USB Device Malfunction

[DrDabbles]

My comment was specific to the Dashcam/Sentry Mode behavior, and is not associated in any way with charging using the console USB ports.

Gotcha.

and determined that, with Sentry Mode on, the 12v power port remains active and continues to power the USB hub

That's good to know, actually. Thanks!

e-fuse

It should be noted that the "fuses" are actually just transistors. Tesla uses current sensing to determine when an over-current situation has happened and uses the transistor to cut power. So. I think your theory is completely possible. The only curious thing to me is that there are times the alert appears, but the devices are still powered.

I also forget which update brought the warning message, but the problem itself has existed for over a year at this point. Devices silently disconnected from charging and unless your phone made a sound when connecting or disconnecting. I only noticed it because my screen kept turning on and off during a long drive and my thumb drive icon kept disappearing.

I hope a fix comes but at over a year old I fear this is going to be the blacked out backup camera situation all over.

 

[andrewsjra]

My wife and I are both receiving this usb malfunction notification daily when driving our model 3’s. I have a a Jeda usb hub while she is just using a regular usb thumb drive. I never received these notifications until the past 2 software updates. Sometimes it goes away in its own and other times I have to remove the usb hub and reinsert it. Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

[DrDabbles]

My wife and I are both receiving this usb malfunction notification daily when driving our model 3’s. I have a a Jeda usb hub while she is just using a regular usb thumb drive. I never received these notifications until the past 2 software updates. Sometimes it goes away in its own and other times I have to remove the usb hub and reinsert it. Is anyone else experiencing this?

You're post 122 in a thread about that exact issue. Yeah. We're experiencing it.

 

[Benjamin Brooks]

Gotcha.


That's good to know, actually. Thanks!


It should be noted that the "fuses" are actually just transistors. Tesla uses current sensing to determine when an over-current situation has happened and uses the transistor to cut power. So. I think your theory is completely possible. The only curious thing to me is that there are times the alert appears, but the devices are still powered.

I also forget which update brought the warning message, but the problem itself has existed for over a year at this point. Devices silently disconnected from charging and unless your phone made a sound when connecting or disconnecting. I only noticed it because my screen kept turning on and off during a long drive and my thumb drive icon kept disappearing.

I hope a fix comes but at over a year old I fear this is going to be the blacked out backup camera situation all over.

It definitely is not the fault of the USB device. I've seem problems with low powered: fresh SSDs, USB thumb drives, and USB to microSD converters.
Anyone try measuring the Vbus current on the Tesla's USB ports with an inline ammeter to try and catch if it's a power transient issue on the 5V when that annoying popup occurs?
Perhaps Tesla's firmware update changed their USB controller drive strengths or D+/D- disconnect threshold? (this seems to be a very common problem with USB2 interfaces over long/lossy connections). Though that doesn't explain why often the car keeps recording to the USB device, as that would require a silent re-enumeration of the drive. Tesla's MCU detecting and latching some sort of fast real (or not) overcurrent transient at the port seems like the most likely cause of this annoyance.

 

[Scott7]

Anyone seen an improvement on this in the latest updates? Just installed 2021.4.18.2 today but haven’t driven anywhere yet.

 

[sduck]

No.

 

[Perscitus]

Still happening. SSD plugged directly into the pre 2021 USB A port/s, SSD plugged into a Jedda hub, wired and wirelss phone charging, same difference.

 

[skygraff]

Still happening. SSD plugged directly into the pre 2021 USB A port/s, SSD plugged into a Jedda hub, wired and wirelss phone charging, same difference.

Which version of the Jeda hub do you have? Not that it's the issue but they seem to think the newer one doesn't see the error as much (at all?).

 

[Perscitus]

I believe v2. Likely purchased sometime in early 2020.

 

[DrDabbles]

I'm lucky, I'm getting the warning message less often, and instead the drive is just silently disappearing.

I'm expecting this to end up being the same as the blacked out camera image problem- it'll never actually be fixed, it'll just happen randomly, disappear for a while, and come back again. The joy of software, I suppose.

 

[RedModel3]

Ugh. Going to the service center today to have my USB drive replaced. I really hate to think that this could have been solved by better software programming, but that's what it's looking like.

 

[skygraff]

I believe v2. Likely purchased sometime in early 2020.

Since they don’t list their version numbers, is that the current one with 3 USBA and 2 USBC ports on the front?

Have you brought your issues to the attention of Tesla and/or Jeda? Jeda has acknowledged the problem but claim it’s with the older hub (to sell the new one) while Tesla doesn’t seem to acknowledge it at all even though (as has been mentioned in this thread) it’s associated with a firmware update regardless of hub use.

 

[Perscitus]

Yes it's the current one with 3 USB As and two USB Cs as well as the extra 4th USB A in the hidden SSD/flash/M2 compartment.

I did write Jeda. Tesla will not be of any help with anything aftermarket.

The issue is intermittent but has only started to happen now with the last few rounds of these stale 2021.4.x firmwares. No problems all through 2020 and early 2021 with the same hardware setup.

Tesla probably no longer has an early production Model 3 to properly regression test these recent under the hood changes by their new devs.

I wonder if the post refresh Model 3s with the USB Cs and glove box USB connector are seeing the same issues (with, without hubs). I would speculate that the answer is no.

 

[sduck]

I'm using the new jeda hub and haven't experienced any problems with it. Yet. Both ssd's are working reliably. The dashcam/sentry one is a 2 1/2 year old Sandisk and hasn't missed a beat yet.

 

[skygraff]

Well, while Tesla (at least my Service Center) reads the note in the OM as forbidding hubs so they either don’t care about aftermarket or will blame it for any future computer issues, you (and several of us) can report issues with the built in ports and supplied charging cables. For that reason, they should be reviewing the code.

Thanks again!

 

[andrewsjra]

Hopefully v11 fixes this issue. I was fine until one of the early 2021 firmware updates. Since then it has continued to be a problem occurring multiple times a day and even when I’m not in the car. I usually check my notifications and it sometimes happens in the middle of the night. I’m using the original Jeda Hub with a Samsung SSD.

 

[Ajinaz]

Read through this whole thread and figured I would add my wife's 2020 (June 2020 delivery) M3 SR+. No Hub. Nothing ever plugged in to any port except the Tesla Charge Pad and camera drive. Started sporadically in December. When the warning came up the Camera Icon would disappear for a minute and come back. Tried all kinds of drives. SSD, USB, and SD drives.
Situation got much worse in April. Now when the warning comes up the camera Icon disappears and does not come back for a while or requires me to physiaclly unplug drive. A few times I had to reformat in the car to get it to work again. Pretty much nonstop and I did notice that going over a bump was a sure way to make the warning come up. I have video of this occuring. Took it to Service Center and left over night. Their response: "You need to use the OEM Tesla Drive" I knew from all the posts I've read that this wasn't true and so that is what led me to this thread.

 

[Ajinaz]

Ugh. Going to the service center today to have my USB drive replaced. I really hate to think that this could have been solved by better software programming, but that's what it's looking like.

Did you have any luck with replacement?

 

[J1mbo]

Keeping Sentry Mode on all the time seems to help - maybe the car isn't handling "deep sleep" properly wrt the USB ports?

 

[RedModel3]

Did you have any luck with replacement?

I'm not really sure. I read the invoice several times and I couldn't determine if they had actually replaced it or just took it out, looked at it, and put it back in. Theoretically they ordered a part. Whatever happened, everything seems to be working now.