V9 Dashcam, have you made it work?

[hulk2k17]

So the Tesla dashcam has been working fine since Thursday, but I had my first failure today. The icon is completely gone. I've removed the drive and replaced it, not luck. I formatted the drive with my phone and recreated the folder, no luck. I will try an MCU later and report back.

 

[hulk2k17]

So the Tesla dashcam has been working fine since Thursday, but I had my first failure today. The icon is completely gone. I've removed the drive and replaced it, not luck. I formatted the drive with my phone and recreated the folder, no luck. I will try an MCU later and report back.

The answer was "reboot the MCU". I'll continue my process of pausing the recording when I arrive home and then resuming when I'm out/at work. I'm curious to see if the feature will fail again in 3-4 days like it did today.

I don't think this is similar to the "X" error that others are seeing though: Dashcam error, x on icon. Not sure how to fix this, any help would be appreciated. : teslamotors

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I just received V9 and took it on its maiden voyage to work this AM. I have a FAT32 formatted thumbdrive in one of the USB ports (one is already occupied with music thumbdrive) and dashcam icon appeared on MCU screen … all was good (so I thought). My drive is about 45 min and twice during the drive I tapped the DC icon and saw a downloading animation followed by dashcam icon with check box .. I assumed that the 10 min drive was captured and saved. When I got to work, I pressed and held the DC icon to properly dismount the thumbdrive and took it into work. On the drive in the TeslaCam folder, I found the multiple 1 minute clips for the entire drive, but didn't find the two archived 10 min files. I'll need to try again on my way home.

 

[hulk2k17]

Instead of archiving 10 minutes into a single file, it'll rename them from recent_* to saved_*. If you don't have anything named saved_* but the car chimed and showed the download icon on the camera, then something probably went wrong.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Instead of archiving 10 minutes into a single file, it'll rename them from recent_* to saved_*. If you don't have anything named saved_* but the car chimed and showed the download icon on the camera, then something probably went wrong.

Nope, didn't see saved_ files … all files were about 29~30 MB in size. I reformatted again and will try again on my drive home. It's a 64GB drive and I used a utility called FAT32guiformat to reformat it. The drive (Sandisk) arrived FAT32 formatted new in the package. Here's a pic of my setup ….

 

[hulk2k17]

The answer was "reboot the MCU". I'll continue my process of pausing the recording when I arrive home and then resuming when I'm out/at work. I'm curious to see if the feature will fail again in 3-4 days like it did today.

I don't think this is similar to the "X" error that others are seeing though: Dashcam error, x on icon. Not sure how to fix this, any help would be appreciated. : teslamotors

Update: I rebooted the MCU around now and got the dashcam working again. When I left work around 5ish, the dashcam had froze. The last file it wrote was around 12:30. So I guess the problem is that I didn't pause recording and the car fell asleep and broke everything. I plugged the drive into my PC, accepted the prompt to scan for errors and rebooted the MCU again, and everything works again.

I paused recording and left my car in the garage. I guess the takeaway is that recording should be happening when you're driving the car. If you leave the recording on while you are away and the car falls asleep, an MCU reboot is needed.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Nope, didn't see saved_ files … all files were about 29~30 MB in size. I reformatted again and will try again on my drive home. It's a 64GB drive and I used a utility called FAT32guiformat to reformat it. The drive (Sandisk) arrived FAT32 formatted new in the package. Here's a pic of my setup ….

View attachment 344129

Tried again and now see saved files, but each are broken up into 1 min chunks (just like the running recording files). I assumed when saved, the 10 min would concatenate Into one file. Baby steps I suppose.

 

[mattack4000]

Mine is recording, but it has trouble pausing. It worked the first time, but hasn't worked since. Anyone have an idea?

 

[hulk2k17]

Mine is recording, but it has trouble pausing. It worked the first time, but hasn't worked since. Anyone have an idea?

Sounds like time to reformat/ MCU reboot

 

[wraithnot]

edit: This was done with my wife's 2018 Model 3, although I imagine things will be pretty similar on a newer Model S. My 2013 Model S doesn't the hardware for the dashcam.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Third time's the charm. First attempt used a five year old Centon 4GB stick formatted on a Windows 7 laptop. It saved one or two files and then gave the the gray x. A reformat made it work again briefly, but quickly got the gray x. Next attempt was a more recent Lexar 16 GB stick. I first formatted that on a new Windows 10 laptop. That one gave the gray X without even a single readable file. I then tried formatting the 16 GB stick on the windows 7 laptop. This time it mostly worked! It saved a mp4 file every minute. When you tap the dashcam icon, it changes the filenames from recent-front-XXXX to saved-front-XXXX so they don't get overwritten. The partial minute files when the car was turned off weren't readable on the Win 7 laptop.

Here is the text from the command prompt when I tried to read the files after the initial failed attempt with the 16 GB stick, reformatted the stick, and finally had some success:

D:\>dir
Volume in drive D is DASHCAM
Volume Serial Number is 72C4-876F

Directory of D:\

10/16/2018 07:00 AM <DIR> TeslaCam
10/16/2018 07:00 AM <DIR> .cache
The parameter is incorrect.
4,087,808 FSCK0000.REC
1 File(s) 4,087,808 bytes
2 Dir(s) 15,989,833,728 bytes free

D:\>cd TeslaCam

D:\TeslaCam>ls
'ls' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

D:\TeslaCam>dir
Volume in drive D is DASHCAM
Volume Serial Number is 72C4-876F

Directory of D:\TeslaCam

10/15/2018 08:47 PM <DIR> .
10/15/2018 08:47 PM <DIR> ..
10/16/2018 07:07 AM 0 recent-front-2018-10-16_00-07.mp4
1 File(s) 0 bytes
2 Dir(s) 15,989,833,728 bytes free

D:\TeslaCam>format /FS:FAT32 D:
Insert new disk for drive D:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Verifying 15275M

Format cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Format may run if this volume is dismounted first.
ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID.
Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N) Y
Volume dismounted. All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
Initializing the File Allocation Table (FAT)...
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)? DASHY
Format complete.
14.9 GB total disk space.
14.9 GB are available.

8,192 bytes in each allocation unit.
1,953,276 allocation units available on disk.

32 bits in each FAT entry.

Volume Serial Number is 10E9-19FF

D:\>mkdir TeslaCam

D:\>dir
Volume in drive D is DASHY
Volume Serial Number is 10E9-19FF

Directory of D:\

10/16/2018 06:08 PM <DIR> TeslaCam
0 File(s) 0 bytes
1 Dir(s) 16,001,228,800 bytes free

D:\>dir
Volume in drive D is DASHY
Volume Serial Number is 10E9-19FF

Directory of D:\

10/17/2018 01:33 AM <DIR> TeslaCam
10/17/2018 01:11 AM <DIR> .cache
0 File(s) 0 bytes
2 Dir(s) 15,387,844,608 bytes free

D:\>cd TeslaCam

D:\TeslaCam>dir
Volume in drive D is DASHY
Volume Serial Number is 10E9-19FF

Directory of D:\TeslaCam

10/16/2018 06:08 PM <DIR> .
10/16/2018 06:08 PM <DIR> ..
10/17/2018 01:12 AM 27,973,564 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-11.mp4
10/17/2018 01:13 AM 30,456,605 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-12.mp4
10/17/2018 01:14 AM 30,408,858 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-13.mp4
10/17/2018 01:15 AM 30,343,261 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-14.mp4
10/17/2018 01:16 AM 30,015,201 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-15.mp4
10/17/2018 01:17 AM 30,513,316 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-16.mp4
10/17/2018 01:18 AM 30,165,710 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-17.mp4
10/17/2018 01:19 AM 30,144,592 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-18.mp4
10/17/2018 01:20 AM 30,284,407 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-19.mp4
10/17/2018 01:21 AM 30,655,666 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-20.mp4
10/17/2018 01:21 AM 12,339,145 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-21.mp4
10/17/2018 01:26 AM 30,367,826 saved-front-2018-10-16_18-25.mp4
10/17/2018 01:27 AM 30,635,170 saved-front-2018-10-16_18-26.mp4
10/17/2018 01:28 AM 30,504,501 saved-front-2018-10-16_18-27.mp4
10/17/2018 01:29 AM 30,523,364 saved-front-2018-10-16_18-28.mp4
10/17/2018 01:30 AM 30,590,237 saved-front-2018-10-16_18-29.mp4
10/17/2018 01:31 AM 30,420,297 saved-front-2018-10-16_18-30.mp4
10/17/2018 01:32 AM 26,839,287 saved-front-2018-10-16_18-31.mp4
10/17/2018 01:33 AM 30,495,772 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-32.mp4
10/17/2018 01:25 AM 30,427,273 saved-front-2018-10-16_18-24.mp4
10/17/2018 01:33 AM 16,015,647 recent-front-2018-10-16_18-33.mp4
21 File(s) 600,119,699 bytes
2 Dir(s) 15,387,844,608 bytes free

 

[wraithnot]

So the Tesla dashcam has been working fine since Thursday, but I had my first failure today. The icon is completely gone. I've removed the drive and replaced it, not luck. I formatted the drive with my phone and recreated the folder, no luck. I will try an MCU later and report back.

