SD Card or Portable SSD drive for Sentry mode - Which one?

[AmPiste]

Hi

I'm looking at getting a storage device for enabling Sentry Mode.

I'm currently looking at purchasing SanDisk Extreme 128 GB SD card https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07FCMKK5X/ or a
Samsung portable ssd t5 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-MU-PA500B-Portable-SSD-500GB/dp/B074MCM721

Does anyone have any thoughts on which one is going to last longer and be more reliable?

Thanks
Scott

anything with MLC memory so neither of those

 

[doghousePVD]

I was thinking of getting one of these for £22. Anybody tried? A lot cheaper then an SD so I could’ve keep a spare for when it wears out!

Samsung FIT Plus 128 GB Type-A USB 3.1 Flash Drive

1. 

I had one of these. Frequent errors about being too slow, many clips recorded badly or not at all. Yes. the specs say it should work. It doesn't, at least for me. I got a Samsung T5 in November. No problems since. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073GZBT36/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Jeeves]

If you go down the SD card route, get one that is designed to be re-written to frequently for video, like this. I’ve got one with this Anker reader and it works flawlessly. I find Dash View for Tesla Cars a perfect app to quickly review Sentry footage on my iOS devices. It uses AI to show you a thumbnail still of the event that triggered saving the recording and allows you to quickly jump to it.

As others have said, SSD would probably be better but may be more expensive and might consume more energy.

 

[cjh75]

All I know is in my experience, SSD is the way to go. I have had usb read/write speed to slow on all usb sticks I've used, especially when they start to get full. I now use 500gb western digital SSD partitioned for music and dashcam/sentry, no probs for last few months!

 

[Rustybkts]

I purchased a 240Gb SSD and enclosure from Amazon for about £40 as recommended by another here.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0765D6NJV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078WYS5K6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Being a numpty I forgot that an SSD has to be treated like a new blank hard disk as it is ignored when plugged in. A quick Google sorted it by using Windows to format it FAT32. I also partitioned it so that I can record music to a seperate folder.
SSD's are designed for rapid read/write whereas flash memory are not generally very happy unless designed for it.

 

[Mr H]

I purchased a 240Gb SSD and enclosure from Amazon for about £40 as recommended by another here.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0765D6NJV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078WYS5K6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Being a numpty I forgot that an SSD has to be treated like a new blank hard disk as it is ignored when plugged in. A quick Google sorted it by using Windows to format it FAT32. I also partitioned it so that I can record music to a seperate folder.
SSD's are designed for rapid read/write whereas flash memory are not generally very happy unless designed for it.

That was me, yep they need to be formatted first.

 

[Medved_77]

I purchased a 240Gb SSD and enclosure from Amazon for about £40 as recommended by another here.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0765D6NJV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078WYS5K6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Being a numpty I forgot that an SSD has to be treated like a new blank hard disk as it is ignored when plugged in. A quick Google sorted it by using Windows to format it FAT32. I also partitioned it so that I can record music to a seperate folder.
SSD's are designed for rapid read/write whereas flash memory are not generally very happy unless designed for it.

Also went this route following @Mr H 's recommendation (thanks for that!).

Windows wasn't able to format as FAT32 as the drive size was too large so ended up using a 3rd party tool:

Download FAT32format GUI (GUIFormat) 1.0.1.0

Oddly the tool couldn't handle exFAT so reformated as NTFS then used the tool to FAT32 which worked.

As an aside it looks like the ssd enclosure will just about fit inside the Taptes USB hub however the cable that came with the enclosure is a little chunky so might be a tight fit.

 

[curmudgeon]

Sentry auto deletes so I'm not sure why your card is filling. I used to use a 32gb card for the longest time and it would never get full until I clicked save on a bunch of clips.

Just looked at my 400GB teslacam partitiion and the oldest sentry clip is 28th December and the sentry clips directory is 216 GB. Maybe a smaller device clears down more frequently.

 

[Adopado]

Just looked at my 400GB teslacam partitiion and the oldest sentry clip is 28th December and the sentry clips directory is 216 GB. Maybe a smaller device clears down more frequently.

I would think that it's good to know that the drive is going to spread the files across the whole drive. If it clears and then potentially re-uses the same portion of the drive repeatedly then the value of the larger drive is lost because you could end up with a section that fails earlier than it would have done. I am happier if the drive fills before it clears and starts again. I suppose in theory the smarts built into a good drive should take care of the wear spreading but a simple fill then clear of the whole drive lets you see what's happening.

 

[DaddyCool]

USB Drive for Sentry Mode and more

 

[Bootneckshuffl]

I bought a Roadie after failed attempts with flash drives etc.
Works great.

how’s the Roadie holding out?

did you order direct from site and how long did you wait?

 

[dropgems]

how’s the Roadie holding out?

did you order direct from site and how long did you wait?

yea any update? also looking into Roadie. Haven’t set up anything for sentry yet on my new m3. Looking for the most practical solution.

 

[PluggedINLife]

I've been using Samsung 256 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D7Q41PM/. Had some issues at 1st but I think it was more over tesla updating support. Since multiple updates early 2020, its been incredible.