# V9 / V10 Features: Dashcam



## MelindaV

for the big Version 9 release, we are going to have dedicated feature specific threads. Please use the MEGA thread for general fw discussion, using these for known specific features once the fw is being used.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

I put together this video to help get ready for the dashcam functionality. I hope it helps!


----------



## webdriverguy

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I put together this video to help get ready for the dashcam functionality. I hope it helps!


Nice one I like it


----------



## FF35




----------



## JWardell

In preparation for v9 dash cam functionality, I ordered a SanDisk wireless flash drive* and small USB hub so I can connect phone, and one flash drive for cam and my existing USB stick for music.

Release notes state that dash cam can't use same drive as music drive. I hope that is resolved some day, but another drive plus hub isn't expensive.
I thought the wireless drive would be useful so that in case of accident etc, files could easily and immediately be downloaded to phone. This is why my existing dash cams have wifi. *Note that only the 32GB version of this model is FAT32 formatted according to reviews, larger sizes may or may not work.


----------



## ER1C8

JWardell said:


> In preparation for v9 dash cam functionality, I ordered a SanDisk wireless flash drive* and small USB hub so I can connect phone, and one flash drive for cam and my existing USB stick for music.
> 
> Release notes state that dash cam can't use same drive as music drive. I hope that is resolved some day, but another drive plus hub isn't expensive.
> I thought the wireless drive would be useful so that in case of accident etc, files could easily and immediately be downloaded to phone. This is why my existing dash cams have wifi. *Note that only the 32GB version of this model is FAT32 formatted according to reviews, larger sizes may or may not work.


I like that drive. Being able to get to the footage wirelessly would be nice. I might buy the same drive.


----------



## webdriverguy

ER1C8 said:


> I like that drive. Being able to get to the footage wirelessly would be nice. I might buy the same drive.


I like it too but I want 128 Gigs


----------



## UTexas98

Then buy the 128 GB version.  It's easily formatted to FAT32. @JWardell, I look forward to hearing how the drive and hub works out for you.



webdriverguy00 said:


> I like it too but I want 128 Gigs


----------



## Rich M

JWardell said:


> d small USB hub so I can connect phone, and one flash drive for cam and my existing USB stick for music.


Others have indicated the car recognizes a multi-partitioned USB stick as two drives. I would try that first before using a hub since each USB port doesn't put out much current.


----------



## Kevin W.

Editing this as I'm not certain it is the case that we're allowed to discuss this yet. First rule of fight club...

My apologies if I jumped the gun!


----------



## JWardell

Rich M said:


> Others have indicated the car recognizes a multi-partitioned USB stick as two drives. I would try that first before using a hub since each USB port doesn't put out much current.


Great idea!



Kevin W. said:


> (I am hearing that they are sending V9 to wide release so I hope it's okay to discuss this now!)
> 
> Anyone using this yet? I am wondering about the file structure. When I plug the USB into my computer, I see the various .mov files that are just the looped, incremental record files. However, there are .REC files outside of the TeslaCam folder that seem to have been created when I clicked the "save" on the screen. But I can't open those. It suggest VLC Player, but won't open. Anyone have suggestions?


What if you change the file name to .mov or .m4v ? Are the files large enough to be videos?

I can't test things or troubleshoot until I have v9 myself. Hopefully soon.


----------



## dragonvoi

looking at the videos, there is a time stamp but, the date modified time stamp is off by 5 hours. first video was taken at 12:42


----------



## RichEV

seeing the word "front" in the file name is a good sign for future enhancements.


----------



## Marvin McCreary

JWardell said:


> In preparation for v9 dash cam functionality, I ordered a SanDisk wireless flash drive* and small USB hub so I can connect phone, and one flash drive for cam and my existing USB stick for music.
> 
> Release notes state that dash cam can't use same drive as music drive. I hope that is resolved some day, but another drive plus hub isn't expensive.
> I thought the wireless drive would be useful so that in case of accident etc, files could easily and immediately be downloaded to phone. This is why my existing dash cams have wifi. *Note that only the 32GB version of this model is FAT32 formatted according to reviews, larger sizes may or may not work.


I read the description of the SanDisk wireless USB drive and it notes that the wireless feature does not work while plugged into a PC. ...if I need to unplug to get the data off it might be better to get one that can plug into your phone to quickly offload videos. ...I was thinking about this one: 
SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad - SDIX30C-032G-GN6NN


----------



## Rich M

New text indicates any video clip older than 1 hour will be deleted regardless of how much space you have on your drive. So it sounds like it can never use any more than 1.8 GB plus ~300 MB for each 10 min clip you choose to save. This makes it super important to remember to hit the save button within 10 minutes of anything interesting happening.


----------



## MelindaV

Rich M said:


> New text indicates any video clip older than 1 hour will be deleted regardless of how much space you have on your drive. So it sounds like it can never use any more than 1.8 GB plus ~300 MB for each 10 min clip you choose to save. This makes it super important to remember to hit the save button within 10 minutes of anything interesting happening.
> 
> View attachment 15561


My first take reading that line was that any 10 minute clips you have saved, need to be downloaded off the drive within an hour, not that it clears out any data more than 1 hr old. could be worded a little better, whichever the case is.


----------



## JWardell

Marvin McCreary said:


> I read the description of the SanDisk wireless USB drive and it notes that the wireless feature does not work while plugged into a PC. ...if I need to unplug to get the data off it might be better to get one that can plug into your phone to quickly offload videos. ...I was thinking about this one:
> SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad - SDIX30C-032G-GN6NN


It has a built-in battery and you simply press the button to turn it on in wifi mode while it is in your hand etc. You can very easily browse its contents from the phone app.


----------



## Rich M

MelindaV said:


> My first take reading that line was that any 10 minute clips you have saved, need to be downloaded off the drive within an hour, not that it clears out any data more than 1 hr old. could be worded a little better, whichever the case is.


Nah, cause on a long trip with no access to a computer you'd lose everything. Locking the file with the save button creates a 10 min clip and makes it permanent, which is the usual operation on normal dash cams. I'm pretty sure it's saying the unsaved, routine 1-minute clips will be cleared out one by one after an hour.
But my big question is, for the non-saved clips, does it delete by number of clips (60 clips at 1 minute each, always deleting the oldest), or does it delete by timestamp (if car is parked for 2 hours, it immediately deletes all clips on the next startup because they are all >1 hour old. The latter doesn't make any sense, but I am not the one writing the code.


----------



## UTexas98

The vast majority of trips are less than 60 mins. I'd have to assume it keeps 60 1 min clips. Their goal *should* be to give you a reasonable amount of recorded history and not fill up your drive with useless files.



Rich M said:


> Nah, cause on a long trip with no access to a computer you'd lose everything. Locking the file with the save button creates a 10 min clip and makes it permanent, which is the usual operation on normal dash cams. I'm pretty sure it's saying the unsaved, routine 1-minute clips will be cleared out one by one after an hour.
> But my big question is, for the non-saved clips, does it delete by number of clips (60 clips at 1 minute each, always deleting the oldest), or does it delete by timestamp (if car is parked for 2 hours, it immediately deletes all clips on the next startup because they are all >1 hour old. The latter doesn't make any sense, but I am not the one writing the code.


----------



## Rich M

UTexas98 said:


> The vast majority of trips are less than 60 mins. I'd have to assume it keeps 60 1 min clips. Their goal *should* be to give you a reasonable amount of recorded history and not fill up your drive with useless files.


The USB drive can only be used for the dashcam, so filling it up would never be a concern.
Their goal *should* be to work like every other dash cam and use all available space and only start deleting once it's full.


----------



## UTexas98

I have no doubt the cam will become more robust over time. I'm happy with an hour for now.



Rich M said:


> The USB drive can only be used for the dashcam, so filling it up would never be a concern.
> Their goal *should* be to work like every other dash cam and use all available space and only start deleting once it's full.


----------



## m3_4_wifey

Rich M said:


> Others have indicated the car recognizes a multi-partitioned USB stick as two drives. I would try that first before using a hub since each USB port doesn't put out much current.


I guess I'll have to wait to see if that works. I'd much rather partition a USB stick for music and dashcam video. Seems silly for Tesla to use up both front USB's or force us to buy a less elegant USB splitter.


----------



## barjohn

Remember, it can't delete a file if you unplug it from the car. You can then keep as long as you like.


----------



## tfederov

What I haven't seen is if there's a safe way to unplug from the car (similar to hitting eject from your computer) to transfer the files to your computer?


----------



## RichEV

tfederov said:


> What I haven't seen is if there's a safe way to unplug from the car (similar to hitting eject from your computer) to transfer the files to your computer?


Since it is not writing or reading when the car is in park there shouldn't be an issue with removing the usb.


----------



## Kevin W.

Ok, I guess I'm free to discuss this now that many people are receiving V9!

So, I am still wondering about viewing the saved files from the USB drive. I just took it out of the car and I see my TeslaCam folder with all of the looped .mp4 files inside the folder. These open and play back fine, though 4x3 kills me in this 16x9 age. ;-) (Cameras must be 4x3)

The files I saved (from pressing the on-screen DashCam button) are outside of that folder on the root level and have a .REC extension which will not open in anything. I tried changing them to .mov or .mp4 but they won't open. Anyone have ideas on this or get them to work yet? I'm on a Mac, btw.

Thanks.


----------



## MelindaV

Kevin W. said:


> Ok, I guess I'm free to discuss this now that many people are receiving V9!
> 
> So, I am still wondering about viewing the saved files from the USB drive. I just took it out of the car and I see my TeslaCam folder with all of the looped .mp4 files inside the folder. These open and play back fine, though 4x3 kills me in this 16x9 age. ;-) (Cameras must be 4x3)
> 
> The files I saved (from pressing the on-screen DashCam button) are outside of that folder on the root level and have a .REC extension which will not open in anything. I tried changing them to .mov or .mp4 but they won't open. Anyone have ideas on this or get them to work yet? I'm on a Mac, btw.
> 
> Thanks.


if you google .rec to .mp4 or .rec to .avi you will get quite a few options on converting these.


----------



## Kevin W.

What's Google? ;-) Just kidding...I am in video production business and have already done the searches.

My question stands: I have already tried changing extensions, using VLC (does not work), MPEG Streamclip (does not work), etc.

Again, I'm on a Mac. Maybe PC people are getting these to work, but wondering if anyone has been able to view them on a Mac?

(I'm wondering if Tesla won't update this soon. It's odd that the written files are .mp4 but the recorded/saved files are different. Doesn't make sense, so my guess is they'll update this...hopefully soon so we can EASILY see the saved files.)

Thanks!


----------



## MelindaV

Kevin W. said:


> What's Google? ;-) Just kidding...I am in video production business and have already done the searches.
> 
> My question stands: I have already tried changing extensions, using VLC (does not work), MPEG Streamclip (does not work), etc.
> 
> Again, I'm on a Mac. Maybe PC people are getting these to work, but wondering if anyone has been able to view them on a Mac?
> 
> (I'm wondering if Tesla won't update this soon. It's odd that the written files are .mp4 but the recorded/saved files are different. Doesn't make sense, so my guess is they'll update this...hopefully soon so we can EASILY see the saved files.)
> 
> Thanks!


I don't have V9 yet, but can convert a .rec to .m4v using VLC on OSX without any issues.


----------



## Kevin W.

Just downloaded the latest VLC to make sure I'm up to date. It won't even open the .REC files...nothing to even view, transcode, export, etc.


----------



## Rich M

Very interested to see how this gets sorted. The 10 minute clips are the important ones that contain something that happened.
How big are the .REC files? About equal to 10 of the .mp4?


----------



## Kevin W.

The .REC files vary in size...a few that I tested are a couple MB, but several are 10 MB.

I'd actually say the ones you push "save" for are the ones that are more important. The others get recorded over/deleted as the drive fills up. The .REC are the ones you are saying are worthy of saving.

Hopefully we get more info on these soon.


----------



## MelindaV

Kevin W. said:


> The .RED files vary in size...a few that I tested are a couple MB, but several are 10 MB.


wait, .red or .rec? .red is typically a CAD markup file, not a video file


----------



## Kevin W.

Sorry...typo. We shoot on RED cameras all the time so hit the wrong key. ;-) (I edited my previous post.)

Yes. all files outside of the TeslaCam folder that get saved are .REC files and will not play for me. I have not heard anyone on this or other forums saying they have gotten them to play, so we wait...


----------



## Rich M

Kevin W. said:


> I'd actually say the ones you push "save" for are the ones that are more important. The others get recorded over/deleted as the drive fills up. The .REC are the ones you are saying are worthy of saving.


That's correct. We just need someone who can play them now. :expressionless:


----------



## GrigoryC

I'm worried how USB flash drives are going to perform in winter. The few drives that actually mention operating temperature in the specs, usually say its 0 to 35 (Celsius). Even the drives that are rugged by design, like Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth, don't mention any subzero temperature capability. I'm worried that the dashcam USB drive will be powered on when i get into the car in winter at -20, and that might ruin it. On the other hand, i've heard some people use regular cheap USB sticks for music in the cars and have no problems with it. Of course, writing data is trickier than reading it.


----------



## UTexas98

I chose a Samsung 128 GB stick USB 3.1 from Amazon because it says "Withstands -25°C to 85°C operating, -40°C to 85°C non-operating."



GrigoryC said:


> I'm worried how USB flash drives are going to perform in winter. The few drives that actually mention operating temperature in the specs, usually say its 0 to 35 (Celsius). Even the drives that are rugged by design, like Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth, don't mention any subzero temperature capability. I'm worried that the dashcam USB drive will be powered on when i get into the car in winter at -20, and that might ruin it. On the other hand, i've heard some people use regular cheap USB sticks for music in the cars and have no problems with it. Of course, writing data is trickier than reading it.


----------



## JWardell

Kevin W. said:


> My question stands: I have already tried changing extensions, using VLC (does not work), MPEG Streamclip (does not work), etc.


If you open the file with a text editor, do you see anything that might give an idea what format it really is? If VLC doesn't open it, I question it is video at all. Maybe it is zipped, change to zip and uncompress? I can take a stab if you share a file. I'll tackle it myself whenever my v9 comes in.



GrigoryC said:


> I'm worried how USB flash drives are going to perform in winter. The few drives that actually mention operating temperature in the specs, usually say its 0 to 35 (Celsius). Even the drives that are rugged by design, like Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth, don't mention any subzero temperature capability. I'm worried that the dashcam USB drive will be powered on when i get into the car in winter at -20, and that might ruin it. On the other hand, i've heard some people use regular cheap USB sticks for music in the cars and have no problems with it. Of course, writing data is trickier than reading it.


Electronics with no moving parts should have no problem with low temperatures. In fact they prefer it. It's high temperatures that are an issue, especially those inside a car in the hot sun. At least Tesla solves this with cabin overheat protection. (Also, they are cheap...in rare case the drive fails not a huge deal to replace it)


----------



## NOGA$4ME

JWardell said:


> Electronics with no moving parts should have no problem with low temperatures. In fact they prefer it. It's high temperatures that are an issue, especially those inside a car in the hot sun. At least Tesla solves this with cabin overheat protection. (Also, they are cheap...in rare case the drive fails not a huge deal to replace it)


Sorry, gotta pop in with an expert opinion here, having literally spent the last week in meetings discussing the operation of a memory at low temperatures and trying to find a way to get it to work. Okay, it was much lower temps than we're talking about and not a flash memory (although it is a type of non-volatile memory), but nonetheless, writing a non-volatile memory does have a specific temperature range where the operation will work. Consumer electronics are usually speced down to 0C...obviously in a cold soaked auto, you are going to be below that in many climates.

I think what you are getting at with electronics in general is that they do tend to work "better" at cold temps, in that traditionally they speed up at cold temps. But with leading edge technologies, this has actually flipped and at cold temps you actually get slower operation. So definitely electronics prefer a comfort zone just like batteries.


----------



## JWardell

NOGA$4ME said:


> Sorry, gotta pop in with an expert opinion here, having literally spent the last week in meetings discussing the operation of a memory at low temperatures and trying to find a way to get it to work. Okay, it was much lower temps than we're talking about and not a flash memory (although it is a type of non-volatile memory), but nonetheless, writing a non-volatile memory does have a specific temperature range where the operation will work. Consumer electronics are usually speced down to 0C...obviously in a cold soaked auto, you are going to be below that in many climates.
> 
> I think what you are getting at with electronics in general is that they do tend to work "better" at cold temps, in that traditionally they speed up at cold temps. But with leading edge technologies, this has actually flipped and at cold temps you actually get slower operation. So definitely electronics prefer a comfort zone just like batteries.


Certainly when you are talking about scientifically low temps like those experienced in spacecraft. But for most of us that rarely see below zero F, all electronics should be just fine (aside from batteries' reduced performance)


----------



## TrevP

I've been doing some testing today and first observation with the dashcam is upon writing a new file it skips a bunch of frames in the next clip. By my count its 6 frames however there seems to be more missing when I review the footage. Not sure if it's the crummy USB key I'm using but I'm trying to edit a video of my test and it's proving very difficult to line up the clips.

I'll have more to say soon


----------



## NOGA$4ME

JWardell said:


> Certainly when you are talking about scientifically low temps like those experienced in spacecraft. But for most of us that rarely see below zero F, all electronics should be just fine (aside from batteries' reduced performance)


No, not necessarily "scientifically low", although yes, even cheap consumer grade stuff should work down to around 0C/32F, but it does get below freezing occasionally even here in the south, and el cheapo devices might start to fail in those conditions.


----------



## SalisburySam

Kevin W. said:


> The files I saved (from pressing the on-screen DashCam button) are outside of that folder on the root level and have a .REC extension which will not open in anything. I tried changing them to .mov or .mp4 but they won't open. Anyone have ideas on this or get them to work yet? I'm on a Mac, btw.
> 
> Thanks.


I use HandBrake for file conversions, and the product's documentation implies that it works for .REC files. The associated community forum confirms this, though I have no .REC source files to try at this point. I'm using an iMac with Mojave.


----------



## SimonMatthews

dragonvoi said:


> looking at the videos, there is a time stamp but, the date modified time stamp is off by 5 hours. first video was taken at 12:42
> 
> View attachment 15549


UTC vs local time?


----------



## JWardell

It was discovered that you can remotely activate the dash cam when parked by turning on your climate control


__
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9mamxu


----------



## TrevP

I tried a high quality USB stick and I'm still seeing dropped frames at the start of each saved clip so I think it's just related to the speed of the CPU in this case and can't handle all the extra load or it has a really small buffer.

Compared to my BlackVue the video quality is not that great, lots of compression artifacts, dull colour, struggles with white balance etc.. . A lot of people are asking me if you can read license plates and yes you can but only if the cars close by (no more than 2 car lengths ahead) and don't have smoked plate covers.

No time stamps embedded into the clips, no embedded GPS data. It's all very basic.

It's great that Tesla has done this for us but it's obvious to me that the cameras on board the car are just good enough for the AI to detect and catalog objects for EAP and eventually FSD but not really good enough as a dashcam compared to what you can buy aftermarket. At this time I'll say I'm disappointed.


----------



## MelindaV

TrevP said:


> It's great that Tesla has done this for us but it's obvious to me that the cameras on board the car are just good enough for the AI to detect and catalog objects for EPA and eventually FSD but not really good enough as a dashcam compared to what you can buy aftermarket. At this time I'll say I'm disappointed.


what I've been saying since the first hint this feature would be worked on. 
I'm sure once most everyone is on V9, the amount of complaining about the quality will be thru the roof.


----------



## TrevP

MelindaV said:


> what I've been saying since the first hint this feature would be worked on.
> I'm sure once most everyone is on V9, the amount of complaining about the quality will be thru the roof.


That's why I'm saying in my latest video so get a good dashcam if you want quality. I was never under any impression Tesla's implementation would ever best something like a BlackVue


----------



## OrangeJulius

Trevor, thanks for running these two tests and sharing the videos.

One observation and one request regarding the daylight test (may be related):

- Despite there being no apparent change in the brightness of the sky (as seen through your driver-side window), the onboard Tesla camera video kept getting darker and lighter .

- It would be informative to see how the onboard Tesla camera responded when driving into, and out of direct sunlight.


----------



## zosoisnotaword

TrevP said:


> That's why I'm saying in my latest video so get a good dashcam if you want quality. I was never under any impression Tesla's implementation would ever best something like a BlackVue


Thanks for putting that together. I can handle the poor video quality but the length of the blackouts is concerning.


----------



## Unplugged

I did a test after just downloading the Version 9 update. 

I confirmed that I can play music on one USB port, while using the Tesla Cam on the other port simultaneously. 

FYI.


----------



## Rich M

It looks like the dash cam file saving is fixed (39.6). There's no .REC file, it just renames the past 10 minutes worth of clips from "recent" to "saved" and doesn't overwrite them (as far as I can tell)


----------



## TrevP

Here are some details on the camera clips:

1280 x 960 resolution
36 FPS
Each clip is 60 seconds long


----------



## Dogwhistle

For the majority of folks like me, who had no intention of getting an aftermarket dashcam installed, this feature is terrific! Glad to see it implemented for the cost of a cheap USB drive, and I’m sure it will get better as time goes on. Thoroughly impressed Tesla did this.


----------



## MelindaV

Dogwhistle said:


> For the majority of folks like me, who had no intention of getting an aftermarket dashcam installed, this feature is terrific! Glad to see it implemented for the cost of a cheap USB drive, and I'm sure it will get better as time goes on.


I again just caution people to keep the expectations low. That way, there will not be any disappointment and the mods will not have to make a dedicated place for all the gripes about ****ty resolution or skipped frames.


----------



## UTexas98

I agree with @Dogwhistle. @TrevP 's photo above is AMAZING compared to the nothing we would have had without any cam. I also think it will get better over time... because this is Tesla and they always tinker with things. 



MelindaV said:


> I again just caution people to keep the expectations low. That way, there will not be any disappointment and the mods will not have to make a dedicated place for all the gripes about ****ty resolution or skipped frames.


----------



## TrevP

UTexas98 said:


> I agree with @Dogwhistle. @TrevP 's photo above is AMAZING compared to the nothing we would have had without any cam. I also think it will get better over time... because this is Tesla and they always tinker with things.


"Amazing" is relative. You're seeing a single frame grab and not the actual video. Compared to my BlackVue the Tesla cam footage is downright horrible. There's way too much compression artifacts, dropped frames, white balance all over the place...

Set your expectations accordingly


----------



## UTexas98

Of course it's relative. I'm comparing the pic above against not having any video. You're comparing it to the BlackVue you already have.

I never had expectations of getting any video from Tesla's cams much less for the cost of a USB stick. I think it's a great feature for those of us who can't justify getting a BlackVue.



TrevP said:


> "Amazing" is relative. You're seeing a single frame grab and not the actual video. Compared to my BlackVue the Tesla cam footage is downright horrible. There's way too much compression artifacts, dropped frames, white balance all over the place...
> 
> Set your expectations accordingly


----------



## Jay79

MelindaV said:


> I again just caution people to keep the expectations low. That way, there will not be any disappointment and the mods will not have to make a dedicated place for all the gripes about ****ty resolution or skipped frames.


You know there is no way to prevent all the whining that's coming...lol


TrevP said:


> "Amazing" is relative. You're seeing a single frame grab and not the actual video. Compared to my BlackVue the Tesla cam footage is downright horrible. There's way too much compression artifacts, dropped frames, white balance all over the place...
> 
> Set your expectations accordingly


Well said! Your video laid it all out pretty good, thanks for that


----------



## Rich M

It is good enough that I don't plan on moving the dash cam over from my old car. You are not filming a movie here. For having a good quality video that shows who did what, traffic lights, etc, it's brilliant.


----------



## webdriverguy

Rich M said:


> It is good enough that I don't plan on moving the dash cam over from my old car. You are not filming a movie here. For having a good quality video that shows who did what, traffic lights, etc, it's brilliant.


Yes agreed


----------



## Tchris

UTexas98 said:


> Of course it's relative. I'm comparing the pic above against not having any video. You're comparing it to the BlackVue you already have.
> 
> I never had expectations of getting any video from Tesla's cams much less for the cost of a USB stick. I think it's a great feature for those of us who can't justify getting a BlackVue.


I concur. I'm not a fan of cluttering up my car with after market gadgets, so using existing built-in hardware is perfect for me. I would not have added a dash cam, so this is just a bonus, regardless of shortcomings. I'm sure it will get better over time.


----------



## OrangeJulius

Can someone confirm that this new Dashcam functionality requires a Model 3 to have the Enhanced Autopilot option.

Without the Enhanced Autopilot option purchased and activated, there is no Dashcam function?


----------



## SilverM3DC

As an attorney in DC who handles exclusively injury cases, 90+% motor vehicle accidents, I can tell you that camera quality this good would resolve nearly every case I have had over the years where liability was contested. I hear people all the time talk about being able to read license plates, and that is only a somewhat valid concern from it perspective. Idiot hit and run drivers usually have no insurance or awful carriers to deal with, making your claims process much more difficult. If you are in a Tesla, you almost certainly have valid comprehensive insurance. I’d much rather make an uninsured motorist claim if given the choice. Point remains that this camera quality is plenty good enough for accident liability purposes. Needing plate numbers is more of a catching thieves and justice issue, not an insurance compensation one. Comparing it to nothing really is a great way to look at it.


----------



## TrevP

Just in case anyone asks: yes you CAN partition a USB key and have your dashcam clips and music on the same device. I just did it and tested in my car


----------



## Quicksilver

Rich M said:


> It looks like the dash cam file saving is fixed (39.6). There's no .REC file, it just renames the past 10 minutes worth of clips from "recent" to "saved" and doesn't overwrite them (as far as I can tell)
> View attachment 15754


@Rich M, on the file names saved from your screen shot, I see dates but what is the "...02-20.mp4, ...02-21.mp4...etc..."? did you hit "save" multiple times on the touchscreen?


----------



## Rich M

Quicksilver said:


> @Rich M, on the file names saved from your screen shot, I see dates but what is the "...02-20.mp4, ...02-21.mp4...etc..."? did you hit "save" multiple times on the touchscreen?


Only hit save once, but the car saves one file each minute while it's on. Tapping save just locks the last 10 files from being deleted. It doesn't make one big 10 minute file.


----------



## TrevP

One more thing:

You can use a passive hub to use multiple USB keys.

Big USB key partitioned into 2 volumes. Little one a single. MCU sees 2 partitions with music & dashcam is still happy

However you DON'T need to partition, music can live on the same stick, dashcam only needs to see a folder called TeslaCam to write to. I was just showing everyone different ways to go about this


----------



## Unplugged

OrangeJulius said:


> Can someone confirm that this new Dashcam functionality requires a Model 3 to have the Enhanced Autopilot option.
> 
> Without the Enhanced Autopilot option purchased and activated, there is no Dashcam function?


No. There is no requirement for EAP to have been purchased for the Model 3 in order for the TeslaCam to be functional.

Likewise, there is no EAP purchase requirement for the blindspot warning indicator to be functional.


----------



## Dogwhistle

TrevP said:


> One more thing:
> 
> You can use a passive hub to use multiple USB keys.
> 
> Big USB key partitioned into 2 volumes. Little one a single. MCU sees 2 partitions with music & dashcam is still happy
> 
> View attachment 15783
> View attachment 15784
> View attachment 15785


Thats's great! Can you do all that AND plug in a lightening cable into the hub as well and charge an iphone simultaneously? Even trickle charge?


----------



## Quicksilver

Rich M said:


> Only hit save once, but the car saves one file each minute while it's on. Tapping save just locks the last 10 files from being deleted. It doesn't make one big 10 minute file.


Thanks @Rich M, that is very interesting that they don't put the 10 min. in one file. I would prefer working with just one file versus multiples of 1 min. files.


----------



## Dogwhistle

Quicksilver said:


> Thanks @Rich M, that is very interesting that they don't put the 10 min. in one file. I would prefer working with just one file versus multiples of 1 min. files.


I would think all the excitement that insurance/law enforcement would care about would most likely be contained in one of the one minute files anyway. The rest is buffer in case you forget to hit "save" right away after an incident.


----------



## darco

Most of the Tesla V9 Dashcam videos I've seen uploaded seem to have weird colors. Anyone know what might be going on? Are they using different primaries? Perhaps they are leaving out the IR filter...?


----------



## webdriverguy

darco said:


> Most of the Tesla V9 Dashcam videos I've seen uploaded seem to have weird colors. Anyone know what might be going on? Are they using different primaries? Perhaps they are leaving out the IR filter...?


Dont really know. Its not high quality but will definitely get the job done.


----------



## MelindaV

darco said:


> Most of the Tesla V9 Dashcam videos I've seen uploaded seem to have weird colors. Anyone know what might be going on? Are they using different primaries? Perhaps they are leaving out the IR filter...?


the AP cameras do not capture true colors, but greys/reds. There was quite a bit of discussion on this back when Elon Musk first said the public would not be happy with the images from the cameras, because they are intended to be viewed by the AI for specific things, not by human eyes.

FSD demo video from way back 
https://www.tesla.com/videos/autopilot-self-driving-hardware-neighborhood-long


----------



## webdriverguy

MelindaV said:


> the AP cameras do not capture true colors, but greys/reds. There was quite a bit of discussion on this back when Elon Musk first said the public would not be happy with the images from the cameras, because they are intended to be viewed by the AI for specific things, not by human eyes.
> 
> FSD demo video from way back
> https://www.tesla.com/videos/autopilot-self-driving-hardware-neighborhood-long


Going to try really hard to build this


__
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9m9gyk


----------



## Rich M

I just got home. Since my commute is about 75 min each way, you can be sure it's pretty aggressive about deleting the clips exactly at the one hour mark, so make sure you hit save.
It seems like the last file recorded when the car shuts off, and when you pull the drive out is corrupt and unreadable. So if the thing you want to see happened right before you intend on parking the car, again, hit save so it makes a fresh file. There seems to be no secure way to eject the drive. This means Windows (10) will give me an error everytime I plug the drive in after removing from the car, saying that it has to scan and fix it.
When I got in the car to leave the office, the camera icon had an X in the corner instead of a red circle. I had to pull the drive out and put it back in, so make sure it's actually recording.
It seems to record any time the car is 'awake', even if you just open the door.


----------



## 3V Pilot

webdriverguy00 said:


> Going to try really hard to build this
> 
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9m9gyk


That's very cool, I'll buy one from you once you get it to work!!


----------



## SoFlaModel3

Rich M said:


> I just got home. Since my commute is about 75 min each way, you can be sure it's pretty aggressive about deleting the clips exactly at the one hour mark, so make sure you hit save.
> It seems like the last file recorded when the car shuts off, and when you pull the drive out is corrupt and unreadable. So if the thing you want to see happened right before you intend on parking the car, again, hit save so it makes a fresh file. There seems to be no secure way to eject the drive. This means Windows (10) will give me an error everytime I plug the drive in after removing from the car, saying that it has to scan and fix it.
> When I got in the car to leave the office, the camera icon had an X in the corner instead of a red circle. I had to pull the drive out and put it back in, so make sure it's actually recording.
> It seems to record any time the car is 'awake', even if you just open the door.


Wait so question for you as I saw V9 today.

The icon has the red circle indicating recording. What does tapping on it do?


----------



## iChris93

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Wait so question for you as I saw V9 today.
> 
> The icon has the red circle indicating recording. What does tapping on it do?


Isn't that for saving the past 10 minutes?


----------



## Rich M

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Wait so question for you as I saw V9 today.
> 
> The icon has the red circle indicating recording. What does tapping on it do?





iChris93 said:


> Isn't that for saving the past 10 minutes?


Yes, the camera icon with red circle means it's recording, but you tap it to lock the past 10 clips (or 10 minutes of clips) from being overwritten. If there's an x instead of a red circle on the camera icon it means something is wrong with your USB drive


----------



## SoFlaModel3

iChris93 said:


> Isn't that for saving the past 10 minutes?


Isn't that automatically happening though?


----------



## SoFlaModel3

Rich M said:


> Yes, the camera icon with red circle means it's recording, but you tap it to lock the past 10 clips (or 10 minutes of clips) from being overwritten. If there's an x instead of a red circle on the camera icon it means something is wrong with your USB drive


Ahh -- got it, thanks! So basically if you don't tap that the video can be overwritten, but if you do tap it you're safe with whatever the last 10 minutes recorded. Smart!


----------



## Love

JWardell said:


> Certainly when you are talking about scientifically low temps like those experienced in spacecraft. But for most of us that rarely see below zero F, all electronics should be just fine (aside from batteries' reduced performance)


I want to make a "this guy hasn't been to the north!" joke....but then I looked at your location...ah, Boston.

I made the joke anyway.

Edit: I have no idea how I ended up replying to your post from so long ago...


----------



## Bokonon

Rich M said:


> It seems like the last file recorded when the car shuts off, and when you pull the drive out is corrupt and unreadable. So if the thing you want to see happened right before you intend on parking the car, again, hit save so it makes a fresh file. There seems to be no secure way to eject the drive. This means Windows (10) will give me an error everytime I plug the drive in after removing from the car, saying that it has to scan and fix it.


Exact same experience here. When Windows gives you that error, if you select "Continue Anyway" instead of "Scan" you can browse the video files without issue... Except for the very last of the "recent" files.

IMHO a quick fix Tesla could implement would be to rollover to a new video file when you engage the parking brake. That way, you'll at least have all videos from your drive intact. I know they're working on a longer-term solution of using the app to let you download the video files, but they will have to implement similar logic when someone tries to download the current video. So why not just add that capability now and trigger it off the parking brake?


----------



## Love

Looking for some posts/recommendations here for flash drives. Gonna get one for my wife and I. No need for anything fancy, just likely to be used for dash footage for me and potentially dash footage and music for her.

I kinda dig these tiny ones. Just want to see what others are choosing.


----------



## Waterhouse

Saw this sample video (at night, in the rain) that compares to a BlackVue in the same car:






(and hadn't seen it posted here yet....)


----------



## Quicksilver

Lovesword said:


> Looking for some posts/recommendations here for flash drives. Gonna get one for my wife and I. No need for anything fancy, just likely to be used for dash footage for me and potentially dash footage and music for her.
> 
> I kinda dig these tiny ones. Just want to see what others are choosing.


I think 32GB is plenty big and so I got this one from Best Buy last week...pre-formatted to FAT32.


----------



## Quicksilver

Waterhouse said:


> Saw this sample video (at night, in the rain) that compares to a BlackVue in the same car:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (and hadn't seen it posted here yet....)


Well, from the comparison, I think the Tesla dash cam is pretty darn good compared to the over exposed results from the BlackVue. I am looking forward to the Tesla dash cam. Thanks for posting that video.


----------



## UTexas98

I got this one because it's small, reasonably priced, and says it can handle some extreme temps: 
I don't have v9 to try it out though.



Lovesword said:


> Looking for some posts/recommendations here for flash drives. Gonna get one for my wife and I. No need for anything fancy, just likely to be used for dash footage for me and potentially dash footage and music for her.
> 
> I kinda dig these tiny ones. Just want to see what others are choosing.


----------



## Sjohnson20

So I can put a music folder on the same USB drive if I want?


----------



## webdriverguy

Sjohnson20 said:


> So I can put a music folder on the same USB drive if I want?


Yes


----------



## MGallo

webdriverguy00 said:


> Going to try really hard to build this
> 
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9m9gyk


It must be just me but all I see is a really long blank white post, but I'm sure it's really cool, whatever it is you are building.



SilverM3DC said:


> Comparing it to nothing really is a great way to look at it.


Now if only we had a dash cam for the rear camera in case we get rear ended.


----------



## Rich M

webdriverguy00 said:


> Going to try really hard to build this
> 
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9m9gyk


That sounds like a neat project, but unless I missed it, there's no provision for shutdown? Yanking the power from a running Linux PC every time the car shuts off won't be good.


----------



## FF35

Rich M said:


> That sounds like a neat project, but unless I missed it, there's no provision for shutdown? Yanking the power from a running Linux PC every time the car shuts off won't be good.


 Battery or super capacitor backup.


----------



## webdriverguy

MGallo said:


> It must be just me but all I see is a really long blank white post, but I'm sure it's really cool, whatever it is you are building.
> 
> It looks like its loading now.


----------



## webdriverguy

Rich M said:


> That sounds like a neat project, but unless I missed it, there's no provision for shutdown? Yanking the power from a running Linux PC every time the car shuts off won't be good.


Yup looks like that way no provision to shut down. Hopefully when the power is shut off it wont corrupt any files or anything. Need to test it thoroughly. Regardless of weather it works or not should be fun getting it up and running.


----------



## MelindaV

webdriverguy00 said:


> Regardless of weather it works or not should be fun getting it up and running.


I've done two pi experiments. One I could not get to work and was totally frustrating (aka, not fun at all). The other worked great, but still frustrating and not nearly as smooth as instructions would lead one to believe. This one looks many times more complicated and love the idea, but know I would give up on it long before worrying about it improperly powering down. 

(From a non programmer, limited Linux knowledge over)


----------



## JWardell

Rich M said:


> It seems like the last file recorded when the car shuts off, and when you pull the drive out is corrupt and unreadable. So if the thing you want to see happened right before you intend on parking the car, again, hit save so it makes a fresh file. There seems to be no secure way to eject the drive. This means Windows (10) will give me an error everytime I plug the drive in after removing from the car, saying that it has to scan and fix it.


All the more reason to get a wireless drive that you don't have to remove and can just connect to.

Of course all these quirks will probably change and improve with future software versions.


----------



## Firewired

UTexas98 said:


> I got this one because it's small, reasonably priced, and says it can handle some extreme temps:
> I don't have v9 to try it out though.


Ditto. I got the same Samsung USB drive for the same reason of advertising its ability to handle temp extremes exceeding the other ones I had looked at.


----------



## ER1C8

Quicksilver said:


> Well, from the comparison, I think the Tesla dash cam is pretty darn good compared to the over exposed results from the BlackVue. I am looking forward to the Tesla dash cam. Thanks for posting that video.


I agree, the Tesla cam did much better in the rain in the dark then the Black view. To bad it doesn't use the wide angle cam...


----------



## TrevP

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Wait so question for you as I saw V9 today.
> 
> The icon has the red circle indicating recording. What does tapping on it do?


Saves the current clip and renames it so it can't be overwritten


----------



## Firewired

ER1C8 said:


> I agree, the Tesla cam did much better in the rain in the dark then the Black view. To bad it doesn't use the wide angle cam...


Not yet at least. The three cameras up front have different focal points and fields of view.


----------



## TrevP

One more finding after driving around for a bit this morning for a comparison with the BlackVue:

Tesla dashcam only keeps the last hour of clips despite having a large USB key installed. When you stop it looks at all the clips and deletes anything prior to the 1 hour window of the last time stamp.


----------



## SilverM3DC

MGallo said:


> It must be just me but all I see is a really long blank white post, but I'm sure it's really cool, whatever it is you are building.
> 
> Now if only we had a dash cam for the rear camera in case we get rear ended.


I should have mentioned this, but almost every state has a presumption of liability in rear end accidents favoring the rear ended vehicle. The issues that arise come when the striking vehicle claims a sudden stop or lane change. Front camera would show both lane changes and rapid decreases in speed for no reason. The Tesla dash cam feature will resolve 95+% of all accident liability disputes.


----------



## TrevP

SilverM3DC said:


> I should have mentioned this, but almost every state has a presumption of liability in rear end accidents favoring the rear ended vehicle. The issues that arise come when the striking vehicle claims a sudden stop or lane change. Front camera would show both lane changes and rapid decreases in speed for no reason. The Tesla dash cam feature will resolve 95+% of all accident liability disputes.


Even more reason to have a 2 channel system. Given how much the current system is struggling to save clips on the USB key without several seconds of frames being dropping I think it's rather unlikely we will see something from Tesla anytime soon.


----------



## TrevP

Here's a comparison of the Tesla dashcam footage and quality compared to the BlackVue DR650GW


----------



## Rich M

JWardell said:


> All the more reason to get a wireless drive that you don't have to remove and can just connect to.
> 
> Of course all these quirks will probably change and improve with future software versions.


You'd need one that could be accessed wirelessly while plugged in/mounted. So far none can do that, that I'm aware of.


----------



## OrangeJulius

The above _"Blackview Dashcam & Tesla dashcam faceoff"_ video is showing outages for the Tesla of over 12 seconds long each! 

Is that accurate? In Trevor's videos they weren't nearly that long; did he edit them down?


----------



## OrangeJulius

If the Tesla "dashcam" only retains one hour of recorded video max, and that would only take a 2GB flash drive to record, why not have a handful of 2GB flash drives on hand? Swap them out at the end of an hour. That size is not expensive (as little as $3 each).


----------



## NOGA$4ME

OrangeJulius said:


> If the Tesla "dashcam" only retains one hour of recorded video max, and that would only take a 2GB flash drive to record, why not have a handful of 2GB flash drives on hand? Swap them out at the end of an hour. That size is not expensive (as little as $3 each).


Well sure, but on a more practical level (and others may have their own ideas of what is practical or not), am I really going to sit around with a stack of 2GB drives, watching a crapload of one minute videos to find something interesting? Probably not. If something interesting happens, I'll hit the save button and know that the interesting event is probably in the last 1 minute clip (or maybe the last 2).

Granted, even with this, I don't disagree with your idea of using a far smaller drive than what people are suggesting. The camera system itself is going to only use 2GB for its rolling hour of video, and the 32GB drive I found lying around is still going to be able to save 90 or so 10 minute recordings.

Having said all that, in only about 2 hours total of driving since I've had the ability, I've hit save twice now!


----------



## Rich M

OrangeJulius said:


> Swap them out at the end of an hour.


Pulling the drives out almost always corrupts the last file and the one being written, so you'd still have to hit save if anything happened.


----------



## Waterhouse

OrangeJulius said:


> If the Tesla "dashcam" only retains one hour of recorded video max, and that would only take a 2GB flash drive to record, why not have a handful of 2GB flash drives on hand? Swap them out at the end of an hour. That size is not expensive (as little as $3 each).


What's the point? 99.9% of my driving is dead boring, I don't want video of that? If something interesting happens, I hit the icon to save it?


----------



## Waterhouse

OrangeJulius said:


> The above _"Blackview Dashcam & Tesla dashcam faceoff"_ video is showing outages for the Tesla of over 12 seconds long each!
> 
> Is that accurate? In Trevor's videos they weren't nearly that long; did he edit them down?


It seems like it's an MCU1 issue? That's the rumor at least.


----------



## OrangeJulius

Waterhouse said:


> What's the point? 99.9% of my driving is dead boring, I don't want video of that? If something interesting happens, I hit the icon to save it?


Some folks in this thread seemed concerned that they would ONLY be able to retain one-hour's worth of recording. I thought the 2GB swaps might be a solution for them.


----------



## Dr. J

TrevP said:


> Here's a comparison of the Tesla dashcam footage and quality compared to the BlackVue DR650GW


It's interesting that the drops are almost evenly spaced at ~60 second intervals, which is the time for each individual file. Maybe a file write issue?


----------



## Rich M

I've just reviewed my drive home and there is minimal frame drop out. Looks to be under 0.3 seconds per clip. Given the worst conditions, driving into the sun at dusk, I'm pretty happy.

Watch this signpost from 0:58 to 1:02, hardly any jump:









And watch the Jeep in the roundabout at 3:56.
(I had no idea there would be music, windows 10 photo editor put that in unexpectedly)





I'm using a SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 64GB with two partitions (Music and Dashcam)


----------



## Dr. J

Rich M said:


> And watch the Jeep in the roundabout at 3:56.
> (I had no idea there would be music, windows 10 photo editor put that in unexpectedly)
> 
> I'm using a SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 64GB with two partitions (Music and Dashcam)


Again, I see it at 2:02, 3:02 and 4:03--nearly precisely one minute apart, with a tiny delay added as the minutes (with a small gap) go by. It seems like a disk-write delay, but it could be a processing delay I suppose.

This makes that BlackVue comparison look like disinformation, but I imagine there are slightly different hardware versions (processors) on generations of Teslas that create variation in the lag. Looks like a non-issue on Model 3, to my eye.


----------



## TrevP

Dr. J said:


> Again, I see it at 2:02, 3:02 and 4:03--nearly precisely one minute apart, with a tiny delay added as the minutes (with a small gap) go by. It seems like a disk-write delay, but it could be a processing delay I suppose.
> 
> This makes that BlackVue comparison look like disinformation, but I imagine there are slightly different hardware versions (processors) on generations of Teslas that create variation in the lag. Looks like a non-issue on Model 3, to my eye.


The frame dropouts are due to the slower MCU 1 I have in my Model X compared to the newer Intel based MCU found in the Model 3. There's just not enough CPU horsepower on the MCU 1 to prevent the dropouts. Compared to my BlackVue DR650 the resolution and compression artifacts make it pretty much a no-contest in favour of the BlackVue.

Today I'm upgrading to a DR900S 4K so my DR650GW-2CH is up for sale if anyone is interested. PowerMagic included and all cables etc..


----------



## JWardell

After watching all of @TrevP 's videos, I have to say one thing: The dynamic range of Tesla's footage is incredible. You can read license plates in the shadows while still seeing clouds in the sky. These are far from your typical visual camera sensors, clearly made for autopilot system to see as much as possible and not be blinded by large light differences.

Dash cams are often compared by what looks better, but they're not there to capture pretty footage like a normal camera. They are there to capture as much information as possible. Who cares if the colors are correct if what you are looking for is solid black or totally blown out.


----------



## webdriverguy

JWardell said:


> After watching all of @TrevP 's videos, I have to say one thing: The dynamic range of Tesla's footage is incredible. You can read license plates in the shadows while still seeing clouds in the sky. These are far from your typical visual camera sensors, clearly made for autopilot system to see as much as possible and not be blinded by large light differences.
> 
> Dash cams are often compared by what looks better, but they're not there to capture pretty footage like a normal camera. They are there to capture as much information as possible. Who cares if the colors are correct if what you are looking for is solid black or totally blown out.


Totally agree. That's why I won't get any additional dashcam. This is pretty good for me.


----------



## NOGA$4ME

I haven't pulled the drive out yet and plugged it into a computer yet to see what's going on, but on only my third day of having the dashcam I am already getting the X in the camera icon. I pulled the drive and re-inserted and it would work for awhile, but the X would appear again. That's kind of disappointing. (sorry, no diagnosis yet)


----------



## Rich M

NOGA$4ME said:


> I haven't pulled the drive out yet and plugged it into a computer yet to see what's going on, but on only my third day of having the dashcam I am already getting the X in the camera icon. I pulled the drive and re-inserted and it would work for awhile, but the X would appear again. That's kind of disappointing. (sorry, no diagnosis yet)


put the USB drive into your computer and let windows scan it, then safely eject and put it back in the car and see if the x comes back.


----------



## GDN

Pretty impressive after watching @Rich M 's video. I see the jumps and stitching the video together, but I would guess this is something they can continue to work on and tweak and will only improve over time. I know there is a faster board coming for those with FSD, but I bet this current config could even handle a feed from the back camera as well. Give them 6 months, better stitching and second channel. One can always hope, along with an option to record while not in the car.


----------



## Rich M

GDN said:


> better stitching


Just to be clear, it doesn't stitch at all now, I just threw that into windows photo editor.
What my other dash cams do is write the same ~10 frames at the end of file 1 and the start of file 2. I don't know whether it starts writing two files simultaneously before closing the first, or it has a small buffer and just plays catch-up after starting the new file.


----------



## Teslunatic

dragonvoi said:


> looking at the videos, there is a time stamp but, the date modified time stamp is off by 5 hours. first video was taken at 12:42
> 
> View attachment 15549


Time modified is UTC time.


----------



## GDN

Rich M said:


> Just to be clear, it doesn't stitch at all now, I just threw that into windows photo editor.
> What my other dash cams do is write the same ~10 frames at the end of file 1 and the start of file 2. I don't know whether it starts writing two files simultaneously before closing the first, or it has a small buffer and just plays catch-up after starting the new file.


Thanks. I thought when you hit the record button you got a single file for the last 10 minutes. In reality it sounds like you just get the last (10) 1 minute videos saved to the drive. Tesla will improve this I think. We are starting all over here. We've got a big new release using additional hardware, like cameras . So like we've seen improvements and enhancements for 8 over the last year, we start all over with 9. Will have to flush it out and fix the bugs, continue to improve the little things and add bigger better and new things. We are back to crawling, again we'll walk and run again in a few months.


----------



## epepepep

Rich M said:


> Pulling the drives out almost always corrupts the last file and the one being written, so you'd still have to hit save if anything happened.


I received 39.7 this morning. 13 minutes later, I caught a 3 car crash on the dashcam. Thankfully, everyone was ok.

Is there a proper way to eject the disk so that this doesn't happen? I'm also seeing a lot of FSCK*.REC files on the thumbdrive, which seems to indicate that it was trying to fix corruption at some point.

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Dec 31 1979 FSCK0000.REC
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Dec 31 1979 FSCK0001.REC
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 569344 Dec 31 1979 FSCK0002.REC
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Dec 31 1979 FSCK0003.REC
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Dec 31 1979 FSCK0004.REC
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 569344 Dec 31 1979 FSCK0005.REC

Although the date time on the file was in US/Eastern for me, the exif data does seem to record it in UTC.

$ ls -la saved-front-2018-10-12_08-30.mp4
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 29883871 Oct 12 08:31 saved-front-2018-10-12_08-30.mp4*

$ exiftool saved-front-2018-10-12_08-30.mp4 | grep Date
File Modification Date/Time : 2018:10:12 08:31:58-04:00
File Access Date/Time : 2018:10:11 20:00:00-04:00
File Inode Change Date/Time : 2018:10:12 08:31:58-04:00
Create Date : 2018:10:12 12:30:57
Modify Date : 2018:10:12 12:31:58
Track Create Date : 2018:10:12 12:30:57
Track Modify Date : 2018:10:12 12:31:58
Media Create Date : 2018:10:12 12:30:57
Media Modify Date : 2018:10:12 12:31:58

Thanks,
ep


----------



## Rich M

GDN said:


> you just get the last (10) 1 minute videos saved to the drive.


Correct, it just renames the latest 10 files from recent-(timestamp) to saved-(timestamp) and prevents those from being recorded over.


----------



## Rich M

epepepep said:


> Is there a proper way to eject the disk so that this doesn't happen? I'm also seeing a lot of FSCK*.REC files on the thumbdrive, which seems to indicate that it was trying to fix corruption at some point.


No, unfortunately there's no safe way to unmount and eject. This initial dash cam release is very abusive to the file system. As long as you hit save, though, the saved files shouldn't be corrupt.

Edit: as JML points out below, long-pressing the dashcam icon will pause the camera and close the current file. This should stop any files being corrupt, but still no 'safe eject' method.


----------



## francoisp

My dashcam was working fine on 39.6 but after the last update to 39.7 I'm getting the "x". I tried unplugging and re-plugging the drive without success. I'll try reformatting it.

[EDIT]: After connecting the drive to my PC, Windows found errors with the drive and successfully repaired it. The "x" is now gone and the dashcam is recording to the drive. No formatting needed.


----------



## Tchris

JWardell said:


> After watching all of @TrevP 's videos, I have to say one thing: The dynamic range of Tesla's footage is incredible. You can read license plates in the shadows while still seeing clouds in the sky. These are far from your typical visual camera sensors, clearly made for autopilot system to see as much as possible and not be blinded by large light differences.
> 
> Dash cams are often compared by what looks better, but they're not there to capture pretty footage like a normal camera. They are there to capture as much information as possible. Who cares if the colors are correct if what you are looking for is solid black or totally blown out.


Have you been able to test out your SanDisk Wireless Drive yet? Was wondering if it performs as expected before I purchase.


----------



## JWardell

Tchris said:


> Have you been able to test out your SanDisk Wireless Drive yet? Was wondering if it performs as expected before I purchase.


Still waiting on v9. Blame Tesla


----------



## ChrisHH

interesting but needs a lot of work. I wish it had time of day, speeds, and more, in the recording. definitely needs wider angle and should record backup camera when moving in reverse


----------



## PNWmisty

TrevP said:


> Compared to my BlackVue the Tesla cam footage is downright horrible. There's way too much compression artifacts, dropped frames, white balance all over the place...


What the hell? There goes my plan to strike it rich with beautiful HD feature length travel videos! And to think I spent good money on a USB stick for this? What the hell!

I'm honestly wondering what people were expecting?


----------



## Tchris

JWardell said:


> Still waiting on v9. Blame Tesla


Does the ScanDisk Wireless require power from the USB in order to work? I assume it has to get power from either the USB or a small battery.


----------



## Tchris

Need some help from a Mac person. How do you view the video clips on the flash drive? I plugged the drive into my Mac and when I double click a file to view, I get a message that I do not have an application assigned to view the file. What application do I need to select or download in order to view these files? Thanks.


----------



## Dr. J

PNWmisty said:


> I'm honestly wondering what people were expecting?


I believe it's choice-supportive bias, for those who already bought a dashcam. But there is also the fact that Tesla's implementation works much better on the Model 3 than the Model X, due to the processor difference. At any rate, I was unlikely to buy a dashcam anyway, so this is a freebie for me. Looking forward to reliving 10-hour trips across west Texas.


----------



## Flashgj

Tchris said:


> Need some help from a Mac person. How do you view the video clips on the flash drive? I plugged the drive into my Mac and when I double click a file to view, I get a message that I do not have an application assigned to view the file. What application do I need to select or download in order to view these files? Thanks.


I was able to open them with QuickTime. It should be installed on your Mac.


----------



## Tchris

Flashgj said:


> I was able to open them with QuickTime. It should be installed on your Mac.


That worked. Thanks. I was impressed with the video quality. Resolution certainly adequate for my needs.


----------



## JML

Annoying there is no way to eject the dashcam USB drive.

On a hunch, I paused (long pressed) the camera icon, and then waited a few seconds. The drive was still not ejected cleanly, in that the dirty bit was set, but there were no truncated files or corruption:



Code:


$ sudo fsck -a /dev/sda1
fsck from util-linux 2.32.1
fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.
Automatically removing dirty bit.
Performing changes.
/dev/sda1: 16 files, 19709/1310079 clusters

Up to now, every fsck has shown unlinked blocks and created the annoying FSCK0000XX.REC files. I recommend pausing the dashcam before ejecting, particularly if you are interested in recently recorded videos.

The last recorded file was shorter than the others, but was valid.

And just FYI, here is the output of mediainfo on a file from the dashcam. The UTC time encoded in the metadata matches the MDT time encoded in the filename. 


Code:


General
Complete name                            : saved-front-2018-10-11_23-19.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                                 : mp42 (mp42/mp41/isom/iso2)
File size                                : 29.2 MiB
Duration                                 : 1 min 1 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 4 006 kb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2018-10-12 05:19:21
Tagged date                              : UTC 2018-10-12 05:20:22

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : [email protected]
Format settings                          : 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : No
Format settings, ReFrames                : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=9
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 1 min 1 s
Source duration                          : 1 min 1 s
Bit rate                                 : 3 999 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 960 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 35.968 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.090
Stream size                              : 29.2 MiB (100%)
Source stream size                       : 29.2 MiB (100%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2018-10-12 05:19:21
Tagged date                              : UTC 2018-10-12 05:20:22

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 1 min 1 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 1 426 b/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 7 579 b/s
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Channel positions                        : Front: C
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                               : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 10.5 KiB (0%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2018-10-12 05:19:21
Tagged date                              : UTC 2018-10-12 05:20:22


----------



## Rich M

JML said:


> I paused (long pressed) the camera icon, and then waited a few seconds.


Great! I had forgotten about pausing it. The file corruption was my big concern, since neither Win10 or Linux cared much about the dirty bit. At least half the problem can now be avoided.


----------



## JML

People have suggested that music can be on the dashcam drive, so I copied a bunch of music files to a single drive with the TeslaCam folder on it. The dashcam worked fine, but music was weird and didn't work. The media player gave the USB option, unlike when there is no USB drive at all. However, the USB selection menu showed 0 tracks, but it gave a listing of all the tracks on the drive. It wouldn't let me play any of them though.

I repartitioned the drive into a 6GB dashcam partition, and a second partition for music. That seems to work fine. The exact same music files show up as artist, album, etc. and play without issue. I don't know if this was a weird problem unique to me, or if this is a general problem.

Also, of all the talk on changes with V9, I only found a single post in the pre-release thread that mentioned tracks on USB can be shuffled now. I wonder of resume is reliable.


----------



## 3V Pilot

Rich M said:


> Great! I had forgotten about pausing it. The file corruption was my big concern, since neither Win10 or Linux cared much about the dirty bit. At least half the problem can now be avoided.


Instead of pausing why not power the car off completely using the screen, then pull out the drive. Wouldn't that have a better chance of closing out the last file? or does hitting pause save the last file also?


----------



## JML

3V Pilot said:


> Instead of pausing why not power the car off completely using the screen, then pull out the drive. Wouldn't that have a better chance of closing out the last file? or does hitting pause save the last file also?


Hitting pause just stops writing new files. Over time the system will write out any data in the memory buffer to disk. I waited about 20 seconds to be extra sure, but if you have a drive with a light on it, you could just wait until the light stops flashing. Most don't seem to have lights anymore.

Turning the car off would probably work. That assumes the computer goes through any sort of sane shutdown procedure. Just don't touch anything and cause the car to turn on again.


----------



## Rich M

JML said:


> I wonder of resume is reliable.


Nope. At least I tried this after 39.6. I started a song playing on USB then got out, then back in the car about an hour later and the media player current track was blank, no evidence of what I was playing previously.


----------



## Rich M

JML said:


> any sort of sane shutdown procedure.


I noticed any video file that's recording when the car shuts down after getting out is corrupt too, like it powers down while still recording.


----------



## epepepep

Yep, the long press did the trick!
Thanks,
ep



JML said:


> Annoying there is no way to eject the dashcam USB drive.
> 
> On a hunch, I paused (long pressed) the camera icon, and then waited a few seconds. The drive was still not ejected cleanly, in that the dirty bit was set, but there were no truncated files or corruption:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> $ sudo fsck -a /dev/sda1
> fsck from util-linux 2.32.1
> fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
> 0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.
> Automatically removing dirty bit.
> Performing changes.
> /dev/sda1: 16 files, 19709/1310079 clusters
> 
> Up to now, every fsck has shown unlinked blocks and created the annoying FSCK0000XX.REC files. I recommend pausing the dashcam before ejecting, particularly if you are interested in recently recorded videos.
> 
> The last recorded file was shorter than the others, but was valid.
> 
> And just FYI, here is the output of mediainfo on a file from the dashcam. The UTC time encoded in the metadata matches the MDT time encoded in the filename.
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> General
> Complete name                            : saved-front-2018-10-11_23-19.mp4
> Format                                   : MPEG-4
> Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
> Codec ID                                 : mp42 (mp42/mp41/isom/iso2)
> File size                                : 29.2 MiB
> Duration                                 : 1 min 1 s
> Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
> Overall bit rate                         : 4 006 kb/s
> Encoded date                             : UTC 2018-10-12 05:19:21
> Tagged date                              : UTC 2018-10-12 05:20:22
> 
> Video
> ID                                       : 1
> Format                                   : AVC
> Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
> Format profile                           : [email protected]
> Format settings                          : 1 Ref Frames
> Format settings, CABAC                   : No
> Format settings, ReFrames                : 1 frame
> Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=9
> Codec ID                                 : avc1
> Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
> Duration                                 : 1 min 1 s
> Source duration                          : 1 min 1 s
> Bit rate                                 : 3 999 kb/s
> Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
> Height                                   : 960 pixels
> Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
> Frame rate                               : 35.968 FPS
> Color space                              : YUV
> Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
> Bit depth                                : 8 bits
> Scan type                                : Progressive
> Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.090
> Stream size                              : 29.2 MiB (100%)
> Source stream size                       : 29.2 MiB (100%)
> Language                                 : English
> Encoded date                             : UTC 2018-10-12 05:19:21
> Tagged date                              : UTC 2018-10-12 05:20:22
> 
> Audio
> ID                                       : 2
> Format                                   : AAC
> Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
> Format profile                           : LC
> Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
> Duration                                 : 1 min 1 s
> Bit rate mode                            : Variable
> Bit rate                                 : 1 426 b/s
> Maximum bit rate                         : 7 579 b/s
> Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
> Channel positions                        : Front: C
> Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
> Frame rate                               : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
> Compression mode                         : Lossy
> Stream size                              : 10.5 KiB (0%)
> Language                                 : English
> Encoded date                             : UTC 2018-10-12 05:19:21
> Tagged date                              : UTC 2018-10-12 05:20:22


----------



## FF35

Just got 39.7. Perception is the real issue here because I think the dash cam feature is impressive and works great for my needs. 

FYI - I never had a dash cam and wasn’t going to buy one.


----------



## GeorgeP

I think we are missing the point of the dashcam. It’s to be used as a device to capture recents moments and not a archive of our drive into the ⛰ or to the with the grey skies in the GTA I would prefer the latter.
However I really appreciate the work some of you are doing to test the limits of the dashcam feature... Keeping it coming! Thank You!


----------



## Mistersandman

TrevP said:


> Here's a comparison of the Tesla dashcam footage and quality compared to the BlackVue DR650GW


Thanks for the video. The gaps concerned me initially. I noticed you mention MCU1 on there but most people wouldn't have the slightest idea what that means to them. It wasn't until I read further that MCU1 is for older Teslas and doesn't apply to Model 3's and that the video was shot on a model X. I assume that all Model 3's have MCU2's and this blank gap problem won't exist on those cars.


----------



## chracatoa

Rich M said:


> No, unfortunately there's no safe way to unmount and eject. This initial dash cam release is very abusive to the file system. As long as you hit save, though, the saved files shouldn't be corrupt.
> 
> Edit: as JML points out below, long-pressing the dashcam icon will pause the camera and close the current file. This should stop any files being corrupt, but still no 'safe eject' method.


In the 80's I worked on an IBM PC Jr that would corrupt the files if we opened the disk drive before saving. I thought we were past that.


----------



## GDN

chracatoa said:


> In the 80's I worked on an IBM PC Jr that would corrupt the files if we opened the disk drive before saving. I thought we were past that.


I think typically in most cases if you are copying files and using a USB on a PC/MAC we'd be OK. I never eject on the MAC. If the write operation is done then you are good. I think the Tesla engineers will have to scratch their head and think about how they do this. Based on some action like putting the car in Park or unbuckling the seat belt might mean they should write one more file and close it as that action is when you might likely pull the USB drive. Or just give more control when touching the camera icon, give a drop down to finish writing the last file, or eject the USB, whatever they want to give it, then will have to enhance these options and will. They are very good at giving us unfinished features just to get them to us and then enhance over time. This is a great start. What other car gives you anything close to this?


----------



## Toadmanor

Rich M said:


> It seems like the last file recorded when the car shuts off, and when you pull the drive out is corrupt and unreadable. So if the thing you want to see happened right before you intend on parking the car....


So, what I will do in the event that something I definitely want to save occurs just prior to parking is...drive around the block once or twice.


----------



## MGallo

GDN said:


> Based on some action like putting the car in Park or unbuckling the seat belt might mean they should write one more file and close it as that action is when you might likely pull the USB drive. Or just give more control when touching the camera icon, give a drop down to finish writing the last file, or eject the USB, whatever they want to give it, then will have to enhance these options and will.


These are great suggestions. Email them to Tesla.


----------



## Toadmanor

Obviously a degree of dissatisfaction with this is evident here. I however, think it is awesome and will serve the purpose for which it is intended when and if needed.

George Lucas nor Steven Spielberg will be using their M3 for their next movie I am certain.

Enjoy what we have, I do!


----------



## Ken Voss

Does anyone know how the timestamp on the videos originate? The car has the correct time set, yet the timestamp on the videos are off by about 8 hours (Videos taken at 1:00 PM are timestamped 8:00PM same day.


----------



## GDN

I believe someone has noted they are written with UTC time.


----------



## iChris93

Just got V9 today and put my USB in right away. Was driving around for errands and I noticed it stopped working and I got the gray X. Unplugged and plugged back in, also tried the other port, could not get it working again.
Seems like it needs some work.


----------



## 3V Pilot

Toadmanor said:


> So, what I will do in the event that something I definitely want to save occurs just prior to parking is...drive around the block once or twice.


Just hit the icon to save the last 10 minutes of video. That file should not be corrupt. You can also pause the video (long press) or power off the car via the touchscreen. I have not tried all of these myself but I'm sure somebody will.


----------



## Quicksilver

Ken Voss said:


> Does anyone know how the timestamp on the videos originate? The car has the correct time set, yet the timestamp on the videos are off by about 8 hours (Videos taken at 1:00 PM are timestamped 8:00PM same day.
> View attachment 16034


UTC time to your time... I was hoping the system would just stamp my local time but nope.


----------



## Quicksilver

So I did some recordings on my drive today...What's with the .REC files with 1969 time frame on my USB stick? Weird!


----------



## Kevin W.

Can you view those? I have not been able to view .REC files on a Mac at all and I assume those are the files we saved.


----------



## Quicksilver

Kevin W. said:


> Can you view those? I have not been able to view .REC files on a Mac at all and I assume those are the files we saved.


Nope. I am also on a Mac.


----------



## Sjohnson20

Mine was working good then the X appeared. I took the drive to the Mac and it repaired some errors so I’m trying again.

It worked for about 5 days then the X showed up.


----------



## Joaquin

Not sure if this was commented before, but the filenames format:

saved-*front*-2018-10-13_13-24.mp4

Clearly suggest that more cameras are expected to join the recording party in the future. That would be amazing!


----------



## Mike

I have tried the V9 dash cam two times and all I get is this on the drive:










This is the results of the second attempt, similar to my first attempt.

Both times, I touched the icon on the UI and got the green checkmark on the UI signifying a theoretical saved file.

I also, prior to unmounting the thumb drive from my car, pushed and held the dash cam icon for long enough for the red dot to go away.....telling me I paused things for unmounting.

Can any expert tell me what I am doing wrong?

Thanks


----------



## Rich M

Mike said:


> I have tried the V9 dash cam two times and all I get is this on the drive:
> 
> View attachment 16039
> 
> 
> This is the results of the second attempt, similar to my first attempt.
> 
> Both times, I touched the icon on the UI and got the green checkmark on the UI signifying a theoretical saved file.
> 
> I also, prior to unmounting the thumb drive from my car, pushed and held the dash cam icon for long enough for the red dot to go away.....telling me I paused things for unmounting.
> 
> Can any expert tell me what I am doing wrong?
> 
> Thanks


Nothing is wrong. When you hit the save button, it renames the most recent files from recent-front-(timestamp) to saved-front-(timestamp) and prevents them from being overwritten
The .REC files are errors. Delete them.


----------



## Rich M

Kevin W. said:


> Can you view those? I have not been able to view .REC files on a Mac at all and I assume those are the files we saved.


The .REC files are errors, delete them.
The files created when you hit the save icon are named saved-front-(timestamp)


----------



## Rich M

Quicksilver said:


> UTC time to your time... I was hoping the system would just stamp my local time but nope.


The time in the filename itself is correct.


----------



## Quicksilver

Sjohnson20 said:


> Mine was working good then the X appeared. I took the drive to the Mac and it repaired some errors so I'm trying again.
> 
> It worked for about 5 days then the X showed up.


Mine worked too on my first day of use (today). Got home, long pressed the dash cam icon on screen to pause it, then removed the USB drive from the center console. Went and copied a few of the saved files to my Mac desktop. Video of saved files looked fine. Deleted the .REC files on the USB drive and took the USB drive to the car and plugged it back in and then the grey X appeared. Unplugged it and re-plugged it, still grey X. Weird. When I drive tomorrow, I'll see if anything changes.


----------



## Rich M

Quicksilver said:


> still grey X.


Do a file scan/repair, if that doesn't work a full reformat may be needed.


----------



## Mike

Rich M said:


> Nothing is wrong. When you hit the save button, it renames the most recent files from recent-front-(timestamp) to saved-front-(timestamp) and prevents them from being overwritten
> The .REC files are errors. Delete them.


Something must be wrong because I cannot play back anything. Each of the proper looking named files is only 0 KB or 1 KB.


----------



## TrickorDevice

MelindaV said:


> for the big Version 9 release, we are going to have dedicated feature specific threads. Please use the MEGA thread for general fw discussion, using these for known specific features once the fw is being used.


Does this utilize USB 3.0?


----------



## MelindaV

TrickorDevice said:


> Does this utilize USB 3.0?


the USB ports in the car are all USB2, so it can use a USB3 device, but it is not getting the benefit from it like a USB3 port would.


----------



## slotti

I get the grey x after about 1 to 2 days commuting (3 to 4 hrs). Checked multiple usb drives, always the same. Have to reformat the drive to get it to work again, for 1 or 2 days. Pretty useless for now.


----------



## Rich M

Mike said:


> Something must be wrong because I cannot play back anything. Each of the proper looking named files is only 0 KB or 1 KB.


Yep, that isn't right. The files should be about 30MB (except the last time which will be smaller depending on when you hit save or the car shut off)


----------



## Tchris

Quicksilver said:


> Mine worked too on my first day of use (today). Got home, long pressed the dash cam icon on screen to pause it, then removed the USB drive from the center console. Went and copied a few of the saved files to my Mac desktop. Video of saved files looked fine. Deleted the .REC files on the USB drive and took the USB drive to the car and plugged it back in and then the grey X appeared. Unplugged it and re-plugged it, still grey X. Weird. When I drive tomorrow, I'll see if anything changes.


Same thing happened to me. Worked fine the first time I used it. Took it out and viewed video clips on my desktop and everything looked fine. Put it back in this evening and got the grayed out X.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

iChris93 said:


> Just got V9 today and put my USB in right away. Was driving around for errands and I noticed it stopped working and I got the gray X. Unplugged and plugged back in, also tried the other port, could not get it working again.
> Seems like it needs some work.


By chance was the USB flash card very hot when you pulled it?


----------



## iChris93

SoFlaModel3 said:


> By chance was the USB flash card very hot when you pulled it?


Not at all.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

iChris93 said:


> Not at all.


Interesting. There is a string on Reddit regarding the fact that most storage devices are not good enough for dashcams. I want to put mine through it's paces for a week and see what happens.


----------



## iChris93

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Interesting. There is a string on Reddit regarding the fact that most storage devices are not good enough for dashcams. I want to put mine through it's paces for a week and see what happens.


What makes a drive not good enough for dash cams?


----------



## SoFlaModel3

iChris93 said:


> What makes a drive not good enough for dash cams?


The only thing I can think of is how well it managing the constant the writing. Beyond that, I'm not sure if it's all smoke...


----------



## Mike

I did the two finger salute and now the video is captured on the drive.

However, the whole (current driving event) is being captured in one minute video clips, with a time stamp based not on vehicle local time zone.

If I tap the icon to 'save a 10 minute' clip, I see the green check mark for a moment but after the drive event, all the one minute clips are still there (however tomorrow I have a 4.5 hour drive and I will be able to test and confirm what is saved on the drive by late Tuesday).

Unmounting the drive seems hit and miss. I push on the icon long enough to get rid of the red dot but I find it better to wait a full minute before pulling the drive out so as to ensure the last minute (or portion thereof) is not corrupted.


----------



## TrevP

Mistersandman said:


> Thanks for the video. The gaps concerned me initially. I noticed you mention MCU1 on there but most people wouldn't have the slightest idea what that means to them. It wasn't until I read further that MCU1 is for older Teslas and doesn't apply to Model 3's and that the video was shot on a model X. I assume that all Model 3's have MCU2's and this blank gap problem won't exist on those cars.


Someone sent me clips tkane from a Model 3 and there are some dropped frames at the beginning of each file but it's nowhere as bad as mine which dropped several seconds from each clip...


----------



## iChris93

SoFlaModel3 said:


> The only thing I can think of is how well it managing the constant the writing. Beyond that, I'm not sure if it's all smoke...


I have Samsung drive that should last more than one day. Repairing the disk on my Mac got it working again.


----------



## Quicksilver

Rich M said:


> Do a file scan/repair, if that doesn't work a full reformat may be needed.


I took the USB drive out, plugged into my Mac and did a repair using Disk Utility and its working again. I guess I'll just keep repairing if it gets grayed out again.


----------



## Quicksilver

Tchris said:


> Same thing happened to me. Worked fine the first time I used it. Took it out and viewed video clips on my desktop and everything looked fine. Put it back in this evening and got the grayed out X.


Repairing the USB drive got mine to working again.


----------



## TesLou

Mike said:


> I did the two finger salute and now the video is captured on the drive.
> 
> However, the whole (current driving event) is being captured in one minute video clips, with a time stamp based not on vehicle local time zone.
> 
> If I tap the icon to 'save a 10 minute' clip, I see the green check mark for a moment but after the drive event, all the one minute clips are still there (however tomorrow I have a 4.5 hour drive and I will be able to test and confirm what is saved on the drive by late Tuesday).
> 
> Unmounting the drive seems hit and miss. I push on the icon long enough to get rid of the red dot but I find it better to wait a full minute before pulling the drive out so as to ensure the last minute (or portion thereof) is not corrupted.


Mike: I've tried two different drives; both give me a bunch of 1KB files that don't play. Are you saying rebooting fixed this issue for you?


----------



## SoFlaModel3

Quicksilver said:


> Repairing the USB drive got mine to working again.


Same here


----------



## Mike

TesLou said:


> Mike: I've tried two different drives; both give me a bunch of 1KB files that don't play. Are you saying rebooting fixed this issue for you?


Yes, rebooting solved that issue.

But I also believe the ad hoc manner to dismount the drive can lead to issues.

Before I pull the drive, I push and hold the icon until the red dot goes away and THEN wait another minute before pulling the drive out of its slot.


----------



## JML

Mike said:


> Yes, rebooting solved that issue.
> 
> But I also believe the ad hoc manner to dismount the drive can lead to issues.
> 
> Before I pull the drive, I push and hold the icon until the red dot goes away and THEN wait another minute before pulling the drive out of its slot.


Linux is very configurable on how aggressively it flushes buffered data to disk. It is possible that the car is is holding on to data for a long time. Writing an entire 30MB file to a slow USB disk at 2MB/s could easily take 10-20 seconds, and if it doesn't even start writing for a few seconds, then the post pause wait time is probably 30+ seconds.

Once the novelty wears off and we're only ejecting our drives when something interesting actually happens, waiting won't be too horrible. Obviously a proper eject option in the UI is needed.

My other guess is that a short press to save files just renames them with a mv (move) operation. That changes the name without actually replicating the date. This is far faster than a copy then delete. The implication though, is that saving the data doesn't have any impact on getting it written to disk, it just protects it from the algorithm that cleans up the regular files.


----------



## Mike

JML said:


> Linux is very configurable on how aggressively it flushes buffered data to disk. It is possible that the car is is holding on to data for a long time. Writing an entire 30MB file to a slow USB disk at 2MB/s could easily take 10-20 seconds, and if it doesn't even start writing for a few seconds, then the post pause wait time is probably 30+ seconds.
> 
> Once the novelty wears off and we're only ejecting our drives when something interesting actually happens, waiting won't be too horrible. Obviously a proper eject option in the UI is needed.
> 
> My other guess is that a short press to save files just renames them with a mv (move) operation. That changes the name without actually replicating the date. This is far faster than a copy then delete. The implication though, is that saving the data doesn't have any impact on getting it written to disk, it just protects it from the algorithm that cleans up the regular files.


I have no clue about behind the scenes stuff like this, but what you say sounds logical to me


----------



## TesLou

Mike said:


> Yes, rebooting solved that issue.
> 
> But I also believe the ad hoc manner to dismount the drive can lead to issues.
> 
> Before I pull the drive, I push and hold the icon until the red dot goes away and THEN wait another minute before pulling the drive out of its slot.


Rebooted and it did the trick for me. Thanks Mike!


----------



## phigment

Mike said:


> ... with a time stamp based not on vehicle local time zone.


I haven't verified, but they may be using UTC time. This could help avoid situations of changing file names as you cross timezones. This would also avoid confusion with debugging multiple systems in different timezones all using a different perspective of time.


----------



## ronmis

JWardell said:


> In preparation for v9 dash cam functionality, I ordered a SanDisk wireless flash drive* and small USB hub so I can connect phone, and one flash drive for cam and my existing USB stick for music.
> 
> Release notes state that dash cam can't use same drive as music drive. I hope that is resolved some day, but another drive plus hub isn't expensive.
> I thought the wireless drive would be useful so that in case of accident etc, files could easily and immediately be downloaded to phone. This is why my existing dash cams have wifi. *Note that only the 32GB version of this model is FAT32 formatted according to reviews, larger sizes may or may not work.


Did you get to test the wireless flash drive yet? Being able to download the video files through their phone app without having to unplug the drive would be great.


----------



## Ken Voss

ronmis said:


> Did you get to test the wireless flash drive yet? Being able to download the video files through their phone app without having to unplug the drive would be great.


I am using a wireless flash drive, and I can view all files from my phone (or ipad) without physically removing the drive from the car. I do, however first need to press a button on the flash drive to upload the files, which means opening the phone compartment and getting my hand down there to press the button.

So its not as automatic as it first sounds but still way better than having to remove the drive, bring it in the house, put it in your computer, open the drive..... and then having to remember to bring it back to the car and plug it in again. With a wireless drive, it never leaves the car.


----------



## ER1C8

Ken Voss said:


> I am using a wireless flash drive, and I can view all files from my phone (or ipad) without physically removing the drive from the car. I do, however first need to press a button on the flash drive to upload the files, which means opening the phone compartment and getting my hand down there to press the button.
> 
> So its not as automatic as it first sounds but still way better than having to remove the drive, bring it in the house, put it in your computer, open the drive..... and then having to remember to bring it back to the car and plug it in again. With a wireless drive, it never leaves the car.


What drive are you using?


----------



## SoFlaModel3

Ken Voss said:


> With a wireless drive, it never leaves the car.


Until the drive becomes corrupted and you have to format it again


----------



## ronmis

Ken Voss said:


> I am using a wireless flash drive, and I can view all files from my phone (or ipad) without physically removing the drive from the car. I do, however first need to press a button on the flash drive to upload the files, which means opening the phone compartment and getting my hand down there to press the button.
> 
> So its not as automatic as it first sounds but still way better than having to remove the drive, bring it in the house, put it in your computer, open the drive..... and then having to remember to bring it back to the car and plug it in again. With a wireless drive, it never leaves the car.


I wanted to buy the Sandisk connect wireless fllash drive but then saw this comment on the Amazon page

"It seems to work well for what it is designed to do. There's a button on the side that turns on and off the WiFi. It comes formatted as exfat, which is apparently the only way you can use the app to connect to it wirelessly. I wanted to use this for my Tesla's dashcam but Tesla requires it to be FAT32, which works fine as a USB stick (I even have it partitioned into two FAT32 partitions with music on one and dashcam on the other). But if I knew I couldn't use the wireless connection unless it was exfat I would have bought a regular USB stick"


----------



## Vidya

Grey X mark keeps coming after few hours of drive. Formatted the drive thrice and the same thing happening.
I will change the drive and see if its the fault of bad drive..


----------



## zosoisnotaword

ronmis said:


> I wanted to buy the Sandisk connect wireless fllash drive but then saw this comment on the Amazon page
> 
> "It seems to work well for what it is designed to do. There's a button on the side that turns on and off the WiFi. It comes formatted as exfat, which is apparently the only way you can use the app to connect to it wirelessly. I wanted to use this for my Tesla's dashcam but Tesla requires it to be FAT32, which works fine as a USB stick (I even have it partitioned into two FAT32 partitions with music on one and dashcam on the other). But if I knew I couldn't use the wireless connection unless it was exfat I would have bought a regular USB stick"


I can't remember where I saw this (maybe this thread), but I read somewhere that someone left their flash drive formatted to exfat and it still worked.


----------



## Mike

phigment said:


> I haven't verified, but they may be using UTC time. This could help avoid situations of changing file names as you cross timezones. This would also avoid confusion with debugging multiple systems in different timezones all using a different perspective of time.


I will comfirm the time stamps tomorrow night when I get home from a road trip. Currently, I am saving to the drive once per hour. After 10 highway hours, the pattern should be pretty obvious.


----------



## zoro_bawa

HELP!? I formatted an 8GB USB drive and created the root directory TeslaCam per the instructions. After plugging in the USB, the indicator light on it flashes and the dashcam icon shows up on the screen with a red dot indicating at it is recording. However, the next day, I see a dashcam icon on the screen with an "x" in place of the red dot. Erased the USB, repeated the process and same result. Does any one have any suggestions to fix the problem? Perhaps another brand of USB stick? Tech support wait is >30 minutes. :-( Thanks.


----------



## Rich M

zoro_bawa said:


> HELP!? I formatted an 8GB USB drive and created the root directory TeslaCam per the instructions. After plugging in the USB, the indicator light on it flashes and the dashcam icon shows up on the screen with a red dot indicating at it is recording. However, the next day, I see a dashcam icon on the screen with an "x" in place of the red dot. Erased the USB, repeated the process and same result. Does any one have any suggestions to fix the problem? Perhaps another brand of USB stick? Tech support wait is >30 minutes. :-( Thanks.


It may not like your USB drive. Try a different one, but in the meantime, try a full format (not quick format) as FAT32 in a different computer and see if that helps.


----------



## Ken Voss

ER1C8 said:


> What drive are you using?


Sandisk connect


ER1C8 said:


> What drive are you using?


SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive, it comes formatted FAT32 out of the box, just create a TeslaCam folder and its good to go. There is an app for your phone/tablet that you will need for viewing wireless.


----------



## Manole

zosoisnotaword said:


> I can't remember where I saw this (maybe this thread), but I read somewhere that someone left their flash drive formatted to exfat and it still worked.


Looks like the 32 and 16 GB version of this drive support Fat32: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/C14ihLRL-IS.pdf


----------



## Manole

Manole said:


> Looks like the 32 and 16 GB version of this drive support Fat32: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/C14ihLRL-IS.pdf
> 
> View attachment 16109


To be clear, they prob all support FAT32 but the smaller capacity drives come formatted that way to begin with. Also, in that manual it states you cannot use USB drive and Wi-Fi at the same time.


----------



## JWardell

ronmis said:


> Did you get to test the wireless flash drive yet? Being able to download the video files through their phone app without having to unplug the drive would be great.





ronmis said:


> I wanted to buy the Sandisk connect wireless fllash drive but then saw this comment on the Amazon page
> 
> "It seems to work well for what it is designed to do. There's a button on the side that turns on and off the WiFi. It comes formatted as exfat, which is apparently the only way you can use the app to connect to it wirelessly. I wanted to use this for my Tesla's dashcam but Tesla requires it to be FAT32, which works fine as a USB stick (I even have it partitioned into two FAT32 partitions with music on one and dashcam on the other). But if I knew I couldn't use the wireless connection unless it was exfat I would have bought a regular USB stick"


At least according to the Amazon comments, only the 32GB version is FAT32, which is the one I got. It works no problem with TeslaCam.
It has a built-in battery so it can be removed, press the power button, connect to its wifi with your phone, and files accessed from the phone app. This works well.
Pressing the power button while it is plugged into the Tesla blinks its LED as if it is doing something, and the car's dash cam icon gets an X or disappears. I guess this only turns it off. It won't seem to power up in wifi mode when plugged into data USB (Maybe if it were plugged into charger only).
So yes, you have to unplug it, then separately press the power button and you can then connect and access all the files.
Strange is I see .REC files in the root directory, and .mp4 files in the TeslaCam directory.
The app can't seem to play any of the files, and it fails to transfer to camera roll (maybe because of format?). I was able to "save to downloads" within the app and save to iCloud Drive, however even on the computer with VLC I can't play the videos. I feel like this is a fault of Tesla though.
Has anyone had success playing the videos? Obviously @TrevP has somehow.


----------



## Teslarella

EDIT: Was writing this as you were posting..... Obviously you knew this already



JWardell said:


> All the more reason to get a wireless drive that you don't have to remove and can just connect to.


It looks like you need to remove the stick to stream to your device. This makes sense to me because it would need to be able to stream data while writing data at the same time. I read somewhere that you my even need to have the cap on the stick to stream. Perhaps with the car off and no power to stick, you could stream to phone. Regardless, let us know how it works for you. I'm getting one anyway.

From the manual for the stick:


----------



## TrevP

JWardell said:


> At least according to the Amazon comments, only the 32GB version is FAT32, which is the one I got. It works no problem with TeslaCam.
> It has a built-in battery so it can be removed, press the power button, connect to its wifi with your phone, and files accessed from the phone app. This works well.
> Pressing the power button while it is plugged into the Tesla blinks its LED as if it is doing something, and the car's dash cam icon gets an X or disappears. I guess this only turns it off. It won't seem to power up in wifi mode when plugged into data USB (Maybe if it were plugged into charger only).
> So yes, you have to unplug it, then separately press the power button and you can then connect and access all the files.
> Strange is I see .REC files in the root directory, and .mp4 files in the TeslaCam directory.
> The app can't seem to play any of the files, and it fails to transfer to camera roll (maybe because of format?). I was able to "save to downloads" within the app and save to iCloud Drive, however even on the computer with VLC I can't play the videos. I feel like this is a fault of Tesla though.
> Has anyone had success playing the videos? Obviously @TrevP has somehow.


I use VLC on my Mac and it can read the videos just fine


----------



## JWardell

TrevP said:


> I use VLC on my Mac and it can read the videos just fine


Both the mp4 files and the REC files work with VLC? I just updated to the latest version. It skips the RECs, and the mp4s it freezes up with 100% CPU and needs to be force quit.
These are just files that were there, I never hit save, so they could be corrupted, although the 10-15MB files shouldn't be.
I will continue to investigate...I haven't really driven more than 10min since getting v9.


----------



## Allan

Has anyone figured out a way to use the USB port for the Dashcam while still being able to use the power to charge a phone or Qi pad?


----------



## Ken Voss

Allan said:


> Has anyone figured out a way to use the USB port for the Dashcam while still being able to use the power to charge a phone or Qi pad?


Sure, you just need a small USB hub, but don't expect that port to deliver full charging power, will charge slower than before


----------



## SoFlaModel3

Allan said:


> Has anyone figured out a way to use the USB port for the Dashcam while still being able to use the power to charge a phone or Qi pad?


Yes


----------



## JML

JWardell said:


> Both the mp4 files and the REC files work with VLC? I just updated to the latest version. It skips the RECs, and the mp4s it freezes up with 100% CPU and needs to be force quit.
> These are just files that were there, I never hit save, so they could be corrupted, although the 10-15MB files shouldn't be.
> I will continue to investigate...I haven't really driven more than 10min since getting v9.


The .REC files are created by the fsck (file system consistency check) process which checks and fixes file system corruption. About the most you can do is delete them. Think .RECovered, not .RECorded. If they're spontaneously appearing, then my guess is that the car is automatically running fsck at some point to correct problems.



SoFlaModel3 said:


> Yes


This probably won't work with iPhones, unless you're using a Qi pad or something in between.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

JML said:


> This probably won't work with iPhones, unless you're using a Qi pad or something in between.


That is correct, it will not charge the iPhone directly.


----------



## iChris93

SoFlaModel3 said:


> That is correct, it will not charge the iPhone directly.


Wait, what? If I use a Lightning cable, it will not work?


----------



## SoFlaModel3

iChris93 said:


> Wait, what? If I use a Lightning cable, it will not work?


That's right - the Y-splitter provides power on one side and power + data on the other side.

The Dash Cam USB stick requires power + data.

Wired charging for an iPhone requires phone + data as well. Wireless charging negates that as you're just using "power" to charge the battery (NOMAD) or Qi Pad directly (Jeda).


----------



## iChris93

SoFlaModel3 said:


> That's right - the Y-splitter provides power on one side and power + data on the other side.
> 
> The Dash Cam USB stick requires power + data.
> 
> Wired charging for an iPhone requires phone + data as well.


Bummer. I ordered a USB 2.0 Y-splitter like that, I did not realize the iPhone required data to charge.


----------



## JWardell

JML said:


> The .REC files are created by the fsck (file system consistency check) process which checks and fixes file system corruption. About the most you can do is delete them. Think .RECovered, not .RECorded. If they're spontaneously appearing, then my guess is that the car is automatically running fsck at some point to correct problems.
> 
> This probably won't work with iPhones, unless you're using a Qi pad or something in between.


Aha! I assumed they were .recorded.  No idea why I only have four .mp4 files in the TeslaCam folder, and they all kill VLC. It doesn't help that my last several drives are <10min, so Tesla may just corrupt files when powering down or something.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

iChris93 said:


> Bummer. I ordered a USB 2.0 Y-splitter like that, I did not realize the iPhone required data to charge.


Which iPhone do you have? Wireless charging capable? There is another option actually if you're using direct wire to the iPhone you could run a QC3.0 adapter from the 12V in the center console under the armrest. It's a little work but it will charge your phone faster and keep your USB ports free under the dock.


----------



## iChris93

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Which iPhone do you have? Wireless charging capable? There is another option actually if you're using direct wire to the iPhone you could run a QC3.0 adapter from the 12V in the center console under the armrest. It's a little work but it will charge your phone faster and keep your USB ports free under the dock.


Xs, so wireless capable but I've yet to buy into wireless charging.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

iChris93 said:


> Xs, so wireless capable but I've yet to buy into wireless charging.


Ahh - plenty of options for you!


----------



## ronmis

I bought this (Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0) usb hub from amazon and connected the following
1. Nomad Wireless charger (1 wire to free usb port, 2nd wire to the usb hub), my iphone xs max charged fine at 952mA
2. USB with music
3. USB for Dashcam video

Everything worked perfectly well. I'll do some more testing and see if it continues to work well.

One thing I noticed is I plugged in my car and it said 4 hours to charge to 90%, When I got into the car, the dash cam started recording and the charging time went to 13 hours! So looks like when the dash cam is recording and you are charging your car, the estimated time of completion will jump up. Did anyone else notice this behavior?


----------



## slotti

so I tried 2 different drives, and both become corrupted after about 2 or 3 hrs of recording. I have to take them out and reformat or repair. Anyone has a recommendation for a drive that works?


----------



## Bokonon

Just had to repair the TeslaCam partition of my USB stick. Interestingly, the last recorded video was taken just before I plugged into a public charging station in an underground parking garage last Friday, three stories down with no LTE coverage. I've had the "x" ever since then.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

My favorite moment captured so far...


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1052052496481423366


----------



## zoro_bawa

Rich M said:


> It may not like your USB drive. Try a different one, but in the meantime, try a full format (not quick format) as FAT32 in a different computer and see if that helps.


Thanks. Your suggestion worked. I changed to a 32 GB Sandisk USB and it is working as advertised. Again, a big thank you!


----------



## Rich M

JWardell said:


> Aha! I assumed they were .recorded.  No idea why I only have four .mp4 files in the TeslaCam folder, and they all kill VLC. It doesn't help that my last several drives are <10min, so Tesla may just corrupt files when powering down or something.


Any file older than 1 hour will be deleted immediately the next time the car wakes up if you didn't hit the save button.
Ex: if you drive for 1 hour and park for 1 hour, the next time you wake the car it will delete everything.
And yes, the last file being recorded when the car goes to sleep will be corrupt (unless you hit save first)


----------



## 2Kap

Got the grey x for the first time this morning. Gonna pull the usb drive and repair and see if that fixes it like everyone else has been doing. I went ahead and reported it as a bug through the voice command.


----------



## mkg3

Does the dash cam switch to IR in dark or just dark images?

I see that there are several options being discussed of splitting the dash cam usb and phone charger by Y splitter or by a hub. The issue being that the power is being split between the dash cam and phone; hence, degrading the power available to charge.

Perhaps its easier to have 10,000mA power pack driving the two phones and the power pack into the other USB port so that when not being discharged, its charging to keep it topped off. this way, the flash drive is in one USB and the other into the power pack.


----------



## Rich M

mkg3 said:


> Perhaps its easier to have 10,000mA power pack driving the two phones and the power pack into the other USB port so that when not being discharged, its charging to keep it topped off. this way, the flash drive is in one USB and the other into the power pack


Why not run a low profile (right angle plug) cable from one of the rear USB ports for phone charging if you really need 2 devices charging at once?


----------



## mkg3

Rich M said:


> Why not run a low profile (right angle plug) cable from one of the rear USB ports for phone charging if you really need 2 devices charging at once?


That's easy - because the kids need the ports for their iPhone/ipad...


----------



## Rich M

mkg3 said:


> That's easy - because the kids need the ports for their iPhone/ipad...


So you have to charge the car an extra 10% just to cover device usage on trips then?


----------



## Ken Voss

There are several ways to do this, in my case I was looking for a wireless solution that would allow me to continue to fully utilize both front USB ports for charging while adding a few additional ports for data and charging.

I am using a small 4 port USB hub and a wireless USB flash drive, so now I have a total of 5 front ports that can be used for data and charging, 2 of these are dedicated to phone charging, 1 is dedicated to the flash drive for the TeslaCam, leaving 2 unused ports.

The flash drive came formatted FAT32 out of the box, mine is a 32GB but they sell other sizes as well and I am using it for music, the TeslaCam and some photos. You can view the TeslaCam images on your phone and you don't need to physically remove it from the car to do this.

In my case total cost was $33. The SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive was $20 and the USB Hub, BYEASY 4 Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Portable Data Hub was $13.


----------



## Love

Ken Voss said:


> There are several ways to do this, in my case I was looking for a wireless solution that would allow me to continue to fully utilize both front USB ports for charging while adding a few additional ports for data and charging.
> 
> I am using a small 4 port USB hub and a wireless USB flash drive, so now I have a total of 5 front ports that can be used for data and charging, 2 of these are dedicated to phone charging, 1 is dedicated to the flash drive for the TeslaCam, leaving 2 unused ports.
> 
> The flash drive came formatted FAT32 out of the box, mine is a 32GB but they sell other sizes as well and I am using it for music, the TeslaCam and some photos. You can view the TeslaCam images on your phone and you don't need to physically remove it from the car to do this.
> 
> In my case total cost was $33. The SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive was $20 and the USB Hub, BYEASY 4 Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Portable Data Hub was $13.
> 
> View attachment 16164


Which wire do I cut to defuse this?


----------



## Rich M

Lovesword said:


> Which wire do I cut to defuse this?


----------



## xmetal

iChris93 said:


> Bummer. I ordered a USB 2.0 Y-splitter like that, I did not realize the iPhone required data to charge.


I discovered this last night as well. I have one of those y-splitters and if I plug the splitter into the car and my USB music drive into the data side, that works fine, but plugging my iPhone X into the power-only side just gives a message to "unlock the phone to use accessories" and it never actually charges. Will be trying my wireless pad this evening, instead of a lightning cable and I suspect that will work fine.

(Now if only my camera drive wouldn't get corrupted every single day, we'd be getting somewhere...)


----------



## Mistersandman

There must be some people using this feature without any problems at all. I’d like to hear from them on what’s working. Or was this feature this buggy even during Tesla’s testing and they released it anyways?


----------



## JML

mkg3 said:


> Does the dash cam switch to IR in dark or just dark images?
> 
> I see that there are several options being discussed of splitting the dash cam usb and phone charger by Y splitter or by a hub. The issue being that the power is being split between the dash cam and phone; hence, degrading the power available to charge.
> 
> Perhaps its easier to have 10,000mA power pack driving the two phones and the power pack into the other USB port so that when not being discharged, its charging to keep it topped off. this way, the flash drive is in one USB and the other into the power pack.


The big power banks almost always need to have a button pushed to turn them on, and will automatically turn off if the there isn't adequate power being drawn from it. There probably exist some that have fancy auto-on circuitry, or no sleep function, but they're not the $20 Amazon special power banks. I have one of the small 3000mA banks which does not sleep, and should work inline between a hub or splitter and a phone. The upside is they cost about $5, the downside is that the quality is very questionable.

The problem with the Y splitter isn't that it divides the power, as the USB memory drive uses a tiny amount compared to a charging phone. The problem is that iPhones won't charge from the power only side. A bus powered hub will limit the power available, because they were never really designed to provide charging levels of power.


----------



## zosoisnotaword

If you have Windows and are looking into the partitioning option, here is a ridiculously easy tutorial from TMC member SomeJoe7777. This method may also solve some of the corruption issues.

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...titions-for-dashcam-and-music-windows.132130/


----------



## Teslarella

Just FYI... I ordered the 64G version of the SanDisk 64GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive before realizing that it was formatted exFAT. The car recognized it as a USB and it can be used for enjoy music but not for the dashcam. 

But I WAS able to reformat it as FAT32. To do so you first need to format the drive as NTFS by right clicking on the drive on the computer and selecting format and then NTFS in the drop down. After it is NTFS you open AOMEI Partition Assistant, select the drive and use "NTFS to FAT32 converter" to convert formatting to FAT32. Then hit the Apply button and you are done.


----------



## Bokonon

zosoisnotaword said:


> If you have Windows and are looking into the partitioning option, here is a ridiculously easy tutorial from TMC member SomeJoe7777. This method may also solve some of the corruption issues.
> https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...titions-for-dashcam-and-music-windows.132130/


Good guide. FWIW, though, I used diskpart.exe and the same procedure to setup and format the partitions on my USB drive (12 GB cam / 20 GB music), and the camera partition still became corrupt after a few days. So, I'm not so sure that this method will necessarily prevent the filesystem from becoming corrupt eventually.

That said, if you're going to roll with a single USB stick for dashcam and music, I'd definitely recommend partitioning it. That way, if and when the filesystem becomes corrupt, you can still listen to your music until you have a chance to remove the USB drive and fix the filesystem.


----------



## Mike

2Kap said:


> Got the grey x for the first time this morning. Gonna pull the usb drive and repair and see if that fixes it like everyone else has been doing. I went ahead and reported it as a bug through the voice command.


I can't even get my computer to recognize the drive to try and fix it......and Tesla (person at Toronto SC) tells me that these various drives are causing headaches and that Tesla might come out with a tested//recommended drive.

I'm not going to buy another drive at this point, the dash cam software is obviously not quite right yet.


----------



## 2Kap

I have this drive.

SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 64GB... 
I used my MacBook to repair the dashcam partition part of the drive, plugged it in and now it's working fine.


----------



## mkg3

Been using the dash cam for 3 days without any issue at all.

SanDisk Ultra Flair 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive 

I just bought the 32Gb USB 3.0 drive pre-formatted to FAT32. Based on a chart someone posted earlier, its over 1000 hours at 32Gb so its more than enough for my needs.


----------



## mishakim

Teslarella said:


> Just FYI... I ordered the 64G version of the SanDisk 64GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive before realizing that it was formatted exFAT. The car recognized it as a USB and it can be used for enjoy music but not for the dashcam.
> 
> But I WAS able to reformat it as FAT32. To do so you first need to format the drive as NTFS by right clicking on the drive on the computer and selecting format and then NTFS in the drop down. After it is NTFS you open AOMEI Partition Assistant, select the drive and use "NTFS to FAT32 converter" to convert formatting to FAT32. Then hit the Apply button and you are done.


Are you able to use the wireless feature to access the data after formatting? I have the same drive, and I can't get it to access it's own storage after formatting, if it's anything other that ExFAT it won't read it, and even restoring it to ExFAT it says there's nothing there. I'm on a Mac, so I went through APFS to partition before going back to FAT, but it's pure FAT/ExFAT now and just not working

EDIT: figured out out at least part of the problem, the drive must be powered off when formatting, to make it subsequently work for wireless access. Now to figure out if that works with partitions so I can use FAT32.

Edit2: yes, once it is formatted as FAT32, you can still access it wirelessly, as long as it was turned off when formatted. I didn't partition it, based on other comments saying music and TeslaCam can co-exist, will test that tomorrow.


----------



## Quicksilver

Quicksilver said:


> I took the USB drive out, plugged into my Mac and did a repair using Disk Utility and its working again. I guess I'll just keep repairing if it gets grayed out again.


Well, it grayed out again today! Have not had a chance to do a repair on it.


----------



## MelindaV

my usb drives video files are being ‘saved’, but they are only 8kb and the videos are 0 seconds long. I’ve not had an X on the cam icon, but something isn’t right


----------



## Sjohnson20

I had to format my usb drive again, that fixed it for awhile. Now the X is back. I guess it needs
another update to fix.


----------



## Quicksilver

MelindaV said:


> my usb drives video files are being 'saved', but they are only 8kb and the videos are 0 seconds long. I've not had an X on the cam icon, but something isn't right


Maybe try using a different flash drive. My drive saves recordings just fine but would show grey X after a few hours.


----------



## Sumiguchi

I found that if I pause the recording before I get out of the car, it'll start recording automatically when I get back in and everything is fine. But... if I forget to pause the recording before I leave the car, I get the grey X when I get back in. Pluging/unplugging doesn't make a difference - always have to go fix the drive on a PC.


----------



## 2Kap

Sjohnson20 said:


> I had to format my usb drive again, that fixed it for awhile. Now the X is back. I guess it needs
> another update to fix.


Mine just got the grey x for a second time. Guess this will be a common occurrence until the next update.


----------



## Mistersandman

3 times in 3 days for me. I always notice its corrupt when getting back into the car. So looks like it happens after car is shut down. Sure hope they release an update and fix this problem soon.


----------



## glavewu

Why the dashcam footage from my m3 during night sucks comparing to the footage posted here, not only flickering from all light sources but also tons of noise when really dark.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

Sumiguchi said:


> I found that if I pause the recording before I get out of the car, it'll start recording automatically when I get back in and everything is fine. But... if I forget to pause the recording before I leave the car, I get the grey X when I get back in. Pluging/unplugging doesn't make a difference - always have to go fix the drive on a PC.


Is there an ability to pause that I missed? If you tap on the icon it saves footage, but starts recording again after a successful save.


----------



## MelindaV

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Is there an ability to pause that I missed? If you tap on the icon it saves footage, but starts recording again after a successful save.


Hold down on the icon pauses it


----------



## MelindaV

It


Quicksilver said:


> Maybe try using a different flash drive. My drive saves recordings just fine but would show grey X after a few hours.


 did record and save the first day - I had 10 minutes of saved clips of my garage wall, haha, but since have been duds


----------



## 3V Pilot

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Is there an ability to pause that I missed? If you tap on the icon it saves footage, but starts recording again after a successful save.


Long press on the icon will pause.


----------



## iChris93

2Kap said:


> Guess this will be a common occurrence until the next update.


That is optimistic they'll fix it the next update.


----------



## garsh

iChris93 said:


> That is optimistic they'll fix it the next update.


True. Ok, they'll fix it in *some* update.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

3V Pilot said:


> Long press on the icon will pause.


Thanks - that works so far!


----------



## Mike

Have a new drive, began a test........and my maps started to go to the grey tiled look.

Pulled the drive, did two resets and my maps are back.

I'm driving to Kingston and back today.

I'll try the dash cam thing again.....if maps goes down the toilet, I'll start by pulling the drive and seeing if there is a relationship in my maps failures (since V9) and having a drive record the dash cam.


----------



## zosoisnotaword

Bokonon said:


> Good guide. FWIW, though, I used diskpart.exe and the same procedure to setup and format the partitions on my USB drive (12 GB cam / 20 GB music), and the camera partition still became corrupt after a few days. So, I'm not so sure that this method will necessarily prevent the filesystem from becoming corrupt eventually.


Ah, that's bad news. Did you convert to GPT?


----------



## rsf

Sumiguchi said:


> I found that if I pause the recording before I get out of the car, it'll start recording automatically when I get back in and everything is fine. But... if I forget to pause the recording before I leave the car, I get the grey X when I get back in. Pluging/unplugging doesn't make a difference - always have to go fix the drive on a PC.


I've been pausing mine - but I always have to manually unpause to get it going again


----------



## TrevP

Hey everyone, we've been working on this prior to V9 since we had a feeling the dashcam function would be sub-par.

We're happy to announce the details of our BlackVue dashcam group buy! Last-year's was super popular so we're bringing it back again.

Have a look at the announcement:

https://teslaownersonline.com/threads/model-3-owners-club-dashcam-group-buy.9254/


----------



## Quicksilver

MelindaV said:


> It
> 
> did record and save the first day - I had 10 minutes of saved clips of my garage wall, haha, but since have been duds


For today, I've been pausing the recording prior to exiting the car and the USB drive has been doing fine...so far...I've been in and out of the car about 4 times today


----------



## Mike

I think using the USB in my car for dash cam is causing my maps to crash (?).

In any event, two different sticks, two different days, two sets of crashing maps events.

Tech at Lawrence Ave SC suggested don't use it UFN.

So, for now, no dash cam for me.


----------



## JWardell

Well, the TeslaCam has proven its first usefulness already, sadly:

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-accident-recorded-software-v9-dashcam-teslacam/


----------



## SoFlaModel3

JWardell said:


> Well, the TeslaCam has proven its first usefulness already, sadly:
> 
> https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-accident-recorded-software-v9-dashcam-teslacam/


Ouch!


----------



## JWM3

slotti said:


> so I tried 2 different drives, and both become corrupted after about 2 or 3 hrs of recording. I have to take them out and reformat or repair. Anyone has a recommendation for a drive that works?


I'm using Sandisk 32GB USB drive. Most of time working well. Only one time it showing gray x after I reboot the car. Since I can not repair the USB drive on the road, I bought another $9 USB drive and keep it car, when gray x shows up I will just swap another USB drive.


----------



## LUXMAN

Well mine was working fine and now its not. 
It shows the Red Dot like it is recording. And if I press to save, it appears to do that, but when I take the drive to the computer, it says there is a problem with the flash drive that needs to be repaired and then I do it but still cant read the files. The VLC player just shows a traffic cone. And after saving, it appears that it doesn't record anymore. Just Stops. Sigh.

EDIT
And all the files are 2kb


----------



## LUXMAN

I just tried another Flash Drive (older 2GB) and same result. Computer said the drive needed to be repaired and the files were only 2kb. 
So what is the point of this DashCam is it won't work. I am a big fan of the idea. It was working great when I got V9, now it just quits?
I even captured this Bozo while leaving the parking garage at work. He just stops and throws it in reverse. You see he stops abruptly as I lay on the horn.

Guess I may have to go back to the regular cheapy dashcam if this doesn't get sorted quickly.


----------



## Bokonon

zosoisnotaword said:


> Ah, that's bad news. Did you convert to GPT?


Circling back on this, after getting the gray X again today. I thought I had converted the stick to GPT before creating the partitions, but Windows Disk Management is telling me it's MBR, so I must have messed something up. I just blew the drive away and rebuilt the same partitions with GPT, so hopefully this will work better. If I get the X again with the new setup, I'll report back.


----------



## Rbrooks84

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I put together this video to help get ready for the dashcam functionality. I hope it helps!


thanks for this


----------



## Teslarella

I have been pausing the camera after each drive if I remember. But today I forgot to unpause it and went about my morning taking my 3 year old to Starbucks before preschool. When I came out and opened a rear door the car apparently recorded a 2 second clip. I wasn't even in the car at the time nor had I unpaused since yesterday. In fact I didn't unpause until after the next drive to preschool. Just find it funny that the 2 second clip was the only one recorded while paused and it was of another model 3 pulling into the spot in front of me. Its like it saw another model 3 and decided to record it.


----------



## LUXMAN

LUXMAN said:


> I just tried another Flash Drive (older 2GB) and same result. Computer said the drive needed to be repaired and the files were only 2kb.
> So what is the point of this DashCam is it won't work. I am a big fan of the idea. It was working great when I got V9, now it just quits?
> I even captured this Bozo while leaving the parking garage at work. He just stops and throws it in reverse. You see he stops abruptly as I lay on the horn.
> 
> Guess I may have to go back to the regular cheapy dashcam if this doesn't get sorted quickly.


I did the 2 button reboot and did some errands.
After I got back, I put the flash drive in the computer. It said again the drive needs to be repaired,. but this time it looks like it recorded everything.
I always stop the camera before I pull it out. SO I will put it back in and see if it continues to work.....but I shouldn't have to do this


----------



## Bokonon

Administrative note: we've created a new, dedicated thread for members to share and discuss their notable dashcam videos. You can find it here:

Member Dashcam Videos

The intention is to keep this thread focused on the built-in dashcam as a feature of firmware V9 (usage, quality, quirks, troubleshooting, etc.), while also providing a place for all of the intriguing, harrowing, and downright wacky things our dashcams will capture out on the road. We all know it's only going to be a matter of time before someone catches a 20-car pileup, herd-animal stampede, or alien invasion on video, and we wouldn't want scores of reactions to that spectacle to derail the discussion here.

(Okay, fine -- I'll admit that aliens are a much more interesting topic than partition tables...  )


----------



## Rbrooks84

JWardell said:


> Well, the TeslaCam has proven its first usefulness already, sadly:
> 
> https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-accident-recorded-software-v9-dashcam-teslacam/


oh noooooooooooooooo


----------



## Teslarella

I'm not sure if there is any use to this but I am curious if the dashcam would record footage during the 2 minute countdown after remotely pressing "start" on the app to power up the car. If it does, one would have to save it or retrieve the drive within an hour anyway. 

Also, this may be obvious, but you can change clip names from "recent" to "saved" and the car will not delete them.


----------



## NJturtlePower

OrangeJulius said:


> Can someone confirm that this new Dashcam functionality requires a Model 3 to have the Enhanced Autopilot option.
> 
> Without the Enhanced Autopilot option purchased and activated, there is no Dashcam function?





Unplugged said:


> No. There is no requirement for EAP to have been purchased for the Model 3 in order for the TeslaCam to be functional.
> 
> Likewise, there is no EAP purchase requirement for the blindspot warning indicator to be functional.


I can also confirm the no EAP needed for Dash Cam or Blindspot Monitoring...both are working (kinda) in my non-EAP car.

The dash cam file corruption issues are annoying and glad to read it's not just me. First time I inserted my brand new FAT32 formatted Samsung 32gb USB the Dash Cam icon came up, but then disappeared and apparently was no longer recording...that's a shame because it would have caught my accident with a deer 30-min later.  After the impact I remembered the USB and reinserted and it recorded fine for the rest of the day. 

More about the accident here: _https://teslaownersonline.com/threa...-post-i-hoped-to-never-make.9273/#post-163876_

I do enjoy the Dash Cam feature and expect it to get sorted out sooner rather than later... today I got the "grey X" mentioned after a few drives and had to repair errors once inserting it into my computer.

And what's with the .REC files? What are they? The drive was empty this morning and I never hit the save button at all today and had a whole list of them on the drive.

*Side note: POST 800!!!! *


----------



## Bokonon

NJturtlePower said:


> And what's with the .REC files? What are they? The drive was empty this morning and I never hit the save button at all today and had a whole list of them on the drive.


.REC files contain data recovered by the Linux filesystem-checker (fsck). They're the equivalent of the .CHK files that CHKDSK creates in DOS/Windows. You'll probably see a few of them every time you check your USB drive, because there is no clean way to unmount the drive from within the car.


----------



## Kaush

Dashcam stopped working. Anyone know what this icon means? I still have 15Gb available on the usb drive and about 1Gb used by recent and saved recording files.


----------



## 3V Pilot

Kaush said:


> Dashcam stopped working. Anyone know what this icon means? I still have 15Gb available on the usb drive and about 1Gb used by recent and saved recording files.


It means you need to pull the USB out, plug it into a PC and click on "repair file" or whatever the error message is that pops up. Once you do that the drive will work again. I started keeping a spare drive in the car for now, when this happens I just pop in the good drive and repair the old one when I can.


----------



## Bokonon

fazluke said:


> I have an interesting issue, no camera icon !!! I Looked through the 15 pages and could not find any one with a missing icon.
> I rebooted the car but still no icon, any ideas?


If the car can't read the drive, or there's no "TeslaCam" folder at the root of the drive, then there will be no camera icon.

It happened to me today when I rebuilt my drive but forgot to add the TeslaCam folder.


----------



## fazluke

Bokonon said:


> If the car can't read the drive, or there's no "TeslaCam" folder at the root of the drive, then there will be no camera icon.
> 
> It happened to me today when I rebuilt my drive but forgot to add the TeslaCam folder.


 Thanks, that was it...I reformat it and forgot to add the folder.


----------



## MelindaV

Bokonon said:


> .REC files contain data recovered by the Linux filesystem-checker (fsck). They're the equivalent of the .CHK files that CHKDSK creates in DOS/Windows. You'll probably see a few of them every time you check your USB drive, because there is no clean way to unmount the drive from within the car.


Outside of my TeslaCam folder, I essentially have a .rec file for every 1min recording within the folder (I say essentially, because I didn't verify there is one for each, but just based on the approx quantity, its about the same number as .m4p files. 
Yesterday morning, I cleared everything off, did not reformat, as it wasn't showing the X on the screen, just deleted, and have only removed the USB just once (tonight) since after pausing the cam. 
So should the .rec files not be populating as much as I'm seeing?


----------



## Bokonon

MelindaV said:


> Outside of my TeslaCam folder, I essentially have a .rec file for every 1min recording within the folder (I say essentially, because I didn't verify there is one for each, but just based on the approx quantity, its about the same number as .m4p files.
> Yesterday morning, I cleared everything off, did not reformat, as it wasn't showing the X on the screen, just deleted, and have only removed the USB just once (tonight) since after pausing the cam.
> So should the .rec files not be populating as much as I'm seeing?


I usually only see 5 or 6 .rec files on my drive, and they're only a few hundred KB each.

How big were your .rec files? I remember you mentioning earlier that your .mp4 files were only a few kilobytes in size. If that's the case, and your .rec files were close to 30 MB (which is how big each one-minute .mp4 clip should be) , then that suggests that all of the video that the car is writing to the drive is getting corrupted somehow. That could indicate that there's something wrong with the drive's filesystem, or with the drive itself (e.g. it can't handle the data throughput). In that case, I'd try reformatting the drive, and if that doesn't change anything, try a new drive.


----------



## Mistersandman

Out of curiosity, if Tesla is not able to fix the corruption issue, would it be possible to program a Raspberry Pi to automatically format the usb stick and add the TeslaCam folder with the press of a button? That way you don’t always have to worry about carrying a computer around.


----------



## MelindaV

Bokonon said:


> I usually only see 5 or 6 .rec files on my drive, and they're only a few hundred KB each.
> 
> How big were your .rec files? I remember you mentioning earlier that your .mp4 files were only a few kilobytes in size. If that's the case, and your .rec files were close to 30 MB (which is how big each one-minute .mp4 clip should be) , then that suggests that all of the video that the car is writing to the drive is getting corrupted somehow. That could indicate that there's something wrong with the drive's filesystem, or with the drive itself (e.g. it can't handle the data throughput). In that case, I'd try reformatting the drive, and if that doesn't change anything, try a new drive.


my recordings from today seem to be saving correctly, and playable (at 30MB), both as the saved and recent named files. I didn't pay attention this evening to the size of the .rec files, but IIRC, the other day, they were also just a couple kb


----------



## Rich M

Mistersandman said:


> would it be possible to program a Raspberry Pi to automatically format the usb stick and add the TeslaCam folder


But then you'd have to shut down the Pi every time you leave the car, or the Pi will get corrupt.


----------



## garsh

Rich M said:


> But then you'd have to shut down the Pi every time you leave the car, or the Pi will get corrupt.


You should be able to have a read-only root/boot partition for the Pi so that's not an issue.


----------



## zosoisnotaword

Bokonon said:


> Circling back on this, after getting the gray X again today. I thought I had converted the stick to GPT before creating the partitions, but Windows Disk Management is telling me it's MBR, so I must have messed something up. I just blew the drive away and rebuilt the same partitions with GPT, so hopefully this will work better. If I get the X again with the new setup, I'll report back.


Let us know. I haven't seen the grey X since I converted to GPT the other day.


----------



## 350VDC

Teslarella said:


> open AOMEI Partition Assistant, select the drive and use "NTFS to FAT32 converter" to convert formatting to FAT32


This worked for me too, Thanks. I now have a 128GB FAT32 Partition. The only thing is the NTFS to FAT32 Converter option was a paid option , but I could just format the partition as FAT32.


----------



## NR4P

Disappointed in the USB writing mess from Tesla.
Finally got around to trying the dashcam.
USB drive 1 worked for about 3 short drives and failed.
Followed above instructions to repair.

Same issue after repair.

So tried a different USB drive.
Similar issue. After about 3 or 4 short drives, it failed.

PC shows the files but apparently something corrupts the data. PC has trouble reading directories after this occurs.

I am wondering how such a low reliability feature made it to market.


----------



## RichEV

NR4P said:


> Disappointed in the USB writing mess from Tesla.
> Finally got around to trying the dashcam.
> USB drive 1 worked for about 3 short drives and failed.
> Followed above instructions to repair.
> 
> Same issue after repair.
> 
> So tried a different USB drive.
> Similar issue. After about 3 or 4 short drives, it failed.
> 
> PC shows the files but apparently something corrupts the data. PC has trouble reading directories after this occurs.
> 
> I am wondering how such a low reliability feature made it to market.


I would much rather have a glitchy dashcam than no dashcam. Tesla, please don't hold back non-safety-related features because they aren't perfect. (fat chance)

Also, since I have started pausing the cam before removing the flash drive I have not had any problems. YMMV


----------



## NR4P

RichEV said:


> I would much rather have a glitchy dashcam than no dashcam. Tesla, please don't hold back non-safety-related features because they aren't perfect. (fat chance)
> 
> Also, since I have started pausing the cam before removing the flash drive I have not had any problems. YMMV


You are a very forgiving consumer. This is not glitchy, its a significant problem. Mine and others fail without ever removing them. I develop electronic products and can't imagine how this came to market with such a defect. Any automated testing or 30 day field trial (TEAP?) would have caught this. And assuming no hardware problems in the vehicle, probably only a few days to troubleshoot and correct.

It's just too prevalent and obvious. If the expectation is that people will repair this daily or swap them daily is odd.


----------



## Whatcanisay

went to costco got a 3 pack of thumb drives. formatted and loaded em up like ammo


----------



## SoFlaModel3

NR4P said:


> You are a very forgiving consumer. This is not glitchy, its a significant problem. Mine and others fail without ever removing them. I develop electronic products and can't imagine how this came to market with such a defect. Any automated testing or 30 day field trial (TEAP?) would have caught this. And assuming no hardware problems in the vehicle, probably only a few days to troubleshoot and correct.
> 
> It's just too prevalent and obvious. If the expectation is that people will repair this daily or swap them daily is odd.


I agree completely. I love new features, especially safety features, but they have to be reliable to provide actual value.


----------



## Tmo6

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I agree completely. I love new features, especially safety features, but they have to be reliable to provide actual value.


Agree! I spent 30 bucks to buy the USB drive for a feature that doesn't work! Can I get that money back from Tesla?


----------



## ig0p0g0

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I agree completely. I love new features, especially safety features, but they have to be reliable to provide actual value.


Of course it's frustrating, I'll admit personal frustration with just about all the new features. But consider there are two options:

Get a buggy feature on oct 15 that is fixed by nov 15. You have the choice not to use it in the mean time.

Get the functioning feature on nov 15th.

Clearly there is more value in the first option. You can just ignore the feature if you don't like it. While I will grumble about the bugs, I really do like being part of the process. And I'll actually bet that the fully functioning feature comes out faster with so many people testing it.


----------



## MelindaV

ig0p0g0 said:


> Of course it's frustrating, I'll admit personal frustration with just about all the new features. But consider there are two options:
> 
> Get a buggy feature on oct 15 that is fixed by nov 15. You have the choice not to use it in the mean time.
> 
> Get the functioning feature on nov 15th.
> 
> Clearly there is more value in the first option. You can just ignore the feature if you don't like it. While I will grumble about the bugs, I really do like being part of the process. And I'll actually bet that the fully functioning feature comes out faster with so many people testing it.


And to that point, it was stated as a beta feature, so bugs should be expected.


----------



## NR4P

MelindaV said:


> And to that point, it was stated as a beta feature, so buts should be expected.


I respectfully disagree.
FSD, yes thats a giant leap forward. That is a Beta when initially rolls out due to all the complexity and they will need 1000s of drivers feedback.

Writing to a USB drive reliably is not Beta.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

ig0p0g0 said:


> Of course it's frustrating, I'll admit personal frustration with just about all the new features. But consider there are two options:
> 
> Get a buggy feature on oct 15 that is fixed by nov 15. You have the choice not to use it in the mean time.
> 
> Get the functioning feature on nov 15th.
> 
> Clearly there is more value in the first option. You can just ignore the feature if you don't like it. While I will grumble about the bugs, I really do like being part of the process. And I'll actually bet that the fully functioning feature comes out faster with so many people testing it.


Well if you go on a road trip and get a corrupted drive with no computer to repair/reformat the card then you're kind of stuck.


----------



## 3V Pilot

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Well if you go on a road trip and get a corrupted drive with no computer to repair/reformat the card then you're kind of stuck.


Unless you are reading this thread, then you know to take lots of USB drives or a cheap laptop or just expect that "beta" means it probably won't work very well to begin with and don't count on it!


----------



## RichEV

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Well if you go on a road trip and get a corrupted drive with no computer to repair/reformat the card then you're kind of stuck.


... you'd be kind of stuck without a dashcam, which would be the same case if they never released the current version at all. Or if you just decided to ignore the feature until it was perfect.

Just saying I'd much rather have the opportunity to look at the feature and get to know it even before it is perfect. And I certainly wouldn't have wanted them to hold back the V9 release even longer just to iron out the issues with corrupting the dashcam flash.

Of course I understand the idea that "writing to a flash disk without corruption is a solved problem, how could Tesla have been so stupidly careless?' is valid. Even so, I'm glad they included it as is.


----------



## bradkeller

Hi everyone. I apologize if this question has already been answered, but I've searched and not found a discussion on the topic.

I upgraded to software version 9 last weekend, and have a problem with the dashcam. Basically, when I put in a thumb drive, the red circle appears on the dashcam icon, and the car starts recording my drives in one-minute files, and saves them to the thumb drive. Then, after about an hour, the thumb drive fills up and the red dot is replaced by a gray x, and the dashcam no longer records. If I put a new thumb drive in, the process starts again and works until that second drive fills up.

My understanding is that the dashcam, when turned on, is supposed to record and save to the thumb drive, but then overwrite those files continuously until you press the icon to save the last ten minutes. But in my case, it seems like they simply don't ever overwrite the files, and the system stops working when the thumb drive is filled up.

I've tried it with multiple thumb drives (with different sizes and manufacturers) and gotten the same result. I even bought a five-pack of brand-new 4 GB thumb drives from Amazon (http://a.co/d/3irwHDC), ensured they were formatted to Fat32, and only had one folder on them (teslacam), but the same thing happened.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do I have some sort of setting messed up on the dashcam so that it always thinks I want to save my recordings? I've searched online and there isn't really a lot of info about how this system actually works yet, since it's so new.

Here's a screenshot of one of the multiple dashcam thumb drives my car used yesterday. You can see the series of one-minute files it created, as well as some background files that it created in the parent space (not in the teslacam folder). At no point in this drive did I touch the screenshot icon.









Thanks for any help.


----------



## MelindaV

NR4P said:


> I respectfully disagree.
> FSD, yes thats a giant leap forward. That is a Beta when initially rolls out due to all the complexity and they will need 1000s of drivers feedback.
> 
> Writing to a USB drive reliably is not Beta.


directly from Elon Musk, the initial v9.0 release of the dashcam function is BETA

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1041829117493108736


----------



## SoFlaModel3

MelindaV said:


> directly from Elon Musk, the initial v9.0 release of the dashcam function is BETA
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1041829117493108736


Which means expect it to be bad for a little while. The move from 9.0 to 9.1 could be months...


----------



## MelindaV

SoFlaModel3 said:


> The move from 9.0 to 9.1 could be months...


...years


----------



## 3V Pilot

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Which means expect it to be bad for a little while. The move from 9.0 to 9.1 could be months...





MelindaV said:


> ...years


Not months......not years.......Elons!


----------



## webdriverguy

Guys,

I am constantly seeing issues with dashcam on v9. After some days I see a grey X icon. I format the USB drive to FAT and then create the top level folder. Am I missing something?


----------



## Bokonon

webdriverguy00 said:


> I am constantly seeing issues with dashcam on v9. After some days I see a grey X icon. I format the USB drive to FAT and then create the top level folder. Am I missing something?


That's the same experience I have had so far... Gray X every 4-5 days. In the latest iteration, I've made sure the USB drive's partition table is GPT instead of MBR to see if that makes a difference. So far, I have 3 days worth of drives logged without issue.


----------



## Ken Voss

Look fellow Model 3 owners…. We own a car where we will ALWAYS be receiving updates and new features will often be buggy when they are first released, this is just a fact of life for Model 3 owners.

For those who don't want Beta level software or features that are not 100% debugged before using them, I might suggest buying a Buick or some other vehicle that has limited technology and doesn't offer over the air software updates.

For anyone familiar with "Crossing the Chasm" There are

*Early adopters* who have no trouble dealing with technology as it evolves bugs and all, the Model 3 is a great car for this group, many of us are Early Adopters
The *Early Majority* which likely involves the next group of Tesla Owners who are not early adopters, this group understands the technology is evolving and what that means, but doesn't mind being on the leading edge.
The *Late Majority* SHOULD NOT own a Tesla, this group is more risk adverse and will come on board once about half of the new vehicles on the roar are Electric Vehicles. Today this group would be better suited to a vehicle that is not innovative and uses older more proven technology.
In the end the final group remaining are the *Laggards* who will not (and should not) own an Electric Vehicle until all internal combustion vehicles are nearly extent.
Can Tesla do a better job at debugging? Probably, but to a large degree they are using us to help them do that, it's a trade-off for owning the best car in the world and driving a leading edge piece of vehicle technology. I know a few people who have purchased a Model 3 who really should not have done so, because their mind set is more like those in the late majority.


----------



## webdriverguy

Bokonon said:


> That's the same experience I have had so far... Gray X every 4-5 days. In the latest iteration, I've made sure the USB drive's partition table is GPT instead of MBR to see if that makes a difference. So far, I have 3 days worth of drives logged without issue.


Thanks I'll try that out


----------



## Toadmanor

3V Pilot said:


> Not months......not years.......Elons!


Maybe even, wait for it....., DAYS!


----------



## Toadmanor

Bokonon said:


> That's the same experience I have had so far... Gray X every 4-5 days. In the latest iteration, I've made sure the USB drive's partition table is GPT instead of MBR to see if that makes a difference. So far, I have 3 days worth of drives logged without issue.


I bet you only have about an hour or so.


----------



## TesLou

Didn't see the answer to this when searching the forum but are there USB port splitters available that will charge my phone while using data/power for the dash cam USB drive? The cheapie I picked up on Amazon works great for the USB drive but my phone won't charge.


----------



## Bernard

TesLou said:


> Didn't see the answer to this when searching the forum but are there USB port splitters available that will charge my phone while using data/power for the dash cam USB drive? The cheapie I picked up on Amazon works great for the USB drive but my phone won't charge.


Yes, in fact that's the only reasonable setup, so I am wondering why yours is not working -- it may be defective.
Splitters offer one plug that's charge-only and one that's both; Amazon has a number of those (consisting of a male plug with two leads to two female plugs) for $8 or less; the female plug that's charge-only is marked. Note that you could connect the webcam to the memory stick and charge your phone, but not connect it to the car via USB. Also. charging would be slow, since a small amount of power would be used by the USB stick. Here is one:

It's the usual setup because you cannot have signal going to/from both female plugs just by soldering wires: USB protocol will require some arbitration among the connected devices. That's done via a USB hub, which has some very simple electronics on board and thus uses power. You can find some hubs that are USB-powered, but then they do not support downstream charging on any port (because they use the power themselves):

If you want both charging and signal on both ports, then you need a hub with external power. They can be quite small and inexpensive too, but you'll need to route a 2-conductor wire from the "cigarette-lighter" 12V outlet in the console to the space by the phone plugs. (There are lots of postings on TOO and on YouTube about doing just that.) Check their charging current per port -- the cheap one from Amazon has a limit of 0.9A, so not great, but half the price of those that will deliver 2.5A per plug.

Of course if you just want to charge your phone quickly, the simplest thing to do is to get a quick-charge "cigarette-lighter" charger to plug into the 12V outlet in the console; your phone won't be as accessible during that time, but it will charge 3-4 times faster than it would on one of the "phone" USBs (and as fast as on a powered USB hub connected to the 12V outlet). Amazon has a zillion of these, from $6 to $20...


----------



## webdriverguy

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I agree completely. I love new features, especially safety features, but they have to be reliable to provide actual value.


I agree as well


----------



## webdriverguy

webdriverguy00 said:


> Thanks I'll try that out


I reformatted the usb today on my Mac and it stopped working after 2 hrs of driving. Tesla needs to fix this ASAP


----------



## SoFlaModel3

TesLou said:


> Didn't see the answer to this when searching the forum but are there USB port splitters available that will charge my phone while using data/power for the dash cam USB drive? The cheapie I picked up on Amazon works great for the USB drive but my phone won't charge.


I'm assuming you're looking to charge your phone via hardwire and not a charging pad? Most (if not all) of the splitters that I've seen will not support that as you'll need power + data on both female sides of the splitter.


----------



## TesLou

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I'm assuming you're looking to charge your phone via hardwire and not a charging pad? Most (if not all) of the splitters that I've seen will not support that as you'll need power + data on both female sides of the splitter.


Yes; trying to charge the phone "the old-fashioned way". I've already tried one splitter and sent it back to Amazon for that very reason. And I heard you verify my own suspicions on the M3OC podcast recently. I'm wondering if my only solution is to switch over to wireless charging?


----------



## LUXMAN

bradkeller said:


> Hi everyone. I apologize if this question has already been answered, but I've searched and not found a discussion on the topic.
> 
> I upgraded to software version 9 last weekend, and have a problem with the dashcam. Basically, when I put in a thumb drive, the red circle appears on the dashcam icon, and the car starts recording my drives in one-minute files, and saves them to the thumb drive. Then, after about an hour, the thumb drive fills up and the red dot is replaced by a gray x, and the dashcam no longer records. If I put a new thumb drive in, the process starts again and works until that second drive fills up.
> 
> My understanding is that the dashcam, when turned on, is supposed to record and save to the thumb drive, but then overwrite those files continuously until you press the icon to save the last ten minutes. But in my case, it seems like they simply don't ever overwrite the files, and the system stops working when the thumb drive is filled up.
> 
> I've tried it with multiple thumb drives (with different sizes and manufacturers) and gotten the same result. I even bought a five-pack of brand-new 4 GB thumb drives from Amazon (http://a.co/d/3irwHDC), ensured they were formatted to Fat32, and only had one folder on them (teslacam), but the same thing happened.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced this? Do I have some sort of setting messed up on the dashcam so that it always thinks I want to save my recordings? I've searched online and there isn't really a lot of info about how this system actually works yet, since it's so new.
> 
> Here's a screenshot of one of the multiple dashcam thumb drives my car used yesterday. You can see the series of one-minute files it created, as well as some background files that it created in the parent space (not in the teslacam folder). At no point in this drive did I touch the screenshot icon.
> View attachment 16435
> 
> 
> Thanks for any help.


I'm surprised that yours keeps writing. Mine just quits. I have kinda given up on it and just left it in the last 2 days while I have been working. It has consistently had the RED recording dot. I figured I would see if it actually worked tonight. And survey says...
the drive is corrupt according to the computer and this is all that is on the drive even though I have driven 3 hours since this was recorded......















And it only says saved because as I just pulled the drive out, I tried to stop the recording and it saved instead.
All the files from 10/20 play but not this one from today at the bottom.

It is frustrating. I figure writing on an USB drive would be easy since the cheap $20 dashcam I have from Wal-Mart, made in china does just fine and has audio too. Disappointing. Guess I will have to move the old dashcam from the rear back to the front


----------



## LUXMAN

Bokonon said:


> That's the same experience I have had so far... Gray X every 4-5 days. In the latest iteration, I've made sure the USB drive's partition table is GPT instead of MBR to see if that makes a difference. So far, I have 3 days worth of drives logged without issue.


OK, well I literally have no idea what GPT and MBR are and why can't I just stick a FAT32 drive in there like they say?


----------



## Bernard

LUXMAN said:


> OK, well I literally have no idea what GPT and MBR are and why can't I just stick a FAT32 drive in there like they say?


FAT32 is a file system format; that's one level lower than a partition.
MBR was the std partition format for 15-20 yrs, but is full of limitations as to sizes and numbers of partitions. GPT is newer and removes these limitations. 
BUT: none of the MBR limitations should affect a single USB memory stick.
Still, if it works, why not. Plenty of partitioning tools out there to do that. My personal favorite is gparted -- developed on Linux but available for Windows as well. Remove all partitions, create a single partition (GPT should be the default for gparted), then format the partition for VFAT/FAT32, then create the TeslaCam directory. Can't hurt to try while waiting for firmware 42.x


----------



## garsh

NR4P said:


> You are a very forgiving consumer. This is not glitchy, its a significant problem. Mine and others fail without ever removing them. I develop electronic products and can't imagine how this came to market with such a defect.


This is just a very early beta version of the feature. It will get better.


----------



## garsh

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I'm assuming you're looking to charge your phone via hardwire and not a charging pad? Most (if not all) of the splitters that I've seen will not support that as you'll need power + data on both female sides of the splitter.


I think that's only true of iPhones. They require data to be connected to charge.


----------



## Bokonon

LUXMAN said:


> OK, well I literally have no idea what GPT and MBR are and why can't I just stick a FAT32 drive in there like they say?


Agreed. Ideally, you should be able to take any* off-the-shelf USB stick, plug it in, and it just works.

*And if "any" isn't good enough, then Tesla should provide specs and specific recommendations for compatible drives.

True plug-and-play operation would also mean that there shouldn't be any need for the owner to create a specially-named TeslaCam folder using a separate computer before the dashcam will work. When the car detects a USB drive that it hasn't seen before, it should ask whether dashcam should be enabled, and if so, create the folder. You could also argue that the car should be able to detect the size, free space, format, and even I/O performance of the drive, and provide advice and guidance if any of those attributes were problematic for dashcam operation.

I think the subpar setup experience speaks to the fact that the dashcam is still a beta-grade feature. The problem is that the "beta" label has only been applied by Elon in a tweet-reply... It's nowhere to be found in the release notes or official V9 blog post (unless I missed it).


----------



## SoFlaModel3

TesLou said:


> Yes; trying to charge the phone "the old-fashioned way". I've already tried one splitter and sent it back to Amazon for that very reason. And I heard you verify my own suspicions on the M3OC podcast recently. I'm wondering if my only solution is to switch over to wireless charging?


I don't want to say only. You may check USB hubs as an alternative, but I don't have any research into them. @LUXMAN ???

Wireless charging sure is nice though!


----------



## LUXMAN

Bernard said:


> FAT32 is a file system format; that's one level lower than a partition.
> MBR was the std partition format for 15-20 yrs, but is full of limitations as to sizes and numbers of partitions. GPT is newer and removes these limitations.
> BUT: none of the MBR limitations should affect a single USB memory stick.
> Still, if it works, why not. Plenty of partitioning tools out there to do that. My personal favorite is gparted -- developed on Linux but available for Windows as well. Remove all partitions, create a single partition (GPT should be the default for gparted), then format the partition for VFAT/FAT32, then create the TeslaCam directory. Can't hurt to try while waiting for firmware 42.x


Well I reformatted the drive again and decided to try one last time in a port without my hub. It it doesn't work (and it won't ) I will try this tomorrow. Thanks


----------



## LUXMAN

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I don't want to say only. You may check USB hubs as an alternative, but I don't have any research into them. @LUXMAN ???
> 
> Wireless charging sure is nice though!


My hub has been providing power for my Jeda Wireless pad (at a slightly reduced rate) and the car recognizes the usb drive for the dash cam but as you can see above, my cam has stopped working reliably like many other folks. So I am gonna try the cam tomorrow without the hub and if necessary try other formatting as @Bernard suggested above. I don't think the hub is interfering as it worked great with that cam in the beginning. But I want a clean test of different formatting tomorrow.

But this is the hub I bought from Frys. USB 3.0.


----------



## EValuatED

Bernard said:


> Yes, in fact that's the only reasonable setup, so I am wondering why yours is not working -- it may be defective.
> Splitters offer one plug that's charge-only and one that's both; Amazon has a number of those (consisting of a male plug with two leads to two female plugs) for $8 or less; the female plug that's charge-only is marked. Note that you could connect the webcam to the memory stick and charge your phone, but not connect it to the car via USB. Also. charging would be slow, since a small amount of power would be used by the USB stick. Here is one:
> 
> It's the usual setup because you cannot have signal going to/from both female plugs just by soldering wires: USB protocol will require some arbitration among the connected devices. That's done via a USB hub, which has some very simple electronics on board and thus uses power. You can find some hubs that are USB-powered, but then they do not support downstream charging on any port (because they use the power themselves):
> 
> If you want both charging and signal on both ports, then you need a hub with external power. They can be quite small and inexpensive too, but you'll need to route a 2-conductor wire from the "cigarette-lighter" 12V outlet in the console to the space by the phone plugs. (There are lots of postings on TOO and on YouTube about doing just that.) Check their charging current per port -- the cheap one from Amazon has a limit of 0.9A, so not great, but half the price of those that will deliver 2.5A per plug.
> 
> Of course if you just want to charge your phone quickly, the simplest thing to do is to get a quick-charge "cigarette-lighter" charger to plug into the 12V outlet in the console; your phone won't be as accessible during that time, but it will charge 3-4 times faster than it would on one of the "phone" USBs (and as fast as on a powered USB hub connected to the 12V outlet). Amazon has a zillion of these, from $6 to $20...


Great summary, to which I would only ask: many (most/all?) of the unpowered options won't provide enough juice to charge an iPhone? (Reading that the power-only side of the Y cable won't charge an iPhone.)

(Edited to clarify my question.)


----------



## MelindaV

wonder if there is a connection between USB size and the *X* issues.
are those that consistently have seen issues using a larger USB? smaller? partitioned? non-partitioned? formatted on a PC or Mac? directly connected to the port or thru a hub?

I have not yet seen the *X* yet and am using: 
32GB drive (USB3.0 Scandisk)​Partitioned in half, so 16GB for the camera, 16GB for audio (which really was just a test)​Mac formatted​connected thru a Y cable​


----------



## 3V Pilot

MelindaV said:


> wonder if there is a connection between USB size and the *X* issues.
> are those that consistently have seen issues using a larger USB? smaller? partitioned? non-partitioned? formatted on a PC or Mac? directly connected to the port or thru a hub?
> 
> I have not yet seen the *X* and using:
> 32GB drive (USB3.0 Scandisk)​Partitioned in half, so 16GB for the camera, 16GB for audio (which really was just a test)​Mac formatted​connected thru a Y cable​


I get the "x" after a few drives, maybe every other day. Seems to last longer if I delete the extra files on the USB.

64GB (USB 3.0 scandisk)
No partition
No need to format out of the box but PC to repair when needed
Connected directly or via hub (tried both, seems not to make any difference)


----------



## Love

MelindaV said:


> wonder if there is a connection between USB size and the *X* issues.
> are those that consistently have seen issues using a larger USB? smaller? partitioned? non-partitioned? formatted on a PC or Mac? directly connected to the port or thru a hub?
> 
> I have not yet seen the *X* and using:
> 32GB drive (USB3.0 Scandisk)​Partitioned in half, so 16GB for the camera, 16GB for audio (which really was just a test)​Mac formatted​connected thru a Y cable​


I have a 32GB and only had the grey X once after hitting the icon to save/capture the last 10 minutes. I bought two and set my wife's S up the same way and she's never had the X (and so far has never pushed the button to capture/save the footage). 
- Purchased them already fat32 formatted. 
- non partitioned 
- connected directly to right USB port
- the one time I fixed mine was on windows


----------



## NR4P

Red X, files get corrupted after the third drive.
Happened 4x this way over a few days. And some drives are short and same issue after a 60 mile drive.

Something happens on the last mp4 file. That's the one where the car powers down with walk away lock.
It's always the last file that is corrupted. The one with the park/power down sequence.

So it appears that the write on the last file when there is a power down is corrupting the drive.
Why not the one's before (first stop or second stop), no clue.


----------



## babula

LUXMAN said:


> My hub has been providing power for my Jeda Wireless pad (at a slightly reduced rate) and the car recognizes the usb drive for the dash cam but as you can see above, my cam has stopped working reliably like many other folks. So I am gonna try the cam tomorrow without the hub and if necessary try other formatting as @Bernard suggested above. I don't think the hub is interfering as it worked great with that cam in the beginning. But I want a clean test of different formatting tomorrow.
> 
> But this is the hub I bought from Frys. USB 3.0.
> 
> View attachment 16457
> View attachment 16458


Where did you get that back pad?


----------



## babula

What version are you guys on (people that reported issues above)? I'm on 40.1 and it seems to be working fine after a few drives, verified just now and it appears I have all the correct clips.


----------



## webdriverguy

babula said:


> What version are you guys on (people that reported issues above)? I'm on 40.1 and it seems to be working fine after a few drives, verified just now and it appears I have all the correct clips.


39.7


----------



## Bokonon

MelindaV said:


> wonder if there is a connection between USB size and the *X* issues.
> are those that consistently have seen issues using a larger USB? smaller? partitioned? non-partitioned? formatted on a PC or Mac? directly connected to the port or thru a hub?


Similar setup to yours:
- 32 GB drive (Sandisk / USB 3.0)
- Partitioned (GPT) 8 GB TeslaCam / 24 GB music
- Formatted in Windows
- Connected directly
- Firmware 39.7

This setup has worked well so far, in 3 days (~3 hours) of normal driving, plus some idle time when the car was powered on and the cam was running (as recently as a few hours ago). 
EDIT: This setup has failed after 4-5 days.

Prior setup that also failed (twice) after 4-5 days was:
- Same USB drive
- Partitioned (MBR) 24 GB music / 8 GB TeslaCam
- Formatted in Windows
- Connected directly
- Firmware 39.6 (first failure) and 39.7 (second failure)


----------



## babula

webdriverguy00 said:


> 39.7


I'll keep reporting back because it's working fine for me.

FYI I have a dedicated Sandisk / USB 3.0 (32GB), formatted on OSX (no hub, no partition).


----------



## MelindaV

Bokonon said:


> Similar setup to yours:
> - 32 GB drive (Sandisk / USB 3.0)
> - Partitioned (GPT) 8 GB TeslaCam / 24 GB music
> - Formatted in Windows
> - Connected directly
> - Firmware 39.7
> 
> This setup has worked well so far, in 3 days (~3 hours) of normal driving, plus some idle time when the car was powered on and the cam was running (as recently as a few hours ago).
> 
> Prior setup that failed twice after 4-5 days was:
> - Same USB drive
> - Partitioned (MBR) 24 GB music / 8 GB TeslaCam
> - Formatted in Windows
> - Connected directly
> - Firmware 39.6 (first failure) and 39.7 (second failure)


and mac by default does MBR partitioning (at least that is what mine defaults to)


----------



## JimmT

Sorry to hear about all the problems. The dashcam's been working fine for me so far, I've had it plugged in and recording for over 2 weeks. I'm using it with a splitter as well due to the Nomad charging pad. Here's the drive and splitter I'm using:



The drive came formatted and I didn't bother reformatting it. I also pulled it out today to check some saved footage. No problem with the dashcam working after I plugged it back in. So, it does seem to work in some cases at least.


----------



## Bruno L Giorgini

I agree, also if you want to use the Flash drive for Media, as long is not in the folder TeslaCam it should recognize the music in the same volume. It would be GREAT to have an option to store everything after 1 hour in the external media, for as much as free space in the external media, and keep always the last 60 minutes in "hot" memory in the car, with the option to download also those last 60 minutes to the external media.
Short clips of 10 minutes are ok, but you can always edit in the computer if you need to cut 10 min clip.


----------



## LUXMAN

babula said:


> Where did you get that back pad?


That is actually the JEDA Wireless charging pad. getjeda.com


----------



## LUXMAN

babula said:


> What version are you guys on (people that reported issues above)? I'm on 40.1 and it seems to be working fine after a few drives, verified just now and it appears I have all the correct clips.


Good to hear that maybe a 40.1 will help. Hoping.

I have
SanDisk 64 GB (USB 3.0)
Single FAT32 partition
Formatted in Windows with the AOMEI Partition Assistant Program
Connected with HUB
Firmware 39.7

I am going to Convert to GPT with the program this morning and see how it does going to work today.
I am gonna run it directly and see if @Bernard GPT format suggestion works for me


----------



## garsh

EValuatED said:


> Great summary, to which I would only ask: many (most/all?) of the unpowered options won't provide enough juice to charge an iPhone? (Reading that the power-only side of the Y cable won't charge an iPhone.)


No, the issue seems to be that the lightning-port iphones require a data connection in order to charge.

The solution isn't bad though. Instead of using a USB splitter (which is a non-spec-compliant hack), get a USB hub. All ports on a USB hub will have data. And they're not very expensive.


----------



## OrangeJulius

garsh said:


> No, the issue seems to be that the lightning-port iphones require a data connection in order to charge.


If I'm understanding your statement above correctly, then no, Lightning-port iPhones CAN charge from a USB port which only provides power but no data transfer.


----------



## Enginerd

LUXMAN said:


> Good to hear that maybe a 40.1 will help. Hoping.


Nope.
40.1 since 10/19, so far I've had the same issues.


----------



## babula

Enginerd said:


> Nope.
> 40.1 since 10/19, so far I've had the same issues.


Wonder what the difference is, I've done like 10 drives since getting V9 (40.1) and I haven't seen the gray x issue people are reporting yet.

FYI two of those drives were over an hour, rest have been around 30 mins.


----------



## garsh

OrangeJulius said:


> If I'm understanding your statement above correctly, then no, Lightning-port iPhones CAN charge from a USB port which only provides power but no data transfer.


I think the (non-spec-compliant) USB splitters aren't tying the data lines together with a proper resistance value as a USB power adapter would, and the iPhone chooses not to trust it as a power source while other phones don't care. But that's just my personal theory based on what others have reported - I haven't dug into the lightning port specifications, or how USB-Lightning cable adapters are supposed to be designed.


----------



## njkode

iChris93 said:


> Bummer. I ordered a USB 2.0 Y-splitter like that, I did not realize the iPhone required data to charge.


Phew, I was just about to order this spliter as well, just saved me since I do not have a wireless charger yet.

Does anyone have a small USB hub they recommend?


----------



## Bokonon

Right on cue, the gray X is back a few days after rebuilding my USB stick with GPT partitioning.  

Guess we'll have to wait for Tesla to fix this behavior in a future update, or clarify which USB sticks are or are not compatible with the dashcam.


----------



## babula

Bokonon said:


> Right on cue, the gray X is back a few days after rebuilding my USB stick with GPT partitioning.
> 
> Guess we'll have to wait for Tesla to fix this behavior in a future update, or clarify which USB sticks are or are not compatible with the dashcam.


If this helps at all, this is the exact USB stick I'm using with good results.

SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB 3.0 Flash Drive

If you want to hold off on ordering, I'm going to keep driving and making sure it works - then I'll report back here.

I purchased a big one in case I wanted to partition and add a ton of music on it, but so far I've been using it as a dedicated TeslaCam drive.


----------



## kort677

I bought a PNY 16gb 3.0 disk properly formatted it to fat32 made the teslacam folder and for 2 days it appears to be functioning as intended


----------



## Kizzy

babula said:


> If this helps at all, this is the exact USB stick I'm using with good results.
> 
> SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB 3.0 Flash Drive
> 
> If you want to hold off on ordering, I'm going to keep driving and making sure it works - then I'll report back here.
> 
> I purchased a big one in case I wanted to partition and add a ton of music on it, but so far I've been using it as a dedicated TeslaCam drive.


I have this one as well (happened to purchase it for something else but never got around to using it for that). I've been using it for a couple of days (no changes other than adding the folder). I'm on 40.1.

I've been on 2 drives (short trips) so far and have not restarted the screen nor removed the drive nor done any pausing.


----------



## Maynerd

My drive corrupted. What I find particularly odd is that I 'saved' a drive a while back and after the drive corrupted even the old saved video was unusable. I dunno that just seems weird to me, why would the issue wreck old previously saved videos. What do I know though. I'd like this to work but this is the 3rd time I've had a corruption since I got the update.


----------



## Quicksilver

MelindaV said:


> wonder if there is a connection between USB size and the *X* issues.
> are those that consistently have seen issues using a larger USB? smaller? partitioned? non-partitioned? formatted on a PC or Mac? directly connected to the port or thru a hub?
> 
> I have not yet seen the *X* yet and am using:
> 32GB drive (USB3.0 Scandisk)​Partitioned in half, so 16GB for the camera, 16GB for audio (which really was just a test)​Mac formatted​connected thru a Y cable​


I have a 32GB PNY drive and it has been getting the gray X occasionally. If I hit pause before I exit the car, it seems to work fine. I have a second 8GB drive that I keep as a spare in the car to swap out when I see the gray X. I had to swap out twice already.


----------



## OrangeJulius

First test today.
SanDis Cruzer Fit 16GB, formatted MS-DOS (FAT) on a Macintosh; "TeslaCam" folder created.

Interesting results:

- Consistent, viewable 1 minute long mp4 files, except for failed (corrupted?) mp4s recording while car is shut off/locked.

- Five *.REC* _"Topfield PVR Recording"_ files created OUTSIDE the TeslaCam folder, all labeled as "Dec 31, 1969 at 4:00PM" 

We'll see how it performs un-reformatted and reinstalled as is.


----------



## edittman1

So, someone tell me what to buy under $20 that works? K thanks.


----------



## tipton

took over a month but i got the grey X today after a software update. going to re-format and try again


----------



## Bernard

EValuatED said:


> Great summary, to which I would only ask: many (most/all?) of the unpowered options won't provide enough juice to charge an iPhone? (Reading that the power-only side of the Y cable won't charge an iPhone.)
> 
> (Edited to clarify my question.)


So here is the deal. Almost everyone of the unpowered (i.e., USB-powered) hubs comes wit the warning that it is not designed to charge or an outright statement that it cannot charge.
These statements are a bit dubious, since splitting the power is totally trivial -- for the common lead and the 5V power lead, you can indeed just solder each input lead to its corresponding output leads. It's splitting the data leads that requires electronic circuitry, and that circuitry is not power-hungry. So, it's entirely possible (even likely) that quite a few of these unpowered hubs directly connect the common and 5V leads from the input plug to the two (or more) output female plugs provided. (But remember that's it's also possible others deliberately limit the power to avoid failure of the hub.) You could then charge at a bit under 1A (the limit for the front USB plugs on the Model 3) -- slow for most of today's phones, but quite OK on a longer trip. The thing to keep in mind is that plugging in two phones that way will cut the power available to each phone in half, unlike with a powered hub.
It's likely manufacturers post a disclaimer about charging so that customers will not confuse unpowered hubs with powered ones and complain that theirs charging too slowly, esp. customers who plug one device in each of the several output plugs of the hub.


----------



## Bernard

tipton said:


> took over a month but i got the grey X today after a software update. going to re-format and try again


I have not seen the grey X yet, but I have experienced failures to close files (which will then be difficult or impossible to read). I am not convinced the issue is on "our" side and that there is a proper combination of partition table format, file format, and, for all I know, total capacity, read/write speeds, latencies, etc., that explains the issues. It seems rather more likely that the dashcam software in 39.7 has some race conditions and occasionally fails inelegantly ;-)
Looks like Tesla is busy with variants of 39.7, not to mention 40 and 41, so there soon will be a new version that fixes that (and also writes separate files for each camera).


----------



## TesLou

njkode said:


> Phew, I was just about to order this spliter as well, just saved me since I do not have a wireless charger yet.
> 
> Does anyone have a small USB hub they recommend?


Not sure how good it is, but I just ordered a BYEASY 4 Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Portable Data Hub from Amazon for $9.34. (It's a 'lightning deal' and on sale for the next couple of hours.


----------



## Bokonon

Curious, has anyone tried creating multiple partitions, and adding a "TeslaCam" folder to each? If one partition becomes corrupt, will the car look for a "TeslaCam" folder in another, non-corrupt partition?


----------



## Bernard

garsh said:


> I think that's only true of iPhones. They require data to be connected to charge.


Are you referring to the USB Restricted Mode? According to Apple, iPhones will charge fine from a charge-only connection (wall charger!), but may or may not require USB Restricted Mode to be disabled (it is on by default) in order to charge on devices that also have data connections -- depending solely on the device and how it interacts with the phone. I don't have Apple products, so cannot experiment.
(See rt.apple.com/en-us/HT208857 )


----------



## NR4P

It looks like some are reporting same as I did. A point of when the car is shut off is corrupting the last file. I suspect the car is killing power during the write cycle and the file isn't closed properly.

As an experiment, I now am pausing the dashcam (long press) before exiting the car. 
After 2 tries, still seems to work. But that's not enough testing.
Maybe more can test this?

But be sure to RESUME the dashcam next time you enter the car. I forgot to do that and lost a good long drive that didn't get tested.


----------



## Bernard

OrangeJulius said:


> First test today.
> SanDis Cruzer Fit 16GB, formatted MS-DOS (FAT) on a Macintosh; "TeslaCam" folder created.
> 
> Interesting results:
> 
> - Consistent, viewable 1 minute long mp4 files, except for failed (corrupted?) mp4s recording while car is shut off/locked.
> 
> - Five *.REC* _"Topfield PVR Recording"_ files created OUTSIDE the TeslaCam folder, all labeled as "Dec 31, 1969 at 4:00PM"
> 
> We'll see how it performs un-reformatted and reinstalled as is.


Am on 39.7 and that's what I observer too: it has (somewhat random) problems properly closing files when the car goes to sleep and sometimes the resulting files are corrupt. The random aspect makes me think there is a problem of communication between the dashcam processes and the rest of the sofware. i very much doubt it's connected to partitions and/or devices (some are surely faster than others, but all are likely to be limited by the USB 2.0 protocol more than by their R/W speeds).


----------



## babula

For everyone ordering splitters - what i did instead was order a charging pad and support for my Pixel XL 2 (since it doesn't have the functionality).


Bokonon said:


> Curious, has anyone tried creating multiple partitions, and adding a "TeslaCam" folder to each? If one partition becomes corrupt, will the car look for a "TeslaCam" folder in another, non-corrupt partition?


Interesting idea. Wonder if it would get confused initially and try dropping the same files in all of them though.


----------



## 350VDC

LUXMAN said:


> Good to hear that maybe a 40.1 will help. Hoping.
> 
> I have
> SanDisk 64 GB (USB 3.0)
> Single FAT32 partition
> Formatted in Windows with the AOMEI Partition Assistant Program
> Connected with HUB
> Firmware 39.7
> 
> I am going to Convert to GPT with the program this morning and see how it does going to work today.
> I am gonna run it directly and see if @Bernard GPT format suggestion works for me


I have now tried many usb sticks, all fail. The last one formatted to GPT lasted 4 days so I was hopeful but today have the gray X. I give up. Swing and a miss for Tesla.


----------



## zosoisnotaword

Bokonon said:


> Right on cue, the gray X is back a few days after rebuilding my USB stick with GPT partitioning.


Bad news. I've never gotten the X since going to the GPT partition structure, but when I pulled my drive to look at some saved footage on Saturday, the .mp4 files were the 2kb version with a load of the .rec files in the main folder. I guess I'll try to do the stop/resume recording method for every drive.


----------



## bradkeller

LUXMAN said:


> I'm surprised that yours keeps writing. Mine just quits. I have kinda given up on it and just left it in the last 2 days while I have been working. It has consistently had the RED recording dot. I figured I would see if it actually worked tonight. And survey says...
> the drive is corrupt according to the computer and this is all that is on the drive even though I have driven 3 hours since this was recorded......
> View attachment 16454
> View attachment 16455
> 
> And it only says saved because as I just pulled the drive out, I tried to stop the recording and it saved instead.
> All the files from 10/20 play but not this one from today at the bottom.
> 
> It is frustrating. I figure writing on an USB drive would be easy since the cheap $20 dashcam I have from Wal-Mart, made in china does just fine and has audio too. Disappointing. Guess I will have to move the old dashcam from the rear back to the front


Yep, now I'm in the boat that the thumb drives are corrupted. I guess I'll reformat them and try to remember to pause. Just as soon as I get used to that, Tesla will probably release an update and fix the problem. Ugh.

Thanks for your help.


----------



## 2Kap

Made it almost a week without getting the grey x... 64GB drive partitioned, multiple saves, basic formatting... then i got it back to back within hours. 
I saw on electrek that a 2018.42 is coming soon that allows for the new keyfob to connect to your car, hope it also fixes dashcam.


----------



## MelindaV

2Kap said:


> I saw on electrek that a 2018.42 is coming soon that allows for the new keyfob to connect to your car, hope it also fixes dashcam


how are the two related?


----------



## garsh

MelindaV said:


> how are the two related?


I don't think 2Kap meant to imply that they're related - he's just hoping that the latest software fixes some of the dashcam bugs.


----------



## Slumbreon

Anyone seeing a ~1 pixel wide white vertical line in the dashcam footage? I see one about 20% in from the right side. (Would post pic but car having scratch fixed)


----------



## 2Kap

MelindaV said:


> how are the two related?


The upcoming 2018.42 update is how they're both related.


----------



## JWardell

I'm way behind on updating folks on the Sandisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive, but I just had some success today, so here are some notes:

I'm still on 39.7, and I have the FAT32-formatted 32GB version.
In the past few weeks, I have had no corruption or loading issues. Dashcam starts recording every time I get into car without issues.
Here's the important part:
When you are ready to eject, press and hold the dashcam icon till it blinks, then wait until the USB drive stops flashing. Then pull it out.
Then you can turn it on, connect with phone app, and download video.
I find it much easier to select multiple from the list, and save to downloads. 
When it is done transferring, the videos can then be easily played from the downloads section. They don't seem to play directly from the wireless connection (or I'm not patient enough).
As I said before, I'm sure all these experiences will improve slowly in future firmware versions, but this is still a nice easy way to grab video of your drive.


