wmbusmeters

Yes, rtl_wmbus (https://github.com/xaelsouth/rtl-wmbus) now supports C1 telegrams from Multical21, so you can listen to your Multical21 meter with a generic rtl sdr device and wmbusmeters. ?

Hi Lars! I have been experimenting with rtl_wmbus and my multical21 meter. Unfortunately I do not get any reliable readings. When rtl_wmbus prints C1;0 first, then it means that it could not reliable decode the radio packet, ie crc error. I asked the developer about this and he wrote: -------------- you are good with strings begin with C1;1 or with T1;1. The format behind a whole string is MODE;CRC_OK;3OUTOF6OK;TIMESTAMP;PACKET_RSSI;CURRENT_RSSI;LINK_LAYER_IDENT_NO;DATAGRAM_WITHOUT_CRC_BYTES. 3OUTOF6OK makes sense only with mode T1 and no sense with mode C1 (always set to 1). C1 mode generally causes more problems regarding clock recovering because no channel coding is used. Channel coding would force transmitter to switch from 0 to 1 and back more often while sending that makes clock recovering by receiver easier on costs of datagram transmission time that takes longer. ----------------------- There are several users of wmbusmeters and rtl_wmbus, but they listen to T1 meters. I have sent a recording to the rtl_wmbus developer to see if he can improve his software radio. You could perhaps also help him out by opening an issue and offer recordings from rtl_sdr.

Try placing the dongle in different angles, sometimes it receives better in a different orientation. Or try closer to the water meter.

Do you want a different json format than the one that wmbusmeter currently generates?

Interesting, it could be that you have a meter with another configuration. The customer (municipality) can pick and choose what values the meter should send, depending on what they are interested in. Run with --debug for a while and look for long and short packages. In the long ones, you should be able to see almost exactly the contents of the package received. If you find something that you would like to have in the json, it is easy to add it.

Run wmbusmeters - - c1 - - debug /dev/ttyUSB0 and email me the log output. My email is on the github page. Please try from a linux computer as well. (I mean the build computer... ? )

Have you tried both auto and /dev/ttyUSB0 (or whatever tty it was assigned) ? Auto only works if you have added the udev rules. And did you check the read/write permissions on the ttyUSB0 device?

Sure, adding more meter is always fun! However a quick google on Aidon energy meters seems to indicate that they use a proprietary protocol to build a mesh network to reach the municipality. Even though they seem to use the same radio freq band as wmbus, it might not be wmbus. But I could be wrong. So please check.

Multical21 always broadcasts the meter values regularly. Yep, that is one radio signal every 15 seconds, for 10-16 years, depending on the model. Pretty remarkable tech. A passive listener will of course not drain its battery more.

If you ask kommunen, then they might give you the key for your meter. Myself and couple of other people here in Sweden have received our keys from our kommuns. The key is only to prevent you from listening to other people's water meters, so there is no harm in you having the key to your own meter. Then you can use for example: https://github.com/weetmuts/wmbusmeters with a suitable USB dongle. This program then receives the readings and updates a file with json data whenever a new wireless message arrives (every 15 seconds or so). You can then feed that data into the home automation system of your choice. The json data looks like this: {media:"cold water", meter:"multical21","name":"MyTapWater","id":"12345678", "total_m3":6.388,"target_m3":6.377, "current_status":"DRY","time_dry":"22-31 days", "time_reversed":"","time_leaking":"","time_bursting":"","timestamp":"2018-02-08T09:07:22Z"}