Ok, but that's still a >50% price increase of the prices you quoted.
Sure, but my point was more that High Endurance microSDs don't cost significantly more than regular microSDs. The bit about the card reader was only a side point since you brought it up (and overall the absolute cost is so low it's not really a big deal in terms of accessory cost).
I can also find you threads of people whose SDcards failed too.
And their SD readers, as I say, extra point of failure.
There's even folks who've had issues with SSDs.
Bad hardware happens.
You realize the warranty on many of the SDcards also void the warranty when used for dashcam right?
Mainly they do so because they are assuming multiple-4k cameras recording to them, a MUCH higher amount of usage than Tesla requires.
And usually offer much shorter warranties either way (2 years for the Sandisk vs 5 years on the Samsung USB for example).
I'm well aware of all what you say above (including counterfeits which there are plenty for SD cards also), which is why I specifically looked for High Endurance V30/U3 cards (which I bought direct from WD, the manufacturer), which not only are warrantied for dashcam usage (as I quoted), they also have a write cycle rating. The 5 years warranty on the Samsung USB sticks are worthless for this application given it explicitly excludes using it in dashcams. Given shipping costs, either warranty isn't really worthwhile pursuing, but I see them more as an indication of confidence in the product.
That's been a problem with the USB sticks (even the better Samsung ones), they are explicitly are not warrantied for dashcam usage, have no write cycle rating listed, and they don't promise any
minimum write speeds (which V30/U3 cards promise: 30 Mbps or 12.5 MB/s minimum; I have tested them to do 80 MB/s average). The last bit probably explains why as people use the USB sticks, they slow down to the point it's too slow for TeslaCam, even though it works for a while.
Yes, if you're running sentry/dashcam 24/7/365, which most people are not.
But let's finish out the math there.
That's 487 cycles per year.
6 months would only be 244 cycles.
Even 3D Nand TLC is typically rated for [B}thousands[/B] of cycles.... which should be many years of use before you wear them out.
People with quality USB drives dying in 6 months aren't wearing them out. They got bad (or counterfit) drives.
Now if you only run sentry/dashcam say 10 hours a day which is more typical (driving, plus 8 hours parked at work) you're talking like a decade to wear a good USB stick out.
From google, what I find is the TLC memory USB drives use typically are only rated 300-1000 full cycles, not thousands. Otherwise there is no reason to not list a TBW or any similar writing rating.
You can do a sanity check yourself on the popular Samsung SSDs out there using 3D TLC V-NAND (860 EVO or 870 EVO), they are only rated for 600 cycles (equivalent of 600 TBW for a 1TB drive, which they scale based on which size you buy).
The portable USB ones like the T5 (which they don't even give a TBW rating) are based on the 850 EVO, which is rated only 150-300 cycles (150 TBW for 500GB/1TB). USB sticks are likely using similar or even worse memory. The reports of 128GB sticks failing after 5-6 months (likely from people using close to 24/7 Sentry mode) makes sense given this.
SSD Product Warranty | Support | Samsung V-NAND SSD
The 128GB High Endurance cards at least I know they are rated around the equivalent of 117 TBW which would last about 2 years even with 24/7/365 Sentry+Dashcam mode.
Which again, is lower than the low end rated lifecycle of 3D Nand TLC flash memory
SDcards don't have 'magic' flash in em... you can find the same stuff in USB sticks.
I know that it's not magic, the difference is the High Endurance cards are willing to put a rating on it (with the cycle rating being actually better than popular consumer SSDs) and warranty it for write intensive applications. The USB sticks are not, which means it's anyone's guess when it fails.
You're saying you'd pull out the reader (leaving your car unable to record), pop out the flash card specifically meant for the car, and use it someplace else... with...some other SD card I guess that you need to connect as USB storage?
Because if you needed USB storage, the stick just does it directly.
So again it seems like that's the same thing with extra steps.
The phone issue is certainly a valid use use if your phone has an SD slot (that seems to be getting rarer, and obviously doesn't apply to Apple folks at all) and have some need to move the data to your phone.... (since the local viewer was added I haven't seen a need for this personally).
Myself I use navak splitters so I've got plenty of ports in the car without sharing music and dashcam on the same storage.
He even has one that provides an SDcard slot if you really prefer to stick with that (while also offering you 2 USB ports for say a music stick and a game controller port)
The card reader + microSD combo is just more flexible, as it gives you 3 (or 4 if you include the SD) interface options:
1) Use the combo just like a USB stick
2) Use the card
3) Use the reader for other cards.
The microSDs I have a lot of due to my phones, home security cameras, still/video cameras (with included SD adapter) all using them.
As for the last bit, getting a splitter ($25) costs even more money than just using the card reader. However, I do know there are people where this is irrelevant, as they only want to use the combo as a USB stick.
