AcuRite 5 in 1 weather station with Lilygo 433

Sensors
1
  • Lilygo 433 LORA32 board T3_v1.6.1
  • OMG v1.4.0

I explicitly bought a lilygo 433 board to load OMG on it. It arrived yesterday; loaded OMG, all working fine.

The ideas was to replace a rPi with Realtek dongle and rtl_433 running on it.
rtl_433 identifies all my 433MHz devices, while OMG does not.

OMG seems to either not identify the device properly, or sees many IDs for the same device.

openmqtt
OpenMQTTGateway_lilygo_rtl_433_ESP
LWT = online
version = v1.4.0
SYStoMQTT = {"uptime":38306,"version":"v1.4.0","freemem":148504,"mqttport":"1883","mqttsecure":false,"tempc":50.55556,"freestack":4456,"rssi":-51,"SSID":"FRITZbox7490","BSSID":"38:10:D5:B0:0D:8D","ip":"192.168.1.153","mac":"0C:8B:95:A4:FE:14","actRec":3,"mhz":433.92,"RTLRssiThresh":-85,"RTLRssi":-94,"RTLAVGRssi":-94,"RTLCnt":2292,"RTLOOKThresh":90,"modules":["LilyGo_SSD1306","rtl_433"]}
RTL_433toMQTT
Prologue-TH
Generic-Remote
54978 = {"model":"Generic-Remote","id":54978,"cmd":190,"tristate":"1ZZX100XX11X","protocol":"Generic Remote SC226x EV1527","rssi":-59,"duration":1242996}
27489 = {"model":"Generic-Remote","id":27489,"cmd":95,"tristate":"ZXX1ZX0ZZZ11","protocol":"Generic Remote SC226x EV1527","rssi":-57,"duration":1574996}
Smoke-GS558
27163 = {"model":"Smoke-GS558","id":27163,"unit":11,"learn":0,"code":"7d436b","protocol":"Wireless Smoke and Heat Detector GS 558","rssi":-59,"duration":1242996}
21558 = {"model":"Smoke-GS558","id":21558,"unit":22,"learn":0,"code":"fa86d6","protocol":"Wireless Smoke and Heat Detector GS 558","rssi":-78,"duration":2679996}
Cardin-S466 = {"model":"Cardin-S466","dipswitch":"-+-+-o-+-","rbutton":"11R","protocol":"Cardin S466-TX2","rssi":-59,"duration":1242996}
inFactory-TH
Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor
TFA-TwinPlus
Springfield-Soil
Acurite-01185M
Acurite-609TXC
AlectoV1-Temperature
GT-WT02
Interlogix-Security
Oregon-SL109H
Generic-Motion = {"model":"Generic-Motion","code":"fffff","protocol":"Generic wireless motion sensor","rssi":-59,"duration":1675996}
Microchip-HCS200
homeassistant
binary_sensor
sensor
button
0C8B95A4FE14-restart

Most disappointing is the fact that it does not pick up the Acurite 5in1 weather station signals, which are sent every minute multiple time.

Is there anything I can or should do to get some improvement?

The antenna on the Liligo is a 3dBi very basic antenna. I have ordered a 10dBi one, but the rtl_433 set-up has the same basic antenna.
The weather station is 15m away an in line of sight.

Another example is a motion sensor that has been identified with over 90 IDs

Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor
182a8 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"182a8","raw":"b82a8","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-74,"duration":893996}
1ded8 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"1ded8","raw":"bded8","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-72,"duration":889996}
05d78 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"05d78","raw":"a5d78","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-80,"duration":893996}
04d78 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"04d78","raw":"a4d78","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-71,"duration":805997}
1def8 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"1def8","raw":"bdef8","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-73,"duration":888996}
15268 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"false","id":"15268","raw":"55268","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-71,"duration":889866}
1dff0 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"1dff0","raw":"bdff0","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-72,"duration":889996}
0df78 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"false","id":"0df78","raw":"4df78","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-80,"duration":888070}
1df18 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"1df18","raw":"bdf18","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-71,"duration":917004}
1fe30 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"1fe30","raw":"bfe30","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-74,"duration":916996}
1df30 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"1df30","raw":"bdf30","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-73,"duration":896996}
1df38 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"1df38","raw":"bdf38","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-80,"duration":903997}
15ef8 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"15ef8","raw":"b5ef8","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-71,"duration":889996}
1fff0 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"1fff0","raw":"bfff0","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-75,"duration":902996}
10558 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"true","id":"10558","raw":"b0558","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-78,"duration":902996}
12778 = {"model":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","motion":"false","id":"12778","raw":"52778","protocol":"Skylink HA-434TL motion sensor","rssi":-74,"duration":901996}

Any hints appreciated.

(I had two images attached to show detail, but being a new user did not allow for that. Used the code sections instead.)

2

One tip I can share, is the antenna orientation. I find that if the antenna is pointing up/vertical reception is slightly improved.

From using the boards for a while, we have noticed that the reception is not as robust as a rtl_sdr, and the range is roughly half.

In regards to the Skylink HA-434TL decoder, it seems to be decoding noise in your environment and generating false/phantom devices. We will be looking into this with the next release.

In my personal setup I have several AcuRite devices, but not the 5 in 1. If you move the board closer to your weather station does it pickup the signals from it correctly ?

1 Like
3

Thank you for the speedy reply…

Yes, antenna is upright.
Put a 5dBi antenna on; no difference.

Was on a USB hub only punching out 4.5V; changed the power supply; no difference.

Used a portable power source and moved closer to the AcuRite and it picked up once I approached a distance of 12 metres.

Is it known if the range is related to the hardware or software?
If hardware, are there better boards for OMG?

4

Yeah, Lilygo is pretty much useless. It does not pick up all signals even in the near proximity to the transmitter. I’m trying to replace my old RFLINK with something better but this is pretty much a miss.

5

It appears so. I also have these cheap Chinese 433MHz senders and receivers, which achieve far greater range than this thing.

Have you found a better board yet?

6

@MaxG @Bojan_Ulaga could you try the latest development version from here:

To see if you get a better sensitivity

2 Likes
7

Well, thank you for the hint…

I installed version = 8f47a8
… but I retained the flash; should I have chosen the override option?

It is indeed better :slight_smile:
The AcuRite signal was the first to come in.
rssi is -93

The display logic seems to have changed; iin addition to SYS and RTL344 screens it shows the OMG logo at different positions on the screen. Initially I thought the board is rebooting (when showing the logo), but uptime shows progressing seconds.

The Skylink HA-434TL turned into Interlogix-Security:

Interlogix-Security
unknown
glass

I am running openHAB and not homeassistant. Are the discovered devices retained in memory? If the latter, I may need to erase the flash memory during firmware install.

1 Like
8

It is okay you can keep your parameters for this version jump

Yes we added this to avoid screen burn, also you should be able to switch off the screen and use many new options:

They are retained on the broker side thanks to the retain flag. Not into the flash

1 Like
9

With the development version, once your devices are discovered, turn OFF auto discovery to avoid the gateway creating all the RF devices detected from the environment:

10

It is much worse for me. My main interest is my OWL energy meter, recognized as Oregon CM-180 and now I see only one or two per hour (OWL emits every 10 seconds). But now I see a lot of other sensors and switches not seen before.

11

regarding this problem, would it be linked with this one ? : RTL_443 : MQTT topic remove "id" + add timestamp

1 Like