USB Drive for Sentry Mode and more

[Joelly]

Hi All,

Im after a bit of help.

1. I am about to purchase a device for sentry mode and i was wondering what peoples recommendations were. I have just seen USB Flash Drives for Tesla Dashcam | TeslaTap who recommend an adapter and SSD card. I was wondering if someone could please clarify why they recommend that as a USB drive looks to have better performance and less fiddly. Finally, what does each size correlate to? 64gb = X hours of video + Y stored ( I Imagine I will store quite a lot and clear this every few months). Please also provide recommendations for devices that you own.

2. I was also looking at ScanMyTesla and therefore a OBD connector. I am likely to get TeslaFi (Yes I will be looking for a referral) and i was wondering whether ScanMyTesla provides additional data to TeslaFi, especially battery and charging related data (Total used, total used to drive, total regen, battery degradation etc). Does TeslaFi just use the same data that ScanMyTesla would be using? if so it seems pointless having both, however if they do use different data then ScanMyTesla seems like a one off cost which id be interested in.

3. Finally I was looking for a 25m extension lead for 3 pin plug that would be suitable for charging in emergencies. Emergencies being when away from home and no public charging so irregular, but for extended periods when in use.
I have seen 13A weatherproof extension lead (compatible with all EVs) - 25m, in line RCD (Whats the difference between in line and plug/consequences if it goes wrong?) and 1.5mmsq. I have heard that although 1.5mm is ok, higher would be better but i'm struggling to find anything higher. I'd happily spend a bit more on something that will give me more peace of mind and possibly last longer anyway?

All help is much appreciated.

 

[MrBadger]

I am likely to get TeslaFi (Yes I will be looking for a referral)

Done

Inline RCD allows the cable to be plugged into sockets with limited access - Ie weatherproof sockets. 1.5mm is a legal limit on non moulded sockets - 2.5mm is generally too thick to be correctly secured in a non moulded plug. You won’t have a problem with that cable - Adrian wouldn’t sell it if he was not confident it will reliably last. The cable he uses is not standard cable so is very flexible and robust in any likely condition you are likely to encounter - rats excluded!

Not all flash memory is made from same technology so some, like endurance SD cards or SSD, will have more write cycles. An endurance card may have 1000 cycle warranty, a typivmcal USB card maybe 300. An SD based solution is also likely to have better tolerance to heat as they do not need to be so tightly packaged.

As the cards are limited write cycles, how long they last will be based upon individual usage. A 128GB endurance card should last >year if used 24/7, but most people won’t use sentry 24/7 due to battery drain so reality will be 2 or more years. I recon we will get 4+ years with our usage. The USB cable is more likely to fail.

Size of card only really matters now for lifespan - a 128GB card will typically have twice lifespan as a 64GB card as it only overwrites half the number of times.

As for storage. Dash cam only saves last hour unless manually saved and sentry only 10 minutes iirc. So apart from watching, they now typically self manage

TeslaFi is official Tesla api data about 1 minute interval albeit unofficially documented. Scan my Tesla is Canbus data so much lower level data available and higher resolution But probably overkill for most.

 

[WannabeOwner]

whether ScanMyTesla provides additional data to TeslaF

Real time data, e.g. acceleration, and also whether Stators are heating and stuff like that.

TeslaFi is car state (ALL api variables) stored twice a minute when driving, every minute the rest of the time, for the lifetime of the vehicle (well ... provided you continue to subscribe ). Easy analysis of individual trips / charging sessions etc. including debugging "When did my car charge last night?" and then discovering that it kept stop/starting (without e.g. TeslaFi you would never know that ...). Scheduling. battery degradation over time and lots more

 

[WannabeOwner]

I was looking for a 25m extension lead for 3 pin plug that would be suitable for charging in emergencies. Emergencies being when away from hom

I got mine from Industrial Extension Leads. Robust H07RN-F tough rubber cable, and over-sized so that when daisy chained with UMC it isn't borderline.

But ti raises the question of whether, when plugging in to Rellies knackered garden shed socket, you also need RCD etc.

