V9 - need two USB drives for MP3 play & Cam

[CAM#3]

Only way I found to both use the front cam recorder in V9 and also play MP3 songs on my USB drive was to plug in two different USB drives in the front. First has just a folder "TeslaCam" and the second USB has my MP3s.

If you have just one drive with your MP3s and the TeslaCam folder, it just uses that drive to record the Cam and the media player does not see the MP3s on that drive.

Hope this helps others and maybe in a future SW update Tesla will "fix" this. Drawback of current implementation is that since you use both the front USB ports, you need to plug your charging cable in the back USB ports to charge your phone....

 

[PIEric]

yep, found out about that last night after the upgrade...tsk

 

[thecloud]

Do you need 2 physical USB drives, or can you just partition one drive into two volumes?

 

[EVnut]

Do you need 2 physical USB drives, or can you just partition one drive into two volumes?

Great question. I was wondering about that myself... be nice to free up one of those data ports. There just aren't enough USB ports! The two we have up front were going to be used to charge phones (though low-power) and are now used as data. So.... had to add two more high-power ports!

 

[gilscales]

Great question. I was wondering about that myself... be nice to free up one of those data ports. There just aren't enough USB ports! The two we have up front were going to be used to charge phones (though low-power) and are now used as data. So.... had to add two more high-power ports!

View attachment 343505

Thats clean, was it easy to do?

 

[outie]

Do you need 2 physical USB drives, or can you just partition one drive into two volumes?

Some people have reported success on 2 partitions. However due to the write intensive nature of dashcam recording it might not be a bad idea to keep them separated to decrease failure rate.

 

[shrike]

I use 2 partitions on a single USB key, and it works well. Granted, I just got the update this morning and I've only done some light testing, but it does work. I did have to reformat the partition for the dashcam since I had tested the USB key before getting the update. No problem with the music partition.

 

[SoCalGuy]

Some people have reported success on 2 partitions. However due to the write intensive nature of dashcam recording it might not be a bad idea to keep them separated to decrease failure rate.

I’d like to see more data on this.

Also, can anyone comment on whether or not MP3 music played on a USB stick sounds noticeably better than music played on your phone via Bluetooth?

 

[lolder]

My TeslaCam folder has the video in one minute long clips that Windows XP Media Player won't sequence. I have to look at each one individually.

 

[DUBM3]

Will the USB spitter work? One drive for TeslaCam and One for Audio drive?

 

[lolder]

Will the USB spitter work? One drive for TeslaCam and One for Audio drive?

Yes. I have a 1/3 hub and put the media USB flash and the two charge cables into it. The flash drive with the TeslaCam folder is plugged into the other car outlet.

 

[barjohn]

What format does the music need to be to make it work? I have songs in .M4a from my iTunes and it sees the files but can't play them.

 

[SpiceWare]

Do you need 2 physical USB drives, or can you just partition one drive into two volumes?

I got V9 this morning and had read that 2 partitions would work, so I did that. It worked initially, with dashcam recording while playing music, but when I got back into the car to meet up with my folks for lunch the music worked, but the dashcam showed an X instead of the red recording dot. Tried numerous things, was unable to get it to work again.

 

[McFlurri]

I use 2 partitions on a single USB key, and it works well. Granted, I just got the update this morning and I've only done some light testing, but it does work. I did have to reformat the partition for the dashcam since I had tested the USB key before getting the update. No problem with the music partition.

How do you do that?

I have windows 10 and it only lets me format in exFAT and NTFS..

Is there a program i should use?

 

[SpiceWare]

What format does the music need to be to make it work? I have songs in .M4a from my iTunes and it sees the files but can't play them.

Needs to be FLAC (lossless) or MP3. The Model S used to support m4a, but that stopped working last summer for some reason.

There's a Mac utility, TeslaTunes, that helps but it was written for the S when m4a was still supported so it copies over m4a as is. There is a test build (see post on May 3rd by tattwamasi) that will convert m4a to FLAC, it works OK for the full library/folder of music, but doesn't work correctly if you convert a playlist (it deletes most of the FLAC files at the end of the process !?!?!?) Read further down that test build link to see details about that problem. Tattwamasi has replied, so I'm hopeful he'll be able to fix the playlist bug as my library's too large to convert the entire thing to FLAC.

 

[barjohn]

It seems to be working now with Mp3 so we will see if the two partition setup works with Dashcan or not.

 

[chronopc]

I use 2 partitions on a single USB key, and it works well. Granted, I just got the update this morning and I've only done some light testing, but it does work. I did have to reformat the partition for the dashcam since I had tested the USB key before getting the update. No problem with the music partition.

What did you use to make 2 partitions?

 

[EVnut]

Thats clean, was it easy to do?

Thanks for the nice words. The concept is pretty simple. The execution is rough with arthritic hands. It takes a bit of creativity, and the cajones to pull apart the trim inside a brand new $65,000 car. I tapped into the cig lighter circuit, and ran the power back to the front cell phone charger area. Then the new USB module is blind-fit into that hole (no access to the back, so it is just friction fit into the hole). Works like a champ. While there, I added an extra 12V port behind the carpeted side area for future needs. Next time, no more trim removal, and no more soldering!

 

[barjohn]

What did you use to make 2 partitions?

If you are on a Mac you can use the disk utility. The trick is that you have to enable seeing the drive, not just the volume on the drive. Go to view and check enable all drives. Then format the drive with the apple file system. Then go back to the drive and partition it. After it is partitioned you can format each partition (volume) using FAT32. You need to name each volume when you format it.

 

[shrike]

What did you use to make 2 partitions?

I used Windows 10 diskpart utility. It's a cmdline tool that comes with windows. It's a bit technical but you can see how it works here. Install Windows 10 from a USB Flash Drive

Also, it has to be formatted as FAT32. You can use this free utility to help: Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd