Tutorial - rtl_433 brings 433MHz sensors to openHAB

Found this post about antenna´s Might be usefull if having problems.

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This one also:

Any good tutorial how to install rtl_433 ? I find it very unclear :frowning:

Have you seen this?

I think I have read almost everything about this rtl stuff, which may have been a mistake, cause I find it highly confusing… When reading about the installation, they mention a Make. Thats where I´m lost… I´m no good at Linux at all which probably is the cause of my confusions… :frowning:
Btw I´m running openhabian on a Rpi with openhab 2.5m2.

I see - no worries :wink:
There are two options:

Option 1: Install it from your Linux distribution’s repository

You can try to install from your Linux repository, e.g. for Debian:

apt-get install rtl-433

If this installs a reasonable recent version of rtl_433 - fine. If not, you need to let your Linux compile a fresh rtl_433.

This is not as complicated as it may sound at first :wink:

Option 2: Compile it yourself

Just follow the instructions from the BUILDING.md (exactly!) for you style of Linux - e.g. assuming Debian-like since you mentioned openHABian:

# first install some required libraries and software packages:
sudo apt-get install libtool libusb-1.0-0-dev librtlsdr-dev rtl-sdr build-essential autoconf cmake pkg-config

# if not yet installed, install git too (btw.: not mentioned in the BUILDING.md)
sudo apt-get install git

# go to your home directory:
cd ~

# make a copy (clone) of the current source code:
git clone https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433.git

cd rtl_433/
mkdir build
cd build

# run cmake from inside the build directory (don't omit the ".."!)
cmake ..

# make it (compiles and linkes the rtl_433 binary)
make

# finally install the just compiled rtl_433:
make install

# test it (let it print out it command line parameters):
rtl_433 -h

Good luck.

Thank you very much!!.. I guess I simply missed the first option… Thats as far as I know Linux :slight_smile:

I´ll give it a try one during the upcoming days. I have had this Nooelect dongle laying here on my desk for a few weeks now… It´s time to give it a go. Hopefully this will find my doorbell button, cause the SonofRF bridge doesnt.

I have yet to try my RTL (simply havn´t had enough time). Though the guide seems pretty straight forward , I probably gona need some help anyway, specially around the MQTT stuff. I do have a broker running, but I´m no where near understanding why :slight_smile:
I´ll get rtl_433 running first though and see if I can make it to receive something from my dumb Friedland doorbell.

is this available as a docker installation?

You might consider checking your favorite search provider, e.g.:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rtl_433+docker

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Finnaly got some time to have a look at this. But I simply cant figure how to tell rtl_433 which USB device to use… It seems like an option not really explained.
I get this error, but have no idea what to do with it.:

[19:41:11] openhabian@openHABianPi:~/rtl_433/build$ rtl_433
rtl_433 version 19.08-204-g9fe4f11 branch master at 202002081459 inputs file rtl_tcp RTL-SDR
Use -h for usage help and see https://triq.org/ for documentation.
Trying conf file at "rtl_433.conf"...
Trying conf file at "/home/openhabian/.config/rtl_433/rtl_433.conf"...
Trying conf file at "/usr/local/etc/rtl_433/rtl_433.conf"...
Trying conf file at "/etc/rtl_433/rtl_433.conf"...
Registered 121 out of 148 device decoding protocols [ 1-4 8 11-12 15-17 19-21 23 25-26 29-36 38-60 63 67-71 73-100 102-105 108-116 119 121 124-128 130-148 ]
usb_open error -3
Please fix the device permissions, e.g. by installing the udev rules file rtl-sdr.rules
[11:48:58] openhabian@openHABianPi:~/rtl_433/build$

It looks like it´s looking for a conf (config I assume). But I cant find any info on how this looks like.
The last sentense say I should install the udev rules file rtl-sdr.rules. But again I fail to see how this is suppose to be done… I do have some udev rules for my other USB devices. But this is only the half truth in it, cause I still need to execute rtl_433 with some info about this device…

In short - In the general doc (readme) there is simply missing some info for people not already knowing. :frowning:

Thanks to authors of this integration! Following the howto was easy and it’s working like a breeze!

I have one Acurite temp+hum sensor. I’m satisfied with it and would like to obtain another. What is the recommended approach to get them both working so that I can differentiate between them in OpenHAB?

It has a built-in switch (A,B,C) probably for different frequencies that could be used to distinguish each unit. Will it be seen on receiver as a different channel? Anybody has more than one unit of the same type working in OpenHAB through MQTT binding?

Reading samples in async mode...
Tuned to 433.920MHz.
..
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
time      : 2022-10-15 21:57:04
model     : Acurite-Tower id        : 14955
channel   : A            Battery   : 1             Temperature: 22.7 C       Humidity  : 64 %          Integrity : CHECKSUM
root@sirocco:~# mosquitto_sub -v -t sensors/#
...
sensors/rtl_433/P40/CA/channel A
sensors/rtl_433/P40/CA/id 14955
sensors/rtl_433/P40/CA/temperature_C 23.1
...

Will they have different that /CA/ part?

Exactly. This was the idea behind the “prettifying mqtt output” part. Since you’ve followed the tutorial, you can easily distinguish between multiple “channels” of similar senders using the same protocol. In your example you may get the a second temp sensor as:

sensors/rtl_433/P40/CB/temperature_C 23.1
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Excellent! I’m looking forward to add more data sources :slight_smile:

I created a wrapper daemon around rtl_433 that enhances and filters the JSON output before feeding into my MQTT broker. It’s an ugly bash script but it does its work! Some additional features compared to out-of-the-box rtl_433 MQTT output are:

  • Support MQTT auto-discovery announcements
  • Less repeated duplicate messages from sensors
  • … and quite some other stuff.

If you want to give it a try, here you go and let me know what you think:

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