What is best device to listen too water meter and weather station?

Compatible devices
1

Hello,

I have RTL-SDR but I was not happy with how flaky signal detections were so I would like to get Lilygo LoRa32 but I am not sure what model to get or maybe I should go for WiFi LoRa 32 (V2).
I am looking use rtl_433 to mqtt to capture a weather sation on 868.3Mhz and water meter on 868.9Mhz

I have two questions:

  1. What device should I get: LILYGO® Disaster-Radio LoRa V2.1_1.6.1 868MHZ 9102 Chip or LILYGO® TTGO LoRa32 V2.1_1.6 SX1276 868MHz or Heltec WiFi LoRa 32(V2) (btw I can only see V3 for sale?)
  2. Will catch both 868.3 and 868.9 devices or can I use rtl_433 commands to set rtl_433 to jump from frequency like you can do with SDR? i.e. rtl_433 -H 120 -f 868.3 -f 868.9?

I am also assuming that dedicated frequency antenas will be more reliable but I am not sure however not having to be tied down to a computing node like RTL-SDR ( Nooelec NESDR Mini 2+) dongle I will be able to get a better placement, so it should be better…

2

Welcome @PovilasID

Have you checked that your two devices’ decoders are included in the RTL_433_ESP, as listed at

And if you say that your RTL-SDR has been flaky, I’m not sure if the reception would be much better with a LilyGo/Heltec, as generally their reception range is less than with an RTL-SDR.

Now to your questions.

  1. I would go for the LILYGO® Disaster-Radio LoRa V2.1_1.6.1 868MHZ, be it as the Disaster-Radio version, some other version (Pax Counter, I think) they sell or just the plain LilyGo LoRa V2.1_1.6.1 868MHZ - it’s just the firmware that comes pre-installed, or not.

  2. There is no direct frequency jumping command, but as you can change the frequency by MQTT commands, you can switch frequencies whenever you like by issuing commands through your controller.

Hope this helps.

3

Thanks!
Both devices are under FSK Signal Device Decoders, so I assume I will need and SDK version of firmware. Over all good news!
I mean SDR’s antena is the basic telescope one, so I was expecting other antenas to get better or at least equivalent reception. Better location should help if I get at least the same reception capacity.

  1. Oh… I thought there was a HW difference because they had different prices… oh well.
  2. That is actually grate news because there is schedule to the water sensor, so with Home Assistant I will be able to do proper scheduling.
4

I’m still not sure if your water sensor has a decoder included in RTL_433_ESP (yet), as your link above is the same as for the Bresser 6in1 :wink:

Did you find it on the RTL_433_ESP page?

5

Oh ops well it is HYDRODIGIT-S1 and it working on Wireless M-Bus protocol that is on the list.
I then have to feed to GitHub - wmbusmeters/wmbusmeters: Read the wired or wireless mbus protocol to acquire utility meter readings. to process but I just made wmbusmeter listen to MQTT topic of rtl_433 and then decode the data gram and spit it out back to MQTT. A bit of a trip but works.

6

I’ve been using a RTL-SDR DVB-T stick with rtl_433 for several years now, and I’m quite happy picking up all the interesting signals from my suburabn environment: thermometers, bus mileages, motion detectors, tire pressures etc :slight_smile: I’d recommend this setup!
BTW: However, in order to reduce the noise feeding it into my MQTT server, I built a rtl2mqtt script (see github from sheilbron) around it. Feel free to comment.)

7

Oh I have RTL-SDR it is fun but I am picking up 1 measurement from Wm-bus every 2 hours or so while it transmitted every minute, and LILYGO devices do not have to be plugged into a processing unit. This making receiver location much easier aka from three reinforced concrete walls to just one :smiley: