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Samsung T7 500 GB SSD working great

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With the recent on infotainment upgrade to HW 3, I purchased the Samsung T7 500 GB SSD online for $119.99 (Amazon). Upon its arrival, plugged it into the USB port, went to the settings, safety & security screen, clicked on format Drive, and was surprised how fast that was. I am so impressed with having now Sentry provide for 4 views of the drive and the "save on honk" feature. The video detail from the 4 cameras is very good.

Now I'm wondering if there's any reason to consider installing a independent dashcam (Blackvue or similar).
 
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With the recent on infotainment upgrade to HW 3, I purchased the Samsung T7 500 GB SSD online for $119.99 (Amazon). Upon its arrival, plugged it into the USB port, went to the settings, safety & security screen, clicked on format Drive, and was surprised how fast that was. I am so impressed with having now Sentry provide for 4 views of the drive and the "save on honk" feature. The video detail from the 4 cameras is very good.

Now I'm wondering if there's any reason to consider installing a independent dashcam (Blackvue or similar).

I''ve had this really weird situation where sometimes I miss a few critical seconds at the time I press the save button. It's almost like the video skips from just before the incident to right after the incident. So I feel a proper dash cam is good to have as a backup. Also dashcams have super wide views offering more coverage. Teslacam view is relatively narrow.

Another benefits is when you valet park the car, the Dashcam will record everything while TeslaCan buffer is only about 1 hour and even within that you have to press a button to properly save the last 10 minutes.

Having said all this I do not yet have a separate dash cam but I plan to get one. Basically waiting for them to optimize and make more reliable 4k/60 dashcams and I'll buy one.

Another small benefits is during a traffic stop, a proper dash cam will record all the audio. Wish TeslaCam had a button where it would record the audio and all the video feeds during a traffic stop or other situation where you need a record of what happens.
 
@Bmac, I have had two Blackvue DR900-2CH dash cams in my cars since I got it. 360 degree recording.
Even before my recent MCU2 upgrade where I got Teslacam and Sentry.

Can you have too much security?

Someone walks up on three cars in a parking lot. 1 is a Tesla with clearly visible dash cam, and TeslaCam
Another is a Tesla with Teslacam. And the third is a ICE with no dash cam. If you were the bad guy which one would you consider breaking into?
 
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@Bmac,

I encourage you relocate your SSD into your glove box or some place hidden. Get a long enough cable and feed it under mat, carpet, behind panels, so its in your glove box. Then plug a decoy USB drive into an unused USB port. Don't have a spare port, be sneaky. Get a short USB cable plug a decoy flash drive into it. And hide the loose end. Thread the loose end out of sight- tie a knot in it so it can't be easily pulled loose. No one has to know its not connected to the car. Leave the USB decoy drive end where it would plugged in as if you have a spare port. If someone is nosing around in your car and see's the decoy drive and takes it, you still have recordings of who and when. If they find a decoy, they stop looking. Would not expect you have one in the glove box.
 
Thanks for the warning and the suggestion. I actually have the SSD hidden under the cupholders so it is out of sight, but I like your suggestion better. I will have to figure out how to string it out under the carpet and into the glove box.
 
With the recent on infotainment upgrade to HW 3, I purchased the Samsung T7 500 GB SSD online for $119.99 (Amazon).

Watch the heat on those Samsung T7. They get a lot hotter than the T5. I had a Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 500GB - M.2 NVMe, what i believe the T7's are based on, in an external case and that sucker got so hot you couldn't touch it. Returned it and picked up a T5.
 
@Bmac,

I encourage you relocate your SSD into your glove box or some place hidden. Get a long enough cable and feed it under mat, carpet, behind panels, so its in your glove box. Then plug a decoy USB drive into an unused USB port. Don't have a spare port, be sneaky. Get a short USB cable plug a decoy flash drive into it. And hide the loose end. Thread the loose end out of sight- tie a knot in it so it can't be easily pulled loose. No one has to know its not connected to the car. Leave the USB decoy drive end where it would plugged in as if you have a spare port. If someone is nosing around in your car and see's the decoy drive and takes it, you still have recordings of who and when. If they find a decoy, they stop looking. Would not expect you have one in the glove box.

I like this idea, but couldn't a savvy thief just unplug the cable thats connected to the SSD in the glove box? Even if the SSD is out of sight, one end of the cable has to be connected to one of the two ports beneath the cover, right? I notice one of the first things the Service Center techs do is pull out any USB drive or cable beneath the flip up cover.
 
Depends. Are you using a S/X or 3/Y? WE have a project for adding USB hubs and ports and hiding them.
My friend is about to publish this project. USB Port Extensions and Security | TeslaTap
on his website.

Maybe it will help you.
You have to hope that they person breaking into your Tesla is in a hurry for your stuff and expecting to see a flash drive and does not take the time to look for a cable running to an obscure location. Give me what they expect. Put a decoy flash drive where its easy to find.

I suggested take a M/F extension cable of short length. tie a knot or double the male end. Stick the male end under a panel piece of trim to secure the cable from being pulled out. Leave 3-4 inches loose near the car's existing regular USB ports, so it looks legit, as though the other end is connected to the car. Plug a decoy flash drive in to the female end. It doesn't have to be large capacity or even work. Its just to fool the bad guy. Now, leave it.

You can plug your SSD into the real USB port as what looks like just a power cable or something and hide the SSD. If you are going to use a flash drive or SD Media adapter, I would find another M/F extension cable for the real USB port, plug the male end in, and thread the cable away and maybe under carpet. Plug the media or flash drive in the female end.

Leaving a dummy/decoy flash drive within sight will serve your purpose and your bad guy will likely stop looking for more, when he finds the one you want him to find.

There's no guarantee. But the idea is to lessen your risk by making it easy for your bad guy to find something easy. And I hope all this is a waste of your time and your car is not broken into.
 
Depends. Are you using a S/X or 3/Y? WE have a project for adding USB hubs and ports and hiding them.
My friend is about to publish this project. USB Port Extensions and Security | TeslaTap
on his website.

Maybe it will help you.
You have to hope that they person breaking into your Tesla is in a hurry for your stuff and expecting to see a flash drive and does not take the time to look for a cable running to an obscure location. Give me what they expect. Put a decoy flash drive where its easy to find.

I suggested take a M/F extension cable of short length. tie a knot or double the male end. Stick the male end under a panel piece of trim to secure the cable from being pulled out. Leave 3-4 inches loose near the car's existing regular USB ports, so it looks legit, as though the other end is connected to the car. Plug a decoy flash drive in to the female end. It doesn't have to be large capacity or even work. Its just to fool the bad guy. Now, leave it.

You can plug your SSD into the real USB port as what looks like just a power cable or something and hide the SSD. If you are going to use a flash drive or SD Media adapter, I would find another M/F extension cable for the real USB port, plug the male end in, and thread the cable away and maybe under carpet. Plug the media or flash drive in the female end.

Leaving a dummy/decoy flash drive within sight will serve your purpose and your bad guy will likely stop looking for more, when he finds the one you want him to find.

There's no guarantee. But the idea is to lessen your risk by making it easy for your bad guy to find something easy. And I hope all this is a waste of your time and your car is not broken into.
Does the MCU recognize the USB hub for data transfer of multiple drives? For instance, could someone have two thumb drives with music plugged into the hub, and both be recognized as different USB drives in the MCU?
 
I've not tested that. I might get around to do so. I suspect it would work because each is assigned the own logical unit. The music system will likely merge the to drives into one list.

But if you are using MCU1, you should not try to have thousands of songs available. Each time the drive is turned on, or inserted, the car is going to re-index the entire drive of songs. The way it was explained to an owner that passed it to me, that the re-indexing adds to the overall write cycles on the eMMC as it stores the list. But your choice, of course.
 
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