Sentry mode power drain

[G4WFT]

I tried an experiment with my new M3P last night. I turned on Sentry mode at about 10pm last night and left it on through the night. Finally turned it off at about 8:30 this morning. In those 10.5 hours it had lost 9 miles of range (231 to 222).

Does that sound about normal?

I must admit that I've been pleasantly surprised at how little "phantom drain" there is on the M3. Typically overnight it loses just a mile of range.

 

[darkNstormy]

Yes, average loss of 1 mile / hour with sentry on.

 

[webbah]

Your car won't go to sleep with Sentry on. The onboard computer needs to be on to support all the camera feeds. So yeah, this is normal.

 

[G4WFT]

Thanks guys, a mile of range per hour is less than I was expecting/fearing.

 

[webbah]

Thanks guys, a mile of range per hour is less than I was expecting/fearing.

Just wait until Winter temps arrive. Then the floods of "battery degradation, phantom drain insane" will start to flood the forums.

 

[Alistairuk]

Thanks guys, a mile of range per hour is less than I was expecting/fearing.

The number of events seems to affect the drain too - I’ve had massive differences between nights with 150+ events and nights with 2 events

 

[CyberGus]

I've calculated that Sentry Mode uses approximately 300W, which is ludicrous. That's like running 6 laptops or 20 iPads.

However, it was pointed out to me that when the HV battery is in discharge, the BMS must regulate temperature, which means running the cooling pump. So even though there's this huge battery, you can't just take sips. There is a fixed cost just for being awake.

Maybe efficiency will be improved in future hardware, but the current on-board computer system was not designed to be constantly on.

 

[LongRanger]

Lost 1% in last 3 days with just a couple of “wake ups” via the iPhone app per day, haven’t driven the car since Tuesday eve until tonight. Sentry mode off.

 

[webbah]

I've calculated that Sentry Mode uses approximately 300W, which is ludicrous. That's like running 6 laptops or 20 iPads.

However, it was pointed out to me that when the HV battery is in discharge, the BMS must regulate temperature, which means running the cooling pump. So even though there's this huge battery, you can't just take sips. There is a fixed cost just for being awake.

Maybe efficiency will be improved in future hardware, but the current on-board computer system was not designed to be constantly on.

Sentry mode is using the onboard computer which is similar to a desktop computer with all the onboard processing, etc, and the 9 cameras. So yeah, 300 watts is correct. This is why I installed a dual channel Blackvue system that uses 5 watts. I only enable Sentry if I am in some really crappy area without a choice to gain piece of mind. Otherwise the Blackvue's do an excellent job.

Don't forget that Sentry was added as a "feature" afterthought due to all the Tesla breakins happening in 2018-2019 in California and elsewhere. People begged Tesla to do something about it and they did, and now people complain as it was never intended to be used for that purpose nor designed that way and requires the onboard computer to function. That means the car can't sleep. Most people forget the little details though or simply don't know!

 

[Russinating]

Went on holiday for a week, purposefully didn't check it via the app or anything and my SR+ lost 0%.

 

[Adopado]

Went on holiday for a week, purposefully didn't check it via the app or anything and my SR+ lost 0%.

Wow. I think maybe there has been some development in software updates to reduce the drain when the car is left undisturbed for several days at a time. I've never heard anyone reporting no losses over a week before. Due to the smaller battery in the SR+ you would expect that the percentage loss would be greater than the bigger battery cars (given that they are all running the same background systems).

 

[Jonnymack74]

2019 model s 75d
Lost about 40 miles over two days while car was parked in blackpool car park.
There were 4 events.

Tesla need to improve this somehow. The whole point of sentry is to keep the owner secure that should anything happen it is caught on camera.

It makes it impossible for anyone to put it on when they go on holiday for a week.

 

[NewbieT]

Can’t be improved without hardware changes. Sentry was an OTA update following owner requests. It’s an afterthought that relies on running the car computer. Computer uses say 200W/h plus a little bit for the cameras.

It does amaze me that a car manufacturer with a sustainability mission adds a feature which, if left on all year will use more electricity than my house. At least least you can turn Sentry off when you don’t need it.

 

[Jason71]

Can’t be improved without hardware changes. Sentry was an OTA update following owner requests. It’s an afterthought that relies on running the car computer. Computer uses say 200W/h plus a little bit for the cameras.

It does amaze me that a car manufacturer with a sustainability mission adds a feature which, if left on all year will use more electricity than my house. At least least you can turn Sentry off when you don’t need it.

it was an after thought. Powerful computer is needed for the FSD. Car was never designed to run that computer while not driving. But given its popularity I would hope that at some point they will add a smaller co-processor capable of running sentry and other functions needed while not driving with a much lower power requirement.
Other makers having had the idea of Sentry would probably have held it back until more suitable hardware was in place. personally i'll take it in its current state as being a lot better than nothing.