MASTER THREAD: USB drives that work with Sentry and TeslaCam

[Knightshade]

So quick bump... because the user manual now specifically lists a couple of storage devices that Tesla states meet the requirements

Shockingly, the USB key I've recommended from the start, and has worked flawlessly for ~18 months now is one of the 2 they list (well, the 64GB version- I'm using the 128GB one, but specs are the same).


Page 76-

Although not a comprehensive list, Tesla has confirmed through testing that the following flash drives meet the requirements for Dashcam and Sentry Mode use:

Sandisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive

Samsung MUF-64-AB/AM FIT Plus- 200MB/s USB 3.1 flash drive

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_3_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

 

[Need]

I have this one (16GB) in both our X and 3 since they got dashcam function and never ever saw any "too slow" error.

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-DataTraveler-DTSE9H-16GBZ/dp/B006W8U2WU/

After using them for about a year, the one in my 3 died last week. Can't even reformat it any more. The one in the X is still fine but it is much less driven (much less dashcam overwrite recording). I replaced it with the same type as they are cheap and disposable.

 

[Knightshade]

After using them for about a year, the one in my 3 died last week. Can't even reformat it any more. The one in the X is still fine but it is much less driven (much less dashcam overwrite recording). I replaced it with the same type as they are cheap and disposable.

16GB was probably ok back when it was 1 camera originally- it's pretty tiny for the 4 now in use.

You're eating an entire write cycle every 2.2 hours... so say 9 hours of use a day (1 hour driving, 8 in sentry at work) and you're going through roughly 4 full write cycles a day.

Wouldn't be at all surprised by flash memory that size dying in 1-2 years of such use.

Size I suggest now is at least 128GB, which will be good for longer than the average american owns a car for.... or 256GB if you live someplace you save a LOT of extra clips for some reason, or want to pass the storage down to your kids.

 

[Kevy Baby]

...or want to pass the storage down to your kids.

It could be culturally significant some day!

 

[jcfunklive]

16GB was probably ok back when it was 1 camera originally- it's pretty tiny for the 4 now in use.

You're eating an entire write cycle every 2.2 hours... so say 9 hours of use a day (1 hour driving, 8 in sentry at work) and you're going through roughly 4 full write cycles a day.

Wouldn't be at all surprised by flash memory that size dying in 1-2 years of such use.

Size I suggest now is at least 128GB, which will be good for longer than the average american owns a car for.... or 256GB if you live someplace you save a LOT of extra clips for some reason, or want to pass the storage down to your kids.

Apologies in advance if this question is noob, but do you use an adapter to ever view your footage on your cell phone? If so, what adapter do you use?

If not, then disregard.

First time tesla owner here and i literally have had the car for 3 days with not a lot of time to play around given the current environment.

 

[Need]

16GB was probably ok back when it was 1 camera originally- it's pretty tiny for the 4 now in use.

You're eating an entire write cycle every 2.2 hours... so say 9 hours of use a day (1 hour driving, 8 in sentry at work) and you're going through roughly 4 full write cycles a day.

Wouldn't be at all surprised by flash memory that size dying in 1-2 years of such use.

Size I suggest now is at least 128GB, which will be good for longer than the average american owns a car for.... or 256GB if you live someplace you save a LOT of extra clips for some reason, or want to pass the storage down to your kids.

I am not sure if the size would matter in this case though. I am pretty sure my drive was not writable in certain location and it is in the 1 hour buffer. My commute is 1 hour to 2 hour each way. Every day when I start the car (either from home or form work), the drive will be working with the camera icon with the red dot. Then about half way thru (30 to 45 min) later, it will become icon with the grey x. When you let the car rest... the 1 hour buffer will get deleted and start over from the same location in the drive. So you could have a 1GB drive but if the 1 hour circular buffer is writing to the same locations... it is not going to help with less write cycle. Maybe a drive with more write cycle like those endurance SD card may help. But for me, I will just take the cheap 16gb and let it last a year and replace!

 

[Knightshade]

I don't...

