433 MHz transceiver compatible usb sticks

Hardware
1

Hello friends, I’m a newbie so I may ask wrong questions or I ask in a wrong category. Forgive me for that.

I’ve installed Home Assistant on my RPI 2, which works well so far. This means I can install Add-ons and… that’s about it.

I also have a Zigbee2MQTT usb stick attached on my RPi, but for now it does nothing, as I don’t have Zigbee sensors yet.

I do have a simple weather station, that measures temperature and humidity outside and sends the data over 433 MHz. So, I need a way to listen to my weather station. Ideally I want a simple usb stick 433 MHz transceiver I can plug into my RPi. I’ve seen an Arduino based 433 MHz transceiver, but I don’t like the naked pcb and also I don’t know how much power it consumes. Most Arduino projects are loop based, which means it polls continuously on input, instead of event based (like using interrupts). The so called sleep() function in Arduino is just a loop with a countdown counter. So, it consumes quite some energy and that’s what I try to avoid.

I’ve also seen RFXCom device, but for now it’s a bit pricy, around €/$ 100,-

Is there another cheap usb 433 MHz transceiver, you can recommend me that works well with Home Assistant?

2

Did you look into RTL SDR sticks?

1 Like
3

First thing : what weather station ?

You could check out rtl_433 : https://github.com/mverleun/RTL433-to-mqtt
There is the sonoff rf bridge, but I don’t think it works with weather stations
There is rflink, it does not need to be naked, you can buy cases for it : https://www.rflink.nl
There is this stick : https://community.openmqttgateway.com/t/a-new-off-the-shelf-433mhz-receiver-based-on-esp8266/635
And of course what you mentioned already, the RFXcom

4

Not yet, but that looks promising.
I just need some guidance where to start. It’s important for me that it works well with HA.
Could you provide me some good links?

5

RTL SDR sticks are used with RTL_433.

1 Like
6

The brand of the weather station is Xiron. It’s a cheap one and I don’t know where the receiver is (I bought it a long time ago).

I’ve seen RFLink but it’s a bit pricey to me., about €75,-. I already bought some stuff for HA, so my budget is exhausted now. I have to wait next month. Also, for that price I rather go for RFXCom.

My goal is to attach Zigbee, ZWave and 433 MHz as usb sticks to my RPi. I really want to avoid Wifi dependent devices.

Anyway, RTL-SDR sticks are really interesting. So if you guys know of a cheap and well supported RTL-SDR stick, please share :wink:

7

I don’t know where you got the 75 € price tag for a rflink. If you don’t mind some DIY


I use one with a weather station that is recognized as a xiron ( actually it is a digoo)
8

For RTL SDR, this one find my weather station too, in combination with rtl_433

9

Thnx my friend,
I’ll try to find one on a local online shop. Via AliExpress it takes more than 6 weeks to get it :):expressionless:

10

That is the problem with Ali. It is cheap, but you have to wait long.

11

Is that rtl_433 link an add-on for Home Assistant?
I’m about to buy a RTL SDR dongle from a local marketplace, but the Home Assistant needs to know how to communicate with. I don’t think HA will automatically detect the usb stick and load drivers do something with it. But I could be wrong.

12

How is your HA installed ?

13

I downloaded an image from https://www.home-assistant.io/hassio/installation/ for RPi 2B.
Actually, I don’t even know what OS runs on RPi with that image. I’m more of a guy that install Raspbian OS and from there install the necessary software.

14

That is HassOS + Hassio. I don’t know if you can install the bare rtl_433 libraries on that. If you add this repository to the hassio add-on store :


there is a RTL_433 to MQTT Bridge add-on.
15

Thnx Francis, I really appreciate your help.
I’ll try that link.
I’m planning to install another HA instance on a RPi 3 with Raspbian.

16

I think if you install Raspbian and then follow the guide ‘install hassio on generic linux’, it is better to build rtl_433 yourself.

17

Yes, I’ll sure do that. Thnx!

18

Note that the RTL SDR dongle is a receive only device.
The RFXtrx433XL is a transceiver and able to transmit 433.92MHz and 433.42MHz Somfy RTS, Funkbus and 434.50MCZ pellet stove commands and receive many sensors, see chapter 2 in the RFXtrx User Guide.

1 Like
19

Weather station --> rtl_433 --> weewx --> mqtt --> home assistant. I use one of those $10 USB receivers.

Andy

20

Well, I didn’t managed to buy a RTL-SDR usb dongle, but I did buy RFXCOM device.

I reinstalled Home Assistant by using a Raspbian Lite image and from there I installed Home Assistant. To my big surprise I found out I can’t install Add-Ons, as it’s not possible to install Hass.io. See discussion over here: Hass.io does not show on new install

The reason to choose for the above installation method is to be flexible with using RTL-SDR or other future devices that are not supported by HA yet.

I also don’t know what OS Hass.io is, with Raspbian I kind of know the folders are strucured and know where to find or edit files. On Hass.io I don’t know.

So in the end, I installed the recommended Hass.io image and am now able to install Add-Ons.

After work when I arrive home, I’ll connect my RFXCOM to RPi 3B and hopefully get something to work.

I’ll let you know if it works.