Splitter Cable for both USB Dashcam and Charge Phone

[aSlowOldGUy]

Got V9 for my Model 3 this morning - sweet!

With my family, having the ability to charge two phones at once in the front is nice. I was wondering if I could use a USB splitter cable to have BOTH the USB storage for the dashcam AND power the second port for charging. I am looking at something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0716WKN9...olid=2Y92G6L1XNPTB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

One port is just for charging, which isn't a problem here. It's $7, so I might just take the chance.

Does anyone have any insights?

 

[Wildbill]

Yes, someone posted earlier using a similar cable from Amazon. He was using this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Onvian-Split...8&qid=1539471082&sr=1-9&keywords=USB+splitter

He used the charging side to charge his NOMAD wireless charging pad and the data port to listen to USB music. And it worked for him. So, I assume that you should be able to use the data port for dashcam also.

 

[ebmcs03]

Says cannot charge iOS devices? So not powerful enough to charge my iPhone?

 

[MXWing]

I loved my Model 3 until I found out where the 12V port was placed.

What was the bonehead reasoning to not have this with the front ports?

 

[aSlowOldGUy]

Says cannot charge iOS devices? So not powerful enough to charge my iPhone?

Good point - I think it is questionable if the splitter I linked to will charge an iPhone (which is what I need). The comments don't look too encouraging. The other splitter mentioned here definitely won't.

Hmm. Wonder if the port can handle it.

 

[Knightshade]

Good point - I think it is questionable if the splitter I linked to will charge an iPhone (which is what I need). The comments don't look too encouraging. The other splitter mentioned here definitely won't.

Hmm. Wonder if the port can handle it.

It won't charge an iphone. Found out the hard way.

 

[dragonxt]

Might need to mod something with the 12V... is it connected to the other compartment internally?

 

[Knightshade]

Might need to mod something with the 12V... is it connected to the other compartment internally?

Nope.

The 12v is located pretty uselessly unless you're willing to cut up your nice new 60k car at least a little bit.

 

[outie]

I saw some other member has success by simply using an Anker 4-port USB hub.

 

[outie]

Nope.

The 12v is located pretty uselessly unless you're willing to cut up your nice new 60k car at least a little bit.

You mean like this...? Yea I cut it and it's 80k. My fingers are still sore from pulling that *sugar* trim.

 

[dailo]

I ordered one of these to run to the front console.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G8Y94PJ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[cbardeen]

Y splitter didn’t work for me with Nomad. I tried to use it on both sides to attach two thumb drives. I now have it set up with one side of the Nomad going to left USB and a 4 port USB 3.0 hub on the right. I have the two USB thumb drives and the other Nomad plugged into the hub. One thumb drive is for Tesla Cam and one for music. With that setup, music and dashcam are working. Both sides of the Nomad will charge an iPhone and am getting 815 mA on either side when charging a phone that is at half charge.

Have white interior and wrapped the console with white vinyl from Kenriko. Looks better and I like the texture better than the glossy plastic. If you are going to do the other upgrades, recommend this one too.

 

[MXWing]

Y splitter didn’t work for me with Nomad. I tried to use it on both sides to attach two thumb drives. I now have it set up with one side of the Nomad going to left USB and a 4 port USB 3.0 hub on the right. I have the two USB thumb drives and the other Nomad plugged into the hub. One thumb drive is for Tesla Cam and one for music. With that setup, music and dashcam are working. Both sides of the Nomad will charge an iPhone and am getting 815 mA on either side when charging a phone that is at half charge.

Have white interior and wrapped the console with white vinyl from Kenriko. Looks better and I like the texture better than the glossy plastic. If you are going to do the other upgrades, recommend this one too.

You get full speed on the nomad and dashcam running at once?

Do you mind linking the hub and flash drive you used?

Thanks

 

[aSlowOldGUy]

Y splitter didn’t work for me with Nomad. I tried to use it on both sides to attach two thumb drives. I now have it set up with one side of the Nomad going to left USB and a 4 port USB 3.0 hub on the right. I have the two USB thumb drives and the other Nomad plugged into the hub. One thumb drive is for Tesla Cam and one for music. With that setup, music and dashcam are working. Both sides of the Nomad will charge an iPhone and am getting 815 mA on either side when charging a phone that is at half charge.

Have white interior and wrapped the console with white vinyl from Kenriko. Looks better and I like the texture better than the glossy plastic. If you are going to do the other upgrades, recommend this one too.

So you plugged in a hub on the right, and attached:

• 2 USB Drives
• Another Nomad

And the hub is powering everything? Interesting. Agreed with what others said: Would love to know what hub you bought!

Thanks!

 

[Msjulie]

I got one of these https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Premium-Aluminum-Rotatable-HB-R3MC/dp/B013XGK53E (actually a cheaper plastic one that was around the house)

I put it in the outlet for the pass side phone since less used and then plugged the cable for the charger tray and a small usb flash drive in - phone still charges over there as well as dash cam downloading fine

 

[cbardeen]

In response to questions ...

For the USB hub, just went to Best Buy and purchased the portable 3.0 USB hub that they had in the store. Don’t remember the brand and I don’t think it really matters which one you get. Got the flash drives from Amazon ...

Patriot 128GB Supersonic Rage 2 Series USB 3.0 Flash Drive with Up to 400MB/sec Read, 200MB/s Write (PEF128GSR2USB) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SNLGXE0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_r41WBb4Y2PF3E

Could go smaller for the dash cam, but might want bigger for the music if you want to use FLAC. My music library is in iTunes and is about 40 Gb. Used TeslaTunes to export it and then used ToAudioConverter to convert it to FLAC or MP3. Need to convert because the m4a files frequently produced load errors in the Tesla. The MP3 and FLAC format files both seem to work fine. The MP3 files were about the same size as the m4a, but the FLAC are over 200 Gb, so too big for everything on the 128 Gb flash drive I got. There are some issues with the tags on the files that affects how they get sorted in the artist and album views, but seem okay for the most part and the files play fine.

Have no way of knowing how fast the access is to the flash drives, but do know that I can run the dash cam and play music at the same time without problems.

The Nomad has two USB cables and one is plugged in directly to the port on the left and the other is plugged into the hub that is plugged into the right. There is no data transfer with the Nomad, it is just a Qi charger. I have no way of knowing how much power is coming from the left port versus the hub, but used the Amperes app on my phone (iPhone X) to test the charge rate from both sides of the Nomad charger. Got the same results from both sides, which was 2/3 of the rate I got when I plugged the phone into a lighning cable and an Anker multiport charger in my house. Suppose I could disconnect the cable to the hub and see if I get a different charge rate. Only have one phone, so can’t test charging from both sides at the same time. In any event, the charge rate seemed sufficient as I use it mostly for long trips and not for a quick charge on short drives.

 

[cusman]

Says cannot charge iOS devices? So not powerful enough to charge my iPhone?

Reading the production description for Onvian USB Splitter Cable

It seems the one with the red notch is charge only, and doesn't provide sufficient charge for iOS devices. The other cable that doesn't have any red notch will work for charging and data.

Based on this, I don't think this cable will work. What the OP (and me) need is something that will have Data on one of the cables and enough charge for iOS device on the other.

 

[Wildbill]

Reading the production description for Onvian USB Splitter Cable

It seems the one with the red notch is charge only, and doesn't provide sufficient charge for iOS devices. The other cable that doesn't have any red notch will work for charging and data.

Based on this, I don't think this cable will work. What the OP (and me) need is something that will have Data on one of the cables and enough charge for iOS device on the other.

You are right. The other guy who bought this cable was using it to charge his NOMAD wireless pad, which is not an iOS device.

 

[Wildbill]

Y splitter didn’t work for me with Nomad. I tried to use it on both sides to attach two thumb drives. I now have it set up with one side of the Nomad going to left USB and a 4 port USB 3.0 hub on the right. I have the two USB thumb drives and the other Nomad plugged into the hub. One thumb drive is for Tesla Cam and one for music. With that setup, music and dashcam are working. Both sides of the Nomad will charge an iPhone and am getting 815 mA on either side when charging a phone that is at half charge.

Have white interior and wrapped the console with white vinyl from Kenriko. Looks better and I like the texture better than the glossy plastic. If you are going to do the other upgrades, recommend this one too.

In another thread, others are using only one USB drive and partitioning it into 2 drives for both dashcam and music:

V9 - need two USB drives for MP3 play & Cam

This might save you one USB drive

But there are advantages of using separate drives for music and dashcam. In case you want tot take out the music USB drive to add or delete music, the other drive is still available to record video from dash cam. And you don't have to learn how to partition a USB drive

 

[cbardeen]

You are right. The other guy who bought this cable was using it to charge his NOMAD wireless pad, which is not an iOS device.

I tried using the Y splitter with the Nomad and it would not charge when the only connection was the power side of the splitter either using 1 or 2 splitters. I suspect people using Nomad with one side plugged in directly and one via a Y splitter are only getting power from the direct side, but it still allows charging from both bays of the Nomad since the sides use the combined power and are not directly connected to one USB cable. So I went with a hub and direct connection. The Nomad will charge if only connected to the hub side, but probably getting less power than from the direct connection.