I am not sure if the size would matter in this case though. I am pretty sure my drive was not writable in certain location and it is in the 1 hour buffer. My commute is 1 hour to 2 hour each way. Every day when I start the car (either from home or form work), the drive will be working with the camera icon with the red dot. Then about half way thru (30 to 45 min) later, it will become icon with the grey x. When you let the car rest... the 1 hour buffer will get deleted and start over from the same location in the drive. So you could have a 1GB drive but if the 1 hour circular buffer is writing to the same locations... it is not going to help with less write cycle. Maybe a drive with more write cycle like those endurance SD card may help. But for me, I will just take the cheap 16gb and let it last a year and replace!

...that's...not how flash drives work.

So first- you can't have a 1GB drive- because the 1 hour buffer takes 7.2 GB of space even if you never save off any footage.


Second- It doesn't re-write on the same physical place over and over. Even most cheap flash keys have at least basic wear leveling these days and decent ones have pretty good wear leveling.


Meaning it has to write 16GB total to the 16GB drive to use one full write cycle up, because it's always writing to difference places on the drive.

(there's some fuzziness to the math around block size and whatnot but it's close enough for the discussion)


Very cheap memory likely is good for about 1000 write cycles. Better stuff is in the 3000-5000 range.

So 16 GB times 1000 cycles means you can write (roughly) 2,222 1-hour-buffers to the drive before your cycles are used up.

At 10 hours a day (8 hours on sentry, 2 hours driving) that's 222 days before the drive hits its rated life. Less than a year.

A 128GB drive however would take 8 times as long to do so.

 

[Need]

So 16 GB times 1000 cycles means you can write (roughly) 2,222 1-hour-buffers to the drive before your cycles are used up.

At 10 hours a day (8 hours on sentry, 2 hours driving) that's 222 days before the drive hits its rated life. Less than a year.

A 128GB drive however would take 8 times as long to do so.

Sounds about right. I have 3 hours drive daily... not much sentry but lets say 1 hour. So about 400+ days... approx 1 year. I got a bunch of these 16GB drives and they are really just sitting here good for nothing. So they should last for years. I got them because our laptops said we need 15 GB usb drives to create boot disks. Turns out these only got 14.7GB...seriously....

 

[Knightshade]

Sounds about right. I have 3 hours drive daily... not much sentry but lets say 1 hour. So about 400+ days... approx 1 year. I got a bunch of these 16GB drives and they are really just sitting here good for nothing. So they should last for years. I got them because our laptops said we need 15 GB usb drives to create boot disks. Turns out these only got 14.7GB...seriously....

Well, if they're literally free, and you don't mind discovering it has reached end of life because it stops recording unexpectedly (ie you might miss recording something important when it dies on you halfway to work or something) that's fine.

(note too though, you lose about 1.2 gigs of space every time sentry saves off a 10 minute set of clips- or you manually do so with either the horn or camera button- so that'd likewise reduce space/useful life proportionally)

If you really have a BUNCH of em and only have the camera on 4 hours a day I'd probably just put in a new one every new years or something and toss the old one to avoid potential loss of function even briefly

 

[Matsayz]

Hey, about to pickup our new Model Y... is everyone still diggin the Samsung T5? I’ve had it for almost a year now in my Mode 3 but wasn’t sure if something else is beating it. Thanks


Samsung (MU-PA500B/AM)T5 Portable SSD - 500GB - USB 3.1 External SSD , Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073GZBT36/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ytrFEbBK86K02

 

[Apprunner]

Hey, about to pickup our new Model Y... is everyone still diggin the Samsung T5? I’ve had it for almost a year now in my Mode 3 but wasn’t sure if something else is beating it. Thanks


Samsung (MU-PA500B/AM)T5 Portable SSD - 500GB - USB 3.1 External SSD , Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073GZBT36/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ytrFEbBK86K02

I've had one since August and going great. Takes forever to fill the thing

 

[Knightshade]

Hey, about to pickup our new Model Y... is everyone still diggin the Samsung T5? I’ve had it for almost a year now in my Mode 3 but wasn’t sure if something else is beating it. Thanks


Samsung (MU-PA500B/AM)T5 Portable SSD - 500GB - USB 3.1 External SSD , Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073GZBT36/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ytrFEbBK86K02

They work fine... though so does this for less than 1/4 the price-

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MUF-128AB-AM-Plus-128GB/dp/B07D7PDLXC

 

[Kevy Baby]

Apologies in advance if this question is noob, but do you use an adapter to ever view your footage on your cell phone? If so, what adapter do you use?

