TealaCam Explained.
TeslaCam is a feature built in to Tesla vehicles that enable the owner to use the cars Autopilot cameras as a 360 degree Dash Camera.
Tesla vehicles with AP2 hardware can utilise the TeslaCam mode as long as their vehicle if fitted with what’s know in the community as MCU2. (Media Control Unit). So essentially all cars BUILT from Feb 2018 onward have the new MCU. (not to be confused with the AP2.5 Autopilot computer in cars built from about July 2017).
Sentry Mode Explained.
Sentry Mode adds a rather unique layer of protection to Tesla vehicles. It works by continuously monitoring the environment around a car when it’s left unattended. It works by entering standby state, like your home alarm. It uses the car’s external facing cameras to detect potential threats. Once a minimal threat is detected, maybe someone is leaning on a car, Sentry Mode switches to an “Alert” state and displays a message on the vehicles touchscreen. The messages warns that its cameras are recording. Once a more severe threat is detected, like a broken window, Sentry Mode switches to an “Alarm” condition. This activates the alarm, increases the brightness of the centre screen, and plays music at maximum volume via the audio system.
When a Tesla switches to “Alarm” state,it’s owners receive an alert on their Tesla mobile app notifying them an incident. They’ll be able to download a video recording of an incident (which begins 10 minutes prior to the time a threat was detected) from a previously inserted USB drive before they enabled Sentry Mode.
What You Need To Use TeslaCam and Sentry Mode.
To use Tesla Cam and Sentry Mode you’ll need a high quality USB Stick and set up to the following requirements.
- A Tesla Model 3, or Model S and Model X manufactured after August 2017.
- A high quality USB Stick
- The USB Stick must be formatted to FAT32 file system
- A folder called TeslaCam must be on the USB stick.
- When properly configured, the Dashcam icon will be displayed in the status bar with a red dot indicating that it is recording the USB must be plugged in while driving to record.
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. Be sure you have sufficient space on your flash drive to allow for saving (each minute of video recorded uses approximately 30 MB; the 1-hour circular buffer requires ~1.8 GB of free space).
The USB Stick Problem
TeslaCam and Sentry Mode rely on the owner inserting a USB stick one one your the Tesla USB sockets on the car, however, many standard off the shelf USB’s sticks are simply not up to the job and die after a few months, or just simply don’t record properly. You can tell when this is happening as the files have zero length, or are simply not recorded at all. but there is a fix, many uses have tried using MicroSD cards with USB adaptors that are designed for camera’s but they are still on a limited life span. So whats the answer? Solid state drives!
Mini Solid State Drive Technology.
Traditional Solid state hard drives have been around for a while, but they simply take up to much space in your car to use on the TeslaCam and centre mode. but the good.