sentry mode - high battery consumption

[ricebucket]

I've tried sentry mode on my AP2.0 car (no recording capability) and it seems to have increased significantly the daily battery drain if I enable it overnight. The overnight drain is around 3-5x what it was previously.

I assume this is why Tesla does not have this on by default?

Would like to hear other people's experiences and best practices with this.

 

[ucmndd]

Yes, running the autopilot computer for hours on end certainly uses a bunch of juice.

 

[BPeter]

Yes, it's a constant ~150W keeping the AP and MCU computers on.

 

[ricebucket]

In this case, I guess sentry mode is not really suitable for overnight parking outside then. Which is sad because this would be a useful scenario. Also not sure if constantly running the AP computer and using that much power will shorten its lifespan.

 

[BPeter]

Yeah I run Sentry while parked at work and it has a pretty significant impact on energy usage. I have a pretty short drive so Sentry is about 10% of my daily energy usage during weekdays.

 

[4EVar]

I've tried sentry mode on my AP2.0 car (no recording capability) and it seems to have increased significantly the daily battery drain if I enable it overnight. The overnight drain is around 3-5x what it was previously.

I assume this is why Tesla does not have this on by default?

Would like to hear other people's experiences and best practices with this.

This seems like a lot of drain, especially considering AP2 doesn't even record or send anything anywhere.

 

[cybergates]

i left sentry mode on at the airport for 5-6 days and dang I lost almost 80 miles I think. barely had enough gas to make it home. Is that possible? Model S 2.0AP (yep and just above post similar 2.0 doesn't even record anything). 2019.20.1

 

[zanary]

i left sentry mode on at the airport for 5-6 days and dang I lost almost 80 miles I think. barely had enough gas to make it home. Is that possible? Model S 2.0AP (yep and just above post similar 2.0 doesn't even record anything). 2019.20.1

Sounds about right (almost). (1) Sentry mode does take some power. How many incidents did it report on your Instrument cluster when you got in before you drove home. (2) Not too sure why gas matters here unless you had gas for your lawnmower in your Model S

Also with AP2, the Sentry Mode is more of a visual deterrent, vs actually the ability to record. Hopefully once we all get upgraded to the new FSD computer (end of Q4 this year according to Elon now), then you should actually get the ability to record it to USB memory stick.

Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[bob_p]

Sentry mode appears to disable sleep mode. And for some reason, it also appears to disable overheat protection (which was likely implemented to only run while the vehicle was in sleep mode - resulting in a design flaw when Sentry was added, something Tesla should be able to fix).

It appears MCU2 is required to provide full support for Sentry mode, including recording. The AP2.x upgrade promised to FSD owners is for the AP processor - not the MCU - and likely would not add support for full Sentry mode for MCU1 vehicles.

Now that Tesla is adding more functionality that is only present in MCU2 vehicles (Sentry mode, some of the new arcade games, …), Tesla should provide a reasonable upgrade path for MCU1 to MCU2, especially for those owners who plan to keep their S/X vehicles for 8 years or 100K miles.

 

[ricebucket]

It appears MCU2 is required to provide full support for Sentry mode, including recording. The AP2.x upgrade promised to FSD owners is for the AP processor - not the MCU - and likely would not add support for full Sentry mode for MCU1 vehicles.

Are you sure about the MCU2 requirement? Doesn't AP2.5 cars have full access to sentry mode with recording?

 

[zanary]

Sentry mode appears to disable sleep mode. And for some reason, it also appears to disable overheat protection (which was likely implemented to only run while the vehicle was in sleep mode - resulting in a design flaw when Sentry was added, something Tesla should be able to fix).

It appears MCU2 is required to provide full support for Sentry mode, including recording. The AP2.x upgrade promised to FSD owners is for the AP processor - not the MCU - and likely would not add support for full Sentry mode for MCU1 vehicles.

Now that Tesla is adding more functionality that is only present in MCU2 vehicles (Sentry mode, some of the new arcade games, …), Tesla should provide a reasonable upgrade path for MCU1 to MCU2, especially for those owners who plan to keep their S/X vehicles for 8 years or 100K miles.

Not everything is correct in your above post.

(1) MCU/1 and AP2 - This will get you Sentry Mode but no USB recording. It's more of a visual deterrent than anything else.
(2) MCU/1 and AP 2.5 - This will get you full recording in Sentry Mode to a USB (recommend a 256GB stick as it's recording 3 cams now).

There was talk about an MCU/2 upgrade in the past by Elon (source = Elon Musk on Twitter), however that was well over 15 months ago, and we have not seen anything as of yet.

AP2 or AP2.5 to FSD Computer upgrade may arrive at the end of Q4 as per Elon (source = Elon Musk on Twitter)

Note: MCU/2 is NOT required to provide full support for Sentry mode, as many have full support with MCU/1 and AP 2.5

I have a Model X with #1 above and a Model S with #2 above both with FSD options pre-purchased, so hopefully they will be in sync in terms of Sentry Mode features (and dash cam) once they are upgraded to FSD Computer next year.

Ohh yeah, according to Elon, the FSD Computer upgrade is easy for 2.5 and trivial for AP 2.0 vehicles( maybe be slightly more involved with other parts that they may choose to replace) (source = Elon Musk on Twitter)