This script filters and enhances the data received by an SDR stick and processed by rtl_433 to well defined MQTT messages. It cleans the data, reduces most unnecessary fields and messages duplicates. It provides additional information (e.g. dewpoint calculation) as well as Home Assistant MQTT autodiscovery announcements. Data from weathers sensors can be uploaded to a personal Weather Underground account. rtl2mqtt is intended to run as a daemon, starting automatically after a device boot, or on the command line. Additonally, some logging facilities ease the debugging of your local 433/866 MHz RF radio environment.
The following sample MQTT output is from a typical suburb neighbourhood with different weather stations (inside and outside), movement sensors, smoke sensors, blind switches etc...
12:01 rtl/433/Prologue-TH/1 {"battery_ok":1,"temperature":24,"humidity":14,"dewpoint":-5.1}
12:06 rtl/433/inFactory-TH/3 {"battery_ok":0,"temperature":10.5,"humidity":56,"dewpoint":2.1}
12:06 rtl/433/bridge/log {"note":"sensor added","model":"inFactory-TH","id":12,"channel":1,"sensors":["temperature","humidity","battery"]}
12:06 rtl/433/bridge/state {"sensors":2,"announceds":0,"mqttlines":2,"receiveds":2,"lastfreq":433}
12:25 rtl/433/Bresser-3CH/1 { "protocol":52, "battery_ok":0,"temperature":9,"humidity":79,"dewpoint":5.6}
12:25 rtl/433/bridge/log {"note":"sensor added","model":"Bresser-3CH","id":164,"channel":1,"sensors":["temperature","humidity","battery"]}
12:25 rtl/433/bridge/state {"sensors":4,"announceds":0,"mqttlines":4,"receiveds":9,"lastfreq":433}
12:36 rtl/433/Prologue-TH/1 {"battery_ok":1,"temperature":24.5,"humidity":14,"NOTE":"changed"}
13:14 rtl/433/inFactory-TH/3 {"battery_ok":0,"temperature":10.5,"humidity":56,"dewpoint":2.1}
13:21 rtl/433/Bresser-3CH/1 {"battery_ok":0,"temperature":9.5,"humidity":79,"dewpoint":6.0,"NOTE":"changed"}
13:27 rtl/433/Generic-Remote/61825 { "protocol":30, "cmd":62,"tristate":"110ZX00Z011X"}
...
A lot of features are reimplemented and heavily extended compared to many similar Rtl2MQTT scripts, e.g. from https://github.com/roflmao/rtl2mqtt and https://github.com/IT-Berater/rtl2mqtt (which inspired at the beginning! Thanks!) as well as the Python script rtl_433_mqtt_hass.py from the rtl_433 examples.
So the main areas of extended features are:
- Suppression of repeated (duplicate) messages. This is a configurable, very helpful feature! -- Options:
-r-r(multiple) - Support for Home Assistant MQTT auto-discovery announcements for new sensors (also works with the sometimes picky OpenHab MQTT Binding) -- Options:
-h-p-t - Temperature output is transformed to SI units (=Celsius) and rounded to 0.5°C (configurable) for less flicker. -- Option:
-w - Dewpoint calculation if sensor doesn't provide it itself. -- Option:
-L - Temperature and humidity of the last 24 hours can be logged to the log directory.
- Streamlined/removed mostly unnecessary content in the original JSON messages, e.g. no time stamp or checksum code.
- Frequent unchanged MQTT messages from temperature or humidity sensors within a certain time (few messages) frame are suppressed. -- Options:
-T - MQTT topic contains channel and - configurably - the sensor's id. -- Option:
-i - New sensors are not immediately auto-announced but only after several receptions -- Option:
-c - Configurable upload of weather sensor data to Weather Underground (WU) using the PWS Upload Protocol. -- Option:
-W id,key,sensor, e.g.-W IMUNIC999,abcDEF8,Bresser-3CH_1 - Enhanced logging and debugging into a device-specific subdirectory structure, easing later source device analysis. -- Options:
-v-v - A MQTT state and a log channel for the bridge is provided giving regular statistics and on certain events of the bridge itself.