My approach is to check temperature of plug after a bit, and before retiring to bed.

 

[Joelly]

Thanks for your replies.

You won’t have a problem with that cable

Thanks for this.

Not all flash memory is made from same technology so some, like endurance SD cards or SSD, will have more write cycles. An endurance card may have 1000 cycle warranty, a typivmcal USB card maybe 300. An SD based solution is also likely to have better tolerance to heat as they do not need to be so tightly packaged.

So is that a recommendation for an SD card with an adapter or have I misinterpreted?

As for storage. Dash cam only saves last hour unless manually saved and sentry only 10 minutes iirc. So apart from watching, they now typically self manage

on this point, If I would like to save a 1-5 minute clip, how would I go about this? is it easy to do? Also playback wise, what is required to view the footage? i see one of the selling points of the adapter is that it can be plugged into a phone for ease of viewing, does it work like that in reality(ie, get to destination, plug in and rewatched and then make a decision as to save or not)?

TeslaFi is official Tesla api data about 1 minute interval albeit unofficially documented. Scan my Tesla is Canbus data so much lower level data available and higher resolution But probably overkill for most.

My real concern is around quality of data, if TeslaFi data is as accurate, just less frequent then that would be fine. Im mainly concerned about trip data or lifetime data, I dont require data on power usage per second for instance.

 

[Joelly]

It would be great if people could provide their recommendations for actual products that are worth considering.
Sounds like an Endurance product with a high number of write cycles with varying capacity?

 

[MrBadger]

So is that a recommendation for an SD card with an adapter or have I misinterpreted?

Its a recommendation for an SD 'Endurance' card (is designed for dashcam/cctv recording) or an SSD in an enclosure that will not suffer from heat build up, ie not tightly packed.

on this point, If I would like to save a 1-5 minute clip, how would I go about this? is it easy to do? Also playback wise, what is required to view the footage? i see one of the selling points of the adapter is that it can be plugged into a phone for ease of viewing, does it work like that in reality(ie, get to destination, plug in and rewatched and then make a decision as to save or not)?

TeslaCam is an afterthought. Its very basic.

You can save an hours (? 10min) worth of dashcam footage only whilst driving by pressing dashcam icon on screen or now by honking the horn if option enabled. Unfortunately it is not continuous recording so 2+ seconds in every minute do not get recorded - often the critical moment! To view it, you need to remove the USB drive, or something like raspberry pi solution to transfer it to a home server. USB sticks with wifi will unlikely last well as I believe they are basic USB technologyIt will only have last hours of drive or the clips you saved. Lots of different solutions to view the actual footage - they are standard video files but some solutions allow you to playback multiple synchronised cameras - you cannot view anything on in car screen. Sentry is similar, but clips are saved when sentry goes off - you get number of events shown on screen, but its very sensitive and even gets triggered by rain. Unfortunately TeslaCam has a mind of its own when it shuts down, so once in a while will corrupt the drive - especially when removing USB - as a result, I rotate 2 SD cards so I can view at leisure.

My real concern is around quality of data, if TeslaFi data is as accurate, just less frequent then that would be fine. Im mainly concerned about trip data or lifetime data, I dont require data on power usage per second for instance.

TeslaFi will do what you want

 

[Adopado]

including debugging "When did my car charge last night?" and then discovering that it kept stop/starting (without e.g. TeslaFi you would never know that ...)

Unless your charge point app draws you a graph of last night's charge, like the Zappi for instance ...

 

[WannabeOwner]

Unless your charge point app draws you a graph of last night's charge, like the Zappi for instance ...

That tells you that charging stopped, but not all the salient data in the car at that time which is what is likely to enable you to associate Cause and thus diagnose the problem. Having similar data from the charger, too, is helpful if there is a fault with the charger of course

 

[up_north]

I think for 25m, a 2.5mm cable might be more ‘comfortable’. I’m looking at this: Heavy duty RCD plug to IP66 outdoor socket Kit

 

[DaddyCool]

On the USB/Sentry side has anyone managed to source a genuine Raspberry Pi Zero W?
(Headerless and not shipped from China or a <£5 rip off)
They appear to be like rocking horse shite right now.

 

[MrBadger]

Safely Charging your Electric Vehicle 30m with RCD still within spec. I run 15m and things don't even get warm.

Also, the Tesla UMC Gen 2 has a very thick rigid lead which can cause it to 'rock' out of most weatherproof sockets during the course of a charge. ToughLeads recently investigated the cause of this and tested other vehicle lead combinations. They modified their choice of socket to specifically resolve this issue, so they can now guarantee that their socket is fully compatible with the Tesla GEN 2 UMC. They sent me out a DIY fix to retrospectively resolve the issue with my cable. The fix was a fractionally thicker socket to stop the cable rocking over the weatherproof seal. So anyone choosing an alternative solution, needs to be aware of the issue with the UMC plug potentially working its way out of the socket.

 

[Torokruger]

On the USB/Sentry side has anyone managed to source a genuine Raspberry Pi Zero W?
(Headerless and not shipped from China or a <£5 rip off)
They appear to be like rocking horse shite right now.

Maybe the guy making the Roadie is buying all the stock..... I got mine before he released his product to market through the Pi Hut
Have set it all up with Marcone/Teslausb and sometimes it works sometimes not so its a bit crap to be honest have gone back to SSD

 

[MacPaul]

Maybe the guy making the Roadie is buying all the stock..... I got mine before he released his product to market through the Pi Hut
Have set it all up with Marcone/Teslausb and sometimes it works sometimes not so its a bit crap to be honest have gone back to SSD

Same here. RPi Zero with TeslaUSB.

Worked fine for a few weeks now I can’t get it working at all. Need to do some more testing to see if it’s the board or the memory card or the config.

I would go back to a couple of thumb drives but that seems to be pot luck whether you get a good one.

 

[WannabeOwner]

ToughLeads

Good to hear your story.

I contacted ToughLeads for a Schuko lead adaptor. Apologised that I had left it late and was about to set off for France ... they made up the lead that day and sent it out so I got it the following morning. Good service, 5 stars, would-use-again and all that jazz

https://www.toughleads.co.uk/

 

[nightowl]

I'm currently using a Raspberry Pi Zero W with one of the TeslaUSB variants. Can't remember where I got it from now.

It seemed like a neat idea but I'm strongly considering swiching to a memory stick or SSD now. It's too unreliable. Occasionally it just stops working at random whilst driving. Music cuts out and USB option disappears from the media player, dashcam icon still shows but I'm not convinced it's recording at that point.

When I arrive home, it connects to the WiFi but sometimes doesn't find the shared folders so nothing happens. Music often doesn't sync for a couple of days.

Also the car pulls the power when it goes to sleep which seems to be very quick. There are workarounds for this though.

It just seems a lot easier to just bring the memory stick or SSD indoors if I want to look at something.

 

[MrBadger]

Many of the bulkier USB devices seem to be prone to intermittent USD plug/socket electro-mechanical issues. So make sure that the USB plug has a robust fit and is adequately supported - my SD card adaptor is velcro'd to the underside of the phone shelf.

 

[pmagowan]

I have just stuck in a two hundred odd gig endurance card with a usb adapter. I formatted on a mac to ms-dos fat 32 and created the teslacam folder. Only the sentry mode icon pops up not the teslacam when driving. I have a device to read it on my phone so will check if it is recording. (2017 MS)

 

[Adopado]

That tells you that charging stopped, but not all the salient data in the car at that time which is what is likely to enable you to associate Cause and thus diagnose the problem. Having similar data from the charger, too, is helpful if there is a fault with the charger of course

Yes Teslafi gives far more extensive information of course. My comment about the Zappi graph was only in response to: "When did my car charge last night?" and then discovering that it kept stop/starting (without e.g. TeslaFi you would never know that ...)" I would know because the Zappi graph shows when it started, how the rate varied throughout the period of charging, when the charge stopped and if it started again at a later time.

 

[WannabeOwner]

created the teslacam folder

I don't know, but is it case sensitive? TeslaCam