Sub-$100 Networked 433Mhz Receiver for Home Assistant

[@miked4122]

I use a router with a USB2 port and flashed with Openwrt. RTL433 is available in the Openwrt repository.

[@Qosmio1955]

Great tutorial and it works just great. I integrated sensors from my weather station into Home Assistant and it all toodled along perfectly until the batteries in the weather station went flat. When I put the new batteries in, the weather station gave itself a new ID number which meant that the mqtt path to the sensor was different to what I had configured in my yaml file. It took a while to suss it out, but all is good again...

[@CharcoalDaddyBBQ]

Cool!!! Thank you for sharing! More sensors for my home! Love it!

[@blevenzon]

Such awesome stuff. I’m so trying this. I’ve been using decommissioned Dell wyse terminals from work (thanks to you) instead of RasPi as well. But I def want to try this. Also love the blooper outtakes at the end. Priceless. Thanks so much

[@apalrdsadventures]

Glad you liked it! They're great little mini computers

[@robertopontone]

Great topic, explained in plain simple way. Thank you 😊

[@apalrdsadventures]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SandeepPuri]

Very cool.. didn't know 433 mhz is used by these cheap sensors.. learned something new.. great usecase for my rtl sdr.

[@GeoffSeeley]

Thanks for this! I just setup HA but getting my SDR/Acurite sensors hooked into it was still on the todo list as I knew I'd have to do something like this after playing with the rtl_433 software. I'm going to take this one step further and do it in a Proxmox CT or VM.

[@apalrdsadventures]

AFAIK there's an addon for HA already, but I run all of my radio stuff remotely since my Proxmox systems are in a corner of a concrete basement.

[@XDaarn]

Thanks!

[@Tntdruid]

Very cool, the 433 sensors are very cheap 👍

[@apalrdsadventures]

Yes they are!

[@bitterrotten]

This is exactly what I needed. Thank you.

[@apalrdsadventures]

Glad it helped!

[@Black_Dollarz]

The mic sounds soooooooooooooooo much better

[@MkmeOrg]

This was really helpful. Cheers

[@apalrdsadventures]

Glad it helped!

[@AntonisAsc]

Very nice video! I know I want to start learning to setup Home Assistant and 433 is in many sensors etc. Your cute cat has some objections and interrupts your video :3

[@apalrdsadventures]

He's a busy guy, gotta supervise everything I do

[@blevenzon]

Oh I just noticed RTL433 has a Docker image so I wonder if we can pass through NESDR to proxmox 🤔

[@apalrdsadventures]

You could, but I don't do this because my Proxmox server (which also runs Home Assistant) is in a corner of a concrete basememt, so all of my radios are remote

[@blevenzon]

@@apalrdsadventures thanks so much for taking the time to reply. Also hope you’re doing better personally, so glad you’re posting videos again.

My TV tuner stick gets warm, almost hot by continuously running RTL-433 on it, so I'm not sure if it's a good idea to run this 24/7. It's one of those RTL2832U green RTLSDR sticks covered in aluminum from Ali Express. What is your experience with this? As you've said, 433MHz outdoor sensors are dirt cheap, so I'm considering this method.

[@apalrdsadventures]

Mine doesn't get hot to the touch, but it's not enclosed or anything, just sitting out on a shelf.

[@goldenshellback2811]

The cat @1:20, there was a glitch in the matrix

[@apalrdsadventures]

Sometimes the cat appears on the table too, it's wild

[@r7boatguy]

Seems that 433MHz is on its way out in N America in favor of 915MHz. I'm going to try your method with some ecowitt devices that use that frequency. Did you have any issues loading Linux o the thin client?

[@apalrdsadventures]

No, I haven’t had any issues with Linux on the thin clients. Rtl433 does support 915Mhz sensors, but it’s still only doing fairly basic decoding and nothing like zigbee.

[@jean-lucbezzina8382]

Hello Thanks for your tutorial. I am French and came across your very interesting explanation. i use 433 mhz in my project and also zigbbe with the mosquitto broker. But I see you are using homeassistant in a debian distribution. What I had managed to do because I did not want to free myself from the bone to do something else. Only I saw on I do not avsi the pluggins then qh'one has it when one loads a homeassistant version for RASBIAN. Do you have an idea or a tutorial that explains how to do it? Good continuation. Great !

