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R1Fast

P3D Blue/White
Sep 11, 2018
464
320
Seattle
Have owned the Roadie for about 1 month and wanted to share my review for prospective/current buyers.

But first /rant on: With how innovative Tesla is, it's laughable they haven't already integrated similar through Tesla UI/touchscreen. Come on Tesla... is this on the horizon?

Also, with all the aftermarket tech/goods avail. these days TMC needs a 'Reviews' forum.
/rant off and review...

Product: Roadie 128GB

Setup and overall use: 4/5
  • Setup failed the 1st time, but not the 2nd. Since then the app has worked quite well with 2 major gripes (Roadie dev is investigating both)
    • Occasional gaps in recording (both Sentry and drive cam)
    • Manual file delete not working (v.21 hotfix was to address but didn't work, at least for me)
  • Hotspot is the way to go to prevent juddering video and nice that the 1/2 frame rate and speed options are there for those that must use Wi-Fi.
  • Nice that landscape mode still allows all four cameras on the screen (takes a second for frames to adjust)
  • Full screen zoom per camera is working great.
  • Very few crashes so far & app is responsive. Love how convenient this is vs constant unplug/replug of a USB drive
Still needed:

  • Fix the manual delete failures for good
  • Allow individual file delete instead of forcing grouped delete
  • Enable LTE connectivity/viewing

Also, I found a workaround for manual file delete failures (in talking to Jake/Roadie dev). Seems most likely caused by access violation as Sentry is ALWAYS recording, even while trying to delete. Through trial and error I found that plugging Roadie into the rear USB port will allow manual file delete, since those ports are not connected to Sentry. Just FYI for anyone else wondering about this issue (and v.21 doesn't fully address).

Value: 3.5/5

  • Wasn't a big fan that Roadie comes with a run-of-the-mill SanDisk Ultra micro-sd.
    • Honestly kind of surprised and disappointed it didn't come with a High Endurance flash drive by default...are SO common in video/camera technology these days.
    • The SanDisks are notorious for failure after multiple writes
    • Many H.E. drives are only fractionally more $ these days (ex: 128gb for ~$30-40) and designed for thousands of hours/re-writes.

Side note on the SanDisk: I swapped this out for a Transcend High Endurance 128 flash and immediately noticed an improvement in response (playback, delete, scrolling) since it uses 3d NAND instead of 2d TLC. Really think Roadie team just needs to use H.E. chips by default, considering the price diff is so small.
Would recommend anyone considering Roadie to get the 64gb version and buy a 128gb H.E. drive on Amazon for ~$30-40. About the same cost as the Roadie with the 128gb SanDisk upgrade that way.

Otherwise the Roadie is a great/low cost convenience feature and overall a good experience.

Would give it just under 4/5. Easily a solid 5/5 if above issues are addressed.
 
Have owned the Roadie for about 1 month and wanted to share my review for prospective/current buyers.

But first /rant on: With how innovative Tesla is, it's laughable they haven't already integrated similar through Tesla UI/touchscreen. Come on Tesla... is this on the horizon?

Also, with all the aftermarket tech/goods avail. these days TMC needs a 'Reviews' forum.
/rant off and review...

Product: Roadie 128GB

Setup and overall use: 4/5
  • Setup failed the 1st time, but not the 2nd. Since then the app has worked quite well with 2 major gripes (Roadie dev is investigating both)
    • Occasional gaps in recording (both Sentry and drive cam)
    • Manual file delete not working (v.21 hotfix was to address but didn't work, at least for me)
  • Hotspot is the way to go to prevent juddering video and nice that the 1/2 frame rate and speed options are there for those that must use Wi-Fi.
  • Nice that landscape mode still allows all four cameras on the screen (takes a second for frames to adjust)
  • Full screen zoom per camera is working great.
  • Very few crashes so far & app is responsive. Love how convenient this is vs constant unplug/replug of a USB drive
Still needed:

  • Fix the manual delete failures for good
  • Allow individual file delete instead of forcing grouped delete
  • Enable LTE connectivity/viewing

Also, I found a workaround for manual file delete failures (in talking to Jake/Roadie dev). Seems most likely caused by access violation as Sentry is ALWAYS recording, even while trying to delete. Through trial and error I found that plugging Roadie into the rear USB port will allow manual file delete, since those ports are not connected to Sentry. Just FYI for anyone else wondering about this issue (and v.21 doesn't fully address).

Value: 3.5/5

  • Wasn't a big fan that Roadie comes with a run-of-the-mill SanDisk Ultra micro-sd.
    • Honestly kind of surprised and disappointed it didn't come with a High Endurance flash drive by default...are SO common in video/camera technology these days.
    • The SanDisks are notorious for failure after multiple writes
    • Many H.E. drives are only fractionally more $ these days (ex: 128gb for ~$30-40) and designed for thousands of hours/re-writes.

