What exactly are most people using for a USB these days? Are there certain manufacturers that tend to work better? I'm not looking for an SSD for the moment - just a larger USB stick if possible. What throughput threshold should I be looking at? I've recently been upgraded to AP3 but still using MCU1. Also, where do I source what needs to be done to setup the drive in preparation for use? Thanks!
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Sentry Mode/Dashcam recording USB for AP3/MCU1
- Thread starter TrevTremaine
- Start date
Samsung PRO Endurance 129gb Micro SD Card and Rocketek Micro SD Card reader
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B984HJ5/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XTQZS4F/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You'll need to format the cat with something that will do FAT32.
Check out this youtube video for details
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B984HJ5/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XTQZS4F/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You'll need to format the cat with something that will do FAT32.
Check out this youtube video for details
zanary
Active Member
TeslaCam SSD Extreme - Pure Tesla
Use the PURE5 to get 5% discount, plus use Apple Pay to get an additional 2% Apple Cash when using your Apple Card.
Use the PURE5 to get 5% discount, plus use Apple Pay to get an additional 2% Apple Cash when using your Apple Card.
Shaz
Member
I just got the AP 3 upgrade recently in my Model X and is using MCU 1. I tried the portable Samsung SSD T5 hard drive but did not work. Formatted to FAT32 and would not recognize the hard drive. I believe it may be due to me having an MCU 1. Will need to try with thumb drive instead.
I went with a 256GB SanDisk Endurance and card reader. Installed fine, works, but can't view the footage. Will try again - I noticed on the video that the block size was set to 64K instead of 32K. I don't know if that made a difference.
Shaz
Member
Thanks Trev, yeah I tried both 64K and 32K no luck. I think it's a limitation in MCU1...maybe anything more than 256 GB. I'll try something else for now.
I'm a new 2017 90D owner....had the same issue. The dashcam option is hardware limited by cars built before August 2017 or so. MCU1 is the culprit. With the MCU2 upgrade available this allows for DashCam and Sentry video and also to view it in the car versus popping out the flash drive and viewing the TeslaCam folder....
Art VandeIay
Attractive Membrane
Nope... it's actually Autopilot hardware that limits DashCam and Sentry recordings. There are plenty of MCU1 vehicles (with Autopilot 2.5 & 3/FSD) that have DashCam and Sentry recordings, only without the rear view camera feed.
This is true. Due to the lackluster hardware inside every MCU1, only MCU2's have the ability to display the in-car Sentry Viewer.
Last edited:
zanary
Active Member
you will find that Dashcam footage on a MCU/1/HW3 is a poor quality. I'm not talking about color or lack there of, but the fact that MCU/1 is so taxed, that you will find major artifacts in the video itself. It's like the MCU/1 can't keep up and frames are dropped, and huge pixelated artifacts are shown. Very common for MCU/1 and HW3 owners.
I have both MCU2/HW3 on my 2017 Model S, and MCU1/HW3 on my 2016 Model X... The artifacts and pixelated video are very apparent, and I'm not the only one who has seen this...
NOT: Writing to the USB is driven off the MCU.
For those of you who are under the MCU1/HW3 combo - what are you using to view the dashcam footage? Is there something you did with specifivally did in formatting your USB drive? Thus far I know it's getting written, but I cannot seem to find a decent viewer that I can use on a Windows machine.
plumazul
Member
Just use the builtin format tool. View on Windows using Open with > Windows Media Player. Works great.
Format the same as with MCU2
I tried that with this:
Samsung FIT Plus USB 3.1 Flash... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7PDLXC?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
it didn’t work, so had to use 3rd party app on windows 10 to format fat32. Then used MCU1 format and it worked
RiatGray
Member
Hi
Could you help me please. I just got HW3 installed, still have MCU1 though (mCU2 is not available yet). How do I view the video.
RiatGray
Member
I formatted the USB via the main screen in the car, can’t see a thing. USB has no field on it.
Durwood101
Member
You wont be able to view any clips recorded on the MCU at all. Any clips stored/recorded on the drive are only viewable externally on a pc or mac. The files are stored of course in the Tesla Folder you created when formatting, Tesla does its thing and deposits the clips according to its folder tree.
For me, MCU1 plus HW3 upgrade started taxing the MCU. Some lag, loading errors, etc. Extra "drain" on the MCU's processing/memory.
Once I enabled Sentry/Dashcam with a USB (Cant recall which one, but it was a USB listed on Tesla's recommended list), the additional load of the USB made the MCU1 almost unusable. Tried rebooting multiple times, no improvement. Ended up disabling dashcam/sentry and removing the USB. Will go MCU2 later this year perhaps
Once I enabled Sentry/Dashcam with a USB (Cant recall which one, but it was a USB listed on Tesla's recommended list), the additional load of the USB made the MCU1 almost unusable. Tried rebooting multiple times, no improvement. Ended up disabling dashcam/sentry and removing the USB. Will go MCU2 later this year perhaps
Durwood101
Member
Durwood101
Member
Yep, definitely taxes the MCU, I am seriously considering upgrading to MCU2 for this reason alone. I took the car to service center over the weekend and got the runaround basically....they said that everything was "normal"........
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