Sentry mode hardware and setup

[LukeT]

Another newbie question...

I figure I ought to get this sorted from the outset. Car arrives in a week. Model S if that makes a difference.

Do I read correctly that a USB stick/SSD is required for all dashcam and sentry mode functions?

Is there some easy instruction out there on correct formatting of the drive and anything else one needs to do other than just plugging it in?

And what hardware to people recommend? I'm thinking long lasting, idiot-proof. Or, at least, disorganised owner proof...

 

[TheEVadvisor]

See this link

anything sandisk should be decent

 

[MrBadger]

I would read up on other parts of forum. There is something somewhere (I did a quick look and didn't find it) that latest firmware is reporting some USB devices as being too slow, including one chaps Sandisk Ultra which appeared to be fine before the update and subsequently after a reboot. Might be that Tesla are putting warnings to warn of the corrupt videos that many seem to get.

Apparently SD cards in USB adaptors are best. Some SSD's working range look like they may fall outside expected car temperatures, and tbh I would think they might be overkill.

I know from experience that some cars are very fickle about what is plugged in. On my current car, I had a fast Sandisk USB 3 thumb. Very intermittent. Swapped it for cheap Toshiba USB 2 and thats been faultless. Go figure. Probably crap USB 3 support in car. Tesla say use USB 2 cables in the Model 3 manual - don't know about S, so thats an indication that its USB 2.

Best to go for specific model recommendations and not buying from somewhere that might sell fake. I get the impression that these things are effectively a consumable item.

 

[LukeT]

I think I have seen recommendations of specific products on here but I'm damned if I can find what I'm looking for now!

I recall someone using a SSD in a separate carrier and wonder whether that might be a good balance of longevity, capacity, speed and cost. I think I might buy a wireless charging tray and then leave this gubbins out of the way beneath.

 

[andyfox]

Using an 'Endurance' SD card would be the best standalone option. These are designed for dashcam usage, and are designed for many more read/write cycles than a standard SD card or USB stick. The adapters for the micro SD version are also very small.

If you're worried about taking up a USB slot with this and another one for music, it's possible to put two partitions on the SD card. In the first, you store the dashcam/sentry footage. In the second, you put your music. See: USB Flash Drives for Tesla Dashcam | TeslaTap for a great article on all of this.

Personally, I'm planning to go with the Raspberry Pi solution. This is where the Pi emulates a USB stick for both dashcam and music. I'll be using an endurance micro SD card. The benefit of this approach is that you won't be limited to one hours worth of dashcam footage before it gets overwritten. The Pi monitors the directory and copies the files to a new directory so nothing is lost. The Pi can also connect to your home WiFi and automatically upload the footage to a home server. For more details on this, check out this post: Anyone still rocking a Pi Zero W smart drive for TeslaCam on Sentry Mode?

The most popular solution seems to be TeslaUSB.

 

[Roy W.]

I bought this one on Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07FD878SJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

I plugged it into the M3 when I had my test drive, and it worked a treat. I thought it would give me a nice record of the test drive as well as testing the card.

I’ve partitioned it as two drives, one for the dashcam with a folder called TeslaCam in the root, and the other drive with about 100Gb of my own music.

The drive must be formatted as FAT32 to work.

 

[james_power]

I bought a Samsung T5 1TB on prime day for around £100 (massively discounted). I also bought the JEDA USB Hub and the T5 neatly fits inside. I formatted it with the linux ext4 file system and left it at 1TB. Whether you use fat32 or ext4 you just simply need to create a "TeslaCam" (case sensitive) folder at the root of the drive (for ext4 set permissions to 777) and plug in.

You can optionally partition the drive (for music and teslacam separation), but one of the partitions must have the TeslaCam folder for the dashcam feature to work.

 

[Roy W.]

I bought a Samsung T5 1TB on prime day for around £100 (massively discounted). I also bought the JEDA USB Hub and the T5 neatly fits inside. I formatted it with the linux ext4 file system and left it at 1TB. Whether you use fat32 or ext4 you just simply need to create a "TeslaCam" (case sensitive) folder at the root of the drive (for ext4 set permissions to 777) and plug in.

You can optionally partition the drive (for music and teslacam separation), but one of the partitions must have the TeslaCam folder for the dashcam feature to work.

Oops, I forgot about ext4!

 

[MrBadger]

I would read up on other parts of forum. There is something somewhere (I did a quick look and didn't find it) that latest firmware is reporting some USB devices as being too slow, including one chaps Sandisk Ultra which appeared to be fine before the update and subsequently after a reboot. Might be that Tesla are putting warnings to warn of the corrupt videos that many seem to get.

Here you go Dash Cam Too Slow after update

 

[MrBadger]

More things to consider

USB for TeslaCam write protected.

 

[Grymbok]

I bought a Samsung T5 1TB on prime day for around £100 (massively discounted). I also bought the JEDA USB Hub and the T5 neatly fits inside. I formatted it with the linux ext4 file system and left it at 1TB. Whether you use fat32 or ext4 you just simply need to create a "TeslaCam" (case sensitive) folder at the root of the drive (for ext4 set permissions to 777) and plug in.

You can optionally partition the drive (for music and teslacam separation), but one of the partitions must have the TeslaCam folder for the dashcam feature to work.

Where did you get the Jeda hub from? I'm tempted by it but don't want to order direct from USA if it can be avoided.

 

[TVRJonesy]

I've gone for these, (as recommended by someone else). They are small and very tidy. £40 all in and job done hopefully....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078WYS5K6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0765D6NJV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[LukeT]

I've gone for these, (as recommended by someone else). They are small and very tidy. £40 all in and job done hopefully....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078WYS5K6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0765D6NJV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ah ha! That's the one!

Can you link to the thread where this was recommended? I think there was good advice but I can't find it.

 

[james_power]

Where did you get the Jeda hub from? I'm tempted by it but don't want to order direct from USA if it can be avoided.

From the USA, but just a warning, I ordered a month ago and am still waiting for them to send it and when I enquired they said another 3 weeks.

 

[davidmc]

From the USA, but just a warning, I ordered a month ago and am still waiting for them to send it and when I enquired they said another 3 weeks.

They should have put it on the Triumph Ace? Missed opportunity there!!

 

[Grymbok]

From the USA, but just a warning, I ordered a month ago and am still waiting for them to send it and when I enquired they said another 3 weeks.

Yeah that's the kind of thing I was worried about ordering from the US. That said, the last info I had from Tesla suggests I'm eight weeks at least from having a car to put it in so maybe I should just order now and hope for the best...

 

[davidmc]

Forgot to mention (you may already know!) you may get hit with import tax and fees

Royal mail fee is £8 plus import duties (20% VAT on Goods value + postage)

 

[tess19]

Just spotted this on Amazon and wonder is this is any good.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-External-Storage-Desktop-Chromebook/dp/B07GKJMQ1N

or this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Expansion-Portable-PlayStation-STEA1000400/dp/B07DQ5ZH1D

 

[davidmc]

Just spotted this on Amazon and wonder is this is any good.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-External-Storage-Desktop-Chromebook/dp/B07GKJMQ1N

or this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Expansion-Portable-PlayStation-STEA1000400/dp/B07DQ5ZH1D

Be careful of these as they look like HDD (Traditional Hard Drive) and not SSD (Solid State Drive). HDD have moving parts and more prone to failing and not being fast enough. (Did not search these items properly tho to confirm!)

As @TVRJonesy posted above, these are great and much quicker in data transfer, also look at USB sticks or Micro SD Cards as some have previously mentioned.

 

[Yev000]

Can you link to the thread where this was recommended? I think there was good advice but I can't find it.

What brand USB you using?

One of the main reason i picked the WD green is the low power consumption compared to the traditional SSDs. That does make it a bit slower, but still way faster than USB sticks and HHDs.