RTLAMR2MQTT is a small Python program to read your utility meter such as water, gas and energy using an inexpensive USB RTL-SDR device and send these readings to a MQTT broker to be integrated with Home Assistant or NodeRed.
The project is currently under heavy development!
- Custom parameters for
rtl_tcpandrtlamr(custom_parametersconfig option) - It can run
rtl_tcplocally or use an external instance running somewhere else (custom_parametersconfig option) - MQTT TLS support (
tls_enabledconfig option) - Reset USB port before open it (
device_idconfig option) - Send an "wake up" call to a remote RTL_TCP instance before connect to it (
tickle_rtl_tcpconfig option) - Format reading number. Some meters reports a flat number that should be formatted with decimals (
formatconfig option) - Sleep after successful reading to avoid heating the CPU too much (
sleep_forconfig option) - Support multiple meters with one instance
- Run as an Addon for Home Assistant with Supervisor support and MQTT auto configuration
- Full sensor customization:
name,state_class,device_class,iconandunit_of_measurement
- Better "LISTEN_ONLY" mode (release 2.2.0)
- Bug fixes for remote rtl_tcp and usb_reset logic #123
- Code changes to load config file and merge defaults
- Added vscode files to test the Addon development (finally!)
- REMOVED PARAMETER usb_reset
- ADDED PARAMETER device_id
- DEPRECATED Anomaly detection (looks like no one is using it and it's not very reliable)
- Changed Dockerfile: Much smaller docker container
- New
tls_enabledparameter to avoid confusions - Some fixes for the Add-On regarding the TLS configuration
- New TLS parameters to MQTT connection
- New parameter: USB_RESET to address problem mentioned on #98
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 RTL-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!
Manually:
- Navigate to your Add-Ons (Configuration > Add-ons, Backups, & Supervisor)
- Click the Add-On Store button
- Navigate to Repositories (3 dots in the top-right corner > Repositories)
- Add this repository (https://github.com/allangood/rtlamr2mqtt) and click 'Add'
- You should now see the 'rtlamr' Add-On at the bottom of your Add-On Store. Click to install and configure.
If you are not running the add-on, 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.
# This may help with a remote rtl_tcp server.
tickle_rtl_tcp: false
# (Optional) USB Device ID. Use lsusb to get the device ID
# Use "single" (default) if you have only one device
# device_id: 'single'
device_id: '0bda:2838'
# 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
# Base topic to send status and updates
base_topic: rtlamr
# 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
# TLS Enabled? (False by default)
tls_enabled: false
# TLS CA certificate (mandatory if tls_enabled = true)
tls_ca: "/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt"
# TLS server certificate (optional)
tls_cert: "/etc/ssl/my_server_cert.crt"
# TLS self-signed certificate/insecure certificate (optional, default true)
tls_insecure: true
# 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***
# -d parameter is not necessary anymore if you use device_id
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
Using lsusb to find USB Device ID:
$ lsusb
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Device ID => 0bda:2838
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
If you have multiple RTL-SDRs and wish to start the LISTEN ALL METERS mode on a specific device ID (or use other custom RTL_TCP arguments), add the argument: -e RTL_TCP_ARGS="-d <serial-number>". For example:
docker run --rm -ti -e LISTEN_ONLY=yes -e RTL_MSGTYPE="all" -e RTL_TCP_ARGS="-d 777" --device=/dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb allangood/rtlamr2mqtt
Important note
If you are running the Add-On, then a MQTT topic will be created with the output and you will be able to check the output using Home Assistant. The topic is: <base_topic>/debug
Open the MQTT setting and listen in the debug topic:
You will need to define 2 enviroment variables:
RTL_TCP_ARGS=nostartRTLAMR_ARGS=-server=a.b.c.d:1234
If you are using the Add-on, then these parameters will be read from the configuration file.
A big thank you to all kind contributions!
RTLAMR - https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr
RTL_TCP - https://osmocom.org/projects/rtl-sdr/wiki/Rtl-sdr
Icon by: Sound icons created by Plastic Donut - Flaticon