Recommended USB drive for TeslaCam?

[Spelly88]

I've had little to no success with USB drives and getting the Dash Cam to work. I've tried a few that worked for a day and then stopped. I'd format them on PC again and recreate the TeslaCam folder but then they wouldn't even get recognized again. I've also had some other drives that wouldn't ever get recognized from the beginning. These are formatted FAT32 with the TeslaCam folder on it and nothing else.

Before I make a service appointment, I was wondering if someone could recommend a good usb stick that is verified to work. I'll test it with that and then go from there.

Thanks!

 

[SubSolar]

There's an entire thread on this:

USB corruption for dashcam recording

 

[DCGOO]

I've had little to no success with USB drives and getting the Dash Cam to work. I've tried a few that worked for a day and then stopped. I'd format them on PC again and recreate the TeslaCam folder but then they wouldn't even get recognized again. I've also had some other drives that wouldn't ever get recognized from the beginning. These are formatted FAT32 with the TeslaCam folder on it and nothing else.

Before I make a service appointment, I was wondering if someone could recommend a good usb stick that is verified to work. I'll test it with that and then go from there.
Thanks!

I would recommend looking specifically for SLC (single level cell) Flash, sometimes labled “industrial flash” depending on the vendor. It is much more reliable than standard MLC (multi level cell) flash. It is spec’d to operate down to -40°. But it is expensive, a 32GB stick might be over $50, but it will be very reliable.

 

[boaterva]

I’m not sure at this point the brand or size matters 100%. You don’t need a large one as not much is being used and either you get corrupted or you don’t. For some reason ours seem to work. I’ve read tons of threads where even pausing it each time isn’t a guarantee of success.

Unfortunately this is really a work in progress and we need to wait for them to add more features like auto-pause (closing files) and more usefully the ability to access files remotely, etc.

Take a look at the referenced thread but it may not help at this point.

 

[CruzinTX]

I use the SanDisk Ultra Fit 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on mine and formatted on a linux machine. Like @boaterva said, there are other usb sticks that will work. I just gave you mine and how I did the formatting for a reference. Try to read on the other thread where you can even put your music together with the TeslaCam videos. Enjoy the forum. =)

 

[boaterva]

I use the SanDisk Ultra Fit 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on mine and formatted on a linux machine. Like @boaterva said, there are other usb sticks that will work. I just gave you mine and how I did the formatting for a reference. Try to read on the other thread where you can even put your music together with the TeslaCam videos. Enjoy the forum. =)

Lol, I think coincidentally that’s what I’m using (happened to have several lying around).

Hope they get this improved quickly since many want a dash cam and don’t want to go the whole custom install route!

 

[DCGOO]

I use the SanDisk Ultra Fit 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on mine and formatted on a linux machine. Like @boaterva said, there are other usb sticks that will work. I just gave you mine and how I did the formatting for a reference. Try to read on the other thread where you can even put your music together with the TeslaCam videos. Enjoy the forum. =)

You can partition the stick and use part of it for media files, and the remainder for TeslaCam. The video is not particularly high res, so the video files do not take up much space.

 

[eml2]

I have no more disk corruption since it is updated to 2018.42.2. I am using an old PNY 16 GB USB drive, partition into 2. One for music, the other one for TeslaCam. Have been working without disk corruption error for more than 2 weeks.

 

[Spelly88]

Thanks all... The one I've been using now will show up when I start driving (with the red dot so it appears to be working), but after 5 minutes or so it'll just disappear... Not even a gray x, the whole icon will disappear and not come back...

I knew about the corruption issues from the other thread, but I believe I read that it was fixed in the latest update...

I'll look into those single cell sticks... Thanks...

 

[Need]

Thanks all... The one I've been using now will show up when I start driving (with the red dot so it appears to be working), but after 5 minutes or so it'll just disappear... Not even a gray x, the whole icon will disappear and not come back...

I knew about the corruption issues from the other thread, but I believe I read that it was fixed in the latest update...

I'll look into those single cell sticks... Thanks...

If you haven't, do a MCU reset. That fixed my no dashcam icon problem.

