This project was created to send readings made by RTLAMR + RTL_TCP to a MQTT broker. My user case is to integrate it with Home Assistant.
2022-02-11
- New configuration parameter:
state_class(thanks to @JeffreyFalgout) - Automatic MQTT configuration when using the Addon (thanks to @JeffreyFalgout)
- Fixed 255 characters limit for state value #86
2022-01-11
- Happy new year! :)
- Added "tickle_rtl_tcp" parameter to enable/disable the feature (explained below)
- Added date/time to the log output
- Added device_class configuration option #66 (thanks to @phidauex)
- Some clean up in the README file!
- Machine Learning to detect leaks still experimental and needs a lot of love to work properly
1) You need a smart meter First and most important, you must have a "smart" water/gas/energy meter. You can find a list of compatible meters here
2) You need an USB RT-SDR device I am using this one: NooElec NESDR Mini USB
3) You need a MQTT broker (Like Mosquitto)
4) Home assistant is optional, but highly recommended, because it is awesome!
Docker and Docker-compose are the most indicated way. If you are not [running the add-on[(https://www.home-assistant.io/common-tasks/os#installing-third-party-add-ons), you must write the rtlamr2mqtt.yaml configuration file.
Create the config file on /opt/rtlamr2mqtt/rtlamr2mqtt.yaml for instance.
The configuration must looks like this:
# -- Configuration file starts here --
# (Optional section)
general:
# Sleep for this amount of seconds after one successful reading of every meter
# This parameter is helpful to keep CPU usage low and the temperature low as well
# Set this to 0 (default) to disable it
sleep_for: 300
# Set the verbosity level. It can be debug or info
verbosity: debug
# Enable/disable the tickle_rtl_tcp. This is used to "shake" rtl_tcp to wake it up.
# For me, this started to cause the rtl_tcp to refuse connections and miss the readings.
tickle_rtl_tcp: false
# MQTT configuration.
mqtt:
# Whether to use Home Assistant auto-discovery feature or not
ha_autodiscovery: true
# Home Assistant auto-discovery topic
ha_autodiscovery_topic: homeassistant
# By default, leaving host, port, user, and password unset will tell
# rtlamr2mqtt to use the default home assistant mqtt settings for those
# options. If needed, you can override these default settings:
# MQTT host name or IP address.
host: 192.168.1.1
# MQTT port.
port: 1883
# MQTT user name if you have, remove if you don't use authentication
user: mqtt
# MQTT user password if you use one, remove if you don't use authentication
password: my-very-strong-password
# (Optional)
# This entire section is optional.
# If you don't need any custom parameter, don't use it.
# ***DO NOT ADD -msgtype, -filterid nor -protocol parameters here***
custom_parameters:
# Documentation for rtl_tcp: https://osmocom.org/projects/rtl-sdr/wiki/Rtl-sdr
rtltcp: "-s 2048000"
# Documentation for rtlamr: https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr/wiki/Configuration
# If you want to disable the local rtl_tcp and use an external/remote one, you must add "-server=remote-ip-address:port" to the rtlamr section below.
rtlamr: "-unique=true -symbollength=32"
# (Required section)
# Here is the place to define your meters
meters:
# The ID of your meter
- id: 7823010
# The protocol
protocol: scm+
# A nice name to show on your Home Assistant/Node Red
name: meter_water
# (optional) A number format to be used for your meter
format: "#####.###"
# (optional) A measurement unit to be used by Home Assistant
# Typical values are ft³ and m³ (use the superscript) for water/gas meters
# and kWh or Wh for electric meters
unit_of_measurement: "\u33A5"
# (optional) An icon to be used by Home Assistant
icon: mdi:gauge
# A device_class to define what the sensor is measuring for use in the Energy panel
# Typical values are "gas" or "energy". Default is blank.
device_class:
# "total_increasing" for most meters, "total" for meters that might go
# backwards (net energy meters). Defaults to "total_increasing" if unset.
state_class:
- id: 6567984
protocol: scm
name: meter_hydro
unit_of_measurement: kWh
device_class: energy
# -- End of configuration file --
If you want to run with docker alone, run this command:
docker run --name rtlamr2mqtt \
-v /opt/rtlamr2mqtt/rtlamr2mqtt.yaml:/etc/rtlamr2mqtt.yaml \
-v /opt/rtlamr2mqtt/data:/var/lib/rtlamr2mqtt \
-d /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb \
--restart unless-stopped \
allangood/rtlamr2mqtt
If you use docker-compose (recommended), add this to your compose file:
version: "3"
services:
rtlamr:
container_name: rtlamr2mqtt
image: allangood/rtlamr2mqtt
restart: unless-stopped
devices:
- /dev/bus/usb
volumes:
- /opt/rtlamr2mqtt/rtlamr2mqtt.yaml:/etc/rtlamr2mqtt.yaml:ro
- /opt/rtlamr2mqtt/data:/var/lib/rtlamr2mqtt
To add your meters to Home Assistant, add a section like this:
utility_meter:
hourly_water:
source: sensor.<meter_name>
cycle: hourly
daily_water:
source: sensor.<meter_name>
cycle: daily
monthly_water:
source: sensor.<meter_name>
cycle: monthly
If you have ha_autodiscovery: false in your configuration, you will need to manually add the sensors to your HA configuration.
This is a sample for a water meter using the configuration from the sample configuration file:
sensor:
- platform: mqtt
name: "My Utility Meter"
state_topic: rtlamr/meter_water/state
unit_of_measurement: "\u33A5"
You must change meter_water with the name you have configured in the configuration YAML file (below)
How to run the container in LISTEN ALL METERS Mode: If you don't know your Meter ID or the protocol to listen, you can run the container in DEBUG mode to listen for everything.
In this mode, rtlamr2mqtt will not read the configuration file, this means that nothing is going to happen other than print all meter readings on screen!
docker run --rm -ti -e LISTEN_ONLY=yes -e RTL_MSGTYPE="all" --device=/dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb allangood/rtlamr2mqtt
A big thank you for all kind contributions! And a even bigger thanks to these kind contributors:
RTLAMR - https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr