Sentry Mode - Use sparingly!

[NewbieT]

Sentry Mode ‘seems’ to use about 15 mile per day if left on the whole time.

Let’s go with 300 Wh/m for this calculation. 15 x 0.3 = 4.5 kW per day. HW3.0/FSD computer uses 100W so that would be 2.4kW per day. Assume there must be some other hardware drawing too when the computer is on (PSUs, SSD, Bus, Camera). Seems to corroborate (ish).

So Sentry Mode left on every day..… 4.5kW * 365 = 1,642 kW per year.

Happy for someone to update the calcs for efficiencies and man math corrections (yes car isn’t parked all of the time) but on the face of it that’s almost enough to run a whole house for a year. In the last 12 months (life before Tesla) my house used 1,800 kW.

Tesla’s making 400,000 cars this year and if every car uses Sentry Mode, that’s enough electricity to power an entire city.

If you want to be sustainable, use sparingly.

 

[BobSpurs]

Plus it seems to record when absolutely nothing needs to be recorded with my car.
Hundreds of files showing no movement round the car at all.

 

[Jason71]

Sentry Mode ‘seems’ to use about 15 mile per day if left on the whole time.

Let’s go with 300 Wh/m for this calculation. 15 x 0.3 = 4.5 kW per day. HW3.0/FSD computer uses 100W so that would be 2.4kW per day. Assume there must be some other hardware drawing too when the computer is on (PSUs, SSD, Bus, Camera). Seems to corroborate (ish).

So Sentry Mode left on every day..… 4.5kW * 365 = 1,642 kW per year.

Happy for someone to update the calcs for efficiencies and man math corrections (yes car isn’t parked all of the time) but on the face of it that’s almost enough to run a whole house for a year. In the last 12 months (life before Tesla) my house used 1,800 kW.

Tesla’s making 400,000 cars this year and if every car uses Sentry Mode, that’s enough electricity to power an entire city.

If you want to be sustainable, use sparingly.

Does seem on the high side. You lose a certain number of miles per day even with sentry mode off I believe. Even when the car is asleep the battery pack loses power. so you have to deduct that background loss from your calculations.

 

[Roy W.]

Does seem on the high side. You lose a certain number of miles per day even with sentry mode off I believe. Even when the car is asleep the battery pack loses power. so you have to deduct that background loss from your calculations.

I think it must also depend on how many events it records. I had it enabled on holiday in Tenby and I was losing up to 25 miles a day.

 

[Fullerene]

Yep, onboard computer needs to be running the whole time so it’s ~300W...

I’ve reviewed some very dull footage with no real discernible picture change. Glad my SSD is super quick to copy

would be nice to have trigger on ultrasonic, continuous record with post processing or similar.

 

[Roy W.]

My view is what’s a few Watts if it catches somebody running into my car or similar...

It’s an amazing system, and I don’t think any other marque offers anything like it.

 

[Mr Miserable]

My view is what’s a few Watts if it catches somebody running into my car or similar...

It’s an amazing system, and I don’t think any other marque offers anything like it.

But it's very much a Beta system and very impractical in its present form - no traditional manufacturer would dare put something so untried and raw on general release (OK maybe Fiat). As dashcams go, there are far better dedicated dashcams out there where your reg, timestamp (local) and speed are superimposed on the image and GPS data embedded too so when you playback on an app you can see your position on a streetmap. If the car records an incident it's quick and easy to find what triggered it - unlike Sentry mode.

It hasn't taken long for independent developers to come up with solutions to the viewing problem and I hope Elon supports them rather than just pinching their ideas in future development.

 

[evGuesty]

It would be a great idea to use the ultrasonics as well. I think the current version only uses the cameras.

The blink cameras I have at home use a PIR and only when it senses motion does it wake up the camera and WiFi. It can last a year on two lithium AA batteries. Perhaps Tesla could do the same and have an option to only power up the cameras when the ultrasonics are activated.

Anyone know how much power the ultrasonics consume?

 

[Rooster6655]

But it's very much a Beta system and very impractical in its present form - no traditional manufacturer would dare put something so untried and raw on general release (OK maybe Fiat). As dashcams go, there are far better dedicated dashcams out there where your reg, timestamp (local) and speed are superimposed on the image and GPS data embedded too so when you playback on an app you can see your position on a streetmap. If the car records an incident it's quick and easy to find what triggered it - unlike Sentry mode.