----------



## judomc

JWardell said:


> I'm way behind on updating folks on the Sandisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive, but I just had some success today, so here are some notes:
> 
> I'm still on 39.7, and I have the FAT32-formatted 32GB version.
> In the past few weeks, I have had no corruption or loading issues. Dashcam starts recording every time I get into car without issues.
> Here's the important part:
> When you are ready to eject, press and hold the dashcam icon till it blinks, then wait until the USB drive stops flashing. Then pull it out.
> Then you can turn it on, connect with phone app, and download video.
> I find it much easier to select multiple from the list, and save to downloads.
> When it is done transferring, the videos can then be easily played from the downloads section. They don't seem to play directly from the wireless connection (or I'm not patient enough).
> As I said before, I'm sure all these experiences will improve slowly in future firmware versions, but this is still a nice easy way to grab video of your drive.


I picked one of these up to be ready when my car gets here. I was curious to see how it behaved if the drive was partitioned so I did some testing. It looks like the built in firmware (of the USB drive) only supports MBR partition tables for use with the wireless component. It will also only mount the first partition it finds. So I have my first partition setup for the TeslaCam and then a second partition for music. This way I can hopefully wireless download dash cam files before getting out of the car.


----------



## Maynerd

I wonder if corruption can occur due to short recording cycles less than a minute. This morning I went to my car, opened the passenger door, put in my work bag and saw that it was recording. Closed the door then opened the rear door for my son. He went in and I closed the door. I did not observe if the recording was going. I went around the car and got in and there was the dreaded X. Oh and I formatted the drive again last night. This was essentially the first drive with a newly formatted drive.

128gb drive
2 partitions 16gb for teslacam and the balance for music (no music is loaded)


----------



## kort677

MelindaV said:


> how are the two related?


obviously they aren't but bug fixes sometimes fix multiple issues and he's hoping that the cam fix will be included in the next update


----------



## Bokonon

Maynerd said:


> I wonder if corruption can occur due to short recording cycles less than a minute. This morning I went to my car, opened the passenger door, put in my work bag and saw that it was recording. Closed the door then opened the rear door for my son. He went in and I closed the door. I did not observe if the recording was going. I went around the car and got in and there was the dreaded X. Oh and I formatted the drive again last night. This was essentially the first drive with a newly formatted drive.


Anecdotally, I haven't had any corruption issues with short recording cycles. I go through a similar ritual to the one you described every weekday when I pick up my son at school (he likes to open the front passenger door to see what's on the screen before getting into the back). I also opened and closed the front doors ~10 times on Sunday while installing my Abstract Ocean puddle lights (which power off after a minute of the door being open), and the cam had no issues after that series of events.

The two corruption events that I've observed directly (out of three total) have occurred after relatively short drives of 3-5 minutes. One occurred after the car was idle for 60 minutes in an underground parking garage while charging, the other occurred after a 2-minute stop to pick up coffee. If there is indeed a pattern to be found here, it's proving to be elusive.


----------



## njkode

iChris93 said:


> Bummer. I ordered a USB 2.0 Y-splitter like that, I did not realize the iPhone required data to charge.


Can you confirm if the y-spliter works to charge your iphone one you receive it? I do not want to order if it is going to be an issue.
Thank you


----------



## Maynerd

Bokonon said:


> Anecdotally, I haven't had any corruption issues with short recording cycles. I go through a similar ritual to the one you described every weekday when I pick up my son at school (he likes to open the front passenger door to see what's on the screen before getting into the back). I also opened and closed the front doors ~10 times on Sunday while installing my Abstract Ocean puddle lights (which power off after a minute of the door being open), and the cam had no issues after that series of events.
> 
> The two corruption events that I've observed directly (out of three total) have occurred after relatively short drives of 3-5 minutes. One occurred after the car was idle for 60 minutes in an underground parking garage while charging, the other occurred after a 2-minute stop to pick up coffee. If there is indeed a pattern to be found here, it's proving to be elusive.


Hmm...well I guess that theory is out the window.  Hopefully Tesla knows what the problem is.


----------



## Silver Streak 3

I purchased a SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB 16GB flash drive. It came formatted FAT 32. I added TeslaCam directory and it has been recording since I installed 5 days ago without a failure! It was $7.05 shipped on Ebay.


----------



## LUXMAN

bradkeller said:


> Yep, now I'm in the boat that the thumb drives are corrupted. I guess I'll reformat them and try to remember to pause. Just as soon as I get used to that, Tesla will probably release an update and fix the problem. Ugh.
> 
> Thanks for your help.


I have all the different formatting and testing now. Still corrupt when I install it.
This morning I tried one last format program YADA YADA YADA.
I drove 45 minutes each way to work today. Then about 30 minutes on various errands. then one last errand for about 10 minutes.
so I would expect 60 1-minute clips. But this is what I got …..


















So I am gonna quit messing with it until someone reports its fixed....right after I go make a bug report


----------



## LUXMAN

2Kap said:


> Made it almost a week without getting the grey x... 64GB drive partitioned, multiple saves, basic formatting... then i got it back to back within hours.
> I saw on electrek that a 2018.42 is coming soon that allows for the new keyfob to connect to your car, hope it also fixes dashcam.


Yeah, I need one of those keyfobs too! I thought changing phones fixed the problem. But no, its back.  Sorry for the thread creep


----------



## LUXMAN

JWardell said:


> I'm way behind on updating folks on the Sandisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive, but I just had some success today, so here are some notes:
> 
> I'm still on 39.7, and I have the FAT32-formatted 32GB version.
> In the past few weeks, I have had no corruption or loading issues. Dashcam starts recording every time I get into car without issues.
> Here's the important part:
> When you are ready to eject, press and hold the dashcam icon till it blinks, then wait until the USB drive stops flashing. Then pull it out.
> Then you can turn it on, connect with phone app, and download video.
> I find it much easier to select multiple from the list, and save to downloads.
> When it is done transferring, the videos can then be easily played from the downloads section. They don't seem to play directly from the wireless connection (or I'm not patient enough).
> As I said before, I'm sure all these experiences will improve slowly in future firmware versions, but this is still a nice easy way to grab video of your drive.


That is a cool feature to be able to download it to your phone. Handy if the cop it there. 
BUT, more importantly, are you saying this drive works every time? It constantly has the last 60 1-minute clips on it? plus saved video? and you have had no corruption issues when using with a PC? then again why would you use a PC in this case. 
It is a SanDisk product. Same as mine and FAT32. What makes it special?
As far as pulling out the flash drive, I have even tried stopping the recording and stuff is still corrupt on the computer
#DoneWithIt (for now)


----------



## ER1C8

If you have an Android phone that supports USB-to-go and a USB C to A adapter, Android will repair the drive in a few seconds. I have been keeping my adapter in the car and so far it has fixed the grey X every time.


----------



## Maynerd

ER1C8 said:


> If you have an Android phone that supports USB-to-go and a USB C to A adapter, Android will repair the drive in a few seconds. I have been keeping my adapter in the car and so far it has fixed the grey X every time.


I have a pixel 3 and it came with an adapter how do I know if it supports USB to go? Is that an app?


----------



## iChris93

njkode said:


> Can you confirm if the y-spliter works to charge your iphone one you receive it? I do not want to order if it is going to be an issue.
> Thank you


Unfortunately it does not work.


----------



## Maynerd

So have we essentially confirmed that if someone manually pauses the dash cam and starts it every time you park the car and start driving that the drive won't get corrupted?


----------



## JWardell

LUXMAN said:


> That is a cool feature to be able to download it to your phone. Handy if the cop it there.
> BUT, more importantly, are you saying this drive works every time? It constantly has the last 60 1-minute clips on it? plus saved video? and you have had no corruption issues when using with a PC? then again why would you use a PC in this case.
> It is a SanDisk product. Same as mine and FAT32. What makes it special?
> As far as pulling out the flash drive, I have even tried stopping the recording and stuff is still corrupt on the computer
> #DoneWithIt (for now)


It's not going to magically fix Tesla's bugs not saving files correctly etc. Tesla will do that eventually.
And who cares what the computer thinks? Easy fix: stop using Windows. 
The saved videos are not corrupt. That's what matters. Being able to retrieve them immediately after an accident etc. Thats what matters.

Remember, at any given point in time: This is the worst your Tesla's software will ever be!


----------



## Collimare

On the way to lunch I saw the immediate aftermath of a women and bicycle laying on the road in front of a car. I did not see it but I figure the camera would have so I hit the record icon. Back at the office I pressed and held the camera icon till I saw the flash waited a bit and removed the thumb drive. I cannot get the mp4 file to play. Error messages in windows 7 so I downloaded VLC media player still nothing. Maybe the file is corrupted. What can I do to view the video and how can I insure that future recordings can actually be viewed later? really bummed out


----------



## MelindaV

LUXMAN said:


> I have all the different formatting and testing now. Still corrupt when I install it.
> This morning I tried one last format program YADA YADA YADA.
> I drove 45 minutes each way to work today. Then about 30 minutes on various errands. then one last errand for about 10 minutes.
> so I would expect 60 1-minute clips. But this is what I got …..
> 
> View attachment 16498
> 
> View attachment 16499
> 
> 
> So I am gonna quit messing with it until someone reports its fixed....right after I go make a bug report


believe others have confirmed it saves the last 60 minutes of the last drive, not the last 60 minutes of combined drives. 
IE, I just went out and pulled mine and there is just a single 'recent' file saved (with the current time). But those from my hour drive home had already been removed.


----------



## Babar Batla

I bought a 64gb Sandisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive from Amazon. It came exFAT formatted. I plugged it in and dashcam icon did not come up. I just formatted it on my Mac (chose FAT option). It formatted it as FAT32. Plugged it in, Dashcam icon is up. I will report back in few days on stability. Regardless of my results, I suspect there are some issues with the firmware managing the USB drive so a failure here isn't going to be conclusive. As far as convenience, If the car drops power from the USB, i guess you can press the power button on the SanDisk and have it switch to wireless mode. No need to pull it out. 

btw, My previous attempt to use a decade old 2gb i had lying around was corrupting every few days. Firmware 39.7.


----------



## barjohn

I too have been busy playing with trying to make the feature both easier to use and to avoid the corrupt files. Below are links to the items I purchased from Amazon and I used in my setup. As an aside, I tested several memory sticks and a USB hard drive. All worked but all could receive corrupted files, even when shutting down by keeping the icon pressed until it blinks. My major objective was to have a way to extract the files without having to unplug a device. That sounds easy until you discover that none of the devices (that I have been able to find) will provide communications either via WiFi or cable when plugged in to a socket. The USB memory sticks that have the ability to connect to an iPhone via a short cable with a lightning connector or via WiFi will not provide the alternate data path when plugged into the USB port. There doesn't appear to be any way to share the storage via two interfaces. (Maybe one of you know of a USB storage medium that could be plugged into the Tesla USB port and be accessed from another port concurrently, if so that would be great.) My solution requires a total of 4 pieces of hardware.
1. A USB memory device (SD Card with reader, Memory stick, or USB hard drive (non SSD as they draw too much power, must be low power)
2. A 3 port USB hub to share the Tesla USB port
3. A 2 port splitter that will let you switch between USB sources 
4. A RAVPower WiFi hub.

I am including pictures of my setup and a sketch of how to wire it up. What is accomplished is the ability to switch the storage device between the Tesla and the WiFi hub using the switches on top of the hub. Then using their software app (IOS and Android) you can connect to the storage via WiFi and upload the files to your phone or to cloud storage if you set up with Internet access. You can also via them on your phone or tablet. You never have to unplug the storage device to use it in the car or on the phone unless you corrupt it so bad that it must be repaired. The hub has a rechargeable Li battery and can run for about 5 hours on its own power but I just used the charger cord that comes with it and plugged it into the USB hub to get power from the Tesla.


----------



## barjohn

Babar Batla said:


> I bought a 64gb Sandisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive from Amazon. It came exFAT formatted. I plugged it in and dashcam icon did not come up. I just formatted it on my Mac (chose FAT option). It formatted it as FAT32. Plugged it in, Dashcam icon is up. I will report back in few days on stability. Regardless of my results, I suspect there are some issues with the firmware managing the USB drive so a failure here isn't going to be conclusive. As far as convenience, If the car drops power from the USB, i guess you can press the power button on the SanDisk and have it switch to wireless mode. No need to pull it out.
> 
> btw, My previous attempt to use a decade old 2gb i had lying around was corrupting every few days. Firmware 39.7.


I found that on at least some of the USB sticks with WiFi that powering off was not enough to allow the WiFi to work and access the drive.


----------



## garsh

John Griffith said:


> What is accomplished is the ability to switch the storage device between the Tesla and the WiFi hub using the switches on top of the hub.


Corrupt files are caused by the computer not closing & flushing files to the filesystem on the USB drive before either the computer shuts down or the USB drive is unplugged. I don't believe this solves that problem, and you'll still end up with corrupted files occasionally.


----------



## Tchris

JWardell said:


> I'm way behind on updating folks on the Sandisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive, but I just had some success today, so here are some notes:
> 
> I'm still on 39.7, and I have the FAT32-formatted 32GB version.
> In the past few weeks, I have had no corruption or loading issues. Dashcam starts recording every time I get into car without issues.
> Here's the important part:
> When you are ready to eject, press and hold the dashcam icon till it blinks, then wait until the USB drive stops flashing. Then pull it out.
> Then you can turn it on, connect with phone app, and download video.
> I find it much easier to select multiple from the list, and save to downloads.
> When it is done transferring, the videos can then be easily played from the downloads section. They don't seem to play directly from the wireless connection (or I'm not patient enough).
> As I said before, I'm sure all these experiences will improve slowly in future firmware versions, but this is still a nice easy way to grab video of your drive.


Do you have to remove the wireless drive from the USB port to transfer the files to your phone? I thought you could leave it in?


----------



## Chriseckman

I've tried multiple thumb drives formatted with FAT and FAT 32 and it seems to always fail at two days of use.


----------



## Chriseckman

Bokonon said:


> Similar setup to yours:
> - 32 GB drive (Sandisk / USB 3.0)
> - Partitioned (GPT) 8 GB TeslaCam / 24 GB music
> - Formatted in Windows
> - Connected directly
> - Firmware 39.7
> 
> This setup has worked well so far, in 3 days (~3 hours) of normal driving, plus some idle time when the car was powered on and the cam was running (as recently as a few hours ago).
> EDIT: This setup has failed after 4-5 days.
> 
> Prior setup that also failed (twice) after 4-5 days was:
> - Same USB drive
> - Partitioned (MBR) 24 GB music / 8 GB TeslaCam
> - Formatted in Windows
> - Connected directly
> - Firmware 39.6 (first failure) and 39.7 (second failure)


How do you setup the drive for music? I've placed some MP3s in a Music folder and it never picked up the files.


----------



## LUXMAN

JWardell said:


> It's not going to magically fix Tesla's bugs not saving files correctly etc. Tesla will do that eventually.
> And who cares what the computer thinks? Easy fix: stop using Windows.
> The saved videos are not corrupt. That's what matters. Being able to retrieve them immediately after an accident etc. Thats what matters.
> 
> Remember, at any given point in time: This is the worst your Tesla's software will ever be!


Ha! yeah. wish I could stop using windows. 
Most of the time, the videos on mine are also corrupt and will not play


----------



## barjohn

garsh said:


> Corrupt files are caused by the computer not closing & flushing files to the filesystem on the USB drive before either the computer shuts down or the USB drive is unplugged. I don't believe this solves that problem, and you'll still end up with corrupted files occasionally.


That is absolutely correct in my opinion. However, not having to physically unplug the drive helps reduce the occurrence and minimizes the possibility of damage to the FAT tables. A corrupt file or two is something you can easily deal with but when the FAT tables are corrupted you need to do a repair for the DASHCAM to continue to work.


----------



## LUXMAN

MelindaV said:


> believe others have confirmed it saves the last 60 minutes of the last drive, not the last 60 minutes of combined drives.
> IE, I just went out and pulled mine and there is just a single 'recent' file saved (with the current time). But those from my hour drive home had already been removed.


Interesting. I just figured that the last 60 minutes meant the last 60 minuites of driving. So If want to look at a clip but stop somewhere and leave the car, it will be gone when I start again. That is weird. Why would they do that. I must say tho that when it has worked for me, it has saved multi drives.
So yesterday I formatted the drive again using another program. I just inserted the drive in the computer and weirdly it didn't say it was corrupt. Put it still had the files on it from yesterday afternoon. I will have to see if they stay or do as you say


----------



## MelindaV

LUXMAN said:


> Interesting. I just figured that the last 60 minutes meant the last 60 minuites of driving. So If want to look at a clip but stop somewhere and leave the car, it will be gone when I start again. That is weird. Why would they do that. I must say tho that when it has worked for me, it has saved multi drives.
> So yesterday I formatted the drive again using another program. I just inserted the drive in the computer and weirdly it didn't say it was corrupt. Put it still had the files on it from yesterday afternoon. I will have to see if they stay or do as you say


just keep in mind my example was excluding 'saved' clips


----------



## 2Kap

Chriseckman said:


> How do you setup the drive for music? I've placed some MP3s in a Music folder and it never picked up the files.


You have to partition your drive. i.e split it into two different drives. Put your TeslaCam folder on one, and your music folder on the other.


----------



## JMON

Maynerd said:


> So have we essentially confirmed that if someone manually pauses the dash cam and starts it every time you park the car and start driving that the drive won't get corrupted?


No. This trick did NOT work for me.


----------



## Rich M

LUXMAN said:


> Interesting. I just figured that the last 60 minutes meant the last 60 minuites of driving. So If want to look at a clip but stop somewhere and leave the car, it will be gone when I start again. That is weird. Why would they do that. I must say tho that when it has worked for me, it has saved multi drives.
> So yesterday I formatted the drive again using another program. I just inserted the drive in the computer and weirdly it didn't say it was corrupt. Put it still had the files on it from yesterday afternoon. I will have to see if they stay or do as you say


It works on multiple trips as long as the oldest clip is newer than 60 minutes ago.
If I drive from 1:01-1:15, park from 1:16-1:30, drive from 1:31-1:38, park from 1:39-1:45, drive from 1:46-1:57 and pull out the USB drive at 1:59, all the trips will be on there. But if I come back to the car at 3:15, the car will wake up, see that all clips are older than 60 minutes, and delete them all.
(If you sneak up on the car, open the door and pull out the drive before it fully wakes up, you can save them)


----------



## JMON

Silver Streak 3 said:


> I purchased a SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB 16GB flash drive. It came formatted FAT 32. I added TeslaCam directory and it has been recording since I installed 5 days ago without a failure! It was $7.05 shipped on Ebay.


I hope this drive works - I'm going to Canadian Tire today at lunch to pick one up.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/sandisk-16gb-usb-0694074p.html


----------



## mishakim

Tchris said:


> Do you have to remove the wireless drive from the USB port to transfer the files to your phone? I thought you could leave it in?


You should be able to leave it in, but since you have to grab it and push the button to turn on wireless, I find it's just as easy to pull it out, and not worry about putting strain on the USB port while finding and pressing the button


----------



## LUXMAN

Rich M said:


> It works on multiple trips as long as the oldest clip is newer than 60 minutes ago.
> If I drive from 1:01-1:15, park from 1:16-1:30, drive from 1:31-1:38, park from 1:39-1:45, drive from 1:46-1:57 and pull out the USB drive at 1:59, all the trips will be on there. But if I come back to the car at 3:15, the car will wake up, see that all clips are older than 60 minutes, and delete them all.
> (If you sneak up on the car, open the door and pull out the drive before it fully wakes up, you can save them)


No kidding. Why not just keep the last 60 minutes (more would be better of course) on there? you in the world would they tie it to time?
that said, I pulled the USB earlier and it still had the files form yesterday afternoon in there


----------



## LUXMAN

Does anyone have the Text from the user maual for the DashCam? Mine doesn't list it.


----------



## LUXMAN

LUXMAN said:


> No kidding. Why not just keep the last 60 minutes (more would be better of course) on there? you in the world would they tie it to time?
> that said, I pulled the USB earlier and it still had the files form yesterday afternoon in there


Well, now that I went pull it again after a very brief trip, the USB is blank and the one file is corrupt


----------



## Rich M

LUXMAN said:


> Well, now that I went pull it again after a very brief trip, the USB is blank and the one file is corrupt


Yup, it saw at one point that all the files were >60 min old and deleted them, them started recording the current file. The last file will always be corrupt unless you pause before removing the USB.


----------



## NR4P

If what people are reporting is that the drive saves only 60 minutes of video, at 30MB per minute, a 2GB drive is all we ever need?

Unless one taps to SAVE often, I suppose. Then maybe 4GB or at most 8GB.

Also, pausing before powering down or removing is helping the corrupt files issues for me. Same USB on day 4 where in the past, sometimes it wouldn't last a day or two.


----------



## ER1C8

Maynerd said:


> I have a pixel 3 and it came with an adapter how do I know if it supports USB to go? Is that an app?


If it comes with the adapter it supports it. Just plug it in wait about 15 seconds and unplug.


----------



## SoCal Cal

Chriseckman said:


> How do you setup the drive for music? I've placed some MP3s in a Music folder and it never picked up the files.


Same problem for me. I just created two partitions.


----------



## Slumbreon

LUXMAN said:


> No kidding. Why not just keep the last 60 minutes (more would be better of course) on there? you in the world would they tie it to time?


Simplicity. If the file time stamp is greater than 1 hour ago, delete it. Actually analyzing how much time is each file is programmatically more complex.


----------



## judomc

I'm only about 5.5 hours into actual ownership but so far pausing and resuming the recording is working for me. I'm on 40.1.


----------



## TesLou

TesLou said:


> Not sure how good it is, but I just ordered a BYEASY 4 Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Portable Data Hub from Amazon for $9.34. (It's a 'lightning deal' and on sale for the next couple of hours.


I received this today and can confirm that it works fine. I've got both of the iPhone chargers (lightning) going into the hub and I am receiving a charge on both phones. Not sure of the speed, but I'm getting a charge. The price of this hub is now $12.99.


----------



## TesLou

njkode said:


> Can you confirm if the y-spliter works to charge your iphone one you receive it? I do not want to order if it is going to be an issue.
> Thank you


That one didn't work for me. A BYEASY hub from Amazon did, however.


----------



## LUXMAN

OK. So I found this youtube video just posted





Now I don't currently have the grey X problem he mentions, I have had it in the past.
He has some interesting ideas on why the corrupt files are happening.

So I am gonna try this setup, cuz, why not?

The SD card has a 6 write speed. Will update how this does


----------



## Maynerd

LUXMAN said:


> OK. So I found this youtube video just posted
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Now I don't currently have the grey X problem he mentions, I have had it in the past.
> He has some interesting ideas on why the corrupt files are happening.
> 
> So I am gonna try this setup, cuz, why not?
> 
> The SD card has a 6 write speed. Will update how this does
> 
> View attachment 16535


Not sure I buy the write speed theory as my USB drive is rated for 300Mb/sec. Although I am plugged into a splitter, which is rated at 200Mb/sec. I think I may have a USB sd card dealio at home so I guess that's worth a try.


----------



## iChris93

LUXMAN said:


> OK. So I found this youtube video just posted
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Now I don't currently have the grey X problem he mentions, I have had it in the past.
> He has some interesting ideas on why the corrupt files are happening.
> 
> So I am gonna try this setup, cuz, why not?
> 
> The SD card has a 6 write speed. Will update how this does
> 
> View attachment 16535


Tried something similar. Corrupted after the first drive.


----------



## JMON

*SOLUTION ! SOLUTION ! SOLUTION !*

This worked 100% for me:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1055235236009783297


----------



## Maynerd

JMON said:


> *SOLUTION ! SOLUTION ! SOLUTION !*
> 
> This worked 100% for me:
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1055235236009783297


I'll try this but I have my doubts.


----------



## OrangeJulius

LUXMAN said:


> OK. So I found this youtube video just posted


Did I miss it? He said he'd run for 48 hours with the micro-SD card in, but I didn't hear him say he'd actually viewed the results for corrupted files etc.; only said that he'd not gotten the "X" symbol yet.


----------



## NR4P

JMON said:


> *SOLUTION ! SOLUTION ! SOLUTION !*
> 
> This worked 100% for me:
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1055235236009783297





Maynerd said:


> I'll try this but I have my doubts.


I tried full formats from day 1. Won't help in the long run.
If you go back through the thread you will see a few have reported the same thing.
We have zero'd in that the cause is during shutdown, the last file written is being corrupted during shutdown.
That doesn't preclude other write issues, but the shutdown is the most common one.

The most effective resolution thus far is to pause the dashcam before powering down the car. The allows a clean write of the last record. Its a bit of pain as you have to resume when you start driving again and remember to pause next time you stop.
A number of folks like myself have very good success with this. I am 100% after 4 days, and about 11 start/stop cycles.

Before I was every third start/stop drive and it corrupted.


----------



## LUXMAN

So taking all this info in, I think it boils down to this so far.....
Format in FAT32
Power down the DashCam before you get out of the car each time.
Power up the dashcam each time you get in.
Power Down the Dashcam before you pull the SD card.
Make sure to hit the save as soon as you need to save something. 
Realize that this thing will only save the last hour of driving, within the last hour.

Does that sum it up?

oh and get a regular dash cam til they fix it


----------



## Trebonius

I have no trouble with mine. I'm using a hub, not a splitter, and I just left it formatted as it came, and put a TeslaCam folder on it.


----------



## Bernard

I have tried various sticks as well as very fast microSD cards in adapters, formatted under Linux or Windows for FAT32 on GPT or MBR partitions. None of these choices matters: they all work fine for a while and all fail eventually. (It's possible that the frequency of failures might be reduced by using sticks or cards with faster access, but one of those I tried is currently the speed champ and eventually failed too.)

I have still not seen a grey X, but about 1/3 of the time, when the car goes to sleep, some race condition arises and both the last .REC file (written at the same level as the TeslaCam directory) and the last camera recording (written inside the TeslaCam directory, i.e., one level lower) get corrupted. After that, even a reboot of the car cannot restart the dashcam -- one needs to remove the offending files.

So, definitely a software bug in 39.7.

Well, actually, I'd call it two software bugs. The first bug is the root cause: missing a synchronization somewhere that would shut down the dashcam recording and write the files before the car shuts down. The second bug is not restarting because there are corrupt files: the files have correct timestamps, so the system could easlly restart recording and maintain the proper sequencing numbers, but instead appears to panic in the presence of a corrupted last .REC file.

P.S. Yes, one can avoid this issue by shutting down the dashcam before exiting the car (and restarting the dashcam after entering the car), i.e., doing the synchronization by hand), but that's not a feature ;-)
PPS. Having to stop the dashcam in order to remove the memory stick while the car is running, on the other hand, is perfectly OK -- it's not something one would expect to have to do much...


----------



## JWardell

Tchris said:


> Do you have to remove the wireless drive from the USB port to transfer the files to your phone? I thought you could leave it in?


Unfortunately as stated in the documentation, the drive will not operate in wireless mode if it is plugged into a data connection. It is very quick to unplug and press the button though.


----------



## barjohn

I found a problem with mays setup I hadn't expected. Because the charging is done from a port that turns off when the car is off and the battery is only good for about 5 hours, the battery dies unless you turn the WiFi hub off and you then can't connect to it because it lacks sufficient power for a WiFi radio. I think I will see if I can ge the Raspberry Pie solution to work for me. I ordered the materials, now to figure out how to use the device and program it.


----------



## GDN

Just caught up on several pages of this thread. I'll give you all a very big congrats on not giving up !!! lol. Some good testing. Same results basically here. Formated and put the drive in. Took one drive, took the drive in to watch the video, put the drive back in and the x the next day. There is nothing that will fix this problem but Tesla. It's a great first attempt, but they've got to implement some better file management and make work what they've advertised and then we hope they will tweak the rules to keep more than 10 minutes. No reason several hours isn't possible. When you hit the save button it should ask how much you want to save, the last 10 min, 30 min, 1 hour, 5 hours, etc.


----------



## garsh

I just want to report that the drive still corrupts eventually on 2018.40.1.


----------



## Dr. J

Ken Voss said:


> Look fellow Model 3 owners…. We own a car where we will ALWAYS be receiving updates and new features will often be buggy when they are first released, this is just a fact of life for Model 3 owners.


Yeah, but we can whine, can't we?


----------



## JWardell

garsh said:


> I just want to report that the drive still corrupts eventually on 2018.40.1.


Darn. Sounds like Tesla has more important bugs to fix. Someone needs to go buy the intern in charge of the dash cam a beer for encouragement


----------



## Rye3

Anyone else getting a "QuickTime player can't open recent....." error message when trying to view the files? Worked the first time I set this up but then when I had to reformat the drive after getting the "x" in the corner of the dash cam I can't seem to view any of the files.


----------



## GDN

Rye3 said:


> Anyone else getting a "QuickTime player can't open recent....." error message when trying to view the files? Worked the first time I set this up but then when I had to reformat the drive after getting the "x" in the corner of the dash cam I can't seem to view any of the files.


Try VLC as well - it's a free video program that is pretty widely known. See if you get any difference with that.


----------



## JMON

NR4P said:


> I tried full formats from day 1. Won't help in the long run.
> If you go back through the thread you will see a few have reported the same thing.
> We have zero'd in that the cause is during shutdown, the last file written is being corrupted during shutdown.
> That doesn't preclude other write issues, but the shutdown is the most common one.
> 
> The most effective resolution thus far is to pause the dashcam before powering down the car. The allows a clean write of the last record. Its a bit of pain as you have to resume when you start driving again and remember to pause next time you stop.
> A number of folks like myself have very good success with this. I am 100% after 4 days, and about 11 start/stop cycles.
> 
> Before I was every third start/stop drive and it corrupted.


The starting and stopping didn't work for me - it was the first thing I tried. I could stop it but it would NEVER restart again. I know about the corrupted file - even if you erase that one corrupted MP4 file it still won't resume recording from TeslaCam.

After the full format on my USB (and not quick format) it's been recording over 24+ hours with approx 6 on/offs


----------



## JMON

GDN said:


> Just caught up on several pages of this thread. I'll give you all a very big congrats on not giving up !!! lol. Some good testing. Same results basically here. Formated and put the drive in. Took one drive, took the drive in to watch the video, put the drive back in and the x the next day. There is nothing that will fix this problem but Tesla. It's a great first attempt, but they've got to implement some better file management and make work what they've advertised and then we hope they will tweak the rules to keep more than 10 minutes. No reason several hours isn't possible. When you hit the save button it should ask how much you want to save, the last 10 min, 30 min, 1 hour, 5 hours, etc.


It's working for some people - how do you explain that ? If it was a Tesla problem that only they could fix don't you think it would be affecting everyone ?


----------



## GDN

JMON said:


> It's working for some people - how do you explain that ? If it was a Tesla problem that only they could fix don't you think it would be affecting everyone ?


There have been reports through the thread that someone has a solution with a given USB drive, then someone else comes along and refutes that with something that isn't working.  At any point, I'm thinking anyone watching this thread could easily say that 80% or more are likely reporting errors every few days. That is not a function working properly and it must be updated/corrected by Tesla. I'm not sure I can find a single name though that has it working perfectly meaning they are recording video, have hit save and then take the stick in the house, retrieve files and then put the stick back in the car and have it to continue working without some other intervention. Pausing the recording every time before shutting the car off and then starting it again is not part of a workable solution either, because no one will ever remember to do that every time they drive.

Keep in mind I'm not really complaining about it not working. I was commending all of the testers and just noted that it isn't prime time. I've driven a Tesla for 4 months and I'm all about their style. Give me some new features even though they aren't working perfectly and lets all work together to help test and make them better through feedback and more updates. I figure 2 more releases and we'll have a better working dash cam.


----------



## sabonis

Well... I came here to see if other people were experiencing the issue of the dashcam working fine after initial formatting and then stopping working. I guess I'm relieved to see it's not just me. Model 3, 39.7, 128GB USB formatted as FAT32. It worked fine the first time I used it. Then it stopped. Put it in my computer and it said the drive needed to be repaired. I actually did the repair function, tried it again in my Model 3 and it worked. Next time after that, it stopped working. Gotta assume the feature needs fine tuning from Tesla's side.


----------



## Jason Krellner

Wow... my USB drive (Sandisk 64Gb, 2 partitions using MBR) worked with the TeslaCam for 13 days. Failed when I got into car this morning. I brought it to my desk at work, did a scan and fix, and assume it will work again. Would be good, though, to find a solution that won't inevitably fail again...


----------



## RichEV

JMON said:


> *SOLUTION ! SOLUTION ! SOLUTION !*
> 
> This worked 100% for me:
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1055235236009783297


Deep format only works a couple of days at a time for me. Until Tesla provides an update that keeps the vehicle from corrupting the media I would venture that nobody will have a permanent solution.


----------



## JMON

GDN said:


> There have been reports through the thread that someone has a solution with a given USB drive, then someone else comes along and refutes that with something that isn't working. At any point, I'm thinking anyone watching this thread could easily say that 80% or more are likely reporting errors every few days. That is not a function working properly and it must be updated/corrected by Tesla. I'm not sure I can find a single name though that has it working perfectly meaning they are recording video, have hit save and then take the stick in the house, retrieve files and then put the stick back in the car and have it to continue working without some other intervention. Pausing the recording every time before shutting the car off and then starting it again is not part of a workable solution either, because no one will ever remember to do that every time they drive.
> 
> Keep in mind I'm not really complaining about it not working. I was commending all of the testers and just noted that it isn't prime time. I've driven a Tesla for 4 months and I'm all about their style. Give me some new features even though they aren't working perfectly and lets all work together to help test and make them better through feedback and more updates. I figure 2 more releases and we'll have a better working dash cam.


I didn't mean to come of sounding arrogant w/ my question: "How do you explain that?"

I agree Tesla should address the issues people are having with the TeslaCam but different people experiencing different problems, some saying its worked for 13+ days or more, means the issue could be more varied given all the factors involved: different USB sizes, manufacturers, formatting options, formatting from MAC/PC etc. etc.

And for me personally regarding my *'Solution'* - I honestly feel like I've been able to move the bar ahead ( a peg or two) by changing to FULL format vs. quick format on the USB i was using. Now at least it's recording day to day. If I've helped even one other person than I feel like I've contributed positively.


----------



## garsh

JMON said:


> I honestly feel like I've been able to move the bar ahead ( a peg or two) by changing to FULL format vs. quick format on the USB i was using.


It's just coincidence. There's no technical reason for how a full format would prevent file system corruption on a flash drive.

You'll get corruption eventually. Sorry.


----------



## ahagge

I'll chime in that our 3 has also had issues with USB partition corruption after drives of varying lengths.

I think it all boils down to the use of FAT/FAT-32 as the filesystem. If power is interrupted while writing is occurring, the filesystem _will_ get corrupted and need to be fixed with a PC. Tesla really needs to support a modern, journaling filesystem like EXT-4 (which, ironically IS supported for loading music!). That way only the last file would be affected if the power is interrupted during a write, not the entire partition. Hopefully they'll eventually get around to supporting EXT-4 with TeslaCam too. I tried it already on 2018.39.7.1 - no joy.

If nothing else, hopefully they'll implement the suggestion that someone else made - use Park to start & stop the camera. Shift out of Park, camera starts. Shift into Park, camera stops. It always takes at least 5-10 seconds for the car to go to low-power mode, which should be more than enough time to finish writing the last file.

In the meantime, I think the "Pause/Unpause" shuffle should work most, if not all of a time. And keep a number of spare drives in the car.

I think I'll try the "multiple partitions, each with a TeslaCam directory" suggestion made earlier - just for giggles. Not holding out much hope, and it's still a kludge, but I have a trip coming up...sigh.


----------



## JMON

garsh said:


> It's just coincidence. There's no technical reason for how a full format would prevent file system corruption on a flash drive.
> 
> You'll get corruption eventually. Sorry.


*Full Format* runs an additional step that checks the hard drive for any bad sectors. If you have a bad sector on a USB that could absolutely cause file corruption.

After full formatting my 8GB USB I've been recording successfully for 32+ hours now and that's with car going in/out of sleep approx 7 times. I'll keep everyone posted but so far so good.


----------



## LUXMAN

LUXMAN said:


> OK. So I found this youtube video just posted
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Now I don't currently have the grey X problem he mentions, I have had it in the past.
> He has some interesting ideas on why the corrupt files are happening.
> 
> So I am gonna try this setup, cuz, why not?
> 
> The SD card has a 6 write speed. Will update how this does
> 
> View attachment 16535


Nope. Didn't work. At all. My USB is better at failing. LOL!


----------



## Bokonon

JMON said:


> After full formatting my 8GB USB I've been recording successfully for 32+ hours now and that's with car going in/out of sleep approx 7 times. I'll keep everyone posted but so far so good.


By contrast, after full-formatting my USB drive yesterday, I now get the gray X every single time the car powers down.


----------



## MelindaV

GDN said:


> I'm not sure I can find a single name though that has it working perfectly meaning they are recording video, have hit save and then take the stick in the house, retrieve files and then put the stick back in the car and have it to continue working without some other intervention.


I have yet to see the grey X, but have pulled the drive and either some of the 'saved' or some 'saved' and all 'recent' have only 1kb of data... so while it obliviously appears to be working from within the car, it has not always actually stored data.


----------



## JMON

garsh said:


> It's just coincidence. There's no technical reason for how a full format would prevent file system corruption on a flash drive.
> 
> You'll get corruption eventually. Sorry.


You-re right & I was wrong.

Went back to car at end of workday and got the dreaded gray X for first time in 36 hours. *CRIPES ! *

At the very least - I know I can have it record for approx 1 1/2 days with my 8GB before I have to re-format to get it going again. I'll start trying the manual shutdown feature (pressing and holding dashcam icon until it flashes again).


----------



## Rich M

So far I'm getting 8-10 days on a full format of the partition, and 1-2 days after a Windows scan 'n fix before the x returns.


----------



## Mike

As illogical as this sounds, my data stick, when removed, will prevent a cascading maps failure I have had since V9 if I have an active nav route.

See post #1,817 for details at this link:

https://teslaownersonline.com/threads/firmware-v9-0-2018-39-x-pre-release-megathread.8878/page-91


----------



## garsh

JMON said:


> *Full Format* runs an additional step that checks the hard drive for any bad sectors.


Correct.


> If you have a bad sector on a USB that could absolutely cause file corruption.


"bad sectors" was a common physical failure mode of magnetic media (spinning hard drives and floppy disks). A small part of the physical disk gets damaged due to dust or some other contamination, and can no longer properly hold a magnetic charge. The solution is to mark that one part of the disk as "bad" and stop using it.

"bad sectors" is not a failure mode for solid state devices. We just happen to have a lot of operating systems and filesystems that were originally developed in the days of magnetic media. Because of all of this crufty old software, they may sometimes report that a flash drive has "bad sectors", but it's usually an incorrect diagnosis of a different problem in which the flash drive becomes completely useless.

The much more common cause of file system corruption (and the cause in our case) is when the computer doesn't finish properly writing a file (often due to turning off the computer without making sure it completely finished writing all files). The computer detects that there is a problem the next time it boots up. That's all we're seeing in this case.


----------



## babula

I've had success with the solution mentioned earlier in this thread - "pause TeslaCam before ejecting".

Overall I've driven ~200 miles (since getting 40.1) and I've seen the gray x once, not perfect but good enough until they fix it.


----------



## JMON

Rich M said:


> So far I'm getting 8-10 days on a full format of the partition, and 1-2 days after a Windows scan 'n fix before the x returns.


This has to be some kind of clue as to the 'root' cause of the problem. Quick fixing/quick formatting vs. Full formatting has the same effect for me but in a more compressed timeframe = for me a full format gets me 36-38 hours w/ approx 7-8 sleep/awake cycles and a quick format only gets me a single use of recording and as soon as car sleeps and then restarts the dreaded gray 'x' is there.