Side note on the SanDisk: I swapped this out for a Transcend High Endurance 128 flash and immediately noticed an improvement in response (playback, delete, scrolling) since it uses 3d NAND instead of 2d TLC. Really think Roadie team just needs to use H.E. chips by default, considering the price diff is so small.
Would recommend anyone considering Roadie to get the 64gb version and buy a 128gb H.E. drive on Amazon for ~$30-40. About the same cost as the Roadie with the 128gb SanDisk upgrade that way.

Otherwise the Roadie is a great/low cost convenience feature and overall a good experience.

Would give it just under 4/5. Easily a solid 5/5 if above issues are addressed.
What OS are you using? On Android so far I haven't run into any issues...yet.

I've had it for roughly same amount of time you did. Hoping I don't run into any of the issues that you're having.
 
What OS are you using? On Android so far I haven't run into any issues...yet.

I've had it for roughly same amount of time you did. Hoping I don't run into any of the issues that you're having.

Also using Android but a legacy version (Marshmallow). This is the last version of Android where the PDANet hotspot hack still works and I'm on a grandfathered Verizon unlimited data plan so refuse to upgrade. Might have something to do w/these issues though from my experimenting and results they are more hardware (Roadie) related.

Then again, interesting if you're not seeing either of these issues. I know the delete issue is wide spread as v.21 was released specifically to address it.
 
Also using Android but a legacy version (Marshmallow). This is the last version of Android where the PDANet hotspot hack still works and I'm on a grandfathered Verizon unlimited data plan so refuse to upgrade. Might have something to do w/these issues though from my experimenting and results they are more hardware (Roadie) related.

Then again, interesting if you're not seeing either of these issues. I know the delete issue is wide spread as v.21 was released specifically to address it.

TBH, it may be something that I overlooked or didn't realize. Maybe it just hasn't happened yet but I'll look into it a little bit more when I get home.
 
TBH, it may be something that I overlooked or didn't realize. Maybe it just hasn't happened yet but I'll look into it a little bit more when I get home.

Yeah I really only stumbled onto the delete issue when troubleshooting the gaps in video coverage issue. Thought that a clean wipe of the disk might help get things back on track, then started seeing files I'd deleted reappear.

if you aren't manually deleting files you'd probably never notice. It's a minor bug overall since garbage collection seems to work well. The bigger issue is the semi-frequent gaps in recording. Though TBH since figuring out the delete bug and wiping the drive it hasn't had any gaps... so who knows.
 
How are you determining gaps in recording? This is also something I haven't really paid attention to but am a little concerned about now that you're bringing it up. As far as dashcam recording that's a easy one to verify but are you not seeing clips related to sentry notifications?
 
I have mixed feelings about this app.

There was a recent update that fixes the delete crash, and that seems to be resolved, but most of the time I can't even connect the roadie.

It keeps stating "Roadie for Tesla Wants to Join Wi-Fi Network" but usually always reply with a "Unable to join the network".

When I was able to connect it, I set it up to use the phone's hotspot as well as the WIFI, and when I force close and re-open, it doesn't connect at all.

Do I actually have to be in the car to access this via the app or can I be in my house?
 
Would give it just under 4/5. Easily a solid 5/5 if above issues are addressed.[/QUOTE]
Would recommend anyone considering Roadie to get the 64gb version and buy a 128gb H.E. drive on Amazon for ~$30-40. About the same cost as the Roadie with the 128gb SanDisk upgrade that way.

How would the Roadie access the 128GB H.E. drive? Would I'd put the Roadie in on of the USB slots and the 128GB HE drive in the other slot on my Model S?
 
How would the Roadie access the 128GB H.E. drive? Would I'd put the Roadie in on of the USB slots and the 128GB HE drive in the other slot on my Model S?

No, the H.E. drive is just another micro-sd and would replace the one that comes in the Roadie. Simply remove the plastic cover on the Roadie and replace the 128gb it comes with. It's just a basic micro-sd slot on a Pi board.

This of course is assuming you have properly cloned the contents from the micro-sd the Roadie came with (LinuxOS, Roadie software, file structure) which is easy to do with a utility like Win32DiskImager.
 
Does anyone know if you can connect to the Roadie without a Wi-Fi or cellular connection?

Obviously the car has to be on for the Roadie to have power, but can I directly connect to the Roadie Wi-Fi connection?

I have an iPhone for development with no cellular connection and I want to connect to the Roadie on the road, but the Roadie app has never been able to connect to the Pi's Wi-Fi connection.

It works perfectly fine when the phone is on a Wi-Fi internet connection.

Is this expected behavior?
 

Actually Jake answered it via email support.

Essentially for anyone that wants to know, if you want to connect directly to the Raspberry Pi's Wi-Fi connection, i.e. "roadie-fbxxxx", you have to turn off "Enable Home WiFi Access" and "Enable Hotspot Access", otherwise it will try to only connect to those access points.

Even though I originally had WiFi Access enabled, and when the Roadie couldn't occasionally connect to it, it asks me if I wanted to Join Wi-Fi Network "roadie-fbxxxxx", and when I tap Join, it couldn't connect.

It was only AFTER I disabled WiFi Access in the Roadie app did it actually connect to the Raspberry Pi's own connection.