 

[jboy210]

After trying several USB sticks, the one that seems to work the best is this one, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D7SX9NS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. it was $9. The size is 32 GB, which means it comes preformatted in FAT32. Just stick in a computer and create a "TeslaCam" folder and insert it into the car.

I tried several 64 GB units and every one of them quit working (red light on icon went to gray X) and required a re-format in under 4 days. This one has been working fine in the car for 2 weeks.

 

[jcoverton]

I use a Sandisk 256gb drive and partition it into two drives. One is 16GB for the Camera and the other is 240GB for Music. I have 4000 songs on the drive in FLAC format. It works fine.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07857Y17V/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Badshirt]

I use the SanDisk Ultra Fit 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on mine and formatted on a linux machine. Like @boaterva said, there are other usb sticks that will work. I just gave you mine and how I did the formatting for a reference. Try to read on the other thread where you can even put your music together with the TeslaCam videos. Enjoy the forum. =)

Does this tiny drive insert into the car fine? Or do I need an additional part?

 

[VTElectricCo]

I also use the SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Drive. It will only work in one of the two front USB ports. Just add a directory to the flash drive, called TeslaCam, then plug it in, and the software in the car will detect it and display a Dash Cam icon in the top right of the screen. The two rear USB ports (back seat) are wired for power only, no data connection. If you have an available front port, then it will plug right in. If you have something like a wireless charging pad for your phones that is using both of the front USB ports (i.e. Nomad wireless charge pad), then you will need a USB hub (typically $10-$15 on Amazon). I use the Anker Ultra Slim 4-port USB 3.0 hub ($9.99 on Amazon). The biggest catch that I have seen is the reliability with some of the older firmware that introduced Dash Cam. The default formatting on most all USB flash drives is FAT32 (using a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table), but because the car is not safely removing the device when powering down, the file system is being corrupted. After a few power-cycles the Dash Cam icon disappears or appears with an 'X' to indicate an error condition. The most reliable solution seems to be formatting the USB flash drive with a GUID Partition Table (GPT) followed by FAT32 for the file system. I did this using a Linux Virtual Machine running on my Windows 10 host.

 

[CruzinTX]

Does this tiny drive insert into the car fine? Or do I need an additional part?

Just plug it in one of the 2 front usb ports. It should fit just fine.

 

[samk579]

I also use the SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Drive. It will only work in one of the two front USB ports. Just add a directory to the flash drive, called TeslaCam, then plug it in, and the software in the car will detect it and display a Dash Cam icon in the top right of the screen. The two rear USB ports (back seat) are wired for power only, no data connection. If you have an available front port, then it will plug right in. If you have something like a wireless charging pad for your phones that is using both of the front USB ports (i.e. Nomad wireless charge pad), then you will need a USB hub (typically $10-$15 on Amazon). I use the Anker Ultra Slim 4-port USB 3.0 hub ($9.99 on Amazon). The biggest catch that I have seen is the reliability with some of the older firmware that introduced Dash Cam. The default formatting on most all USB flash drives is FAT32 (using a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table), but because the car is not safely removing the device when powering down, the file system is being corrupted. After a few power-cycles the Dash Cam icon disappears or appears with an 'X' to indicate an error condition. The most reliable solution seems to be formatting the USB flash drive with a GUID Partition Table (GPT) followed by FAT32 for the file system. I did this using a Linux Virtual Machine running on my Windows 10 host.

Is the SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB still working fine?
I heard some died after few months in a Tesla due to too many write cycles.

 

[Spelly88]

Thanks all... The one I've been using now will show up when I start driving (with the red dot so it appears to be working), but after 5 minutes or so it'll just disappear... Not even a gray x, the whole icon will disappear and not come back...

I knew about the corruption issues from the other thread, but I believe I read that it was fixed in the latest update...

I'll look into those single cell sticks... Thanks...

Just to close the loop on this, turns out my front USB ports actually malfunctioned and eventually stopped working completely. I had to go to the SC and they replaced the ports or wiring and now it's working great.

 

[ricoant12]

So my SanDisk saves files then stops recording and the TeslaCam stops and grays out with an "X". For some reason I thought this was just suppose to keep overwriting old recordings. Any suggestions?