can become an expensive game of trial and error.
Click to expand...

There really isn't a point to read the thread anymore. Just go by what is on here. I'd stick to MicroSD/SSD personally. No option expensive TBH.

Tesla Dashcam Advice, Recommendations and more! – TeslaTap's Dashcam Guide
 
#480
Bezza4 said:
So there are 24 pages in this thread, I went through the last 8 or so, and am not really any clearer as there are a lot of contradicting opinions.

I am getting the 4mb write speed error intermittently. I have one of the higher end usb sticks, so would have thought it should be fine. It was fine for the first few weeks. Until around the time v10 came out, but also when it started to get colder... so it could be either.

So is this a software issue, and I just need to sit tight for a release to fix it, or do I need to fork out for a Micro SD or SSD? But I saw a couple of comments that these haven’t been completely issue free. It can become an expensive game of trial and error.
Click to expand...
It’s absolutely a software issue. My problems started with a software update and they seem to have disappeared after a software update. I have not changed my hardware at all.
The $64,000 question seems to be does some hardware work better than others? There is no way to definitively know at this point.
 
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