Here are the slide decks for my sessions at SQL Saturday Jacksonville 2022
Category: Blog
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Traveling Away For Two Weeks
I leave this morning for nearly two weeks. I head to Jacksonville for SQL Saturday Jacksonville 2022, then I’m off to the UK to visit Redgate’s offices for a week and then I spend part of the last week in Belgium for Technorama.
It’s not all work as my wife will join me for the part of the trip and we’ll be together in Belgium.
It’s a long trip, as I return on the 26th, so two weeks away from home. I’ll try to put up a post or two, but likely just the coping tips will continue for the next few weeks.
Now to decide if we leave the Tesla at the airport for a week.
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Turn off Tesla Sentry Mode at the Airport
This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.
I wrote recently about the Tesla and the charge loss while sitting at the airport. While a little worrisome, I knew it was something I could live with, and even get around. A few of the parking places near the airport have long term charging, so it’s not the end of the world.
But it felt strange.
I don’t always plug in the car at home, and after a day or two, I might lose 1%, but nothing like the 8% we were losing each day. I decided to do a little investigating and see what other owners have experienced as I see plenty of Teslas parked at Wally Park, where I usually leave my car.
I saw more than a few people note that there are two reasons you usually use significant charge. First, people keep checking on their car in the app, and this prevents it from going to sleep.
Second: Sentry mode.
Sentry mode is essentially a combination car alarm and constant dashcam. The car is always recording things, which means the car and computer are always active. While the car isn’t moving, there is still power being burned when it is online.
Sentry Mode is especially active when it detects people near the car. In a busy parking lot at the airport, this means every 5-15 minutes, someone drives past. Certainly not longer than 30 minutes.
When I checked my TeslaMate stats, I could see the problem easily. In the image below, my latest trip is 4/28 to 5/2. On the right side of the image, the car is almost always asleep. If you look towards the left, from 4/14 to 4/18 was my second trip. This was the one where I lost 25% in three days. I can go back and see the trip before that where I lost quite a bit as well.
I turned off sentry mode between the last two trips and it made all the difference. We were gone 4 days this time and we lost around 1% of charge. I no longer worry about a two week trip out of the country with this car. I might be concerned for 30 days, but maybe not.
The vampire drain is shown below. You can see the difference in trips here.
A normal day at home has the car mostly asleep, which makes sense. Sentry mode is disabled at home (or work) if you set that. I had, but didn’t think about the airport. While it could help me detect who caused damage to the car if something happens, the lot tracks who is in and out and where they park, so they likely could help me pinpoint who damaged the car if I had an issue.
I’m glad to solve that, and more importantly, I hope more people realize the Sentry mode, while great, can eat up battery over time.
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Daily Coping 13 May 2022
I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.
Today’s tip is to set yourself a kindness mission to help others today.
A good portion of my life is helping others. SQL Server Central is about helping people in my industry, my work involves helping customers, my spare time is helping athletes become better. I’m often helping my wife with her business.
I was taught a long time ago that I should help people where I can. I pick up trash even if I didn’t drop it. I ask people if I can help them lift something or manage their lives. I’ve stopped to help people when they have a flat tire. I try to be helpful and kind wherever the opportunity arises.
For this tip, I started to try and pay attention to when I have opportunities each day. It’s spring in Colorado, and I found that I was home a lot, working before I leave town. I decided to take some evenings and give my wife a little help. She didn’t need me, and she was busy teaching. However, I’ve learned that kindness often is best when it isn’t needed.
I went out to watch her teach. I was there if she asked me to hold something or get something. I took a few pictures and some video, as I know she likes to see how the horse (or student) responds from a different angle.
Really, I was helpful by giving time. Being a companion.
One of the best things you can give to those you love.