After successfully recording one short trip, it was back to the gray x.

Here is what the command prompt had to say about things after the laptop tried to repair the file system:


D:\>dir
Volume in drive D is DASHY
Volume Serial Number is 10E9-19FF

Directory of D:\

10/17/2018 02:38 AM <DIR> TeslaCam
10/17/2018 01:11 AM <DIR> .cache
The parameter is incorrect.
12,582,912 FSCK0000.REC
The parameter is incorrect.
?E 25,346,048 FSCK0001.REC
The parameter is incorrect.
?E 7,282,688 FSCK0002.REC
The parameter is incorrect.
?E 4,227,072 FSCK0003.REC
4 File(s) 49,438,720 bytes
2 Dir(s) 15,708,356,608 bytes free

 

[melburstein]

Question does anyone know if the new Ver 9 update dash cam work on all vehicles produced after Aug 2017 and most importantly. Do we have to have AP 2 Activated to use the new dashcam.

My 2017 Models was built in August 2017 (AP 2) and the new TeslaCam feature DOES NOT work

 

[PhilDavid]

My 2017 Models was built in August 2017 (AP 2) and the new TeslaCam feature DOES NOT work

What are you doing driving last year's car?!

 

[GalaxySurfer]

Problems and solutions:

Problem: the USB drive doesnt allow me to close the lid/is an eyesore.

Solution: Micro USB drives, still have a large capacity, but are tiny! So small its not a bad idea to attach a keyring to it so its easier to remove once inserted.

Problem: it just doesnt work.
Solution: naturally follow steps to make sure the USB device is formatted correctly (fat32) make sure you created a folder named TeslaCam on the drive and not just named the drive itself, personally my drive is named TESLA with a folder named TeslaCam notice the capital T and C. If still not working re-format and and turn off "quick format" sometimes this helps but takes longer.

Problem: it worked for awhile, but now just displays the x next to cam when i plug it in.

Solution: For some reason on _some_ drives it appears to happen randomly but once the drive is full it stops. (Its supposed to the record over the first recordings allowing for continous recording as long as drive is in) unfortunately the only solution ive found aside from manually clearing the drive each time, is replacing the drive with another.

Currently i prefer micro usb drives made by sandisk 16-32gb i find 32gb seems to be more useful, the "Cruzer Fit" size work well also

 

[wbhokie]

Originally I used a 64GB Cruzer Fit and after a day or two it turned into the "X" icon. Changed to a 16GB version I had (also a cruzer fit) and it has been working now for 3+ days. Not sure if it is just coincidence yet. I still think it will fail eventually unless I manually disable but I'm going to at least let it try to fail on its own first.

 

[Wooloomooloo]

I bought a 128 GB one. Your statement is a common confusion. You can format large drives to FAT32, the limitation was a file size can be no larger than 4GB. Which is why microsoft moved away from FAT 32 a looong time ago.

Which makes you wonder why Tesla have resurrected a 25 year old format. Why didn't they use exFAT? Please don't say compatibility, I can't imagine any Tesla owners are rocking Windows 98...

I assume the video cam files are broken up as they're saved?

 

[hulk2k17]

I'm using a Sandisk Cruzer Fit 64 GB and since the reboot on 10/15, I've been pausing the recording anytime I'm not driving and so far so good. I've not been affected by the "X" icon issue since getting v9; it's mostly been the dashcam icon being on or not appearing until an MCU reboot. I still think that's rooted in the car going to sleep while still recording.

Will continue testing and report here.

I think using bad/old flash memory might be a cause for some of the issues people run into. I use a Samsung Pro Endurance in my DR900S and very happy with it. Ultimately I think when the Tesla dashcam is more feature rich and can gracefully sleep without borking the storage media, the ideal setup will be to use a USB->microsd adapter and record on a high endurance micro sd card that's geared toward continuous writing.

 

[hqubic]

Is there a proper way to eject the usb drive before unplugging?

 

[SpudLime]

Is there a proper way to eject the usb drive before unplugging?

its been recommended to press and hold the icon to stop recording. wait 30 seconds.. then pull it out.

 

[Buster1]

I’ve had the red light on the icon for 2-3 days. Pulled out the USB today and plugged it not the computer... zero recordings. WTF!?