----------



## Maynerd

Anyone have a 32gb or smaller usb drive and had windows format the drive vs a 3rd party app? If so are you having issues?


----------



## Bokonon

Maynerd said:


> Anyone have a 32gb or smaller usb drive and had windows format the drive vs a 3rd party app? If so are you having issues?


Yes to all three. 32 GB total drive capacity, 8 GB dashcam partition, formatted by Windows, issues.


----------



## Maynerd

Bokonon said:


> Yes to all three. 32 GB total drive capacity, 8 GB dashcam partition, formatted by Windows, issues.


Hmm… what about 32gb or less, no partitions, full format (not quick), formatted by Windows, and plugged straight into the USB port (no splitter, usb hub, etc.)?


----------



## Bokonon

Maynerd said:


> Hmm… what about 32gb or less, no partitions, full format (not quick), formatted by Windows, and plugged straight into the USB port (no splitter, usb hub, etc.)?


I'll try that setup the next time it fails. So, tomorrow?


----------



## Maynerd

Bokonon said:


> I'll try that setup the next time it fails. So, tomorrow?


I look forward to your failure. 

Mine has been running well for a couple of days. I have a splitter however and I didn't do a full format. I'll wait till mine fails then I'll try that. We have too many variables going on to figure out what MIGHT be causing the issue.


----------



## Rye3

GDN said:


> Try VLC as well - it's a free video program that is pretty widely known. See if you get any difference with that.


Thanks! Oddly enough after another drive that was a little bit longer it will now play the videos. I have two files for each 1 minute clip, one that is viewable and one that isn't. Also 4 exe files on the USB drive outside of the teslacam folder. Won't record a 10 minute clip yet, maybe I need to drive longer? Cool feature though, I'm glad to have it!


----------



## LUXMAN

Rye3 said:


> Thanks! Oddly enough after another drive that was a little bit longer it will now play the videos. I have two files for each 1 minute clip, one that is viewable and one that isn't. Also 4 exe files on the USB drive outside of the teslacam folder. Won't record a 10 minute clip yet, maybe I need to drive longer? Cool feature though, I'm glad to have it!


It only records in 1 minute clips. 
And if you hit save, it should save the last 10 one minute clips


----------



## Louis Umphenour

I'm wondering about if we have to reformat the drive. Could we just delete the files? Erase all files and then plug it back into the car. Would it work? Maybe all the tesla software has to do is delete the data. Maybe had a erase option?


----------



## garsh

Louis Umphenour said:


> I'm wondering about if we have to reformat the drive. Could we just delete the files? Erase all files and then plug it back into the car. Would it work? Maybe all the tesla software has to do is delete the data. Maybe had a erase option?



Deleting files doesn't fix a corrupt filesystem.
Re-formatting will fix a corrupt filesystem by blowing away the current filesystem and writing a new one. You lose all existing data in the process.
Windows has a built-in tool that can "fix" the filesystem. Some files will be fine. Some will be lost. Some will be partially recovered.


----------



## mkg3

The failure mode I've experienced (twice since V9 came out) was a permission flag error.

Forgot the details now but one of the value should have been 0 but was changed to something else. Once its corrected, it has not failed (been a week now).

Most likely cause is when hitting save that changes the default setting.

Of course there probably will be some that will say saving has nothing to do with it. Maybe so. All I am saying is my experience thus far.


----------



## garsh

mkg3 said:


> The failure mode I've experienced (twice since V9 came out) was a permission flag error.


That's the first instance I've heard of a permission error.

AFAIK, FAT32 doesn't implement any sort of permissions, so I guess that the car had mounted the drive read-only due to some bug.


----------



## aronth5

JMON said:


> *Full Format* runs an additional step that checks the hard drive for any bad sectors. If you have a bad sector on a USB that could absolutely cause file corruption.
> 
> After full formatting my 8GB USB I've been recording successfully for 32+ hours now and that's with car going in/out of sleep approx 7 times. I'll keep everyone posted but so far so good.


Did a full format, didn't help. I also saw today, which was new to me, that when I lost EAP all files were 2k. Stopped and EAP came back and dashcam files were fine. Strange and probably a coincidence.


----------



## Mehul

So I know there will be updates to the dashcam in future releases but here are things I would like to see

1. A dedicated Dashcam app
2. Display USB Stick info (Used / Available)
3. Ability to format the USB stick from the app itself instead of removing and attaching it to the computer
4. Ability to select and view recorded footage on screen (In Park mode )
5. Ability to view/select files and transfer them to Phone (using a Wifi connection)


----------



## OrangeJulius

Mehul said:


> So I know there will be updates to the dashcam in future releases but here are things I would like to see
> 
> 1. A dedicated Dashcam app
> 2. Display USB Stick info (Used / Available)
> 3. Ability to format the USB stick from the app itself instead of removing and attaching it to the computer
> 4. Ability to select and view recorded footage on screen (In Park mode )
> 5. Ability to view/select files and transfer them to Phone (using a Wifi connection)


I'd like to add:
- Ability to select length of recording clip/segment; one minute is too short. 
- Automatic recording over oldest clip/segment, to effect continuous recording


----------



## fmcotton

TesLou said:


> I received this today and can confirm that it works fine.


Curious, is this still working for you now that a few more days have passed since you installed it?


----------



## aronth5

So decided not to bother disabling and enabling whenever I stopped. Yes I had corruption of the last file when I disabled the dashcam to remove the USB stick but otherwise everything was perfect for the past couple of days.


----------



## NR4P

After a week of pausing and restarting, I was pleased to see no issues with the X appearing. 
However, I went to see the files today and all are 2KB as others had reported.

In summary, this is a mess.
I develop electronics products for a living. I have h/w and s/w teams. I put apps out on the app store.
Yes I have released Beta products but never to the mass audience. Always in a controlled environment, with bugs published, and feedback forms. Beta testers agree to provide reports of issues.

This "beta" release by Tesla is at best alpha. I would say pre-alpha due to the near 100% failure rate. Is there anyone that can state this works flawlessly for 2 weeks? Beta means usable but unstable. This doesn't qualify as usable, you cannot depend on it 80% of the time.

I suspect some will flame me, but this is a mass market roll out. Not a controlled beta group of people.


----------



## Jason Krellner

NR4P said:


> Is there anyone that can state this works flawlessly for 2 weeks?


I'm not going to flame you - because I agree with most of what you said. But I do want to report that my first run with the dashcam was 13 days of flawless performance. So, I missed 2 weeks by a day! I replaced the USB stick on Thursday, and it's been doing OK since. I also got 42.2 this morning, so I'm hoping maybe they've improved this behind the scenes.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

garsh said:


> It's just coincidence. There's no technical reason for how a full format would prevent file system corruption on a flash drive.
> 
> You'll get corruption eventually. Sorry.


Mine has not corrupted in 2 weeks or so now - whenever I started pausing before turning off the car. A few times I forgot to pause as well.


----------



## NR4P

Jason Krellner said:


> I'm not going to flame you - because I agree with most of what you said. But I do want to report that my first run with the dashcam was 13 days of flawless performance. So, I missed 2 weeks by a day! I replaced the USB stick on Thursday, and it's been doing OK since. I also got 42.2 this morning, so I'm hoping maybe they've improved this behind the scenes.


It would be great if it is fixed. Did you check recordings over the 13 days? I thought I had 7 good days but then I checked and saw all the 2KB files.


----------



## Jason Krellner

NR4P said:


> It would be great if it is fixed. Did you check recordings over the 13 days? I thought I had 7 good days but then I checked and saw all the 2KB files.


Had no reason to pull the drive and check the files until I got the X on the icon. But I can report that when I did so, all my saved files were there, as well as videos from the last hour of driving.


----------



## webdriverguy

NR4P said:


> After a week of pausing and restarting, I was pleased to see no issues with the X appearing.
> However, I went to see the files today and all are 2KB as others had reported.
> 
> In summary, this is a mess.
> I develop electronics products for a living. I have h/w and s/w teams. I put apps out on the app store.
> Yes I have released Beta products but never to the mass audience. Always in a controlled environment, with bugs published, and feedback forms. Beta testers agree to provide reports of issues.
> 
> This "beta" release by Tesla is at best alpha. I would say pre-alpha due to the near 100% failure rate. Is there anyone that can state this works flawlessly for 2 weeks? Beta means usable but unstable. This doesn't qualify as usable, you cannot depend on it 80% of the time.
> 
> I suspect some will flame me, but this is a mass market roll out. Not a controlled beta group of people.


I agree this relase should not have gone out. This is not reliable.


----------



## Maynerd

Well my drive finally crapped out on me after about 2 days. 

Will now try to baseline.

32gb drive
No partition
Windows full format not quick format
No splitter straight Jack into usb port


----------



## 3V Pilot

Since I've started pausing the video at the end of each drive I've not had any problems. It's been over a week and before this it would maybe last 2 days.


----------



## Kizzy

*Question:* Are y'all who are having issues pausing the dash cam before doing reboots?

I have a 128GB SanDisk Ultra Fit USB drive. I've not restarted since getting the v9 update (40.1) a week ago. I've paused the dash cam twice-once before the only time I've removed the drive and collected files (there were a few corrupted .rec files at the root of the drive). I generally leave it on between drives. I have never (yet) had the X in the dashcam icon.


----------



## garsh

Kizzy said:


> *Question:* Are y'all who are having issues pausing the dash cam before doing reboots?


Reboots can be a cause, but they aren't the primary cause. The corruption is happening without performing a reboot.


----------



## EValuatED

I've been running a PNY 128G usb 3.0 - that has a lightning plug so I can get the dashcam files onto my iPhone/iCloud - from 15 Oct with no problems. But am seeing .rec files in the root. Partioned half for music and half for dashcam. Got it for $10 less than the pricing showing now at Best Buy. The companion app has limits/quirks (seems to just be able to drop the videos into the top level of Photos; can't see music partition, only sees "first" partition created). But 100% readable on my Mac. But working fine with those limits.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-du...lash-drive-metal-gray/6033400.p?skuId=6033400


----------



## NR4P

EValuatED said:


> I've been running a PNY 128G usb 3.0 - that has a lightning plug so I can get the dashcam files onto my iPhone/iCloud - from 15 Oct with no problems. But am seeing .rec files in the root. Partioned half for music and half for dashcam. Got it for $10 less than the pricing showing now at Best Buy. The companion app has limits/quirks (seems to just be able to drop the videos into the top level of Photos; can't see music partition, only sees "first" partition created). But 100% readable on my Mac. But working fine with those limits.
> 
> https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-du...lash-drive-metal-gray/6033400.p?skuId=6033400


Are you checkimg the files daily? I thought I was good until I checked after 7 days. Found dozens of 2 KB files. Nothing viewable.

PS. 128KB may be way overkill. The system deletes unsaved recordings after the last hour.


----------



## MarkB

OrangeJulius said:


> I'd like to add:
> - Ability to select length of recording clip/segment; one minute is too short.
> - Automatic recording over oldest clip/segment, to effect continuous recording


I think the clip length is a compromise. Too short and it's a pain. Too long and the risk of not having the data saved because it's still being buffered and hasn't been saved yet increases.


----------



## 350VDC

I picked up a cheap SSD today for $20. Will try to see if the higher write speed has any influence on the issue.


----------



## EValuatED

NR4P said:


> Are you checkimg the files daily? I thought I was good until I checked after 7 days. Found dozens of 2 KB files. Nothing viewable.
> 
> PS. 128KB may be way overkill. The system deletes unsaved recordings after the last hour.


Understand, but got it for two reasons: can plug right into my iPhone and view videos, save to iPhone (and/or upload to iCloud), and, assuming more cameras get added, so more/bigger files (and may go more than a hour rollover in the future). And yes, seeing .rec files in the root but also seeing videos in the TeslaCam folder. Also using for music, per above.


----------



## JML

I can think of lots of possible causes for the intermittent corruption, but my best guess is that part of the sleep process for the computer is to turn off power to the USB ports, and there is no attempt to unmount the drive before that happens. With the music drives mounted read-only, this would not matter, but it makes a big difference for the read-write mounted dashcam drives. Sometimes the corruption is bad enough that the drive will not mount, which leads to x.

My "solution" is to carry a few drives, and swap them out as necessary. I have a bunch of really cheap and bad 8GB drives from a project a few years ago, so I carry two or three in the car. If one gives the x, I just plug in another one, and whenever I get home I run a filesystem check on the failed one, and let it go back into the rotation.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

My dashcam finally failed today. I tempted fate forgetting to pause a few times in the last few days. Reset the counter to 0 days since the last gray x


----------



## Quicksilver

I’ve stopped pausing altogether and for some reason, the failure stopped too. It’s been about 4 days now. Weird.


----------



## Love

Quicksilver said:


> I've stopped pausing altogether and for some reason, the failure stopped too. It's been about 4 days now. Weird.


Yeah, I never pause. Have had 2 grey X's since v9. One almost right away and one last week. (I'm on 39.7 if it matters)


----------



## LUXMAN

So it has been a few days since I bothered to mess with the USB. I haven't been pausing it either. It has had the RED dot on every drive.
So I just pulled it out and stuck in the PC.
Got the corrupt message right away but then it opened in FILE EXPLORER. 
It had the drive from yesterday in there back from the Golf Course. Not the drive to the course I guess since that was over an hour stop.
The last file in the string was 15k and corrupt but the rest was good.

So I guess it will just run this way, Which is fine and it still had some old saved files there, so that is good. 

But what are the FSCK files in the root directory outside of the TESLACAM folder?
I have a bunch of those (35) totaling 185MB so far......
They are VLC media files (.REC) but are not playable

I still don't get why it just doesn't save the last 60 one-minute clips.
Why does it delete anything in that is not in the current hour but before you have 60 clips?


----------



## Love

LUXMAN said:


> But what are the FSCK files in the root directory outside of the TESLACAM folder?
> I have a bunch of those (35) totaling 185MB so far......
> They are VLC media files (.REC) but are not playable
> ?


I believe those are File System Checks and are deletable. I read about that earlier on this thread... I think?


----------



## Bokonon

LUXMAN said:


> But what are the FSCK files in the root directory outside of the TESLACAM folder?
> I have a bunch of those (35) totaling 185MB so far......
> They are VLC media files (.REC) but are not playable


@Lovesword is correct, those ".rec" files are basically junk data that the car's operating system has recovered from corrupted parts of the USB drive. You'll probably see them every time you pull the drive out. There's not much to do with them other than delete them.


----------



## PcGuy

I have the corruption issue as well, however, now reformatting and re-adding the TeslaCam folder doesn't work. I have even tried other flash drives and the other front usb port. Dashcam does not work at all now!


----------



## SoFlaModel3

Now mine has failed 2 days in a row. For shame....!


----------



## Jason Krellner

FYI... no gray X since I got upgraded to 42.2 early Saturday. I've driven MANY times and do not pause it before getting out of car. Here's hoping they implemented some fixes in 42.2!


----------



## LUXMAN

Bokonon said:


> @Lovesword is correct, those ".rec" files are basically junk data that the car's operating system has recovered from corrupted parts of the USB drive. You'll probably see them every time you pull the drive out. There's not much to do with them other than delete them.


OK, but how many of these things will accumulate over time?


----------



## LUXMAN

Jason Krellner said:


> FYI... no gray X since I got upgraded to 42.2 early Saturday. I've driven MANY times and do not pause it before getting out of car. Here's hoping they implemented some fixes in 42.2!


Cool. Now have you pulled the USB to look at the files?
Was there a corruption issue or problems after plugging back in?
That will be interesting to see.
I just got 42.2 last night so I haven't even driven it yet.


----------



## MelindaV

Upgraded to 42.2 yesterday, and first start following, saw the grey x for the first time! So while my videos were not always recording correctly under 39.x, the x never appeared. So maybe there was some improvements made to at least know when something isn’t right that wasn’t there before


----------



## webdriverguy

MelindaV said:


> Upgraded to 42.2 yesterday, and first start following, saw the grey x for the first time! So while my videos were not always recording correctly under 39.x, the x never appeared. So maybe there was some improvements made to at least know when something isn't right that wasn't there before


I hope if there were some improvements they would just mention the in release notes


----------



## garsh

LUXMAN said:


> I still don't get why it just doesn't save the last 60 one-minute clips.


Oh, I do. Deleting all files older than a particular date is a pretty easy operation to program. But something as conceptually simple as "keep the latest 60 files" requires a few more lines of code, as you first have to count how many files there are, decide how many you want to delete, then find the X oldest files so you can delete them individually by name. It's a good bit more code.

Tesla is doing the former because it's quick & easy. Hopefully they'll have some intern update it this summer to do something better. 

Ideally, they should just keep writing files as long as there is room. Don't bother deleting any files until the drive is getting close to full (leave some amount of overhead for saved files to continue to accumulate). You could also organize the files into hour-long subdirectories. I should just become a Tesla intern so I can fix this for them.


----------



## LUXMAN

garsh said:


> Oh, I do. Deleting all files older than a particular date is a pretty easy operation to program. But something as conceptually simple as "keep the latest 60 files" requires a few more lines of code, as you first have to count how many files there are, decide how many you want to delete, then find the X oldest files so you can delete them individually by name. It's a good bit more code.
> 
> Tesla is doing the former because it's quick & easy. Hopefully they'll have some intern update it this summer to do something better.
> 
> Ideally, they should just keep writing files as long as there is room. Don't bother deleting any files until the drive is getting close to full (leave some amount of overhead for saved files to continue to accumulate). You could also organize the files into hour-long subdirectories. I should just become a Tesla intern so I can fix this for them.


You should or maybe Tesla should just buy some software from one of the multitude of cheap dashcam companies in China. I moved my cheap one to thr rear view. It will record 1,2, or 3 minute clips until the SD card is full then overwrite. Can't be that hard if they can do it (not that I could!)


----------



## garsh

LUXMAN said:


> You should or maybe Tesla should just buy some software from one of the multitude of cheap dashcam companies in China. I moved my cheap one to thr rear view. It will record 1,2, or 3 minute clips until the SD card is full then overwrite. Can't be that hard if they can do it (not that I could!)


It's not hard. But it does take some time and effort, and they obviously rushed out this basic dashcam functionality. I expect it to get better over time.


----------



## Mesprit87

garsh said:


> Tesla is doing the former because it's quick & easy. Hopefully they'll have some intern update it this summer to do something better.


They may put out a new 2000$ option out for full camera access and recording...for the next end of quarter:grin:


----------



## Smokey S

Got grey dash cam. Removed drive to reformat and add TeslaCam folder. Reinstalled and still no dashcam


----------



## Jason Krellner

LUXMAN said:


> Cool. Now have you pulled the USB to look at the files?
> Was there a corruption issue or problems after plugging back in?
> That will be interesting to see.
> I just got 42.2 last night so I haven't even driven it yet.


No, I don't plan to pull the drive without a reason (i.e., gray X or a need to view the files). It's too burdensome a process for only testing.


----------



## LUXMAN

Went driving this morning. Pulled out the USB when I got back and still get the corrupted/repair message from Windows, but this time there was only the one file of 2k. EPIC FAIL.


----------



## Bokonon

LUXMAN said:


> OK, but how many of these things will accumulate over time?


The .rec files will most likely accumulate to a number greater than zero. 

No, but really... I wouldn't worry about them. Unless you've only got a 2GB USB drive, available space won't be an issue. And the .rec files should only appear in the root of the drive, keeping them separate from your videos in the "TeslaCam" folder, and making them easy to find and delete whenever you feel like cleaning house.


----------



## aronth5

Did my first dashcam drive today after getting 42.2 overnight. 
No "rec" files which I always got before but everytime I stopped I had zero k files. Did not disable except when I removed the USB stick.


----------



## MelindaV

ok - I had 8 ½ hours of driving today on 42.2 without issue. Not a single .rec file added, all prior 60 1min files available (but shown save dates as tomorrow, so if anyone whats to know how tomorrow turns out, let me know)
previously on 39.7, I was getting tons of .rec files, dud video files without any data and no grey X. So, at least after a full day of driving, seems at least it can be trusted to be working and recording data!


----------



## webdriverguy

MelindaV said:


> ok - I had 8 ½ hours of driving today on 42.2 without issue. Not a single .rec file added, all prior 60 1min files available (but shown save dates as tomorrow, so if anyone whats to know how tomorrow turns out, let me know)
> previously on 39.7, I was getting tons of .rec files, dud video files without any data and no grey X. So, at least after a full day of driving, seems at least it can be trusted to be working and recording data!


I drove for about an hour today and no grey X yet. I am stopping/ starting the recording manually though every time I get in and out of the car.


----------



## Watzon

PcGuy said:


> I have the corruption issue as well, however, now reformatting and re-adding the TeslaCam folder doesn't work. I have even tried other flash drives and the other front usb port. Dashcam does not work at all now!


Dash Cam: Some owners report problems with corrupt files appearing soon after installing the thumb drive. An X appears on the screen icon indicating inoperably. This is likely due to slow a write speed of the thumb drive. I use a Sandisk Ultra Fit 32G (SDCZ43-032G-GAM46) which has a reported write speed of 60/mbs and have had no problems. Best wishes and happy motoring!


----------



## MelindaV

webdriverguy00 said:


> I drove for about an hour today and no grey X yet. I am stopping/ starting the recording manually though every time I get in and out of the car.


I didn't pause mine, just pulled it out and brought it in the house.


----------



## Watzon

3V Pilot said:


> I get the "x" after a few drives, maybe every other day. Seems to last longer if I delete the extra files on the USB.
> 
> 64GB (USB 3.0 scandisk)
> No partition
> No need to format out of the box but PC to repair when needed
> Connected directly or via hub (tried both, seems not to make any difference)


Dash Cam: Some owners report problems with corrupt files appearing soon after installing the thumb drive. An X appears on the screen icon indicating inoperably. This is likely due to slow a write speed of the thumb drive. I use a Sandisk Ultra Fit 32G (SDCZ43-032G-GAM46) which has a reported write speed of 60/mbs and have had no problems. Best wishes and happy motoring!


----------



## HrdTsk

Is exFAT the same as FAT32? Will exFAT work with DashCam?


----------



## fmcotton

SoFlaModel3 said:


> My dashcam finally failed today. I tempted fate forgetting to pause a few times in the last few days. Reset the counter to 0 days since the last gray x


Was this after the update to 42.2?


----------



## webdriverguy

Watzon said:


> Dash Cam: Some owners report problems with corrupt files appearing soon after installing the thumb drive. An X appears on the screen icon indicating inoperably. This is likely due to slow a write speed of the thumb drive. I use a Sandisk Ultra Fit 32G (SDCZ43-032G-GAM46) which has a reported write speed of 60/mbs and have had no problems. Best wishes and happy motoring!


If the write speed is an issue I wish tesla could have mentioned that in the documentation for the dashcam


----------



## Love

webdriverguy00 said:


> If the write speed is an issue I wish tesla could have mentioned that in the documentation for the dashcam


I just can't see it being an issue with the stick/thumb drive. That would be EVERYONE's versus it being a problem on Tesla's end. Mine is brand new, I bought it just for this so I doubt it's the drive.

I think patience is the key... as others mentioned before, this is just a rough 1st attempt. Maybe they shouldnt even have pushed it out but had to because Musk tweeted it was coming. It will get better.


----------



## GDN

Received the 42.2 update night before last. Last night I pulled my USB stick that I'd left in the car for a week or so with the grey X. Took it in the house and just reformatted it on my Mac for a clean start. Gave it the TeslaCam name, put it in the car and nothing. Took it back in and reformatted on the PC and nothing. Just left it. Drove to work this morning and nothing. Worked just fine for me the first time a few weeks back, so I'll have to investigate more tonight. I don't get the Dashcam icon or anything. I'll have to retrace my steps, I'm sure it's likely a user error of some sort. I don't recall which machine I formatted it on day 1.


----------



## MelindaV

HrdTsk said:


> Is exFAT the same as FAT32? Will exFAT work with DashCam?


No and no.
If they were the same, why would there be two names?


----------



## OrangeJulius

GDN said:


> Received the 42.2 update night before last. Last night I pulled my USB stick that I'd left in the car for a week or so with the grey X. Took it in the house and just reformatted it on my Mac for a clean start. Gave it the TeslaCam name, put it in the car and nothing. Took it back in and reformatted on the PC and nothing. Just left it. Drove to work this morning and nothing. Worked just fine for me the first time a few weeks back, so I'll have to investigate more tonight. I don't get the Dashcam icon or anything. I'll have to retrace my steps, I'm sure it's likely a user error of some sort. I don't recall which machine I formatted it on day 1.


You say you reformatted your thumb drive and "gave it the TeslaCam name", which sounds like you only named the thumb drive itself. 
If so, you failed to create a FOLDER on that drive and name that folder "TeslaCam".


----------



## GDN

OrangeJulius said:


> You say you reformatted your thumb drive and "gave it the TeslaCam name", which sounds like you only named the thumb drive itself.
> If so, you failed to create a FOLDER on that drive and name that folder "TeslaCam".


You are correct, thank you. I knew I had likely forgotten something and it was my fault. Maybe I can just blame the Trick or Treaters, or the amount of candy I ate myself. I just knew I had it right and was remembering that several have made different Partitions, but I truly forgot the folder itself. I'll remedy that at lunch perhaps and get to trial it on the way home.

Thanks for the help !

Edit - I ran out and grabbed the drive, I see what I had done, I had also named it "Teslacam" and when I reformatted, I gave it that same name back, thinking I was done. Just forgot the folder.


----------



## Vidya

Watzon said:


> Dash Cam: Some owners report problems with corrupt files appearing soon after installing the thumb drive. An X appears on the screen icon indicating inoperably. This is likely due to slow a write speed of the thumb drive. I use a Sandisk Ultra Fit 32G (SDCZ43-032G-GAM46) which has a reported write speed of 60/mbs and have had no problems. Best wishes and happy motoring!


Are you sure its because of low speed?. Because its a wide spread issue and almost everyone is getting this. and I highly doubt everyone is using low speed usbs


----------



## choney22

Is there a general consensus as to what the best size/type usb drive to purchase is and what is the best USB splitter for the non-data port to be able to still utilize the two charging cords or a wireless charging pad? I am picking up the car at the end of this month and figure these are two of the items on my list I'd like to have ahead of time to bring down with me and get all set up before driving away. Links to products on amazon or elsewhere would be greatly appreciated. Not sure if the new updates to the software has changed people's thoughts on what products are best. Thank you!


----------



## Bryan Archambeault

Since getting the dashcam feature, I have tried to flash drives: 1) SanDisk Cruzer Fit 32 GB () and 2) SanDisk Ultra Flair 64 GB (). Both work for a dew drives or a few days and then get the gray X and stop working and have to be repaired or reformatted to get working again. I got the second one because it is a high speed one and I thought maybe that was my issue since the first one wasn't a high speed one, but obviously it doesn't matter.

So, if anyone finally hits on the right drive that works every time and keeps working without repairing or reformatting, that would be great...


----------



## GDN

Bryan Archambeault said:


> Since getting the dashcam feature, I have tried to flash drives: 1) SanDisk Cruzer Fit 32 GB () and 2) SanDisk Ultra Flair 64 GB (). Both work for a dew drives or a few days and then get the gray X and stop working and have to be repaired or reformatted to get working again. I got the second one because it is a high speed one and I thought maybe that was my issue since the first one wasn't a high speed one, but obviously it doesn't matter.
> 
> So, if anyone finally hits on the right drive that works every time and keeps working without repairing or reformatting, that would be great...


Give them all a second try after you get the 42.2 update. See if you don't have better results.


----------



## Maynerd

So...weird question are USB drives less reliable than SD cards for this type of use scenario?


----------



## iChris93

Maynerd said:


> So...weird question are USB drives less reliable than SD cards for this type of use scenario?


I also tried a USB to SD adapter and it did not last on 39.7.


----------



## babula

Had a bad experience with the dash cam...

Earlier today, I went around a minivan that was double parked and started waiting for the light to turn green. The guy in the minivan didn't even look around, he pulled out and bumped me on the driver side. I saved the clip right away, got home and inspected the USB only to find out that the exact file I need was corrupted....


----------



## iChris93

babula said:


> Had a bad experience with the dash cam...
> 
> Earlier today, I went around a minivan that was double parked and started waiting for the light to turn green. The guy in the minivan didn't even look around, he pulled out and bumped me on the driver side. I saved the clip right away, got home and inspected the USB only to find out that the exact file I need was corrupted....


I wonder if you have to wait a minute to prevent corruption. Sorry you had this experience.


----------



## HrdTsk

Watzon said:


> Dash Cam: Some owners report problems with corrupt files appearing soon after installing the thumb drive. An X appears on the screen icon indicating inoperably. This is likely due to slow a write speed of the thumb drive. I use a Sandisk Ultra Fit 32G (SDCZ43-032G-GAM46) which has a reported write speed of 60/mbs and have had no problems. Best wishes and happy motoring!


I tried using 2 old thumb drives I had lying around the house and they did not work (I suspect too slow to write onto the drive). I then tried a newer drive that was 64 GB but this was too large to format into FAT 32 and exFAT format did not work. I bought a new Samsung thumb drive 32 GB with speed listed at 150 mb/sec, formatted to FAT 32, made folder named TeslaCam and dashcam recording worked well for 30 minute drive with 42.4 update.


----------



## Watzon

Vidya said:


> Are you sure its because of low speed?. Because its a wide spread issue and almost everyone is getting this. and I highly doubt everyone is using low speed usbs


Not a tech type so all I can say is that its still working, no X. Check out this YouTube DVO, we concur .........


----------



## Watzon

Maynerd said:


> So...weird question are USB drives less reliable than SD cards for this type of use scenario?


SD cards typically have a faster write speed


----------



## webdriverguy

Been driving since 4 days after I reformatted the drive and I haven’t seen any issues so far. I sometimes manually turn the dash cam off and sometimes I forget to do that. I was on 42.2 before and now on 42.4


----------



## mikestiva

For me, 42.2 fixed all of the issues I had with the TeslaCam. Just got 42.4 last night and haven't had a chance to give it a whirl.


----------



## aronth5

webdriverguy00 said:


> Been driving since 4 days after I reformatted the drive and I haven't seen any issues so far. I sometimes manually turn the dash cam off and sometimes I forget to do that. I was on 42.2 before and now on 42.4





mikestiva said:


> For me, 42.2 fixed all of the issues I had with the TeslaCam. Just got 42.4 last night and haven't had a chance to give it a whirl.


What USB drives are you using? I just went for a drive on 42.4 and still have the zero byte file at the end even when I manually disabled the drive.


----------



## LUXMAN

babula said:


> Had a bad experience with the dash cam...
> 
> Earlier today, I went around a minivan that was double parked and started waiting for the light to turn green. The guy in the minivan didn't even look around, he pulled out and bumped me on the driver side. I saved the clip right away, got home and inspected the USB only to find out that the exact file I need was corrupted....


Aw man! I hope the damage isn't too bad. 
Somebody double parked in NEW YORK? Ya don't say. That is weird


----------



## Felzano

webdriverguy00 said:


> Been driving since 4 days after I reformatted the drive and I haven't seen any issues so far. I sometimes manually turn the dash cam off and sometimes I forget to do that. I was on 42.2 before and now on 42.4


works great with 42.3 which I downloaded less than 24 hours ago.


----------



## Bryan Archambeault

GDN said:


> Give them all a second try after you get the 42.2 update. See if you don't have better results.


I got 42.3 on Thursday and after two days of driving, everything is working fine. Before 42.3 it never worked for more than a few minutes, so it appears to be fixed for me. So far so good anyway...


----------



## Mistersandman

Going on almost 2 weeks now without issue. In the beginning I was getting the x almost every drive. Now nothing. Makes me think that Tesla did some sort of backend update. It’s been a combination of manually shutting it off about 25% of the time vs doing nothing the other 75%. Was on 39.7 and just updated on Friday to 42.3. Using a Sandisk 32gb drive from Amazon that most people have been using too. Hope I didn’t jinx it.


----------



## choney22

Mistersandman said:


> Going on almost 2 weeks now without issue. In the beginning I was getting the x almost every drive. Now nothing. Makes me think that Tesla did some sort of backend update. It's been a combination of manually shutting it off about 25% of the time vs doing nothing the other 75%. Was on 39.7 and just updated on Friday to 42.3. Using a Sandisk 32gb drive from Amazon that most people have been using too. Hope I didn't jinx it.


Are you using a USB or SD card? Do you have a link to what is working for you?


----------



## Mistersandman

choney22 said:


> Are you using a USB or SD card? Do you have a link to what is working for you?


SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 32GB USB 2.0 Low-Profile Flash Drive- SDCZ33-032G-B35


----------



## Allan

I got 42.4 and haven't had an issue with it. I had 20 start/stops yesterday and I didn't do anything to protect the drive. Still working today. I'm using cheap give away USB sticks.


----------



## webdriverguy

Allan said:


> I got 42.4 and haven't had an issue with it. I had 20 start/stops yesterday and I didn't do anything to protect the drive. Still working today. I'm using cheap give away USB sticks.


I am on my 5th day with dashcam with 42.4 and no issues yet. I really hope some fix was put in from tesla


----------



## garsh

I used to get a corrupted filesystem on my cheap, slow flash drive just about every time I stopped the car. But since I received the 42.3 update, I haven't had an error yet. I hope this means that Tesla has fixed that issue.


----------



## Vidya

42.3 solved the issue. working perfectly without any issue since last week. I am using years old 8 Gb USb stick (must be slow one)


----------



## GDN

After getting the folder properly put back on my cheap freebie USB stick and upgrade to 42.2 and now 42.4, I also report much better Dashcam results. I've saved 3 or 4 times, just pulled the stick once home without pausing, copied files off of it and plugged it back in and it picks back up and keeps on ticking every time. No more red X. Thank you Tesla.


----------



## ummgood

I just started to try to use the dashcam feature. I also got in on the blackvue group buy and the actual dash cam store is installing my setup for me next week. Anyway I think I might keep the one in the car running too. I figure between the two I have more likelihood of catching whatever I need to. I got the blackvue that records both the front and the back and I am hoping it can capture if anything happens to my car in a parking lot. Also I didn't like how the Tesla dashcam seems very zoomed in. I looked at my first footage from yesterday and when I am stopped behind a car it actually looks in the camera like I am on top of it. I can't see my hood at all. Also I am hoping running both Blackvue and Tesla dash cams will help me capture a plate in the event I need it.


----------



## Chriseckman

I've had daily issues with corrupted files on two USB drives. I switched over to high-speed 60Mb/s microSD cards that you'd use in a GoPro and haven't had any issues at all for an entire week. I suspect that the write speed of common thumb drives is too slow.


----------



## GDN

Chriseckman said:


> I've had daily issues with corrupted files on two USB drives. I switched over to high-speed 60Mb/s microSD cards that you'd use in a GoPro and haven't had any issues at all for an entire week. I suspect that the write speed of common thumb drives is too slow.


Have you updated to 42.3 or 42.4? Once you get the SW update give the old USB's a shot for the heck of it. The SW made all the difference in the world for mine.


----------



## webdriverguy

GDN said:


> Have you updated to 42.3 or 42.4? Once you get the SW update give the old USB's a shot for the heck of it. The SW made all the difference in the world for mine.


I think it's a fix from tesla. USB speed has nothing to do with it. I might be wrong though.


----------



## 350VDC

GDN said:


> The SW made all the difference in the world for mine.


Have all those who say its working well now, actually looked on the drive to confirm all the files are there? I tried an SSD and it appeared to work well for a week as I didn't get the grey X. I checked the drive and it was empty.  Not even 1 file.
Reformatted again and installed this am. Checked this evening and the mornings 10 minute commute is missing but I do have the evenings commute. If its working for you, can you confirm if you had to use the GPT format or if the Basic MBR partition worked for you?


----------



## iChris93

Mine was working for over a week, until this evening. All the files were on it prior to the failure. I'm still on 39.7.


----------



## zosoisnotaword

350VDC said:


> Have all those who say its working well now, actually looked on the drive to confirm all the files are there? I tried an SSD and it appeared to work well for a week as I didn't get the grey X. I checked the drive and it was empty.  Not even 1 file.
> Reformatted again and installed this am. Checked this evening and the mornings 10 minute commute is missing but I do have the evenings commute. If its working for you, can you confirm if you had to use the GPT format or if the Basic MBR partition worked for you?


Did you save anything that wasn't there? It sounds like yours is performing as designed, where anything older than 1 hour is automatically deleted.


----------



## 350VDC

zosoisnotaword said:


> anything older than 1 hour is automatically deleted.


So you are saying that if my morning drive is only 10 minutes, it will delete that 10 minutes after 1 hour? That doesn't sound correct and is not what I experienced earlier with other drives and tests. I would expect it to record a total of 1 hour (no matter how many individual sessions) and then start overwriting the oldest file. That is how any other type of video recording works.


----------



## garsh

350VDC said:


> So you are saying that if my morning drive is only 10 minutes, it will delete that 10 minutes after 1 hour? That doesn't sound correct and is not what I experienced earlier with other drives and tests. I would expect it to record a total of 1 hour (no matter how many individual sessions) and then start overwriting the oldest file. That is how any other type of video recording works.


Yep, Tesla took the easy way out and simply deletes all files that are more than an hour old (unless saved). I agree, no other dashcam works this way. As I said earlier, hopefully they can hire an intern to write the 20 lines of code to fix this.


----------



## njkode

Has any one used this USB hub to keep charging and dash cam?








USB hub

If not what usb hubs are you using?


----------



## kort677

got the dreaded X after the car sat at the airport for 12 days, will reformat tonight, got the .42 update last night maybe that will help


----------



## Blake Marvin

njkode said:


> Has any one used this USB hub to keep charging and dash cam?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> USB hub
> 
> If not what usb hubs are you using?


I've been using that one for a couple weeks no with no issues. got it so I could keep my nomad charging pad and use the dash cam


----------



## ummgood

How exactly is everyone partitioning their drives for Music & Dashcam? I have a 128GB thumb drive I want to use for both. I formatted the first partition as 8GB with Fat 32 and 32kB segments and the second partition as exFat with the remaining 110GB or so. I put the music on there and the TeslaCam folder. The dash cam seems to be working ok but the music drive shows 0GB capacity and no songs even though they are there and I can play them on a PC or Mac.

I have a Mac and PC available so either one would work for me if you have explicit instructions.


----------



## ahagge

After an 800-mile trip last weekend, I can confirm that the workaround someone suggested (formatting the drive with multiple primary partitions) works. I formatted my 32 GB USB stick with 4 primary FAT-32 partitions of about 8 GB each. I din't pause the dashcam, just exited the car as normal. After a couple of days, I got the gray X, so I swapped for a different drive. When I got home, I examined the 4-partition stick - all 4 partitions had camera files on them. So apparently if a partition has the "dirty" bit set, the Tesla software goes on to the next partition that it finds that doesn't have that bit set.

It's not a fix, just a workaround to avoid having to have quite so many USB sticks in your car.  This was with firmware 39.7. I just got 42.4 - hopefully others are correct that Tesla fixed the issue (cutting power before the last files were successfully flushed to the USB stick). I'll try a single-partition drive for a few days and hope for the best.



ummgood said:


> How exactly is everyone partitioning their drives for Music & Dashcam?


I first tried using 2 partitions - one for music and one for TeslaCam. That worked, so I tried putting both on a single FAT-32 partition. IIRC, that worked fine too.

Lastly, for the Linux-heads here, you can use an EXT4-formatted partition for your music folder and it works, but sadly _doesn't_ work for the dashcam partition. If they supported EXT4 there, it would likely have avoided this "partition corruption" issue completely.