- Many command line options allowing for flexibility in the configuration (See source code for usage)
- Command line options to be used in every invocation can be put into
~/.config/rtl2mqtt(Start comments there with an#) - Log files may be replayed for debugging in your home automation environment -- Option:
-f - Signalling INT to rtl2mqtt will emit a state message to MQTT and log all previeous sensor readings.
- Signalling TRAP to rtl2mqtt will toggle the verbosity for debugging to syslog and MQTT. (This was USR1 before)
- Signalling VTALRM to rtl2mqtt will log all dewpoint calculations and last sensor readings .
- Signalling USR2 to rtl2mqtt will clear the sensor homeassistant announcements. (be carefull)
NB: The Dockerfile is provided untouched and not checked for years since I don't run Docker. It might work or not.
rtl2mqtt.sh should run fine on all Linux versions that support rtl_433, e.g. Raspbian Buster and beyond. The only prerequisites are mosquitto_pub/mosquitto_sub (from mosquitto). The need for jq has been removed, calculations are done in bash for performance.
A very simple technique to make it run after each reboot is adding something like the following line to the crontab file:
@reboot /usr/local/bin/rtl2mqtt.sh -l /tmp -h localhost -r -r -qHowever, a better way for daemonizing rtl2mqtt, especially on Raspbian, is to copy this supplied systemd service file "rtl2mqtt.service" to /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants, e.g. with these contents (pls modify yourself):
[Unit]
Description=Rtl2MQTT service
After=network.target
After=syslog.target
Wants=mosquitto.service
Documentation=https://github.com/sheilbronn/rtl2mqtt
[Service]
Type=simple
Environment="LOGBASE=/var/log/rtl2mqtt"
Environment="USER=openhabian"
Environment="MQTTBROKER=localhost"
ExecStartPre=+/bin/sh -c "/bin/mkdir -p $LOGBASE && chown $USER $LOGBASE && logger $LOGBASE in place."
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/rtl2mqtt.sh -l $LOGBASE -h $MQTTBROKER -r -r -q
User=openhabian
WorkingDirectory=$LOGBASE
StandardOutput=inherit
StandardError=inherit
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.targetDon't forget to adapt the variables to your local installation. Run ```systemctl status rtl2mqtt.service´´´ to see debugging output.
I'm using a CSL DVB-T USB Stick plugged into a Raspberry Pi to receive the 433MHz and 868 Mhz signals. They may be bought on Ebay for a few Euros only. Other sticks might work, too. Just let me know, e.g. open an issue, and I'll put it in the README.
This is how the original MQTT output from ```rtl_433 -M mqtt ...''' looks like - it is split across multiple, redudant MQTT messages (which still might be ok for most folks)
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/events {"time":"2022-04-19 13:21:22","protocol":52,"model":"Bresser-3CH","id":20,"channel": 1,"battery_ok": 1,"temperature_C":16.61111,"humidity":39,"mic":"CHECKSUM","mod":"ASK","freq":433.9824,"rssi":-0.965191,"snr":26.70743,"noise":-27.6726}
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/time 2022-04-19 13:21:22
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/protocol 52
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/id 20
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/channel 1
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/battery_ok 1
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/temperature_C 16.61111
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/humidity 39
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/mic CHECKSUM
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/mod ASK
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/freq 433.9824
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/rssi -0.965191
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/snr 26.70743
132122 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/noise -27.6726
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/events {"time":"2022-04-19 13:21:22","protocol":52,"model":"Bresser-3CH","id":20,"channel": 1,"battery_ok": 1,"temperature_C":16.61111,"humidity":39,"mic":"CHECKSUM","mod":"ASK","freq":434.01501,"rssi":-0.496212,"snr":26.87678,"noise":-27.373}
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/time 2022-04-19 13:21:22
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/protocol 52
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/id 20
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/channel 1
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/battery_ok 1
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/temperature_C 16.61111
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/humidity 39
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/mic CHECKSUM
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/mod ASK
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/freq 434.01501
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/rssi -0.496212
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/snr 26.87678
132123 rtl_433/openhabian/devices/Bresser-3CH/1/20/noise -27.373
...