Yes its Beta but it hasn't been out that long compared to the dedicated dash cams, I am happy with the setup as it is but obviously improvements in power consumption and false alerts could be improved.

The TeslaCam isn't really a paid for feature and you could expect to pay a few thousand if other manufacturers decided to release such a thing.

It hasn't taken long for independent developers to come up with solutions to the viewing problem and I hope Elon supports them rather than just pinching their ideas in future development.

Comes down to less of a priority than other features!

 

[Fraank]

I live on a terrace with fair traffic going by, sentry mode can use 5kw in 12 hours and I had 48 activations last night!

But, thats as high as I've seen it. I tend to take this approach:
-If I am away from home it's very handy. Had to park in a sketchy carpark to go to cinema last night, and it's great to know it's available.
-If car is outside my house I leave it off, as my ring doorbell records all movement
-Except.. if I'm charging. I have to place a pedestrian cable protector across pavement, and figure if someone had an accident tripping over it, or a late night drunk messed with it, I would rather have some footage.

If it uses as much as 5kw some nights, it's off peak green energy, and 75p for peace of mind (currently, soon to be less when Octopus switch happens).

I may become more laid back over time of course

 

[Fraank]

Thinking about it, I wish you could tell sentry mode to ignore one side of the car. That would be perfect for me.

 

[Keeper]

My headlights also flash once like a strobe on sentry mode activation. Does everyone’s do that?

 

[interbear]

My headlights also flash once like a strobe on sentry mode activation. Does everyone’s do that?

Yes mine did that. I activated Sentry mode for the first time earlier today. When we went back to the car after a couple of hours I sent Mrs interbear to take a close look at the car just to see what happened. Sentry mode activated the on screen display and the headlights flashed.

 

[phillcom3]

Yes its Beta but it hasn't been out that long compared to the dedicated dash cams, I am happy with the setup as it is but obviously improvements in power consumption and false alerts could be improved.

The TeslaCam isn't really a paid for feature and you could expect to pay a few thousand if other manufacturers decided to release such a thing.



Comes down to less of a priority than other features!

They should eb asking the users what current priority is and tank that weighted against their own priority list for features we know nothing about.

 

[navt]

You lose a certain number of miles per day even with sentry mode off I believe.

Electric Vehicle Guy on Twitter

 

[Gareth Davies]

Glad my SSD is super quick to copy

Get the TeslaCam Reviewer app and you can plug your SSD directly into your mobile phone to review any events (will need a USB adaptor relevant to your phone - i got a pack of 2 for 8 quid from Amazon).

 

[MrBadger]

Noticed today that Sentry mode is unavailable if battery below 20%.

Might be good if sentry mode location aware, ie home/work could have option to enable if on charge.

Wish location aware could be more useful - only seem to be able to set a location by postcode which is often inaccurate in location and even less accurate in extent, ie large or multiple car parks.

I seem to have a lot of sentry footage even if sentry was not specifically activated. I'm probably not understanding sentry and what's getting recorded and when. I seem to end up with dashcam footage in sentryclips - suspect its probably a bug, maybe the dashcam footage leading up to entering sentry mode gets put in sentryclips folder even though it is dashcam.

 

[Roy W.]

I seem to have a lot of sentry footage even if sentry was not specifically activated. I'm probably not understanding sentry and what's getting recorded and when. I seem to end up with dashcam footage in sentryclips - suspect its probably a bug, maybe the dashcam footage leading up to entering sentry mode gets put in sentryclips folder even though it is dashcam.

Me too! It all seems a bit muddled up.

 

[Fullerene]

I seem to have a lot of sentry footage even if sentry was not specifically activated. I'm probably not understanding sentry and what's getting recorded and when.

Me too! It all seems a bit muddled up.

Same here, spent a long time trying to figure out what’s happening. I’m not feeling very confident if there was an incident it would end up being recorded.

Anyone got an idiot’s guide?

 

[TestPilot]

I think it must also depend on how many events it records. I had it enabled on holiday in Tenby and I was losing up to 25 miles a day.

I don't thin it matters much as it's recording all the time (like the dash cam), it just moves interesting videos into the events folder.