Front Windscreen Camera Heating Elements Not Working?

[MrBadger]

That’s interesting. For part of the defrost I had front seat heaters on.

Got a reply back from service centre. They do want to check the car over at service centre - not a job for mobile. So sounds like they think it’s not normal behaviour, or I just wasn’t clear in my description and they didn’t understand.

 

[Jeeves]

Reading @VanillaAir_UK's post about the camera made me look at mine this morning. I just put climate control on, but my Easy Entry has one bar on the driver's seat turned on too. My camera was completely defrosted when I got to the car.

 

[MrBadger]

So not using defrost mode? And sentry was off? Sentry alone will/did keep camera clear but not defrost mode.

Next cold morning I’ll give that a try. And also another just using sentry just to be sure camera heater is definitely working.

 

[Jeeves]

So not using defrost mode? And sentry was off? Sentry alone will/did keep camera clear but not defrost mode.

Next cold morning I’ll give that a try. And also another just using sentry just to be sure camera heater is definitely working.

Correct

 

[Andy718]

I seem to recall that others had mentioned that they had similar behaviour - possibly firmware.

It was my car that has the issue. The SC said it was a firmware issue Dash cam front camera low quality

 

[Dangerous Fish]

I find it odd that sentry makes a difference. I think there is a bug in this somewhere, after all most people would expect all the heated stuff to come on in defrost mode. Currently it makes more sense to just turn on a heated seat and set the temperature to you desired level.

 

[Irata]

Interesting posts, maybe I've had this front camera demist bug all along and never realised. I trained myself to always enable sentry and demist together because that's how I, by chance, got it to work.

I'll try a heated seat next time, although that seems bizarre as well.

 

[MrBadger]

And also another just using sentry just to be sure camera heater is definitely working.

Ok. Another frosty morning. Windscreen nicely frosted up, but within 10 minutes of turning sentry on, the small patch was cleared. So same as last year, the heater element was working, just I had not realised that it was inactive during defrost mode. Hmmmm, 'defrost', there is a clue in the name somewhere Tesla.

I'll keep the service centre request open and update with the information from @Andy718 that it looks to be a firmware issue. One would have thought that with all these winter improvements that we had that this may have been an obvious omission that needed improvement too, especially since it seems to be a known issue being investigated by engineering for quite some time.

Note in the second image the clear line around the outside of the passenger side of the windscreen that had also cleared - presumably the supply to the central heading element.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Thinking about it, I guess it does make sense that sentry clears the cameras... d'oh!
If the car was cold enough to have ice on it I'd be switching on the heated seats anyway, which would have the same effect.
I agree though that 'defrost' should turn on everything!

 

[Irata]

I tried turning the heated seats on today as an alternate trick to defrost the camera while also defrosting the car, but that trick doesn't for me. After 15 minutes, made no difference.

I still have to turn on sentry mode to defrost the camera, I can't get any other way to work. When I did this, it started to clear within a minute.

 

[SpeedyEddy]

In fact, this is a nice way for thieves to find out wether the will be filmed or not... Maybe something for Tesla to take into consideration.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

In fact, this is a nice way for thieves to find out wether the will be filmed or not... Maybe something for Tesla to take into consideration.

Good point. So, do we know if the heaters are on all the time when sentry is turned on or only when the temperature drops below a certain point?

 

[SpeedyEddy]

Good point. So, do we know if the heaters are on all the time when sentry is turned on or only when the temperature drops below a certain point?

I suspect it is vision- and temperature based. (If temp below ... check visibility/refraction, because it can be dry freezing conditions possibly)

 

[MrBadger]

If the car was cold enough to have ice on it I'd be switching on the heated seats anyway, which would have the same effect.

Oddly, on my initial defrost, my seat heaters were on for part of it. I'll give it another go next frost to double check and make sure I turn them on immediately as I last time they were a bit of an after thought.

 

[MrBadger]

I suspect it is vision- and temperature based.

The thing about it being temperature based is that when the car is asleep it is quite possibly stopped logging temperature. So you can have a deep freeze early in the sleep, the cars thermal mass get to the point where moisture freezes hard (as was the case here) then ambient rises but the frozen surfaces remain frozen even though its quite a bit above freezing. Easiest thing is that if the user thinks the car needs defrosting and hits the defrost button, that the car probably needs defrosting which includes the bit shielded by the cameras. A bug or another case of Tesla failing to do things the hard way when simple and/or driver is best.

 

[Dilly]

The thing about it being temperature based is that when the car is asleep it is quite possibly stopped logging temperature. So you can have a deep freeze early in the sleep, the cars thermal mass get to the point where moisture freezes hard (as was the case here) then ambient rises but the frozen surfaces remain frozen even though its quite a bit above freezing. Easiest thing is that if the user thinks the car needs defrosting and hits the defrost button, that the car probably needs defrosting which includes the bit shielded by the cameras. A bug or another case of Tesla failing to do things the hard way when simple and/or driver is best.

Tesla never fail to do things the hard way!

 

[SpareHeadOne]

I suspect it is vision- and temperature based. (If temp below ... check visibility/refraction, because it can be dry freezing conditions possibly)

Not sure about temperature, but mine cleared the cameras a few weeks ago after overnight drizzle. Temps were about 7/8°C. I'd never seen it before, so I took a picture.

 

[Andy718]

Thanks @VanillaAir_UK for the update.

I will give it another try with Sentry mode . Originally, as mentioned in my original post in this thread, Sentry mode did not turn on the heating elements for the camera in the front windscreen, so maybe, some of the "cold weather improvements" have actually resolved the issue!

 

[MrBadger]

I'll keep the service centre request open and update with the information from @Andy718 that it looks to be a firmware issue. One would have thought that with all these winter improvements that we had that this may have been an obvious omission that needed improvement too, especially since it seems to be a known issue being investigated by engineering for quite some time.

Remote diagnostics done (really useful feature that has saved a few otherwise unnecessary service visits) and everything working as expected. Issue confirmed as a firmware issue that is currently being investigated and awaiting a fix. Sounds like the same one that @Andy718 mentioned. Its been some time since its been known about and with several cold weather improvements since then, I am a little surprised that an otherwise obvious shortcoming hasn't been fixed yet.

 

[Andy718]

Remote diagnostics done (really useful feature that has saved a few otherwise unnecessary service visits) and everything working as expected. Issue confirmed as a firmware issue that is currently being investigated and awaiting a fix. Sounds like the same one that @Andy718 mentioned. Its been some time since its been known about and with several cold weather improvements since then, I am a little surprised that an otherwise obvious shortcoming hasn't been fixed yet.

Thanks @VanillaAir_UK for the update.

As you say, it is surprising / disappointing that this issue remains unresolved despite all the "cold weather improvements".