[@mmondello8787]

Great how to video I do have a couple questions. How do I change the output to Imperial for the USA? How can I speed up the data transfer (refresh rate) from RTL443 server to MQTT? Thanks Mark

[@apalrdsadventures]

You can switch -C s for -C customary (convert all to imperial) or -C native (use whatever the sensor sends) for different units. I keep everything in SI in home assistant though, even being in the US. As to update rate, it sends data whenever it gets data from the sensor, so it's entirely on the sensor. The devices I have update a few times a minute, and there's really nothing you can do about that, unless you're not getting the signal and missing sensor updates.

[@mmondello8787]

@@apalrdsadventures So in the command line /rtl/usr/bin/rtl_433 -C si _F ... now looks like /rtl/usr/bin/rtl_433 -C i _F ... Is that correct?

[@apalrdsadventures]

/usr/bin/rtl_433 -C customary ... would be the argument

[@mmondello8787]

@@apalrdsadventures thanks again. Now im just working on getting the updated information to mqtt Mosquitto broker in HA. it got there when I first put it on line and now I dont see the updates.

[@meierthomas]

Love the simplicity of this. Could this be made to work with 433Mhz remotes as well? I have a few of those and want to integrate them as well

[@apalrdsadventures]

It depends. Old garage door openers (with the DIP switches to set codes) should be possible, although I'm not sure what software if any exists to decode them.

[@Madthrax23]

You need a dedicated computer to connect the rtl-sdr and transmit through mqtt. Is there any solution to connect directly the dongle to an HA on rpi4 ?

[@JC.72]

Can we do the same on a rf 433 bridge device? Such as the modded sonoff rf433 with tasmota firmware mod?

[@apalrdsadventures]

The Sonoff RF433 doesn't support nearly as many 433Mhz device types as rtl433 does, even with alternative firmware for the RF chip. Stock, it only supports Sonoff 433Mhz devices.

[@shephusted2714]

433 is way to go for longer range - it beats the hell out of 2ghz /5ghz - build some antennae #seattle wireless

[@dablet]

can it be used to control 433mhz devices???

[@apalrdsadventures]

This method is receive only

[@XDaarn]

Can you use this to receive 868mhz also? do you have any idee for a transmitter?

[@apalrdsadventures]

It can receive 868 as well (the full list of protocols / devices is here - github.com/merbanan/rtl_433#running ) but 868 can't be used in the US. Also it can only do one frequency at a time, so to do both 433 and 868 you'll need two of them.

[@XDaarn]

@@apalrdsadventures thx you for your easy understanding videos many of my project have got so mush easier with you video. will you soon have a video of ceph fileshare?

[@apalrdsadventures]

CephFS is definitely coming!

[@RossCanpolat]

I've done a like for like install (Debian 11) and when I run sudo rtl_433 the last thing i see is "Allocating 15 zero-copy buffers" and then nothing, no data. Does this mean I'm not picking up anything or is there a fault? I've tried pressing buttons on a generic 433Mhz keyfob (not programmed to anything) right beside the antenna and I'm picking up nothing.

[@apalrdsadventures]

It sounds like it's not finding anything. You can try changing the frequency (default is 433, but it also has some decoders for 315 and 900mhz bands as well) to see if the keyfob is one of those. Depending on what kind of keyfob it is, it might not have a decoder for it.

[@RossCanpolat]

@@apalrdsadventures Nah still not picking up anything. I think ill try plug into a laptop and do a bit of a wardrive around my town with it. Its bound to pick up something unless the SDR dongle is faulty.

[@RossCanpolat]

@@apalrdsadventures Just to follow up, I left the VM running for 3 days doing the scan and I finally picked up something. I think my antenna & its placement is just awful

[@norbertessel8169]

Hello everyone. I have the same issue. And if I only put "rtl_433 -c -si" it is picking up in seconds. If I include the mqtt command, nothing.

[@pavlovsky0]

make and AREDN node in one of your videos!

[@apalrdsadventures]

I'm not a licensed amateur radio operator, so I wouldn't be able to use it outside of the ISM bands. There also aren't any nodes within line of sight of my location, at any frequency. That said, I'd love to have a bigger location to play with PTP / PTMP radio systems and routing

[@pavlovsky0]

@@apalrdsadventures yeah I’m thinking of getting licensed to play around with Aredn.

[@stargazer7644]

Those are demons, not daymons. Yes, it is spelled daemon. It is pronounced demon. Also, sudo is sue-dew not sue-doh. The command uses su to do something, not to doe something.

[@KeithWeston]

Thanks!

[@apalrdsadventures]

Glad you like it!