kirbo20
Member
I chose convenience over cost in this instance. It was quite a bit more than a traditional flash drive. Please report back and let us know how that adapter works out.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Recent/saved directories (Sentry Mode)
- Thread starter Trevor B
- Start date
Eno Deb
Active Member
Yes, it records continuously just like the dashcam feature. But it will not save anything in the SavedClips directory unless the "alert" (not alarm) state is triggered, i.e. it detected movement in one of the cameras' field of view (could be just other cars driving by or whatever).
jkoya
NA2 NSX
My 256 GB high speed microSD card is a Sandisk. It was an Amazon Lightning Deal.
jkoya
NA2 NSX
It was this one:
https://www.amazon.com/suntrsi-Comp...pter&qid=1552959648&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull
Plays the dash cam videos without any problems on my iPhone X when using their free app.
NathanielHrnblwr
Member
I toyed with this for the first time this weekend. Biggest gap is removing the USB to review the footage. An in-car viewer would be useful with perhaps a notification of '10 alerts, 1 alarm' displayed when turning on the car.
This is also a USB drive that you just plug directly into your Tesla, or do you plug your USB drive into this adapter?
jkoya
NA2 NSX
It's just a card reader. I've been using it with a microSD card and it works fine. I like it because one end plugs directly into the USB port and the other end can plug directly into my iPhone X's lightning port.
jkoya
NA2 NSX
It was this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FCR3316/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
The lightning deal is expired, but they are periodically on Amazon's deal of the day. It comes formatted as exFAT.
Eno Deb
Active Member
I recommend Samsung Evo Select (which is an Amazon exclusive rebranding of the Evo Plus, sold for a lower price). Have used these cards for years in Raspberry Pis and other demanding applications with good results. There are also cards that are optimized for long durability (the constant writing in a dashcam causes a high degree of wear on flash memory), usually labeled "Endurance" or similar (e.g. this and this), but they are more expensive. Probably cheaper to use a good standard card and periodically replace it every once in a while.
Eno Deb
Active Member
So, I have received this adapter and tried it in my car with a 128GB MicroSD card. The good news is that it works with the TeslaCam feature and Sentry mode. Recording works fine, and I can play the files as usual on a computer. The bad news is that the associated iPhone app ("iUSB Pro") to access the SD card via Lightning port sucks on my iPhone 8 with iOS 12.2. It recognizes the adapter and lists the video files, but freezes when I try to play them or move them to the phone. So this is unfortunately useless for viewing the videos on the go. Pity, since the adapter itself is compact and seems well-built.
Will try the adapter mentioned by @jkoya above.
kingleonidas
Member
Damn I agree, sentry mode is definitely sensitive. I activate it almost every day, and I get an event 6/10 times... never anything of concern. I found one event in the footage, and it was just a family of 3 walking past my parking space. No collusion!
My huge issue is, right now I see no reference as to when in the video timeline that the event(s) occur? I could be parked for 6 hours, and have tons of footage after "1 event occurred". As a long time video producer (and someone who now spends all day at a computer)... the idea of screening footage pains me.
Is there any trick that I'm missing? Maybe sentry mode creates its first video file when it's triggered?
Would each event be a new subfolder?
Also, if I just pull the drive after a sentry event, without tapping to save, will that keep me from having to sift through more files than necessary?
Typically it’s the last full minute of the recordings in the folder. So if you have a folder with 30 recordings, check the last full minute (sometimes you will see partial recordings at the end of the folder). This is usually the trigger and the other recording are saved just because.Damn I agree, sentry mode is definitely sensitive. I activate it almost every day, and I get an event 9/10 times. I found one event, and it was just a family of 3 walking past my parking space. No collusion!
My huge issue is, right now I see no reference as to when in the video timeline that the event(s) occur? I could be parked for 6 hours, and have tons of footage after "1 event occurred". As a long time video producer (and someone who now spends all day at a computer)... the idea of screening footage pains me.
Is there any trick that I'm missing? Maybe sentry mode creates its first video file when it's triggered?
Would each event be a new subfolder?