----------



## ummgood

ahagge said:


> After an 800-mile trip last weekend, I can confirm that the workaround someone suggested (formatting the drive with multiple primary partitions) works. I formatted my 32 GB USB stick with 4 primary FAT-32 partitions of about 8 GB each. I din't pause the dashcam, just exited the car as normal. After a couple of days, I got the gray X, so I swapped for a different drive. When I got home, I examined the 4-partition stick - all 4 partitions had camera files on them. So apparently if a partition has the "dirty" bit set, the Tesla software goes on to the next partition that it finds that doesn't have that bit set.
> 
> It's not a fix, just a workaround to avoid having to have quite so many USB sticks in your car.  This was with firmware 39.7. I just got 42.4 - hopefully others are correct that Tesla fixed the issue (cutting power before the last files were successfully flushed to the USB stick). I'll try a single-partition drive for a few days and hope for the best.
> 
> I first tried using 2 partitions - one for music and one for TeslaCam. That worked, so I tried putting both on a single FAT-32 partition. IIRC, that worked fine too.
> 
> Lastly, for the Linux-heads here, you can use an EXT4-formatted partition for your music folder and it works, but sadly _doesn't_ work for the dashcam partition. If they supported EXT4 there, it would likely have avoided this "partition corruption" issue completely.


The two partitions worked or not? I couldn't quite follow. I first formatted on my computer with a FAT-32 and a exFat and I couldn't see the music. I just tried to format using my Mac to see if it would work. If that doesn't work then I'll do one partition and do it that way. It takes awhile because I have over 50GB of music on there so I have to copy it off, format, then put the music back. At least this time I plan on leaving the music on my Mac until I figure out the best approach. I have been using Tesla Tunes to convert my iTunes library on my mac to FLAC formatted files for the Model 3.


----------



## Bokonon

ummgood said:


> The two partitions worked or not?


Yep, it works. I have a split 32 GB drive (8 GB TeslaCam / 24 GB music) and it has been working without issue for over a week on 42.3. Music plays just fine, no corruption in the dashcam partition since updating from 39.7.


----------



## ummgood

Bokonon said:


> Yep, it works. I have a split 32 GB drive (8 GB TeslaCam / 24 GB music) and it has been working without issue for over a week on 42.3. Music plays just fine, no corruption in the dashcam partition since updating from 39.7.


So how did you format the partitions? I tried on windows with Fat32 on the TeslaCam (first partition) and extFat for the rest (the only option windows would allow). That didn't work. The dashcam worked but the music wouldn't load. I just tried formatting the second partition on my mac to MSDOS and I'm going to give that a shot.


----------



## JML

ummgood said:


> How exactly is everyone partitioning their drives for Music & Dashcam? I have a 128GB thumb drive I want to use for both. I formatted the first partition as 8GB with Fat 32 and 32kB segments and the second partition as exFat with the remaining 110GB or so. I put the music on there and the TeslaCam folder. The dash cam seems to be working ok but the music drive shows 0GB capacity and no songs even though they are there and I can play them on a PC or Mac.
> 
> I have a Mac and PC available so either one would work for me if you have explicit instructions.


The car can't read the exFAT filesystem. exFAT is not compatible with FAT, and (I believe) requires a $$$ license to implement. If you use FAT for your big partition, you should be fine. Windows may complain about formatting a partition larger than 32GB as FAT, which means you need to use third party tools,. You might be able to do it from the Windows command line. I don't know if the Mac has the same limitation.


----------



## Bokonon

ummgood said:


> So how did you format the partitions? I tried on windows with Fat32 on the TeslaCam (first partition) and extFat for the rest (the only option windows would allow). That didn't work. The dashcam worked but the music wouldn't load. I just tried formatting the second partition on my mac to MSDOS and I'm going to give that a shot.


I just used Windows because both partitions were smaller than 32 GB. Like @JML mentioned above, Windows will not format a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB.

To format a partition larger than 32 GB, you'd need to use a Mac or a third-party utility. FWIW, a few members upthread have used a utility called AOMEI Partition Assistant.


----------



## ummgood

Bokonon said:


> I just used Windows because both partitions were smaller than 32 GB. Like @JML mentioned above, Windows will not format a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB.
> 
> To format a partition larger than 32 GB, you'd need to use a Mac or a third-party utility. FWIW, a few members upthread have used a utility called AOMEI Partition Assistant.


Great thanks for the input! I just used my Mac so hopefully that will solve it.


----------



## ummgood

JML said:


> The car can't read the exFAT filesystem. exFAT is not compatible with FAT, and (I believe) requires a $$$ license to implement. If you use FAT for your big partition, you should be fine. Windows may complain about formatting a partition larger than 32GB as FAT, which means you need to use third party tools,. You might be able to do it from the Windows command line. I don't know if the Mac has the same limitation.


Thanks the only reason I formatted it that was because Win10 doesn't allow for anything else after you do the primary partition as FAT32. On my work computer I didn't want to mess around with installing other utilities. I have a Macbook Pro for home that I brought to work today so I could try fixing it.


----------



## ummgood

Ok now I have 8GB and 110GB partitions and everything works!

Is anyone having issues with the USB music stopping and starting back up 10s of seconds later while running the dashcam? I am wondering if it is my USB hub or a software issue. I might plug it directly in and see if it resolves the issue.


----------



## garsh

I decided to take my USB drive out of the car and plug it into my computer to take a look at it. I made sure to shut off the dashcam, then waited several seconds before removing it.

It mounted just fine with no corruption detected. Yay!

But the root directory was full of FSCKxxxx.REC files. So, it looks like the software is now automatically fixing corrupted drives upon startup rather than attempting to shut down cleanly. I actually like this approach - it should guarantee that your dashcam will never just fail and become inoperable.


----------



## ateslik

A company that is holding my life in their hands with autopilot should be able to get a dashcam right. Disturbing.


----------



## Bokonon

Whoops, I may have declared victory prematurely...

After recording steadily for about 10 days' worth of driving, I paused the dashcam, waited for the red light to turn gray, and removed the drive. I plugged the drive into my PC, Windows detected errors on the drive, and I let Windows fix the errors before continuing. The result? 635 MB of .rec files in the drive root, and nothing in the TeslaCam folder.  

Time to start experimenting again...


----------



## garsh

ateslik said:


> A company that is holding my life in their hands with autopilot should be able to get a dashcam right. Disturbing.


You need to recognize that it's not a single individual working on all aspects of the software.

You have the large team working with the most advanced machine learning concepts to produce ever-improving Autopilot software.

Then you have poor "Joe" who wrote the camera drivers. Someone tells Joe that Elon has promised DashCam to the masses, and Joe pulled the short straw and must implement it. "Just get something basic working for now". Joe has too much to do for his main projects, so he quickly writes some code that saves 1-minute videos, and deletes files more than an hour old.


----------



## MelindaV

I think joe deserves an extra couple vacation days and raise next review cycle


----------



## Bokonon

MelindaV said:


> I think joe deserves an extra couple vacation days and raise next review cycle


I think Joe just burst out laughing.


----------



## ateslik

garsh said:


> You need to recognize that it's not a single individual working on all aspects of the software.
> 
> You have the large team working with the most advanced machine learning concepts to produce ever-improving Autopilot software.
> 
> Then you have poor "Joe" who wrote the camera drivers. Someone tells Joe that Elon has promised DashCam to the masses, and Joe pulled the short straw and must implement it. "Just get something basic working for now". Joe has too much to do for his main projects, so he quickly writes some code that saves 1-minute videos, and deletes files more than an hour old.


you may be right, I don't know. What I do know is that this obviously was not tested. The community found issues with this feature in less than a day through very basic use. There are too many instances where simple testing - and automated regression testing - would avoid things like this. Summon bugs, interface bugs, updates with no changelog, blank screens, inconsistent results. It points to a software development method where people are working without discipline and structure and just pushing things out the door, which is where my worry comes from. This doesn't worry anyone else? Does it feel structured and disciplined to you? It feels like it's barely holding together to me. It feels like a big mistake could happen at any moment.

I like the car, it's fun to drive, but I've stopped using any of the beta software. There are enough problems with the non-beta software.


----------



## Firewired

If anyone can offer any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. 

Since taking delivery of my Nomad wireless charging pad I had tried to plug in the USB stick for the dashcam via a USB splitter or USB hub. What I have found over the last couple of weeks is that when I get in the car to drive the Nomad pad is working fine, but there is no dashcam recording icon. To make the dashcam icon come up I have to unplug the USB Stick from either the hub or the splitter and then it will work fine for the rest of the drive. If I don't unplug and replug the stick, the dashcam icon will just not be there for the drive. It is really weird as it had been working fine until I believe I got the 18.42.4 update. I don't know if that is truly helpful or a red herring. I am currently on 18.42.8  and the issue persists. Has anyone been experiencing this and if so have you found a fix for it?

Thanks


----------



## msjulie

There was a known issue, or so it appeared, of the power being cut before the files were flushed. I had it all the time. I got a newer better disk to use

Also I've noted that if you long press on it, you can shut down the cam (like I don't need my garage door filmed) and also long press to restart it - worth a try


----------



## Firewired

I am trying two different USB sticks and getting the same issue from both. I am trying the:

Sandisk Ixpand ()

and

Samsung MUF-128AB ()

Both of which have the issue. What storage are you using that isn't causing the same issue?

Thanks


----------



## msjulie

I got this suggestion from TMC forum; my car has 42.3 software version


----------



## Firewired

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that.


----------



## msjulie

Good luck. I do try to remember to stop recording when the car stops, mostly in the garage though I tend to ignore it other times.. but it has worked better fwiw


----------



## PNWmisty

ateslik said:


> This doesn't worry anyone else? Does it feel structured and disciplined to you? It feels like it's barely holding together to me. It feels like a big mistake could happen at any moment.


If I worried about little things like that, well, I might just have to stay in bed all day, every day, lest some harm might come to me. To answer your question, no, it doesn't bother me at all. The car has hydraulic brakes, I can stop it whenever I want. So far, that hasn't been required.

If it were an electric helicopter, I would have second thoughts. I don't like helicopters, auto-rotation capability non-withstanding!


----------



## Ed Post

I discovered that you can't use the same USB stick for DashCam and music. If you put TeslaCam folder on your music stick, it works as a TeslaCam but never mounts the music.


----------



## Bokonon

Ed Post said:


> I discovered that you can't use the same USB stick for DashCam and music. If you put TeslaCam folder on your music stick, it works as a TeslaCam but never mounts the music.


Yep, you'd need to partition the USB stick into two separate drives in order to store both music and dashcam video on the same stick.


----------



## babula

ateslik said:


> A company that is holding my life in their hands with autopilot should be able to get a dashcam right. Disturbing.


I wouldn't call a free additional feature "disturbing". If you are not happy with it, spend more money on a 3rd party solution.


----------



## ateslik

babula said:


> I wouldn't call a free additional feature "disturbing". If you are not happy with it, spend more money on a 3rd party solution.


you have completely missed the point. I couldn't care less about having a dashcam.


----------



## babula

ateslik said:


> you have completely missed the point. I couldn't care less about having a dashcam.


I think I understood your point.... In general the M3 is the safest car on the road and the safety features are excellent. The dashcam was a late addition and is not fully baked yet so in my opinion you should not be concerned about the overall safety based on that one feature.


----------



## PNWmisty

babula said:


> I think I understood your point.... In general the M3 is the safest car on the road and the safety features are excellent. The dashcam was a late addition and is not fully baked yet so in my opinion you should not be concerned about the overall safety based on that one feature.


That's how I read it too. Tesla is not afraid to release things half-baked if it really doesn't matter or it's not a safety concern. Things that are safety related are fixed ASAP!


----------



## Bernard

garsh said:


> I decided to take my USB drive out of the car and plug it into my computer to take a look at it. I made sure to shut off the dashcam, then waited several seconds before removing it.
> 
> It mounted just fine with no corruption detected. Yay!
> 
> But the root directory was full of FSCKxxxx.REC files. So, it looks like the software is now automatically fixing corrupted drives upon startup rather than attempting to shut down cleanly. I actually like this approach - it should guarantee that your dashcam will never just fail and become inoperable.


The .REC files are normal for archiving videos, not a sign of corrected files. (REC files use a REC container (instead of AVI or MKV or...) for video and are similar to MP4.)
It is, however, a bit weird that video is getting stored both inside the root directory and inside the subdirectory -- these REC files are just copies.
It could be that what garsh is proposing is indeed happening, but not with corrected files, just as as rolling copies of the "original" files?
(If these files reflected corruption of some main video files, then their number should be limited by the number of start-stop cycles of the car, but in fact every time I have looked at my USB stick on my laptop, there were exactly as many REC files as "original" video files.)


----------



## garsh

Bernard said:


> The .REC files are normal for archiving videos, not a sign of corrected files.


These are not that type of REC file.

These are files created from patially-written data found when the fsck program attempts to fix a corrupted FAT32 filesystem.

See the man page for the Linux utility fsck.fat:
https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/8-fsck.fat/#lbAG


----------



## Bernard

garsh said:


> These are not that type of REC file.
> 
> These are files created from patially-written data found when the fsck program attempts to fix a corrupted FAT32 filesystem.
> 
> See the man page for the Linux utility fsck.fat:
> https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/8-fsck.fat/#lbAG


Oops, my bad. I had not really looked at the filenames. 
The (presumably repaired) file system looks fine and so do the files; and the .REC files are complete, so if there is a bug, it's really minor. (When the dashcam kept failing in 39.7, there was always an incomplete .REC file, matching the incomplete video file in the subdirectory.)
This makes me wonder if there is in fact a bug. Did poor "Joe" write the code with a debugging call that triggers full repair/recovery (even if the file system is AOK), leaving the .REC files in place after recovery, and then forget to remove that part?
I guess we'll find out in 44.x or whichever firmware is next rolled out to Model 3s.


----------



## MelindaV

Bernard said:


> Oops, my bad. I had not really looked at the filenames.
> The (presumably repaired) file system looks fine and so do the files; and the .REC files are complete, so if there is a bug, it's really minor. (When the dashcam kept failing in 39.7, there was always an incomplete .REC file, matching the incomplete video file in the subdirectory.)
> This makes me wonder if there is in fact a bug. Did poor "Joe" write the code with a debugging call that triggers full repair/recovery (even if the file system is AOK), leaving the .REC files in place after recovery, and then forget to remove that part?
> I guess we'll find out in 44.x or whichever firmware is next rolled out to Model 3s.


When he gets back from that vacation


----------



## Whaukap

PSA: I am pretty ignorant when it comes to this and couldn’t find the answer, my experience was as follows.

I formatted my drive on a Mac, Disk Utility has the format option MS-DOS (FAT) but not a FAT32 option.... so I used the FAT option. Then at some point FAT32 automatically showed up as the disks format. Good to know. 

I accidentally named the folder TeslCam, which didn’t work of course. After correctly naming the folder TeslaCam, the dash cam icon showed up a few seconds after putting in the drive.


----------



## MelindaV

the latest copy of the owners manual now addresses the dash cam. Note, it states a too small USB will cause the grey X, and states to pause before ejecting to protect the last file. Wonder if this was their intention all along, or these points were added following feedback.


----------



## wackojacko

Upgraded to 44.1 on Saturday and the dash cam just started to work. I've had the x for a few weeks and just left it as I could not be bothered to format over and over again. Hopefully they sorted it out and it can correct itself now


----------



## BigBri

I've had a great experience with the dashcam by using an SSD. $10 SSD to USB adapter on Amazon and a 256GB Samsung SSD and haven't had the dreaded grey X once. SSD never gets hot either unlike the flash drives. I partitioned it into 2 different drives and put FLAC music on the one and even still it works perfect and never gets warm.


----------



## LUXMAN

MelindaV said:


> the latest copy of the owners manual now addresses the dash cam. Note, it states a too small USB will cause the grey X, and states to pause before ejecting to protect the last file. Wonder if this was their intention all along, or these points were added following feedback.
> View attachment 17763
> 
> View attachment 17765


So it says one hour of the most recent footage. So has anyone verified if it will now save clips from the previous day (or hour) if doing shorter trips? I can check later today too


----------



## MelindaV

LUXMAN said:


> So it says one hour of the most recent footage. So has anyone verified if it will now save clips from the previous day (or hour) if doing shorter trips? I can check later today too


I just went out and pulled my USB, the only 'recent' is the one from me just going out and waking the car up (all 4 seconds of it - so pausing does keep the sub minute file intact). No prior 59 clips. I am scheduled to take the car into the service center this afternoon, so will ask them for clarification (but assume it strictly is a FW issue and they will not have any info).


----------



## FRC

I am late to the dashcam party and need some help. The car doesn't seem to recognize my flashdrive. I formatted a USB 3.0 32GB Flash Drive to FAT32 and named this TeslaCam. Inserted this into front left USB port, and nothing(however the flashdrive does light up). Camera icon never appears even after hours of driving. I'm on v9 42.3. When I rechecked my flashdrive format and name, it shows FAT32, but shows name as TESLACAM in all caps and still shows all caps after I rename. Do all caps matter? Any ideas? I'm an electronic moron. I stopped by GeekSquad but the line was out the door(holiday week). Any ideas...HELP!!!


----------



## BigBri

FRC said:


> I am late to the dashcam party and need some help. The car doesn't seem to recognize my flashdrive. I formatted a USB 3.0 32GB Flash Drive to FAT32 and named this TeslaCam. Inserted this into front left USB port, and nothing(however the flashdrive does light up). Camera icon never appears even after hours of driving. I'm on v9 42.3. When I rechecked my flashdrive format and name, it shows FAT32, but shows name as TESLACAM in all caps and still shows all caps after I rename. Do all caps matter? Any ideas? I'm an electronic moron. I stopped by GeekSquad but the line was out the door(holiday week). Any ideas...HELP!!!


You don't name the drive TeslaCam you need to make a folder in the drive called TeslaCam. On Windows right click and select New-> Folder.


----------



## FRC

BigBri said:


> You don't name the drive TeslaCam you need to make a folder in the drive called TeslaCam. On Windows right click and select New-> Folder.


That was it BigBri! Told you I was electronics moron. In my defense, I had my graduate degree before personal computers hit the market. THANK YOU, THANK YOU! And happy Thanksgiving, or whatever you Canucks celebrate!


----------



## PNWmisty

Whaukap said:


> In my defense, I had my graduate degree before personal computers hit the market.


Just a little history lesson, in the summer of 1977 Byte Magazine referred to the "1977 Trinity" of personal computing as being the Tandy (Radio Shack) TRS-80, the Pet 2001 and the Apple II. I messed around with programming the TRS-80 in Assembly Language for a little while before deciding it was better to use it as a word processor and spreadsheets and leave the programming to those who liked to do the abstract.

That was 41 years ago and now our Model 3's have about 100 million times the processing power. Which makes the Model 3 a real bargain in 1977 computing power dollars (worth a few hundred billion $$).


----------



## Maynerd

So my dashcam has been working without fail for a couple of weeks now. Anyone have success using the same flash drive for media without getting the dreaded red X?


----------



## Bokonon

Maynerd said:


> So my dashcam has been working without fail for a couple of weeks now. Anyone have success using the same flash drive for media without getting the dreaded red X?


Yup. Same partitioning setup as I was running under 39.7, only no more gray X since updating to 42.3. No issues playing music either.


----------



## Love

I <3 Joe.


----------



## NR4P

Had the Red X occur during a long drive. Wasn't a shut off the car, start up the car, it just went Red X in the middle of the drive.

I checked the drive, it needed a repair. A mid drive corruption.


----------



## Maynerd

Bokonon said:


> Yup. Same partitioning setup as I was running under 39.7, only no more gray X since updating to 42.3. No issues playing music either.


How big is your drive and how big are your partitions?


----------



## Bokonon

Maynerd said:


> How big is your drive and how big are your partitions?


32 GB total, 8 GB TeslaCam / 24 GB music.


----------



## Maynerd

Bokonon said:


> 32 GB total, 8 GB TeslaCam / 24 GB music.


Cool thanks for sharing.


----------



## aronth5

Maynerd said:


> So my dashcam has been working without fail for a couple of weeks now. Anyone have success using the same flash drive for media without getting the dreaded red X?


How often do you view your drive and confirm video is working? I now go much longer without the dreaded grey x but when I check the drive they sometimes still have errors along with zero byte files. So better but still far from a reliable application for many.


----------



## LUXMAN

aronth5 said:


> How often do you view your drive and confirm video is working? I now go much longer without the dreaded grey x but when I check the drive they sometimes still have errors along with zero byte files. So better but still far from a reliable application for many.


Mine seems to be working fine now. I caught that coyote on the cam the other morning and was able to pull and download no problem. 
Then last night this guy (see video) was all over my rear end for no apparent reason. All I could see in the rear view mirror was lights and a FORD logo. Then he proceeded to speed around me...for what? I'll tell you what, for me to call the company he works for today since they were closed last night, that's what!


----------



## ummgood

LUXMAN said:


> Mine seems to be working fine now. I caught that coyote on the cam the other morning and was able to pull and download no problem.
> Then last night this guy (see video) was all over my rear end for no apparent reason. All I could see in the rear view mirror was lights and a FORD logo. Then he proceeded to speed around me...for what? I'll tell you what, for me to call the company he works for today since they were closed last night, that's what!


I would email them the dash cam youtube link


----------



## LUXMAN

ummgood said:


> I would email them the dash cam youtube link


Actually this guy torqued me off. I called the company yesterday and spoke with someone about it. I left her a VM and heard back from her in about 5 minutes. She was very apologetic and was quite emphatic that this was gonna get taken care of. Took the info and asked for the video too, which I emailed to her


----------



## NR4P

Dashcam sort of locked up yesterday. I try to pause when I am about to exit the car. It looked like it was recording with the larger red dot. Tapping it did nothing, pressing and holding it did nothing. Powered down the car and powered it back up, still no response. Removed USB, and the icon showing normal was still there.

Had to do a reboot.

Then put in the USB drive and the X appeared.

Checked USB on PC, PC files were all readable.

So have reformatted the USB and seems to be OK now.

Still not ready for mass users with issues like this.


----------



## undergrove

I'm on 42.3. I have been leaving tne drive in without pausing. I swap the drive out after a few days. The drive will have several .REC files and usually needs repair in Mac Disk Utility even though I haven't gotten the gray X. Repair fixes the drive and the regular files are usually OK.

I don't remember anyone mentioning this, but if you change the .REC files to .mp4 most of them play fine in Quicktime. The .REC files will play as is in VLC.


----------



## MelindaV

undergrove said:


> I don't remember anyone mentioning this, but if you change the .REC files to .mp4 most of them play fine in Quicktime. The .REC files will play as is in VLC.


either something changed, or the .REC files are created for different reasons. in the original software release that included the dashcam, all the REC files (at least on mine) all had zero data to them. Looking at my USB this morning, there are 6 files, all except 1 plays thru VLC (and assume converting to an mp4 and play). the one has 0kb so obviously doesn't do anything.

When my car was at the Service Center earlier this week I asked my tech about the owners manual wording that makes it sound like the last 60 minutes of driving is saved, new files replacing the oldest, but in my case am only getting 'recent' files less than 60 minutes old in the TeslaCam folder. (IE currently my USB has a single 'recent' file in the TeslaCam folder of my garage wall). Off the top of his head he confirmed it should save the LAST 60 1 minute files as recent. Then went and checked with another software specific tech and came back and said that is how it should be. I mentioned mine is not, but only the files no older than 60 minutes and he looked befuddled, and shrugged saying it is new and will get better


----------



## undergrove

In 39.7.1 the .REC files were 0 or very short and would not play. Now in 42.3 they are mostly 25-30 MB and most of the long ones will play.

If I pause and remove the drive before I get out of the car, the recent files will be still be on the drive. If I leave it in without pausing everything not saved is erased and we start over from scratch on the next drive. I haven't tried pausing before getting out of the car, because I often forget to start it again the next time I get in to drive.

The .REC files seem to be a random assortment of recent files from earlier drives. It appears that when it erases files from previous drives it seems to recover some of them. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to this. Sometimes they are isolated files, and sometimes there will be several files in a sequence. Definitely Alpha software.


----------



## MelindaV

all of the .rec files my card had on them this morning were from the last minute before parking. so does go along with them being created upon the car shutting down.


----------



## aronth5

MelindaV said:


> either something changed, or the .REC files are created for different reasons. in the original software release that included the dashcam, all the REC files (at least on mine) all had zero data to them. Looking at my USB this morning, there are 6 files, all except 1 plays thru VLC (and assume converting to an mp4 and play). the one has 0kb so obviously doesn't do anything.


Just updated to 44.2 yesterday and noticed the same thing. Just renamed the extension to mp4 and REC files played fine. Still have an occasional zero byte file but this is the first time I've felt the dashcam was close to working as it should. Hopefully Telsa will continue to work on resolving the bugs so it works flawlessly.


----------



## Bokonon

TL;DR for nerds: the dashcam filesystem is now being corrupted in a more orderly manner. Yay, progress!


----------



## aronth5

Bokonon said:


> TL;DR for nerds: the dashcam filesystem is now being corrupted in a more orderly manner. Yay, progress!


Yes, progress especially when you come from a car that when I initially got it didn't have FM radio, auto wipers, auto headlights, summon, and lots of other features so I'm an optimist


----------



## GDN

Was in the car today and realized my dash cam icon was gone. I am currently running version 44.1. I opened the console and pulled the USB drive, it was blazing hot. Couldn't hold it in my hand hot. Have not had a chance to see what if any files remain on the drive, nor have I plugged it back in. Will do that Sunday on my drive back home. I am using a cheap freebie 8 GB drive, but all things normal. The cam was working yesterday as I had even saved 10 minutes of video. Curious if anyone else has seen similar? Maybe related to 44.1? A bad USB drive or port?


----------



## SoFlaModel3

LUXMAN said:


> So it says one hour of the most recent footage. So has anyone verified if it will now save clips from the previous day (or hour) if doing shorter trips? I can check later today too


I would think the only way you'll get "recent" from yesterday is to pull your card before you turn on the car. Right now it's deleting anything "recent" with a time stamp greater than 1 hour.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

GDN said:


> Was in the car today and realized my dash cam icon was gone. I am currently running version 44.1. I opened the console and pulled the USB drive, it was blazing hot. Couldn't hold it in my hand hot. Have not had a chance to see what if any files remain on the drive, nor have I plugged it back in. Will do that Sunday on my drive back home. I am using a cheap freebie 8 GB drive, but all things normal. The cam was working yesterday as I had even saved 10 minutes of video. Curious if anyone else has seen similar? Maybe related to 44.1? A bad USB drive or port?


Did you put it back in after waiting a few seconds and did it work? I've had that a few times.


----------



## LUXMAN

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I would think the only way you'll get "recent" from yesterday is to pull your card before you turn on the car. Right now it's deleting anything "recent" with a time stamp greater than 1 hour.


You are correct. I went out and opened the car and pulled the flash drive before it popped up on the screen and it still had files on the drive from the day before. But once the recording starts, it wipes the last data. 
Hopefully this will be corrected soon where it will just keep recording til it runs outta space, then starts recording over stuff like a regular dash cam.

Now if they could add Date/Time/GPS time stamps and interior audio


----------



## GDN

GDN said:


> Was in the car today and realized my dash cam icon was gone. I am currently running version 44.1. I opened the console and pulled the USB drive, it was blazing hot. Couldn't hold it in my hand hot. Have not had a chance to see what if any files remain on the drive, nor have I plugged it back in. Will do that Sunday on my drive back home. I am using a cheap freebie 8 GB drive, but all things normal. The cam was working yesterday as I had even saved 10 minutes of video. Curious if anyone else has seen similar? Maybe related to 44.1? A bad USB drive or port?


I put the USB drive back in the car today and never got the dash cam icon back. Found a USB C adapter I did have with me, plugged it in to the sam MacBook I had formatted it on, and NOTHING. The drive is fried. Not recognized in any manner. For now I will attribute this to a very cheapie 8 GB USB drive. I'll get a better one and format and put it in, then see if I get better results or perhaps if I burn another one up. Hoping it's the USB drive though.


----------



## LUXMAN

GDN said:


> I put the USB drive back in the car today and never got the dash cam icon back. Found a USB C adapter I did have with me, plugged it in to the sam MacBook I had formatted it on, and NOTHING. The drive is fried. Not recognized in any manner. For now I will attribute this to a very cheapie 8 GB USB drive. I'll get a better one and format and put it in, then see if I get better results or perhaps if I burn another one up. Hoping it's the USB drive though.


Did you try using the port for anything else yet? Like charging a phone?


----------



## undergrove

MelindaV said:


> all of the .rec files my card had on them this morning were from the last minute before parking. so does go along with them being created upon the car shutting down.


In addition to the last file before exiting the car on short trips, the .REC file sequences seem to be some of the files that were deleted when the trip goes over 1 hour, but not necessarily all of them--just a few.


----------



## undergrove

LUXMAN said:


> You are correct. I went out and opened the car and pulled the flash drive before it popped up on the screen and it still had files on the drive from the day before. But once the recording starts, it wipes the last data.
> Hopefully this will be corrected soon where it will just keep recording til it runs outta space, then starts recording over stuff like a regular dash cam.
> 
> Now if they could add Date/Time/GPS time stamps and interior audio


If you pause the camera and remove the drive before exiting, most of the "recent" files should be preserved. If your trip was over 1 hour, the .REC files may contain some of the ones deleted.


----------



## GDN

LUXMAN said:


> Did you try using the port for anything else yet? Like charging a phone?


At this point I'm going to attribute the problems to the flash drive. On my drive home this afternoon I used both ports for charging a phone and once I got home I found a better flash drive, put the Teslacam folder on it and put it in the right side USB (where the last one was) the the camera icon popped up and it began recording.

So at this point all is working as it should and I'll have to wait a few days to confirm that the camera and USB stick continue to operate and not get hot or burn up another USB drive.


----------



## groovetesla

I got pulled over by a cop who insists I was going 32 in a 25 . I know for a fact that this isn't true because I had my TACC set at 30mph when it happened. Additionally, the officer was standing in the street and pulled me over with a wave of his hand and finger. He had no radar gun in his hand, so I'm going to fight this ticket. I went through my dashcam files to see if I could use any of them as evidence. I noticed that the files record for about 30MB and then stop and start a new file. I'm wondering if there's any way to increase the limit? It's a bit cumbersome to go through 50-100 files searching for the specific moment I'm looking for. It would be nice to be able to review a file that's say 10-15 minutes long, versus 1 minute chunks. Anyone know if this is possible?


----------



## SoFlaModel3

groovetesla said:


> I got pulled over by a cop who insists I was going 32 in a 25 . I know for a fact that this isn't true because I had my TACC set at 30mph when it happened. Additionally, the officer was standing in the street and pulled me over with a wave of his hand and finger. He had no radar gun in his hand, so I'm going to fight this ticket. I went through my dashcam files to see if I could use any of them as evidence. I noticed that the files record for about 30MB and then stop and start a new file. I'm wondering if there's any way to increase the limit? It's a bit cumbersome to go through 50-100 files searching for the specific moment I'm looking for. It would be nice to be able to review a file that's say 10-15 minutes long, versus 1 minute chunks. Anyone know if this is possible?


If you tap the icon on the screen shortly after an 'event' -- say 15 seconds later, that converts from 'recent' to 'saved'. Then when you review the saved files (at most 10 of 1 minute each), the last 1-2 files has what you are looking for.


----------



## GDN

The bad news with the Tesla built in cam, there is nothing recorded but video. You don't get any "telemetry" captured on the video i.e. No speed, No time, Nothing. It is just video. You won't have much there to help you prove your case. You would have to get Tesla to get you that information in some form for a "proof".


----------



## groovetesla

Yeah, I was just hoping for a video of the officer without a radar gun in his hand. Unfortunately it seems I've waited too long and the file is no longer there.


----------



## bradkeller

I swear I'm not paid for this, but if you sign up for a TeslaFi account, they record your speed for all drives, in less-than-one-minute increments. (Honestly, I don't know at what rate they pull the data, but it's less than a minute.)

I know this won't help you for this ticket, but it could help in the future.

Here's a screenshot of part of my commute this morning, starting when I picked up my Chai at Starbucks.


----------



## GDN

This is interesting, couldn't this also work against me should I have been speeding or something and caused an accident, where there was no proof, until someone finds that I have Teslafi and they go after the records? I guess they could already do the same with Tesla - subpoena the information if they know it is collected. I'm sure this has already been tested in some case somewhere.


----------



## groovetesla

bradkeller said:


> I swear I'm not paid for this, but if you sign up for a TeslaFi account, they record your speed for all drives, in less-than-one-minute increments. (Honestly, I don't know at what rate they pull the data, but it's less than a minute.)
> 
> I know this won't help you for this ticket, but it could help in the future.
> 
> Here's a screenshot of part of my commute this morning, starting when I picked up my Chai at Starbucks.


Awesome. Where do I find this in TeslaFi ?


----------



## bradkeller

When you log into TeslaFi.com, your first screen should show you today's activity. If there are any drives in the activity for today, you can click the map for that drive and this page will come up. (You'll need to scroll down a little to get to the chart I posted.

There are also buttons near the top that say "previous day" and "next day," which will take you to those days. In addition, in the ribbon near the top, there's a button called "calendar," which takes you to a calendar where you can click into any day.

Of course, you will need to have signed up for Teslafi before the incident in question. But if you're a member, the data are there.

As for subpoena-ing your data, I don't know if having TeslaFi makes that easier or what, but all these data ultimately come from Tesla, so if you're going to get sued by someone who already knows that these data are available, then they'll probably just go to Tesla themselves. However, if you're really worried about it, then read TeslaFi's privacy statement and see if you trust them. My work around is to simply use Autopilot as much as possible, and stay at the speed limit, thus reducing the likelihood that I'll be in an accident anyway.


----------



## groovetesla

Thanks for the info. I found the drive in question. That cop is screwed.


----------



## bradkeller

Let's not start counting those chickens just yet. It's possible the court won't accept this evidence, if they're unfamiliar with it. I'd recommend doing a little research and seeing if anyone else has ever used TeslaFi data (or Tesla data) to get out of a ticket before (or in court in any way, for any reason). Courts love precedents, and are often reluctant to be the first ones to do something. 

Also, please note that I'm not a lawyer and this is not actual legal advice. I'm just a guy on the internet. 

But good luck, and let us know how it works out.


----------



## Needsdecaf

GDN said:


> This is interesting, couldn't this also work against me should I have been speeding or something and caused an accident, where there was no proof, until someone finds that I have Teslafi and they go after the records? I guess they could already do the same with Tesla - subpoena the information if they know it is collected. I'm sure this has already been tested in some case somewhere.


Tesla is the one collecting the data. TeslaFi is just grabbing it and presenting it to you in this format. So everyone knows this data is collected.

Note, it's collected in many newer ICE cars as well. Just not as well known, and not able to be accessed by the public.


----------



## EValuatED

groovetesla said:


> Thanks for the info. I found the drive in question. That cop is screwed.


You have a shot at this as judges can (and often do) choose to hear out a rational sounding citizen who offers evidence, e.g., "...your honor I use an app to track my driving efficiency and at the time I was pulled over I of course complied but if you'll please look at the log sheet I've printed out you can see I was traveling at/below the speed limit."

Best of luck!


----------



## undergrove

groovetesla said:


> Yeah, I was just hoping for a video of the officer without a radar gun in his hand. Unfortunately it seems I've waited too long and the file is no longer there.


Check the REC files on your USB drive. Though the files have been erased from the TeslaCam folder, some of the previous files will be preserved as REC files. Most often they will be the last file before you exited the car, but other files are randomly preserved. You might get lucky.

In later versions of the firmware the REC files will usually play in VLC or in a regular video viewing program, if you change the file type to .mp4.


----------



## undergrove

Another tip: Even though you have not saved anything on your latest trip, if you pause the camera and pull the USB drive out, the last hour will still be there. Even after the car shuts down, if you get in and take the drive out immediately you can usually still get the last video from the previous trip before it erases.


----------



## FRC

groovetesla said:


> Thanks for the info. I found the drive in question. That cop is screwed.


I'm a bit confused. Didn't you state in post #639 that you had TACC set at 30 in a 25?


----------



## groovetesla

FRC said:


> I'm a bit confused. Didn't you state in post #639 that you had TACC set at 30 in a 25?


Yes. TeslaFi data shows my top speed was 28mph.


----------



## garsh

FRC said:


> I'm a bit confused. Didn't you state in post #639 that you had TACC set at 30 in a 25?





groovetesla said:


> Yes. TeslaFi data shows my top speed was 28mph.


Generally, police aren't supposed to pull you over for speeding unless you're going at least 5mph over the limit.


----------



## FRC

garsh said:


> Generally, police aren't supposed to pull you over for speeding unless you're going at least 5mph over the limit.


I'm just having difficulty imagining a judge who is going to side with a citizen who proves he was speeding!


----------



## garsh

FRC said:


> I'm just having difficulty imagining a judge who is going to side with a citizen who proves he was speeding!


Ok, I looked it up. Going 3mph over the limit vs 8mph over the limit makes a difference in Colorado:

https://leg.colorado.gov/content/penalties-speeding-violations


----------



## MelindaV

Teslafi also doesn’t query the car often enough to get a true picture of the speed at any given time. Particularly acceleration. I’ve gone back and looked at a particular drive where I know I accelerated to pass another and the max speed shown for that drive was 10mph lower than what I know was the max I had been


----------



## Bokonon

MelindaV said:


> Teslafi also doesn't query the car often enough to get a true picture of the speed at any given time. Particularly acceleration. I've gone back and looked at a particular drive where I know I accelerated to pass another and the max speed shown for that drive was 10mph lower than what I know was the max I had been


^ This. Although TeslaFi increases its polling frequency during a drive to 2-3 times per minute, that still leaves 57-58 seconds out of every minute that it doesn't log. It wouldn't be hard to argue that, yes, you may have been going 28 mph at 2:00:15 and 28 mph at 2:00:40, but that doesn't contradict my observation of you going 35 mph at 2:00:25.


----------



## groovetesla

I doubt he'll even show up in court. The nice thing about this drive is that I stopped for coffee, got back into my car and was pulled over 2 minutes later. He had no radar gun. It'll be a lot harder for him to prove my guilt than for me to maintain my innocence (backed with data). Normally I wouldn't even bother but the ticket is $285. Not guilty, your honor. Court date is on Feb 19th, I'll let you all know how it goes.


----------



## Niki-and-I

GDN said:


> I put the USB drive back in the car today and never got the dash cam icon back. Found a USB C adapter I did have with me, plugged it in to the sam MacBook I had formatted it on, and NOTHING. The drive is fried. Not recognized in any manner. For now I will attribute this to a very cheapie 8 GB USB drive. I'll get a better one and format and put it in, then see if I get better results or perhaps if I burn another one up. Hoping it's the USB drive though.


Today I had the same issue as you; the usb drive is totally unusable. When I insert it on the computer the kernel recognizes it but then any program that tries to access it the device disappears. I use Linux and even fdisk -l /dev/sda returns nothing at all, but only after a very long time (clearly something is waiting for a response from the device driver). Digging into the kernel messages I find that it has sector 0 destroyed and I don't think there is any way to recover it.

Right now I assign this to a bad drive (SanDisk Cruzer Fit 32Gb). I've got a few more of these so will try them, as well as other ones. Though it may well be that it is the USB port that is frying the drives...

BTW, I'm on version 2018.50.


----------



## teslafan9

I have this...

For the life of me, I cannot get this working with the dashcam feature on either USB port or female side of this adapter. The USB drive works fine plugged directly into either port. Yes, I've made sure I'm using the data port... thoughts?


