New 512GB USB causing music to skip on 2019.5.15

[Edgewood Dome]

I used to use a Patriot Rage2 128GB thumb drive formatted into 2 Fat32 partitions, one for my FLAC music and the other for the TeslaCam. With the new software 2019.5.15 adding the Sentry Mode I noticed the drive for the TeslaCam filled up and stopped recording so I went out and purchased a Patriot Rage2 512GB thumb drive and set it up the same way, leaving 294GB for the TeslaCam partition and 167GB for the music, 113GB for the music on the previous drive. The camera is now happy and records well however the Music during playback will pause or halt playing, then a second or 3 later it continues playing. It will do this 4 or 5 times for a 3 minute song. The Specs on the new thumb drive are the same as the older one with 400MB/s read speeds which should be plenty fast for the car playback. Yes, I tested the music playback on my PC and no problems there. Car is a Model 3.
Any thoughts?

 

[Gabbleratchet7]

I would try using both drives at once, with the music back on the 128GB one to see if it skips while bigger drive is used exclusively for video (and using only one of the partitions). If that is stutter-free, then the car must be choking on dealing simultaneously with multiple bigger partitions on the 512.

 

[sduck]

Hmmm, Patriot Rage - looked them up, they're not the most consistent drives out there. Lots of reports of slow drives and such. I suspect the problem is your drive, as other people aren't reporting similar problems playing flacs from the USB. One idea, can you format the music partition in ext4? If so, try it, it's the native format the tesla uses, and seems to work a bit better that fat32. Otherwise, I'd suggest getting a better drive for the music files.

 

[jkcheng122]

Drive is the issue. I had similar problems when I used a SanDisk 128GB thumb drive. It was one of those very small ones. Music, especially FLAC (I'm guessing due to higher bitrate), would have long pauses every now and then. This is before Sentry Mode was available on my car.

I've since switched to a 256GB SATA SSD put in an external enclosure. Thus far no skipping issues at all. The drive is partitioned at 128GB each for TeslaCam and music.

 

[golfpilot]

My experience has been much better with a SSD than I had with a thumb drive. SSDs are designed for nonstop use. Thumbdrives are designed for sitting in a backpack or drawer 99.99 percent of the time.

 

[WileyTheMan]

My experience has been much better with a SSD than I had with a thumb drive. SSDs are designed for nonstop use. Thumbdrives are designed for sitting in a backpack or drawer 99.99 percent of the time.

I am inclined to subscribe to this, however I have also been seeing this behavior since upgrading from 50.6 to 5.15 with a SanDisk 128G driver as well, so I am starting to think that it's a bug and not a coincidental issue that we are all starting to see. They are doing a mad push for 8.3 right now so let's see if it gets better after that.

 

[Edgewood Dome]

Just received 2019.8.3 a couple hours ago so tested the music again, no change. I have a Sandisc 1TB USB SSD arriving tonight, will let everyone know how that works.

 

[remlemasi]

I had a SanDisk Ultra Fit 3.1 128GB partitioned this way, but ran into the same storage issues once Sentry Mode came into existence.

Rather than change up the partition sizes, I just went ahead and bought another 64GB drive in the same product line just for music, dedicating 128GB drive for TeslaCam.

Figured since I'm already using a 4-port hub and 2 of the ports are doing absolutely nothing, why not make life easier for myself when the TeslaCam drive inevitably fills up / becomes corrupted or if I want to add some music and avoid disrupting the TeslaCam functionality.

 

[Edgewood Dome]

Just received 2019.8.3 a couple hours ago so tested the music again, no change. I have a Sandisc 1TB USB SSD arriving tonight, will let everyone know how that works.

 

[Edgewood Dome]

Ok, the SanDisc 1TB USB SSD works great, no more stuttering. Setup 2 partitions formatted Fat32, both logical, 1st one for the TeslaCam @ 650GB, second @ 350GB and put on my collection of FLAC music, approx 124GB worth. Played about 1/2 hrs worth, no stutter. Camera icon popped up and is recording.

 

[WileyTheMan]

Ok, the SanDisc 1TB USB SSD works great, no more stuttering. Setup 2 partitions formatted Fat32, both logical, 1st one for the TeslaCam @ 650GB, second @ 350GB and put on my collection of FLAC music, approx 124GB worth. Played about 1/2 hrs worth, no stutter. Camera icon popped up and is recording.

This makes me wonder if a re-partitioning (cleaning out) of our existing USB drives will help the stuttering. Might have to try that before I get moved off 5.15.

 

[BluestarE3]

I've had USB music stuttering periodically whenever TeslaCam is running. Doesn't matter if using a single partitioned USB flash drive or separate drives for music and TeslaCam. Doesn't matter if music partition if FAT32 or ext4. Turn off TeslaCam and music plays flawlessly. I think the advent of 3-camera recording exacerbated the problem.

On a lark, I setup an old notebook HDD to play music and record TeslaCam videos. The music never stuttered, even with TeslaCam running (don't worry, I did this test with the car sitting still in the garage ). Since an HDD has higher throughput than a thumbdrive, I'm inclined to believe, as others have said, that the slower speed of these devices is indeed the root of the problem. So, I'm off to order an SSD and USB adapter.

 

[sduck]

I'm currently using one of these - https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-250GB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE60-250G-G25/dp/B078SVRH4B - works perfectly.

 

[brianman]

Patriot Rage2 512GB thumb drive

I don't have enough mileage on it yet to be conclusive, but FYI I bought the same drive and formatted the whole thing for use by Dashcam and Sentry.

 

[BluestarE3]

I've had USB music stuttering periodically whenever TeslaCam is running. Doesn't matter if using a single partitioned USB flash drive or separate drives for music and TeslaCam. Doesn't matter if music partition if FAT32 or ext4. Turn off TeslaCam and music plays flawlessly. I think the advent of 3-camera recording exacerbated the problem.

On a lark, I setup an old notebook HDD to play music and record TeslaCam videos. The music never stuttered, even with TeslaCam running (don't worry, I did this test with the car sitting still in the garage ). Since an HDD has higher throughput than a thumbdrive, I'm inclined to believe, as others have said, that the slower speed of these devices is indeed the root of the problem. So, I'm off to order an SSD and USB adapter.

Followup to my previous post: My 120GB SSD and SATA-to-USB adapter arrived today. Partitioned the drive for music (ext4) and TeslaCam (FAT32) and loaded it up with my music collection. Enabled TeslaCam and was able to play an entire album without a single stutter. When using USB flash drives previously, it would stutter every third or fourth song.

Will do some more testing, but for around $30, this seems to have fixed the problem. Will check camera recordings in a few days and see if the SSD also fixes the pixelated/green videos on the side repeaters.

 

[jkcheng122]

Followup to my previous post: My 120GB SSD and SATA-to-USB adapter arrived today. Partitioned the drive for music (ext4) and TeslaCam (FAT32) and loaded it up with my music collection. Enabled TeslaCam and was able to play an entire album without a single stutter. When using USB flash drives previously, it would stutter every third or fourth song.

Will do some more testing, but for around $30, this seems to have fixed the problem. Will check camera recordings in a few days and see if the SSD also fixes the pixelated/green videos on the side repeaters.

I thought Tesla's USB ports only recognizes FAT32 partitions. Your music drive is in ext4? Aren't the options only NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32?

 

[BluestarE3]

I thought Tesla's USB ports only recognizes FAT32 partitions. Your music drive is in ext4?

Music partition can be ext4 (after all, Tesla cars run Linux natively). Unfortunately, TeslaCam partition is limited to FAT32.

Aren't the options only NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32?

Not sure I understand this comment. These are the only options for what?

 

[jkcheng122]

Music partition can be ext4 (after all, Tesla cars run Linux natively). Unfortunately, TeslaCam partition is limited to FAT32.

Not sure I understand this comment. These are the only options for what?

NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32 are the only file systems I can format a drive under in Windows. FAT32 now actually requires a separate program/app for drives larger than 32GB.

 

[golfpilot]

Music partition can be ext4 (after all, Tesla cars run Linux natively). Unfortunately, TeslaCam partition is limited to FAT32.

Not sure I understand this comment. These are the only options for what?

How to Format USB Drives Larger Than 32GB With FAT32 on Windows

 

[BluestarE3]

NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32 are the only file systems I can format a drive under in Windows. FAT32 now actually requires a separate program/app for drives larger than 32GB.

Ah, ok. I run Linux, so I don't have those limitations.