Also, if I just pull the drive after a sentry event, without tapping to save, will that keep me from having to sift through more files than necessary?
kingleonidas
Member
Nice. So attached is what I have in saved clips, and these correlate with the two occasions when i got an event alert in my gauge cluster today. I looked at the last full minute of each, and it's either me approaching the car, or just pulling away.
This is kind of what I expected... sometimes it treats me as a threat if I don't manually unlock before approaching. It's obvious that passive entry has a smaller perimeter than the sentry cameras' alert field.
At least you've confirmed for me that I'm looking at the right footage... definitely a time saver, because I definitely want to 1) eliminate false alarms, 2) easily investigate any other threats.
thanks much!
Attachments
This has not been my experience.
Sentry Mode seems to save everything (sometimes even before and after it was enabled). This resulted in my drive filling up and the only way I knew that was that my dashcam icon had an x and was unavailable. No warning that it was almost full, no message that it was full, just a suddenly unavailable dashcam. Of course, Sentry Mode was still available (to the Tesla cloud) but I don't know how I would gain access to the footage if something happened; communication being underwhelming as it is.
Guess I may have to consider a larger drive until they refine the Sentry Mode behavior or give us file management functions from the vehicle screen.
sduck
Mr. Duck
Or you could remove the drive temporarily to manage the files on your computer.
Eno Deb
Active Member
I'm pretty sure what I wrote above is accurate. You may see videos from what happened before it was enabled because when Sentry detects something "suspicious" it will always save the prior 10 minutes of video files to the SavedClips directory, even if Sentry has been active for less than 10 minutes.
While you’re right about the buffer zones when there’s a detection, unfortunately, you’re wrong about when it saves. I can confirm that it is saving from the moment Sentry Mode is enabled but it only adds pre/post footage when it throws a detection alert to the screen (never get one to my phone). Basically, it is overzealous about recording and, ultimately, undermining its utility by filling the drive way before it should.
Considering Sentry Mode is still available when the drive is full (to the Tesla cloud), the major issue is that SM is bogarting drive space from dashcam. Again, wouldn’t be as big a deal if we could manage files from the UI. As it stands, I think I might get a second USB drive (with duplicate music) so I can swap them out on the fly.
Eno Deb
Active Member
Not sure I understand what you are saying. When Sentry mode is active, it is constantly recording in the RecentClips folder (same as the dashcam function), but it will only keep one hour worth of video files in that folder (older files are automatically deleted). When it enters "alert" state (i.e. it detects suspicious movement around the car but no break-in), it moves the most recent 10 minutes of video to the SavedClips folder, where it no longer gets automatically deleted. So the USB drive can only fill up if you have multiple such events. Each event occupies roughly 1GB of space (10 minutes * 30 MB per minute * 3 cameras).
@skygraff, @Eno Deb is 100% correct on this. And think of it this way if you think this is a waste of record time. Your car detects someone approaching. This time the guy comes to your car and without breaking a window or otherwise rocking your car to trigger an alarm he pulls out his key and runs it down the side of your car. By TeslaCam sending this alert situation from the RecentClips to the SavedClips folder (date and time stamped), you come back to your car and can pull the the drive to view what usually is the last minute or two of footage (both side views and front view) for that saved off alert and go see it happen and then go back the remaining captured 8 or so minutes before it (also saved off in this file) and watch the perp as he approaches your car probably giving you a good ID on him. This is how one Model 3 owner in Old Sacramento caught the guys who messed with his car. They turned themselves in after the video was released so the owner likely got restitution and his car repainted. If you haven't seen this already, YT video coverage on the news here. Other perps have been ID'd and arrested by the police. Doesn't have to involve a car accident.
Footage before and after this 10 minutes of SavedClips video may still be available in your RecentClips folder only if it hasn't been written over. Depends how long ago the triggered event occurred and if you stopped TeslaCam to preserve the buffer at that point. Which is why I carry around an extra memory card reader with 128GB microSD card in it to swap out. Nothing worse than taking your media out of the car to view on your computer and maybe save off, then forgetting to put a drive back in your car when you drive away next time or even have parked somewhere.
I picked up a memory card reader for under $10 and a 128GB Samsung Endurance microSD card (Endurance--meant for dashcam use) for I think $30. Having a decent capacity drive/microSD card can be well worth the extra money come insurance time on a claim or in court if it comes to that.
Last edited:
