TeslaCam: Don’t use USB flash drive

[Kirby64]

Agree with all the folks here talking about using regular flash drives... There's no real reason to need to use an endurance MicroSD; you just need to use a proper regular flash drive. Super cheap ones obviously won't do as good in hot conditions, but the same would happen with crappy MicroSD cards.

There's flash drives that claim higher write cycles and higher temp operation; I think those should work just as well as any 'endurance' rated microSD. Still though, the king of getting higher endurance is just getting a larger drive. Bigger drive means less full write cycles which is what kills drives.

 

[Lanzer]

I've come to learn that there is a really wide array of flash and microSD drives with varying amount of sustained write speeds, as well as amount of heat generated from continuous use. Two flash drives that I used previously had died, and I eventually moved to using faster and more robust solutions. Many members had mentioned this already, but internal SSD drives that are designed for higher performance will generate less heat, faster at browsing through videos, cost about the same, and should last even longer than micro SD flash.

Lower end 120GB SSD capable of 250MB/s write cost $20, about the same price as 30MB/s micro SD flash cards
240BG SSD cost $30, which is cheaper than high endurance 256GB micro SD cards that fall into the $50 range. If you want to go nuts, an 240GB SSD with 1000MB/s write speed cost $40.

** of course, the performance factors factors for SSD were measured through SATA interface versus USB 3.0 interface for the micro SD drives. Faster drives are an overkill for storing videos, but a drive that doesn't work as hard means less heat generated, and should last longer.

There is a cost to purchasing an USB enclosure of course. That's going to be an extra $13 for a small one, or $17 for an enclosure with USB + SATA interface, an option for faster access if you have a PC with SATA port. It just makes sense to me to have a much faster and robust drive at around the same price. In fact, a Samsung Endurance 256GB micro SD drive plus a USB 3.0 reader will cost more than the SSD solution.

Kingston A400 SSD
Enclosure with SATA + USB Interface

I got the 240GB mode for $10 more so I can store a lot more sentry mode videos before having to clear the drive.

The $17 enclosure is larger, but I'm thinking of mounting a lock on the drive so people can't just snatch the drive away on a break-in. The extra space can let me easily drive a few holes for a lock or a few screws.

 

[jdw]

I've used both the Endurance 128GB MicroSD with an adapter and the Samsung T5 500GB SSD and both ran reliably and cool. I'm currently using the Endurance cards daily (a 64GB for Music and a 128GB one for TeslaCam) as the adapters for them are very stealthy. The Samsung is a very visible target in a smash and grab, but I do use it when I want to carry more music. Both are very fast on the computer side.

 

[m-i-l]

I had a similar experience. Drive appeared corrupted when I put it in the computer, although I was able to use some disk recovery tools to rebuild the damaged partition and get the data out, only to find that it had stopped recording the previous day (and thinking back I don't think I saw the TeslaCam icon after the time it had stopped). Going to give that drive one more go but might need to try a less cheap one.

 

[MarcEMarc]

So I purchased a

Samsung 256GB FIT Plus USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A Flash Drive

I have yet to get my 2017 model S 100D to see it despite being on the most up to date firmware (now 2019.32.2.2.da05838).
I have formatted it FAT32 and EXFAT with no change - still doesn’t light up the little icon on the screen.
I have an old (very old) 1 Gb usb flash which the car sees just fine over and over.

I purchased the Samsung 256 Gb flash drive after reading on here how so many people had no problems with them. The drive works everywhere else in all other devices but it doesn’t every get seen in my Tesla

Any ideas out there?

As I said, I have
- formatted it FAT32 and EXFAT no change
- copied the file structure from the working 1 Gb drive to the 256Gb drive - no change
- reformatted it multiple times - no change

Help is appreciated.

