Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

If installation went well your device should boot up and flash the onboard LED, with either a single or a double blink every second. (though note that not every board that can run TeslaUSB has LEDs that are software controllable). The double-blink flashing mode indicates the device is able to reach the archive server (or the internet, in case of rclone), the single blink flashing mode indicates it is not able to reach the archive server. You may also temporarily see a faster blink sequence during bootup, about 5 blinks per seconds, indicating the device is checking the drive for errors and/or performing a backup. After the fast blink it should go into single or double blink mode again, at which point the device should act as a USB drive, and if connected to your car, the car should show the dashcam icon.

If this does not happen, something might have gone wrong during setup. Before reporting an issue, please check if any of the following addresses your problem:

• Try different USB cables. Using bad or charge-only cables is by far the most common cause of teslausb not working.
• Ensure that no other USB drives are plugged in to the car. TeslaUSB replaces the existing USB drive that may have been included with the car.
• Be sure to use the correct port on the device. If you're using a Raspberry Pi 4, connect its USB-C port to the car. On the Raspberry Pi Zero W and Zero 2 W, the outermost port is for power only:
  
  For a Radxa Zero, the outermost port should be connected to the car.
  For Rock Pi 4C+ you need two cables: one connected to the USB-C port for power, and a USB A-to-A cable to connect the topmost USB3 port (the blue connectors) of the Rock Pi 4C+ to the car's data port.
• Plug the device into a Windows, Mac or Linux PC and see if the 'CAM' drive shows up, to rule out any issues with the car.
• if you are using a separate power source (battery, 12V adapter, OBD2 adapter), ensure that the cable connected to the device's USB port is a data-only cable, and does not provide power.
• ssh into the device and look at the file /boot/teslausb-headless-setup.log. If that file does not end with All done. then something went wrong during the headless setup. Try running sudo /etc/rc.local, which will rerun setup and potentially log more useful messages.
• If you can't ssh into the device, check on your router that the device is connected. Note that some devices, like the Raspberry Pi Zero W, only support 2.4 GHz wifi, so if you use a separate SSID for your 2.4 and 5 GHz Wifi, make sure to pick the correct SSID. Also note that the default host name is "teslausb.local", not "raspberrypi.local" like for a default Raspbian install.
• check /mutable/archiveloop.log and the output of dmesg for errors.
• Some cars appear to briefly drop power to the USB ports while the device is booting, causing a reboot loop. Some people have reported success in getting around that by using a powered or even unpowered hub to connect the device to the car.
• If you're using a Raspberry Pi and installed something other than the latest prebuilt teslausb image, try redoing setup from scratch by flashing the latest teslausb image.

If you see the LED blinking as it should, the car or a PC sees the USB drive, but archiving is not working, then note that:

• I only use and test CIFS (Windows-style network sharing). I can't help with other archive methods, sorry.
• Only saved clips (this includes both manually saved clips and clips saved by Sentry mode) are archived by default.
• Archiving starts when the device goes from disconnected from wifi to connected to wifi. If equipped with a software controllable LED, you will see the LED on the device flash rapidly while archiving is in progress. Once archiving is complete it will reconnect the USB drive to the car and won't archive again until it exits and then re-enters wifi range.