Sentry mode flash

[doats1]

Hi guys,

So every time I park in a darkened area and have sentry mode active, I notice that if people (and sometimes cars), are close enough to the car, the headlights/driving lights flash briefly.

It’s very brief and to be honest everyone has just walked on a bit confused. But with enough sentry notifications this could surely drain the battery? In any case, I think it’s unnecessary unless I think I’m parking near opportunistic foxes.

Is there a way to turn this feature off without losing sentry mode altogether?

 

[Alistairuk]

It’s part of sentry mode - they’re led lights so their effect on draining the battery is negligible compared to how much sentry mode drains it anyway.

 

[Columbo]

No not yet. I think people's reasons for wanting it to be optional is that it can actually attract unwanted attention.
As far as battery drain, it's the sentry mode itself keeping the car awake that drains the battery, the lights would be probably 2% of that power, if that.

 

[doats1]

No not yet. I think people's reasons for wanting it to be optional is that it can actually attract unwanted attention.
As far as battery drain, it's the sentry mode itself keeping the car awake that drains the battery, the lights would be probably 2% of that power, if that.

Yeah that’s also a concern now that you mention it. One person spent a bit more time looking after the flash but I think it was because it was a Tesla.

If it is the LED lights then I guess battery drain isn’t an issue. But I’m not a fan either way.

 

[MrBadger]

I believe it will become an option at some point.

Not great if someone parked their Tesla facing your room at a hotel etc.

 

[drdumont]

I just got Sentry mode working a couple of weeks ago. Due to the COVID panic, there is a w-i-d-e parking space near the door at work. The owner hasn't been to the building in 6 months. So as everyone left files in or out of the building, they get flashed at. Last I looked I had gotten a ton of ignores, some smiles, a couple of raspberries, a couple of "we're number one!" middle finger salutes, and yesterday an Italian salute.
I think I would like the option to turn off the flashing unless there is an actual offense committed against the car. It's getting a little old, and we carry guns in this state...

 

[Rooster6655]

I believe it will become an option at some point.

Yes that was mentioned by Elon on twitter

 

[Jason71]

Hi guys,

So every time I park in a darkened area and have sentry mode active, I notice that if people (and sometimes cars), are close enough to the car, the headlights/driving lights flash briefly.

It’s very brief and to be honest everyone has just walked on a bit confused. But with enough sentry notifications this could surely drain the battery? In any case, I think it’s unnecessary unless I think I’m parking near opportunistic foxes.

Is there a way to turn this feature off without losing sentry mode altogether?

Sentry mode will use 200-300watts of power whether its triggered or not i.e.10-15% of your SR+ battery per day. The light flash is not going to make much difference.

 

[doats1]

Sentry mode will use 200-300watts of power whether its triggered or not i.e.10-15% of your SR+ battery per day. The light flash is not going to make much difference.

Fair enough, it’s still a bit annoying though. You’d think the option to disable the would be fairly easy to implement. But maybe it’s so easy it’s low priority in the backlog.

 

[Jason71]

Fair enough, it’s still a bit annoying though. You’d think the option to disable the would be fairly easy to implement. But maybe it’s so easy it’s low priority in the backlog.

Probably but I am guessing it is a very long backlog.
Where I come from we make the easy items high priority

 

[arcus]

Last I looked I had gotten a ton of ignores, some smiles, a couple of raspberries, a couple of "we're number one!" middle finger salutes, and yesterday an Italian salute

<- Googling "Italian salute".

 

[WADan]

It flashes even when I exclude sentry mode at “home”

 

[-monky-]

It flashes even when I exclude sentry mode at “home”

Have you driven away from home and back again after you switch sentry mode to ignore home? You need to trigger the geofence the first time to make it work.

 

[SR-Plus]

I’m sure LED lamps have a limited life span, the number of times they come on and off, so come 5 year’s time we’ll be replacing the whole units and they’re not cheap!