 

[brianman]

I've been using one of these for the last couple of weeks with good results:



500 GB of very fast storage for under $80. It has a single port on it (USB-C) and it came with two cords about 18" in length, one USB-C to USB-C that I use in the fast USB-C port of my laptop and a USB-C to USB port that I plug into the Tesla USB port. Interestingly, it is the perfect thickness to also plug into the USB to USB-C cord that came with my Model 3 so this sweet little unit can be plugged into the phone dock with one hand if you want.

Samsung Portable SSD T5 | Samsung External Storage ?

 

[jebinc]

So I purchased a

Samsung 256GB FIT Plus USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A Flash Drive

I have yet to get my 2017 model S 100D to see it despite being on the most up to date firmware (now 2019.32.2.2.da05838).
I have formatted it FAT32 and EXFAT with no change - still doesn’t light up the little icon on the screen.
I have an old (very old) 1 Gb usb flash which the car sees just fine over and over.

I purchased the Samsung 256 Gb flash drive after reading on here how so many people had no problems with them. The drive works everywhere else in all other devices but it doesn’t every get seen in my Tesla

Any ideas out there?

As I said, I have
- formatted it FAT32 and EXFAT no change
- copied the file structure from the working 1 Gb drive to the 256Gb drive - no change
- reformatted it multiple times - no change

Help is appreciated.

I have this drive in my Model 3 and it works just fine. Never an issue.

 

[S3XY]

Samsung Portable SSD T5 | Samsung External Storage ?

This is what I've been using for the last year and a half and it's still working fine.

 

[alanbyvale]

I assume you have created the TeslaCam folder on the drive?

 

[XLR82XS]

I have this drive in my Model 3 and it works just fine. Never an issue.

Having an issue with this drive now. Worked fine for ~2 weeks now it's not recognized by the car. Reading here it seems V10 software may be the culprit. Anyone confirm this? (2019.36.2.1)

 

[SoccerMan94043]

Having an issue with this drive now. Worked fine for ~2 weeks now it's not recognized by the car. Reading here it seems V10 software may be the culprit. Anyone confirm this? (2019.36.2.1)

I have the same Samsung USB. A few weeks after V10, I started getting "too slow" errors (likely due to the addition of the 4th camera). I could remove it and put it back in and it would work for a week or so and then fail again. I tried reformatting and moving it to different ports, but eventually it would fail with the "too slow" error.

I switched to a fairly cheap SSD (I paid 49.99 but it looks more expensive now: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PJJL9ZV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) two weeks ago and so far so good (I need many months to be sure though).

 

[destructure00]

I have the same Samsung USB. A few weeks after V10, I started getting "too slow" errors (likely due to the addition of the 4th camera). I could remove it and put it back in and it would work for a week or so and then fail again. I tried reformatting and moving it to different ports, but eventually it would fail with the "too slow" error.

I switched to a fairly cheap SSD (I paid 49.99 but it looks more expensive now: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PJJL9ZV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) two weeks ago and so far so good (I need many months to be sure though).

I had the same problem with the same Samsung thumb drive. I also swapped to a PNY 240gb SSD ($26) with a USB adapter, it's been fine for a couple months now.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0719D9YL7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Lanzer]

Having an issue with this drive now. Worked fine for ~2 weeks now it's not recognized by the car. Reading here it seems V10 software may be the culprit. Anyone confirm this? (2019.36.2.1)

I'm curious, does the drive run hot when it's plugged into the car?

When my old thumb drive died, it no longer register when it's plugged into a regular PC. Does your drive not get recognized also?

I do suspect that there are aspects of the Tesla dashcam software that lead to certain drives failing faster, namely having a massive amount of writes and rewrites which can ultimately kill any flash devices. Though I do wonder if certain variables would affect the lifespan of a usb drive.

It's been known that even though flash drive manufactures claim a certain operating temperature, when a drive gets hot, the lifespan decreases significantly, so two aspects come into mind: 1) the physical size of the drive for heat dissipation 2) the heat generated from writing at a certain amount of data per second. At the end of the day. The flash drive needs to be able to write fast and stay cool. A usb drive's flash controller will also govern this aspect, but you rarely find any data on heat vs throughput.

I'm sure that there are other factors at play such as how SLC memory vs the cheaper MLC memory can last 10 times longer, or how the modern 3D NAND layout is more reliable than the old MLC memory, or maybe the wear leveling algorithm can be different, but for now I'm sticking with my SSD drive. Let's see how long the SSD last in the long run.

 

[Knightshade]

I have the same Samsung USB. A few weeks after V10, I started getting "too slow" errors (likely due to the addition of the 4th camera).

Nope. That's already been debunked in various threads including this one back on page 1.

4th camera raised write speed from 1.5MB/s to 2MB/s

Or about 5 times slower than the slowest large USB keys on the market do sustained writes at.... and roughly 20-30 times slower than Samungs better USB keys can do sustained writes.


Mine continues to run like a champ over a year since I began using it for teslacam.... only thing I do is every few months I pull it and clean out unneeded files (it's usually 40-60% full by then, so I never let it get more full... flash storage (even SSDs) can slow considerably as they fill up too much.

 

[Scrannel]

Using one like this -- works perfectly.

Kartenleser Multifunctional OTG Card Reader Micro SD / SD Card / USB Reader | Wish

 

[Kevy Baby]

How many threads do we need on this topic?

 

[solodogg]

Having an issue with this drive now. Worked fine for ~2 weeks now it's not recognized by the car. Reading here it seems V10 software may be the culprit. Anyone confirm this? (2019.36.2.1)

Perform a slow format on the drive, and it will correct the issues. I had the same issue with mine, and BlackMagic Disk Speed Test confirmed erratic write speeds. After doing a double pass slow format in macOS, write speeds were restored to a solid 30+mb/s and the drive is recognized by the car again.

I did end up swapping to a SanDisk microSD card to see if it's anymore reliable. Write speeds were the same as the flash drive, read speeds were much slower than the flash drive, but both were much more consistent.

 

[Lanzer]

I have the Kingston A400 SSD, but Walmart is selling A Hyundai 120GB SSD drive for $16 right now, might be worth a look:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyundai-120GB-Internal-Solid-State-Drive-2-5-SATA-SATA-600-500-MB-s/126446416

240GB version is $26. You'll need a SATA to usb adapter on top of the drive.

 

[SoccerMan94043]

Nope. That's already been debunked in various threads including this one back on page 1.

4th camera raised write speed from 1.5MB/s to 2MB/s

Or about 5 times slower than the slowest large USB keys on the market do sustained writes at.... and roughly 20-30 times slower than Samungs better USB keys can do sustained writes.


Mine continues to run like a champ over a year since I began using it for teslacam.... only thing I do is every few months I pull it and clean out unneeded files (it's usually 40-60% full by then, so I never let it get more full... flash storage (even SSDs) can slow considerably as they fill up too much.

And you've ran how many measured read/write tests across how many drives?

The drive is definitely getting the error, though I'm not entirely sure why (it could all be luck of the draw on the quality or bad Tesla programming). Regardless is isn't working and I wouldn't recommend spending money on that solution.

 

[Snow Drift]

Having an issue with this drive now. Worked fine for ~2 weeks now it's not recognized by the car. Reading here it seems V10 software may be the culprit. Anyone confirm this? (2019.36.2.1)

Same here with the Samsung.

I have the same Samsung USB. A few weeks after V10, I started getting "too slow" errors (likely due to the addition of the 4th camera). I could remove it and put it back in and it would work for a week or so and then fail again. I tried reformatting and moving it to different ports, but eventually it would fail with the "too slow" error.

I switched to a fairly cheap SSD (I paid 49.99 but it looks more expensive now: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PJJL9ZV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) two weeks ago and so far so good (I need many months to be sure though).

I need to try an SSD. I keep having to reformat the USB when it's only 50% full for the write speed error.