First, welcome to the Tesla family!

Some use different products, but I like the Roadie. It allows you to view footage without removing a drive. And it has a plus that the developer (@Roadie) is one of our own here on TMC.

 

[Ritz]

Hey, about to pickup our new Model Y... is everyone still diggin the Samsung T5? I’ve had it for almost a year now in my Mode 3 but wasn’t sure if something else is beating it. Thanks


Samsung (MU-PA500B/AM)T5 Portable SSD - 500GB - USB 3.1 External SSD , Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073GZBT36/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ytrFEbBK86K02

I just picked up the 1TB version and plan to use it with this:

Jeda Products | Tesla Model 3 USB Hub

The drive arrived today and is currently getting a copy of my mp3 collection (about 80GB). I'll use the rest of the space for Sentry/Dashcam.

Edit: Also, the drive has a USB-C interface and is VERY fast when reading/writing on your desktop when you're adding music, grabbing your videos, etc. My desktop is a Linux machine so I just formatted the drive as two EXT4 partitions (one for music and one for TeslaCam). Easy peasy.

Best,

 

[Stinoo]

..I'm using the 128GB one, but specs are the same...

I also use a Samsung MUF-128AB USB flash drive, formatted FAT32 in my M3. Since updating to 2020.8.3 my MP3's are now dropping out. I get messages saying the USB drive is to slow. Some cheapo USB drive I tried as well still works fine. Any clues?

 

[Knightshade]

I also use a Samsung MUF-128AB USB flash drive, formatted FAT32 in my M3. Since updating to 2020.8.3 my MP3's are now dropping out. I get messages saying the USB drive is to slow. Some cheapo USB drive I tried as well still works fine. Any clues?

....I'm unclear on the issue.... the camera too slow message usually relates to the dashcam, but you're citing MP3s dropping out.

Are you using the same drive for both things- and getting a too slow dashcam message while playing music from the same drive? If so I'd imagine it's trying to both read and write at the same time is the issue....(I'd also check how full the drive is- all flash storage slows down significantly as the drive gets full)


My 128GB Samsung USB key is for dashcam only- and hasn't had any issues in ~18 months of use... (and I clean it out every 3-4 months so it's never more than maybe 2/3rd full)

I've got a separate, 256GB, Samsung USB key for music (including a lot of larger high quality lossless stuff like FLAC) and also works flawlessly.

 

[rjsully04]

I just picked up the 1TB version and plan to use it with this:

Jeda Products | Tesla Model 3 USB Hub

The drive arrived today and is currently getting a copy of my mp3 collection (about 80GB). I'll use the rest of the space for Sentry/Dashcam.

Edit: Also, the drive has a USB-C interface and is VERY fast when reading/writing on your desktop when you're adding music, grabbing your videos, etc. My desktop is a Linux machine so I just formatted the drive as two EXT4 partitions (one for music and one for TeslaCam). Easy peasy.

Best,

Easy peasy is the truth!! I went w T5 ssd 500gb and the Jeda hub in late Dec 19' and it has been flawless in my m3. Buy both and you'll never have an issue. The extra ports are nice on the hub and it hides the SSD. Take his word and mine and order pronto!! Cheers and be safe!

 

[bcpm3p]

Just purchase the new Sandisk “Max Endurance” micro SD 256gb , is this over kill?

 

[Matsayz]

Just purchase the new Sandisk “Max Endurance” micro SD 256gb , is this over kill?

How much? Anything that’s at least USB 3.0 seems good. Tesla evens suggests some USB drives for use.

Lots of people (myself included) use the following

Samsung (MU-PA500B/AM)T5 Portable SSD - 500GB - USB 3.1 External SSD , Blue Robot Check

or

Samsung FIT Plus USB 3.1 Flash Drive 128GB - 300MB/s (MUF-128AB/AM) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7PDLXC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_gs9JEbBWHE833

 

[sduck]

That's kind of on the edge of overkill. Considering you're going to be plugging it into an adaptor, and those typically have really cheapo interface chips, that often have a history of burning out quickly. For a bit less $$ you could have gotten a similarly sized ssd, which have a much more robust interface chip, and a record of working well.