 

[98dizzard]

I’m sure LED lamps have a limited life span, the number of times they come on and off, so come 5 year’s time we’ll be replacing the whole units and they’re not cheap!

Well made and correctly driven LEDs will last a lifetime. They don't have a maximum number of switch cycles, they are rated in hours of use until they reach a set loss of brightness. Usually about half I think.

The lifetime depends on what current they are being driven with and how hot they get. A flash won't make them hot, the current will be part of the driver and not more than normal nighttime use.

Plenty of devices have blinking LEDs that last decades in use.

A badly made driver might be affected by on/off cycles, but one would hope the drivers are reasonably good. Considering I havent seen dozens of complaints about failed headlights then I assume they are. 90% of failed home LED lights are the cheap led drivers that they use, they are built for pennies a unit.

 

[Js1977]

I’m sure LED lamps have a limited life span, the number of times they come on and off, so come 5 year’s time we’ll be replacing the whole units and they’re not cheap!

The led drivers will probably pack up before the led's themselves. Led's are far more resilient (by a long stretch) in regards to their counterparts.

"In five years time" and "they are not cheap" is food for thought though and chances are that many will be available for recycling or if there is a market for it, refurbished albeit im not sure sure you would new a "whole" unit or just a bulb.

Many will opt to move on to a new car with more warranty and that not being the case, just like anything around your house that would have a serious impact on your daily living, its important to have some money set aside for such eventualities or at least a good amount of unused credit

 

[Watts_Up]

Is there a way to turn this feature off without losing sentry mode altogether?

No not yet. I think people's reasons for wanting it to be optional is that it can actually attract unwanted attention.

I wish there was a way to adjust the sensitivity of the Sentry Mode and to disable the Flashing Mode,
because I always get hundred of alerts when Sentry Mode is on, which makes it useless.

I prefer using my own dashcam which allows to select areas of the video image to avoid having too many false positive.

Currently Sentry Mode triggers a Flash, sometime every minute, which activates my Dashcam, and then sends me an alert.
When looking at both the Sentry and the Dashcam videos, I cannot find any reason for the flashing.
Other people reported the same problem in this forum.

 

[SpareHeadOne]

Plenty of devices have blinking LEDs that last decades in use.

Yep, ~25 years ago I was installing FDDI connections in data centres, they all run off LEDs that are turned off and on thousands of times a second.

Failures were rare and some did start to lose brightness after about six years, so I wouldn't worry about the ones in your car as they'll have a pretty easy life by comparison.

Generally anything with a manufacturing fault will fail within the first year and I think will be covered by warranty, after that they should outlast the rest of the car unless damaged.

 

[Alistairuk]

I wish there was a way to adjust the sensitivity of the Sentry Mode and to disable the Flashing Mode,
because I always get hundred of alerts when Sentry Mode is on, which makes it useless.

I prefer using my own dashcam which allows to select areas of the video image to avoid having too many false positive.

Currently Sentry Mode triggers a Flash, sometime every minute, which activates my Dashcam, and then sends me an alert.
When looking at both the Sentry and the Dashcam videos, I cannot find any reason for the flashing.
Other people reported the same problem in this forum.

is there a vent in the vicinity of the car? I discovered mine was being triggered by the house boiler exhaust - even when it wasn’t visible to naked eye - I only worked out it was that after installing a CCTV camera which has night vision and you can clearly see the exhaust

 

[SR-Plus]

Well made and correctly driven LEDs will last a lifetime. They don't have a maximum number of switch cycles, they are rated in hours of use until they reach a set loss of brightness. Usually about half I think.

The lifetime depends on what current they are being driven with and how hot they get. A flash won't make them hot, the current will be part of the driver and not more than normal nighttime use.

Plenty of devices have blinking LEDs that last decades in use.

A badly made driver might be affected by on/off cycles, but one would hope the drivers are reasonably good. Considering I havent seen dozens of complaints about failed headlights then I assume they are. 90% of failed home LED lights are the cheap led drivers that they use, they are built for pennies a unit.

Are the LED drivers within the main headlamp unit?