----------



## eXntrc

Your picture did not come through, but it sounds like your splitter may be faulty.

Just to be sure, did you follow the directions? You need to create a folder in the root of the USB drive called *TeslaCam*. Does it work without the splitter? If so, I'd get another splitter.


----------



## MelindaV

teslafan9 said:


> I have this...
> 
> For the life of me, I cannot get this working with the dashcam feature on either USB port or female side of this adapter. The USB drive works fine plugged directly into either port. Yes, I've made sure I'm using the data port... thoughts?


these typically have one side that is data and power and the second side that is power only (or data only). Try swapping the USB stick to the other leg and see what happens.


----------



## MelindaV

eXntrc said:


> Your picture did not come through....


it is an amazon link - I assume you have an ad-blocker hiding it.


----------



## eXntrc

MelindaV said:


> it is an amazon link - I assume you have an ad-blocker hiding it.


You were absolutely right! I was wondering why so many images on this site seemed broken. LOL

How do you insert a link to Amazon that way? I have inserted links to Amazon pages using the regular hyperlink button and it just shows up like a hyperlink.

@teslafan9 did say that they had made sure they were using the data port. I just looked and verified I bought that exact cable and I'm using it right now. The side with the little orange tube that slides back and forth is the data side.


----------



## MelindaV

eXntrc said:


> How do you insert a link to Amazon that way? I have inserted links to Amazon pages using the regular hyperlink button and it just shows up like a hyperlink.


if you just drop the link directly in the message, or in the link tool without override text, it will do the preview ad thinger.

If you use the link tool and add text, it will keep with an old school text link.


----------



## Cpmprops

My Dash Cam USB Drive solution for stable recording and easy SmartPhone viewing. I'm definitely not a tech expert, so there may be better solutions, but after a lot of trial and error, this is what is working for me. And relatively easy to set up. Basically comes down to right adapter and the right Micro SD card. Works with SENTRY and Nomad Wireless Charge Pad Splitters


----------



## Unplugged

Cpmprops said:


> My Dash Cam USB Drive solution for stable recording and easy SmartPhone viewing. I'm definitely not a tech expert, so there may be better solutions, but after a lot of trial and error, this is what is working for me. And relatively easy to set up. Basically comes down to right adapter and the right Micro SD card. Works with SENTRY and Nomad Wireless Charge Pad Splitters


I have found this to be a workable adapter for those who have a newer "C" input on their cell phone. It works great on my Samsung without the need for multiple adapters.
Hmm. For some reason, the link will only show an Amazon icon with a generic link. Here it is as both a description and a broken link:
amazon(dot)com/gp/product/B015Z7XE0A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

or look up:
*nonda USB Type C to USB 3.0 Adapter*


----------



## webdriverguy

Tesla has said with HW3 they will be able to run all 8 cameras at full resolution. So I am guessing we are going to get sharper videos from the front and side cameras?


----------



## GDN

webdriverguy said:


> Tesla has said with HW3 they will be able to run all 8 cameras at full resolution. So I am guessing we are going to get sharper videos from the front and side cameras?


That would be nice except they are just SD cameras. So I wouldn't expect any more resolution, maybe just more cameras at once for Sentry mode or something. If they had done the right thing and put HD cameras in from the start, but just used a lower resolution with the older hardware we'd be in good shape for a really good dash cam, but that isn't how it worked out. Their primary goal is surroundings for EAP and FSD and the SD cameras give them that from what has been said. We'd just like the HD for better dash cams.


----------



## webdriverguy

GDN said:


> That would be nice except they are just SD cameras. So I wouldn't expect any more resolution, maybe just more cameras at once for Sentry mode or something. If they had done the right thing and put HD cameras in from the start, but just used a lower resolution with the older hardware we'd be in good shape for a really good dash cam, but that isn't how it worked out. Their primary goal is surroundings for EAP and FSD and the SD cameras give them that from what has been said. We'd just like the HD for better dash cams.


Looks like there is an opportunity with Model Y for HD cams?


----------



## Kizzy

GDN said:


> That would be nice except they are just SD cameras. So I wouldn't expect any more resolution, maybe just more cameras at once for Sentry mode or something. If they had done the right thing and put HD cameras in from the start, but just used a lower resolution with the older hardware we'd be in good shape for a really good dash cam, but that isn't how it worked out. Their primary goal is surroundings for EAP and FSD and the SD cameras give them that from what has been said. We'd just like the HD for better dash cams.


The resolution for the videos I'm seeing is 1280x960. This is not standard definition (except for the aspect ratio, perhaps).

I recall reading that AP is using half resolution, but I don't believe that would necessarily impact the dashcam as it's not being processed for driving input (which I believe is where the bottleneck exists).

It'd be interesting to know for sure which computer receives and compresses the video for the dash cam (MCU vs. the AP computer).


----------



## garsh

FYI, Fry's has a good price on a 64GB Samsung Pro Endurance Micro SD card, which is targeted towards video recordings.
You'd just need to find a USB to Micro SD card reader that can also handle constant video recordings without overheating.

$12.99 at a local store.

https://www.frys.com/product/9576562?clickid=V-0Rxb2zVxyJR2J0Mrw2-RyDUklx7mxlMUjs3U0


----------



## Chip Douglas

First time I checked out the video recordings of my Tesla and I noticed that the more recent ones have a green stripe across the bottom third of the screen. Is this a bug of some sort, hardware failure at the USB or camera level? Its alway on the "right repeater" camera. Confused


----------



## MelindaV

This has been discussed in some of the sentry/dashcam threads and seems likely to be your drive not keeping up


----------



## SoFlaModel3

MelindaV said:


> This has been discussed in some of the sentry/dashcam threads and seems likely to be your drive not keeping up


I've been seeing the same on some recordings but I'm not convinced it's a drive speed issue.


----------



## Chip Douglas

It’s odd only one camera seems to have that problem.


----------



## HappyDad

I noticed since the release of sentry mode, my dash cam would continue to record when parked in my garage either at random, or continuously for an hour or more after I parked, without sentry mode being activated when in my own garage. As a result, when I wanted to check my last driving footage it would be gone because the 'useless' stationary footage for an hour in the garage is counted in that 1 hour retention window, hence overwrote my actual driving footage prior to garage. Is that the case with others? Thanks for any info.


----------



## Nautilus

HappyDad said:


> I noticed since the release of sentry mode, my dash cam would continue to record when parked in my garage either at random, or continuously for an hour or more after I parked, without sentry mode being activated when in my own garage. As a result, when I wanted to check my last driving footage it would be gone because the 'useless' stationary footage for an hour in the garage is counted in that 1 hour retention window, hence overwrote my actual driving footage prior to garage. Is that the case with others? Thanks for any info.


Yes. If you want to retain the dashcam footage, you really have to "click" the camera icon to save the last 10 minutes worth to the "Saved" folder (I think?) within the TeslaCam folder. Otherwise it will be gone after 60 minutes, and I'm pretty sure that's the case even if the camera is not recording.


----------



## garsh

HappyDad said:


> I noticed since the release of sentry mode, my dash cam would continue to record when parked in my garage either at random, or continuously for an hour or more after I parked, without sentry mode being activated when in my own garage. As a result, when I wanted to check my last driving footage it would be gone because the 'useless' stationary footage for an hour in the garage is counted in that 1 hour retention window, hence overwrote my actual driving footage prior to garage. Is that the case with others? Thanks for any info.


It would have made sense for Tesla to implement it that way, but that's not how it works.

It doesn't keep the last hour's worth of recordings. It deletes anything more than an hour old. So it doesn't matter if it continues to record in the garage or not - anything older than an hour will have been deleted.


----------



## PaulK

HappyDad said:


> I noticed since the release of sentry mode, my dash cam would continue to record when parked in my garage either at random, or continuously for an hour or more after I parked, without sentry mode being activated when in my own garage. As a result, when I wanted to check my last driving footage it would be gone because the 'useless' stationary footage for an hour in the garage is counted in that 1 hour retention window, hence overwrote my actual driving footage prior to garage. Is that the case with others? Thanks for any info.


Yes I observe the same issue. This needs work.

Another problem is, I had left my car parked while charging with Sentry mode turned on. About 2 hours before I returned, I turned Sentry off.

Even though I had turned it off, it had recorded the entire hour before I returned to the car, as part of the "recent" video.

Is it maybe recording the past hour while charging as if it were driving?


----------



## Nautilus

I believe that provided the car has not gone to sleep, the cameras are ALWAYS recording, and the last 60 minutes worth of footage from each of the 3 cameras are saved in one minute files (so 180 files total for the last 60 minutes) in the "Recent" subfolder of the TeslaCam folder.

The benefit of Sentry Mode is that if it detects any potentially nefarious activity in the vicinity of the car while parked, it will *automatically save* the last 10 minutes of video, moving those 30 files (10 x 1 minute files from each of the 3 cameras) to the "Saved" subfolder of the TeslaCam folder. In this case 10 minutes of video are now missing from the "Recent" subfolder because they have been moved to the "Saved" subfolder.

For Dashcam (while driving), it is up to the driver to *manually save* any noteworthy activity by momentarily pressing the camera icon at the top of the control screen. Again this moves 30 files of containing the last 10 minutes from each of the cameras to the "Saved" subfolder. So the manual save has to occur within 10 minutes of the noteworthy activity (which may not happen if the driver is in shock or unconscious after an accident). It just occured to me that a good enhancement would be the car doing an autosave if a sudden deceleration (like an accident) is detected.

If neither of the above occurs, then after 60 minutes the files are simply replaced by newer ones.

The only thing I'm not sure of is if the car goes to sleep (which can only happen if Sentry mode is off), say 20 minutes after parking, whether the files are retained or will be lost. I suspect that as soon as the car wakes up, if the files are older than one hour, they are lost. I could be wrong and the cameras just start recording from when the car wakes up and continues to keep 60 minutes total in the "Recent" subfolder, albeit not a continuous 60 minutes since there would be a gap during the period when the car was asleep.


----------



## Bokonon

Had a curious incident involving the gray X icon this evening. I'd been using the same 32 GB SanDisk Ultra USB drive for months without issue, and had not seen the gray X since the earlier, buggier V9 firmware versions that kept corrupting the filesystem... but tonight, as I ran out for a quick errand, the X returned suddenly and unexpectedly.

So what changed? Well, last weekend I added a USB splitter, connecting the power leg to half of my Nomad wireless charging pad, and the data leg to the USB drive that had previously occupied the port being split. This setup worked flawlessly for a couple of days (on firmware 5.15, I should add), but abruptly stopping working this evening.

"Great!" I thought, unplugging the drive. "Time to reformat..."

...but hark! On a whim, I plugged the drive back into the data leg of the splitter to see what would happen, and much to my surprise, after a few seconds, the red "recording" icon appeared in place of the gray X. This never happened back in the early days of V9 -- the gray X meant the filesystem was irrevocably hosed and needed to be reformatted before it would work again.

I'm not sure whether the drive was actually corrupt (and subsequently fixed by the firmware, which would be new), or whether the splitter temporarily caused a problem mounting the drive at startup.... but I guess the moral of the story is: if you get the gray X and your USB drive is attached to a splitter, try re-seating the drive before assuming that it is corrupt!


----------



## OldDirtyRobot

I really wish this had some telemetry (speed, braking, etc.) data displayed. I just got a ticket via Aircraft enforcement and was using Autopilot at the time. It would be nice to be able to fight it. Dash cam footage shows I'm not speeding (based on timing myself between the 1/2 mile marking used on the road), but I'm afraid that's not enough to fight it. I can even see the car in front of me pulling away which happened to be the same color w/ four doors.


----------



## GDN

OldDirtyRobot said:


> I really wish this had some telemetry (speed, braking, etc.) data displayed. I just got a ticket via Aircraft enforcement and was using Autopilot at the time. It would be nice to be able to fight it. Dash cam footage shows I'm not speeding (based on timing myself between the 1/2 mile marking used on the road), but I'm afraid that's not enough to fight it. I can even see the car in front of me pulling away which happened to be the same color w/ four doors.


It would be nice and we can only hope that some day they would be able to add some telemetry to the video. I don't know if they will ever go that far or if the car does that internally any way, but would be nice. That would really close the loop and make this a serious Dashcam (if the quality was just a bit better.).

Sorry to hear about the ticket.


----------



## PaulK

OldDirtyRobot said:


> I really wish this had some telemetry (speed, braking, etc.) data displayed. I just got a ticket via Aircraft enforcement and was using Autopilot at the time. It would be nice to be able to fight it. Dash cam footage shows I'm not speeding (based on timing myself between the 1/2 mile marking used on the road), but I'm afraid that's not enough to fight it. I can even see the car in front of me pulling away which happened to be the same color w/ four doors.


You should put the video on an iPad and fight that ticket!

Not only do you have a chance to prevail due to having the video, but when cited for speeding using aircraft BOTH officers need to show up (the officer in the plane AND the officer who cited you). If both do not show up you will win by default (in most states).

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/beat-ticket-book/chapter6-1.html


----------



## Kizzy

OldDirtyRobot said:


> I really wish this had some telemetry (speed, braking, etc.) data displayed. I just got a ticket via Aircraft enforcement and was using Autopilot at the time. It would be nice to be able to fight it. Dash cam footage shows I'm not speeding (based on timing myself between the 1/2 mile marking used on the road), but I'm afraid that's not enough to fight it. I can even see the car in front of me pulling away which happened to be the same color w/ four doors.


Totally off topic, but this is the first time I've personally heard of anyone getting a ticket this way (and I've seen the signs)!

Sorry you got a ticket.


----------



## zosoisnotaword

PaulK said:


> You should put the video on an iPad and fight that ticket!
> 
> Not only do you have a chance to prevail due to having the video, but when cited for speeding using aircraft BOTH officers need to show up (the officer in the plane AND the officer who cited you). If both do not show up you will win by default (in most states).
> 
> https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/beat-ticket-book/chapter6-1.html


Exactly; this sounds like an easy win to me even without speed indication. In fact, timing from point to point is how aircraft enforce it to begin with. Good luck @PaulK


----------



## Protect1989

On the Tesla website, it says 

“Tap the icon to save a 10-minute video clip or press and hold to pause recording. Recordings not downloaded after an hour will be deleted.”

I’m trying to figure out how to interpret that. Are they saying if you push the icon it will save the previous ten minutes BUT will delete that saved file if not downloaded within the hour? 

OR

Are they saying that it automatically saves footage but overwrites it every hour? so if you forget to hit the button to save it, so long as you’re home within the hour you can still grab the footage


----------



## NR4P

If you tap to save, the last 10 mins won't be deleted until you delete it.

Anything not saved by you is deleted after an hour to make room for new videos.


----------



## shareef777

I take that to mean that anything older then an hour is automatically deleted. You can press the on-screen button to save the last 10min, but if you want to save anything between 11-60min ago you'd need to take out the drive and plug it into your computer to offload those files.


----------



## DannyHamilton

I frequently see the same problem on "Right Repeater" video clips.

I have found that if I do the "long reboot" (press both scroll wheels AND the brake until the 'T' logo re-appears) then the problem typically goes away for a few days, but then always returns to the Right Repeater.

I'll try a faster USB next week, but the fact that the reboot seems to temporarily fix the problem seems like an indication that there's a good chance this is a bug in the TeslaCam feature.


----------



## TrevP

Also, if you want to disable the dashcam press and hold the icon until you see a flash under your finger. It will no longer record until you tap it again


----------



## Nautilus

TrevP said:


> Also, if you want to disable the dashcam press and hold the icon until you see a flash under your finger. It will no longer record until you tap it again


That would be the best way to save files from more than 10 minutes ago, provided you do it before they auto-erase after 60 minutes. And you should do this anyway before physically removing the USB to ensure no file are corrupted when the USB is removed.


----------



## RickO2018

I just tried to playback my first dash cam footage from my M3. The new USB memory stick is the correct size, but the video files are recording in different formats or becoming corrupted. Most of the forward camera videos are MP4 and I can play those on my Mac running OSX 10.14.3 using QuickTime. However, the left and right "repeater" files, they also have an MP4 extension, but QuickTIme cannot convert these files. Other video playback options are also not working. What video player do these files need to run on? Or are the files somehow becoming corrupted?

Thanks
Rick


----------



## BluestarE3

Did you check to be sure the repeater files don't have 0 byte sizes?


----------



## RickO2018

I did not. Will try again and take a closer look at file size. Out of frustration I deleted all to see if the problem reoccurs.


----------



## Protect1989

I pulled out my SSD from my Tesla today to see what sort of footage I have saved. I probably only hit the camera icon 3-4 times over the past two weeks but wanted to check it out. I noticed two things

1) I had saved files from days prior that I did not select to save. I watched the clips and nothing special happened. Just dozens upon dozens of video files of me driving normally 

2) on my way home I saw an accident. After I passed it I pressed the camera icon which is supposed to save the last 10 minutes of recordings. However it saved from the point I pressed the camera forward. There was no video footage prior. 


Am I doing something wrong or do I just not understand how this thing works? I originally thought it overwrote the SSD every hour unless you clicked the camera icon in which case it saves the previous 10 minutes


----------



## Bokonon

Protect1989 said:


> 2) on my way home I saw an accident. After I passed it I pressed the camera icon which is supposed to save the last 10 minutes of recordings. However it saved from the point I pressed the camera forward. There was no video footage prior.


Just to clarify here... did the dashcam icon have a red dot or a gray dot before you tapped it?

What you're describing would make sense if the dot were gray (not recording) to start out with, and then turned red (recording) after tapping it. If the dot had been red initially, then the following should have happened when you tapped the dashcam icon:

1. Car beeps
2. Dashcam icon changes to "downloading" icon for about 2-3 seconds
3. Dashcam icon shows a green checkmark for another 2-3 seconds
4. Dashcam icon returns to showing a red dot.

If none of that happened, and the dashcam icon had a red dot before you tapped it, then something funky is going on with the dashcam. Try rebooting the MCU (hold down both scroll wheels and the brake pedal) and see if that helps.



Protect1989 said:


> Am I doing something wrong or do I just not understand how this thing works? I originally thought it overwrote the SSD every hour unless you clicked the camera icon in which case it saves the previous 10 minutes


Correct, this is indeed how it's supposed to work, assuming the dashcam is already recording (red dot) and operating as designed.


----------



## lance.bailey

The file dates on the saved Sentry Mode clips are messed up. For example, it caught me returning to the car the other day, and while the file name is correct (15:50 or so), the dates of the file clips is just before midnight.



Code:


Apr  5 23:53 2019-04-05_15-53-front.mp4
Apr  5 23:53 2019-04-05_15-53-left_repeater.mp4
Apr  5 23:53 2019-04-05_15-53-right_repeater.mp4

all 10 minutes of clips are dated 23:53 as is the directory itself.


----------



## Bokonon

lance.bailey said:


> The file dates on the saved Sentry Mode clips are messed up. For example, it caught me returning to the car the other day, and while the file name is correct (15:50 or so), the dates of the file clips is just before midnight.
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Apr  5 23:53 2019-04-05_15-53-front.mp4
> Apr  5 23:53 2019-04-05_15-53-left_repeater.mp4
> Apr  5 23:53 2019-04-05_15-53-right_repeater.mp4
> 
> all 10 minutes of clips are dated 23:53 as is the directory itself.


Dashcam files are named using local time, but the "last modified" timestamps on the files themselves are UTC. That's why it seems like your dashcam can see 8 hours into the future.


----------



## BluestarE3

Bokonon said:


> Dashcam files are named using local time, but the "last modified" timestamps on the files themselves are UTC. That's why it seems like your dashcam can see 8 hours into the future.


That's the new "predictive intrusion" feature. It shows you ahead of time who will be simply gawking over your car and who will mean to do it bodily harm. This way, you can opt to not to park there later or else show the video to your local police and have the would-be perp arrested preemptively.


----------



## Nautilus

BluestarE3 said:


> That's the new "predictive intrusion" feature. It shows you ahead of time who will be simply gawking over your car and who will mean to do it bodily harm. This way, you can opt to not to park there later or else show the video to your local police and have the would-be perp arrested preemptively.


Wasn't there a movie about that???


----------



## Bokonon

BluestarE3 said:


> That's the new "predictive intrusion" feature. It shows you ahead of time who will be simply gawking over your car and who will mean to do it bodily harm. This way, you can opt to not to park there later or else show the video to your local police and have the would-be perp arrested preemptively.


You mean like this? 










EDIT: Jinx, @Nautilus!


----------



## 3V Pilot

Bokonon said:


> You mean like this?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> EDIT: Jinx, @Nautilus!


No, he means more like this....kinda scary how much they look alike though.......LOL


----------



## lance.bailey

dang - i wondered where I was going to be - thanks Tesla!


----------



## MelindaV

Protect1989 said:


> 2) on my way home I saw an accident. After I passed it I pressed the camera icon which is supposed to save the last 10 minutes of recordings. However it saved from the point I pressed the camera forward. There was no video footage prior.


to add to the prior comments, also when you want to save something, wait a minute or so after whatever event happens before pressing the button. if you do immediately, it will start from the previous full minute, not the current partial minute.


----------



## 3 SHMRCK

M3 Dashcam (THANKS Elon!!!!) 

When I checked my M3 dashcam thumb drive I found a bunch of 10 minute clips of nothing BUT the back wall of my garage. 
These clips were obviously taken while the car was "tucked in" for the night and Parked. 
What triggers this capture ???


----------



## MelindaV

3 SHMRCK said:


> M3 Dashcam (THANKS Elon!!!!)
> 
> When I checked my M3 dashcam thumb drive I found a bunch of 10 minute clips of nothing BUT the back wall of my garage.
> These clips were obviously taken while the car was "tucked in" for the night and Parked.
> What triggers this capture ???


those are in the "recent" folder I assume? it will record the last hour of the car being awake.
(and records in 1 minute increments)


----------



## Mistersandman

Can someone explain something to me. Yesterday I pulled into my garage and parked the car like any other day. A little over an hour later I went back into the car and hit the dashcam button to download a video of my drive home to the usb stock. When I looked at the files on the usb they were all videos of near darkness of the car just sitting in the garage for the past hour. The video of my drive home was nowhere to be found. Note that when the car was in my garage I didn’t have sentry mode on. Are the cameras always recording? I was kinda bummed because there was something important I was hoping to view on the video of my drive home but it was gone.


----------



## MelindaV

Mistersandman said:


> Can someone explain something to me. Yesterday I pulled into my garage and parked the car like any other day. A little over an hour later I went back into the car and hit the dashcam button to download a video of my drive home to the usb stock. When I looked at the files on the usb they were all videos of near darkness of the car just sitting in the garage for the past hour. The video of my drive home was nowhere to be found. Note that when the car was in my garage I didn't have sentry mode on. Are the cameras always recording? I was kinda bummed because there was something important I was hoping to view on the video of my drive home but it was gone.


it will save the last hour - regardless if the last hour was your last drive or the last 60 minutes it was sitting idle. if you need to save the drive, tapping the cam button when you park will save the last 10 minutes.


----------



## jimsaxman

Having seen videos of near misses of potential accidents while the vehicle was on autopilot, that were presumably recorded on the Tesla Dash Cam, I am wondering how these videos were recorded. Did the sentry button have to be pressed? Does the car automatically record when it is in motion? How does that work?


----------



## MelindaV

jimsaxman said:


> Having seen videos of near misses of potential accidents while the vehicle was on autopilot, that were presumably recorded on the Tesla Dash Cam, I am wondering how these videos were recorded. Did the sentry button have to be pressed? Does the car automatically record when it is in motion? How does that work?


if a usb drive is installed, the car will record the last 60 minutes (overwriting the older). The last 10 minutes can be saved at any time by tapping the dashcam button.
When Sentry mode is activated, 10 minutes worth of videos will be saved each time motion triggers it (roughly the prior 9 minutes and the following 1 minute). These will be saved in the "saved" folder and will not be overwritten.


----------



## Kizzy

Mistersandman said:


> Can someone explain something to me. Yesterday I pulled into my garage and parked the car like any other day. A little over an hour later I went back into the car and hit the dashcam button to download a video of my drive home to the usb stock. When I looked at the files on the usb they were all videos of near darkness of the car just sitting in the garage for the past hour. The video of my drive home was nowhere to be found. Note that when the car was in my garage I didn't have sentry mode on. Are the cameras always recording? I was kinda bummed because there was something important I was hoping to view on the video of my drive home but it was gone.


Once you stop the car, you can recover the last hour of recordings by stopping recording (by holding down on the DashCam icon) then pulling the USB drive _immediately _after completing your drive.

The car does not go to sleep immediately after parking and may also remove footage over an hour old after waking the car from sleep.

As @MelindaV suggested, I recommend you get in the habit of pressing the DashCam icon soon after experiencing an event you'd like to keep.


----------



## Mistersandman

Interesting. So it’s always recording even if sentry mode is off and sitting parked in the garage. I’m usually pretty good about hitting it after an event but in this case about an hour after I got home my wife asked me if a particular car was parked on a street leading into my neighborhood after an alert was posted on Nextdoor. So was I hoping to verify it with the teslacam. Does it timeout after x amount of time? Anyways, am I the only one who thinks it shouldn’t be doing this?


----------



## garsh

Mistersandman said:


> Interesting. So it's always recording even if sentry mode is off and sitting parked in the garage.


Yes, as long as the car doesn't go to sleep.
One of the things Sentry mode does is prevent the car from going to sleep so that it can continue recording the entire time it's parked.


----------



## MelindaV

Kizzy said:


> I recommend you get in the habit of pressing the DashCam icon soon after experiencing an event you'd like to keep.


and do this a minute or so after whatever you are wanting to save. tapping the button immediately will save the last 10 complete minutes, but the incident may have been in the current partial minute, and therefore missed.


----------



## Kizzy

MelindaV said:


> and do this a minute or so after whatever you are wanting to save. tapping the button immediately will save the last 10 complete minutes, but the incident may have been in the current partial minute, and therefore missed.


I might be wrong, but I've been noticing partial last minutes when I save my DashCam footage with firmware versions that came out after the initial DashCam release. This suggests it's saving up to the button press. Can anyone confirm that this is not the case with current firmware versions?


----------



## Needsdecaf

TeslaCam is seriously buggy. Really thinking of just getting some front and rear standalone dash cams and being done with it. Between the bad light processing, the long focus of the front camera and something that happened yesterday, I think I'm done with it.

Last night I witnessed an accident. I was stopped at a light with three lanes through. The middle of the three lanes was open. As I watched, a pickup drove through the middle of the three lanes a good 10 seconds after the light had changed (totally wasn't paying attention) and got hit by a car coming left to right. I hit record to save the last 10 minutes.

When I went to pull the clip, the footage of the accident is missing`! I have the clip labeled 2019-5-16_17-44-front , showing me driving toward the intersection. However it stops short of me pulling up to the intersection. I'm not sure how long it is in time, but I can barely see it in the whole distance. It might even be a full minute. Ironically I am seen passing the truck about to run the red light in this clip.

The next clip is labeled, as expected, 2019-5-16_17-45-front, however there is a break in the action. The video starts with the very last seconds of the crash, and the following minute of aftermath. There is no video of me pulling up to the intersection and stopping, and no video of the truck passing me on the right and blowing the red light. See the screenshots below. You can see in the first image, the end of -44, how far away from the intersection I am. You can see it way ahead in the distance. And at the first second of -45, you can see I'm already at the intersection.

What gives? Why would it blank out like this? Running a 256G SSD that has been perfect for the last two weeks.


----------



## Bokonon

Needsdecaf said:


> When I went to pull the clip, the footage of the accident is missing`! I have the clip labeled 2019-5-16_17-44-front , showing me driving toward the intersection. However it stops short of me pulling up to the intersection. I'm not sure how long it is in time, but I can barely see it in the whole distance. It might even be a full minute.


It seems like there was a change to the way the last 10 minutes of video clips are saved in 2019.12.x, and unfortunately it causes there to be a gap in the second-to-last clip saved when you tap the button. (I wrote up my recent experience with this behavior here, and it sounds similar to yours.)

The same thing can also happen with Sentry Mode when it logs an "event", because it effectively does the same thing (taps the dashcam button for you) when it saves the last ten minutes of video. This introduces the possibility that the Sentry Mode event footage will omit the triggering event itself (as was noted in the Sentry Mode thread)... not ideal. 

Hopefully this unwanted side effect of whatever tweak they've made in 2019.12.x will go away soon, but to your point... If having reliable, high-quality footage is a priority, a standalone dashcam solution is probably the way to go.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

are any of you seeing any issues with the times being off by 3 hours? If the file name is 2019-06-01_17-46-50-front date modified in Windows is 2:46pm? The footage is for sure from 5:46pm not 2:46


----------



## GDN

The time of files is UTC I believe. Not the local time of the car. The time in the file name is correct.


----------



## Bokonon

StromTrooperM3 said:


> are any of you seeing any issues with the times being off by 3 hours? If the file name is 2019-06-01_17-46-50-front date modified in Windows is 2:46pm? The footage is for sure from 5:46pm not 2:46
> 
> View attachment 26458


Yep, I see the same thing. The file times used to be set in UTC, but as of 2019.16.x (which also changed how dashcam files are named), the file times appear to be set in Pacific Time.


----------



## Unplugged

Bokonon said:


> The file times used to be set in UTC, but now . . . the file times appear to be set in Pacific Time.


Pacific Time is the new uniform time.


----------



## SimonMatthews

Unplugged said:


> Pacific Time is the new uniform time.


There are more Teslas in California than in the rest of the USA. With the new timestamp and filenames, the file name matches the timestamp if you are in California.


----------



## Unplugged

SimonMatthews said:


> There are more Teslas in California than in the rest of the USA. With the new timestamp and filenames, the file name matches the timestamp if you are in California.


The winking emoji was an indication that my response wasn't really a serious post.


----------



## Needsdecaf

I'm done with this f*ck!ng dash cam.

Second time I've needed it, and the second time it's failed to properly record what I need.

This morning I was driving along when, whoops!, a lampshade of all things comes flying out of the pickup truck bed ahead of me. I was on the highway going about 70 and there were cars on either side of me, so I couldn't swerve. I was on AP but paying attention, hands on the wheel. I grabbed control and steered as far away to the left as I could without going out of my lane but still clipped it on the front right corner. I pulled up along side the pickup truck and rolled my window down and tried to wave the guy down but he was on the phone and had no clue and kind of waved back at me and just kept driving.

Having learned my lesson the last time, I waited about a minute to 90 seconds before pressing the record button. When I got to the office, here's what I found:

The incident occurred around 7:14 AM. How do I know this? Well, because I have footage from 7:16 to 7:22 in my saved folder and it's just after the incident!!! So then I went to my recent folder and thought maybe it would be there. Nope. My recent folder has clips up to 7:03, then a giant blank, and then re-starts at 7:23!!! So somehow, everything from 7:03 to 7:16 is gone.

I was planning on getting a front and rear system because the quality of the tesla camera isn't great anyway, but now this cemented it. I can't understand why this thing failed to save and why it's so erratic at how it saves stuff. I'll still keep running it for Sentry and because the repeaters offer useful views....if I ever get them to properly save. I should have just let the footage roll and not tried to save it, just saved it manually when I got to work.

What a bunch of crap.

Oh, and PPF totally paid for itself. The marks should wipe right off the PPF with a light polish or, at worst, I will have to replace the PPF. The PPF itself looks to be intact with just the scuffs on it. I have no doubt that I would have been looking at a respray of the front airdam otherwise.

Edit for pic. This pic makes it seem worse. The bright spot on the left is the deflection of the concrete. Look at the smudges on the right.


----------



## MelindaV

SimonMatthews said:


> There are more Teslas in California than in the rest of the USA. With the new timestamp and filenames, the file name matches the timestamp if you are in California.


you know Pacific time is not just California, right?


----------



## Needsdecaf

Bokonon said:


> Yep, I see the same thing. The file times used to be set in UTC, but as of 2019.16.x (which also changed how dashcam files are named), the file times appear to be set in Pacific Time.


Mine show local time. This was from my morning commute today.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

Needsdecaf said:


> Mine show local time


I would assume they should. I wonder why


----------



## RickO2018

Have not really paid attention to time codes yet, but I am still mystified why my Right Repeater does not seem to record about 60% of the time. The files associated with this repeater, (usually those saved in "saved clips" directory) show "0 bytes" while left and front record data. Anyone else experiencing this? I emailed Tesla service from my account asking for assistance, but they have not replied. Any similar experiences?


----------



## SimonMatthews

RickO2018 said:


> Have not really paid attention to time codes yet, but I am still mystified why my Right Repeater does not seem to record about 60% of the time. The files associated with this repeater, (usually those saved in "saved clips" directory) show "0 bytes" while left and front record data. Anyone else experiencing this? I emailed Tesla service from my account asking for assistance, but they have not replied. Any similar experiences?


Try refomatting the filesystem that contains the TeslaCam folder.


----------



## undergrove

RickO2018 said:


> Have not really paid attention to time codes yet, but I am still mystified why my Right Repeater does not seem to record about 60% of the time. The files associated with this repeater, (usually those saved in "saved clips" directory) show "0 bytes" while left and front record data. Anyone else experiencing this? I emailed Tesla service from my account asking for assistance, but they have not replied. Any similar experiences?


For us, all three cameras work consistently when we Save in Dashcam mode while driving. However, with files saved in Sentry Mode, one or the other camera is frequently missing, but not always. It is very inconsistent. Most often it is the right camera, but sometimes the left, and much more rarely the forward camera. If one side is missing the other is usually present.

I have a theory that Sentry Mode buffers the images in memory and only writes to disk when something triggers an event. But that memory is limited, so it chooses what is most interesting to retain (motion). In very static situations the images tend to degrade, because the variable MPEG compression doesn't save many keyframes. Perhaps if the situation is too static, no keyframes are stored and so no camera file for that minute. This is just speculation on my part. I still don't know how to explain why the right camera is the one most often missing for us. I have seen others say that for them it is most often the left camera.

It does not seem to be related to drive speed. I have experimented with a wide range of drives whose write speed I have tested. Speed doesn't seem to make much difference. Newer versions of the firmware do seem to be getting better.


----------



## MelindaV

undergrove said:


> For us, all three cameras work consistently when we Save in Dashcam mode while driving. However, with files saved in Sentry Mode, one or the other camera is frequently missing, but not always. It is very inconsistent. Most often it is the right camera, but sometimes the left, and much more rarely the forward camera. If one side is missing the other is usually present.
> 
> I have a theory that Sentry Mode buffers the images in memory and only writes to disk when something triggers an event. But that memory is limited, so it chooses what is most interesting to retain (motion). In very static situations the images tend to degrade, because the variable MPEG compression doesn't save many keyframes. Perhaps if the situation is too static, no keyframes are stored and so no camera file for that minute. This is just speculation on my part. I still don't know how to explain why the right camera is the one most often missing for us. I have seen others say that for them it is most often the left camera.
> 
> It does not seem to be related to drive speed. I have experimented with a wide range of drives whose write speed I have tested. Speed doesn't seem to make much difference. Newer versions of the firmware do seem to be getting better.


Mine mostly has been the right, and recently the front. Which my parking spot at work, where sentry is primarily used, I park facing a wall next to another employee on the right. So very little motion on the front or right, while the left is along a sidewalk and 99% of the time where the trigger came from. So in my case, the side with the motion is the best performing


----------



## RickO2018

I noticed after viewing Sentry files that, as before, my right repeater would often be missing, as others have noticed too. However, recently I realized the sun was shining fairly brightly on the right side during this recent event. I wonder if the cameras go into a safe mode in order to protect the sensors when the optics are hit with too much light? Everyone knows you don't want to aim any digital camera directly at the sun without a filter.


----------



## RickO2018

Interesting update on inconsistent "zero byte" video files from right repeater. I reported this issue to Tesla service through their online help request, and yesterday finally got a response. First step was to check for the obvious, dirt or other obstruction on the camera (this step doesn't really address the zero byte recording issue). Second suggestion was the scroll wheel reset; and the third step, a touch screen reboot. If the problem still existed, they suggested a service call. After checking last night before any of these steps, I saw only two instances where right repeater files reported zero bytes. So for now the problem has not reoccured so I will place this issue on the back burner.


----------



## MelindaV

RickO2018 said:


> Second suggestion was the scroll wheel reset; and the third step, a touch screen reboot.


the scroll wheel reset is the touchscreen reboot. Did they instead mean power down (from the service menu)?


----------



## RickO2018

This is the specific text from their email: 
"... 1 - Scroll Wheel Reset - Hold the scroll wheels down on your steering wheel until the touch screen goes off and then comes back with a Tesla T icon and then you can release the scroll wheels. 
2 - Touch Screen Reboot - From the touch screen hit the Control Menu (little car icon on lower left side of screen) and then choose safety and security and then you can hit power off and then agree to the shut off. (Once you do this leave it off for a full minute without touching any controls, handles, pedals, buttons etc) After a minute open the door and close it to bring the car back on. ..."


----------



## Mike

RickO2018 said:


> This is the specific text from their email:
> "... 1 - Scroll Wheel Reset - Hold the scroll wheels down on your steering wheel until the touch screen goes off and then comes back with a Tesla T icon and then you can release the scroll wheels.
> 2 - Touch Screen Reboot - From the touch screen hit the Control Menu (little car icon on lower left side of screen) and then choose safety and security and then you can hit power off and then agree to the shut off. (Once you do this leave it off for a full minute without touching any controls, handles, pedals, buttons etc) After a minute open the door and close it to bring the car back on. ..."


All good stuff.

FWIW with procedure #2 in your list: have your HVAC on when you employ that shut down technique........don't touch anything as per the instructions......and wait for the HVAC to shut down and then........wait another 30ish seconds for one more sound from the HVAC, which is (I am assuming now) the temperature blend door going to a null (neutral) position.

I was told last year that to get the full power down benefit, one must wait to hear that last sound coming from the HVAC.....about 190 seconds after the initial start of this procedure.

YMMV


----------



## undergrove

RickO2018 said:


> Interesting update on inconsistent "zero byte" video files from right repeater. I reported this issue to Tesla service through their online help request, and yesterday finally got a response. First step was to check for the obvious, dirt or other obstruction on the camera (this step doesn't really address the zero byte recording issue). Second suggestion was the scroll wheel reset; and the third step, a touch screen reboot. If the problem still existed, they suggested a service call. After checking last night before any of these steps, I saw only two instances where right repeater files reported zero bytes. So for now the problem has not reoccured so I will place this issue on the back burner.


While my right camera is most likely to have zero byte files, sometimes the right works and the left and/or the front is zero. Occasionally all three work. These zero byte or altogether missing files only happen for us in Sentry Mode. In Dashcam mode while driving, all three always work.

Therefore I don't think this is a Camera problem, it's not a drive speed problem, and powering down and resets have made no difference for us in Sentry mode. Again, my theory is that this inconsistency is due to wonkyness in hardware memory buffering in Sentry mode. Dashcam mode seems to buffer directly to the drive.


----------



## CaribbeanKing

My bike was stolen this week (on my birthday no less!) from a bike rack on my brother in law's car. My dashcam footage may have caught the culprit, but the right side footage is all messed up. Is there any possible way to clean this up? You can barely make out the guy at the 30 second mark of the right side camera. Then you see him in the front cam footage at the very end, but he's far away. I'm guessing I'm out of luck. Any idea why the recording would look like this?

Right Side Camera: 





Front Camera:





Thanks for any help!


----------



## Vetterun

Is there a way to correct the time setting for the cameras? The reported times for both dash cam and sentry videos are 3-hours off. Maybe they are PST and I'm in EST.
Actually, it looks like the Tesla date and time elements are being recorded correctly on the SSD, but the translation into a file structure on my Mac is converting the time information into a 
three-hour earlier one. See thumbnail below.


----------

