Way to take screenshots from console screen?

[Rothgarr]

I came across an old thread in the Model S forum about taking screenshots using a combination of clicks on the steering wheel, but no way to access the saved screenshots.

Since this topic hasn't been revisited in a long time I figured I'd ask if anyone knew if there was a way in a Model 3 to both take screenshots of the console screen and access them somehow.

 

[Pkmmte]

/bump

I'm working on a web project and this would be very useful for showcasing.

 

[Dan203]

Tweet at Elon. Occasionally he sees things like this and just says "sure" and a few months later we have the feature.

 

[FalconFour]

Bumpity bump.

Really looking for a way to do this in hardware, if software isn't possible (it is, technically, but not today). I want to capture the display and sync it with dashcam video to show what's happening during driving. Seems so damn ugly and hacky to point a camera at it. What's the display interface, anyway - LVDS at some point, and that can be captured (but it's ugly and would likely involve tearing apart the display), but isn't there some interface leading up to the screen that could be tapped easier?

Seems that nobody has really asked this, and that just seems awfully strange. I'm sure the hardcore Tesla hackers like @greentheonly on Twitter would've been close to this, but they keep their secrets fairly well guarded, never revealing the methods...

 

[dmurphy]

Bumpity bump.

Really looking for a way to do this in hardware, if software isn't possible (it is, technically, but not today). I want to capture the display and sync it with dashcam video to show what's happening during driving. Seems so damn ugly and hacky to point a camera at it. What's the display interface, anyway - LVDS at some point, and that can be captured (but it's ugly and would likely involve tearing apart the display), but isn't there some interface leading up to the screen that could be tapped easier?

Seems that nobody has really asked this, and that just seems awfully strange. I'm sure the hardcore Tesla hackers like @greentheonly on Twitter would've been close to this, but they keep their secrets fairly well guarded, never revealing the methods...

Possible, absolutely. It’s done every day ... by Tesla. No way for us lame-o’s to access that interface.

 

[miracj]

Bumpity bump.

Really looking for a way to do this in hardware, if software isn't possible (it is, technically, but not today). I want to capture the display and sync it with dashcam video to show what's happening during driving. Seems so damn ugly and hacky to point a camera at it. What's the display interface, anyway - LVDS at some point, and that can be captured (but it's ugly and would likely involve tearing apart the display), but isn't there some interface leading up to the screen that could be tapped easier?

Seems that nobody has really asked this, and that just seems awfully strange. I'm sure the hardcore Tesla hackers like @greentheonly on Twitter would've been close to this, but they keep their secrets fairly well guarded, never revealing the methods...

Syncing two or more cameras is pretty easy. You can just have the time code of the videos matched up using internal time of the videos, sound or video frames that have something common to both, the date and time of the files, using a clock display in the videos etc. Just use a digital video editor (I use Magix Vegas) and it is relatively simple. Best thing to do is never stop the video once you start.

 

[FalconFour]

Syncing two or more cameras is pretty easy. You can just have the time code of the videos matched up using internal time of the videos, sound or video frames that have something common to both, the date and time of the files, using a clock display in the videos etc. Just use a digital video editor (I use Magix Vegas) and it is relatively simple. Best thing to do is never stop the video once you start.

Forget all that. I want to know how these YouTubers are getting direct capture:

They've teased "I'll make a video about it ^_^" but shared no other details. This is what I've been itching for all along. Super useful for other things outside of this, but since learning the screen used a proprietary coaxial interface for touch, power, and data all at once... it seemed impossible. I REALLY want to know how it was cracked!

 

[drtimhill]

Bumpity bump.

Really looking for a way to do this in hardware, if software isn't possible (it is, technically, but not today). I want to capture the display and sync it with dashcam video to show what's happening during driving. Seems so damn ugly and hacky to point a camera at it. What's the display interface, anyway - LVDS at some point, and that can be captured (but it's ugly and would likely involve tearing apart the display), but isn't there some interface leading up to the screen that could be tapped easier?

Seems that nobody has really asked this, and that just seems awfully strange. I'm sure the hardcore Tesla hackers like @greentheonly on Twitter would've been close to this, but they keep their secrets fairly well guarded, never revealing the methods...

DirtyTesla seems to have found a way to do it for the FSD beta videos on YT...

 

[drtimhill]

Bumpity bump.

Really looking for a way to do this in hardware, if software isn't possible (it is, technically, but not today). I want to capture the display and sync it with dashcam video to show what's happening during driving. Seems so damn ugly and hacky to point a camera at it. What's the display interface, anyway - LVDS at some point, and that can be captured (but it's ugly and would likely involve tearing apart the display), but isn't there some interface leading up to the screen that could be tapped easier?

Seems that nobody has really asked this, and that just seems awfully strange. I'm sure the hardcore Tesla hackers like @greentheonly on Twitter would've been close to this, but they keep their secrets fairly well guarded, never revealing the methods...

You might want to look at this:

 

[FalconFour]

You might want to look at this

This is great progress, but unfortunately still no information about what's in that magic black box created by a benevolent Twitter user.

I hope to get that info out to more people, so this question can be answered for more than just a couple in-the-know people

HDMI capture (which is 95% of that video) is the easy part. Getting the HDMI (skimmed over as "this black box") is the real meat of the question here. I feel like we're almost there. I pinged @aimfulwandering on Twitter hoping to get some info out in the open, not just in PM.

Perhaps not many people realize that what comes into the screen isn't HDMI, or anything that can be easily adapted... it's a proprietary coaxial connector. So the question of "what is it?!" is a very apt one...

 

[FalconFour]

And here we go, the complete nerd juiciness that fully answers the question. It's LVDS capture - something I ruled out as all being in-circuit, but evidently it's not THAT tightly integrated in the Tesla system. There's still an exposed LVDS connector inside. Interesting. The hard part is figuring out how to open the screen - since it's incredibly heat-resistant and thus any adhesives would be impossible to melt - more likely RTV sealant of some sort.

Round 2: "now, how do we open the thing?"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1440158635955408899

Preserved in case it disappears somehow in the distant future:

MCU/ICE's Intel SoC outputs HDMI, which is serialized as FPD-Link III via a TI DS90UB949-Q1. FPD-Link III goes to the screen via Rosenberger HSD + 2 cable. Screen deserializes FPD-Link III via a TI DS90UB948-Q1. I tap the dual link LVDS signal there and re-convert to HDMI out.

Breaking that down:
FPD-Link III serialization/deserialization (that is: taking a bunch of separate pins, squishing it into a single set of pins, then reconstructing it on the other side):

Rosenberger HSD+2 cable (not needed for the capture, but this is the description of the cable used in the display):

LVDS back to HDMI:

Amazing how high-density that tweet is of useful information.