Hi,
Just wanted to share this project, in case someone wanted to do the same. I added my utilities smart meters into home assistant, so I can monitor my current usage, weekly usage and more.
I bought a NooElec NESDR Nano 2+, plugged it in my raspberry pi 3B+ and proceeded with programming it to read the meters and send the data through MQTT to home assistant.
Before buying a dongle,If you want to know if your meter can be read this way, here is the list of meters tested with rtlamr. Other types of smart meter might be encrypted and will not work.
I tried a few ways to send the info through MQTT and found that this way from ragingcomputer was the best for me to get it working. I had to modify the python script because this one was setup to read idm data from smart meters and while my power meter was sending data with this format, my gas meter was sending scm data. I decided to change it, so it would send the scm data from both to mqtt. I also added a delay to start rtl_tcp as I had a problem with it starting it during boot.
Here is my process:
rtl-sdr package
Install RTL-SDR package
sudo apt-get install rtl-sdr
Set permissions on rtl-sdr device
sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/rtl-sdr.rules
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bda", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2838", MODE:="0666"
Prevent tv tuner drivers from using rtl-sdr device
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/rtl-sdr.conf
blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
git
sudo apt-get install git
pip3 and paho-mqtt
Install pip for python 3
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
Install paho-mqtt package for python3
sudo pip3 install paho-mqtt
golang & rtlamr
Install Go programming language & set gopath
sudo apt-get install golang
If only running go to get rtlamr, just set environment temporarily with the following command
export GOPATH=$HOME/go
Install rtlamr https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr
go get github.com/bemasher/rtlamr
To make things convenient, copy rtlamr to /usr/local/bin
sudo cp ~/go/bin/rtlamr /usr/local/bin/rtlamr
Install
Clone Repo
Clone repo into opt
cd /opt
sudo git clone https://github.com/ragingcomputer/amridm2mqtt.git
Configure
Copy template to settings.py
cd /opt/amridm2mqtt
sudo cp settings_template.py settings.py
Edit file and replace with appropriate values for your configuration
sudo nano /opt/amridm2mqtt/settings.py
Install Service and Start
Create a new file amrscm2mqtt:
sudo nano amrscm2mqtt
Paste this code and save:
'#!/usr/bin/env python3
'''
Runs rtlamr to watch for IDM broadcasts from power meter. If meter id
is in the list, usage is sent to 'readings/{meter id}/meter_reading'
topic on the MQTT broker specified in settings.
WATCHED_METERS = A Python list indicating those meter IDs to record and post.
MQTT_HOST = String containing the MQTT server address.
MQTT_PORT = An int containing the port the MQTT server is active on.
'''
import subprocess
import signal
import sys
import time
import paho.mqtt.publish as publish
import settings
# uses signal to shutdown and hard kill opened processes and self
def shutdown(signum, frame):
subprocess.call('/usr/bin/pkill -9 rtlamr', shell=True)
subprocess.call('/usr/bin/pkill -9 rtl_tcp', shell=True)
subprocess.call('/usr/bin/pkill -9 amridm2mqtt', shell=True)
sys.exit(0)
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, shutdown)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, shutdown)
auth = None
if len(settings.MQTT_USER) and len(settings.MQTT_PASSWORD):
auth = {'username':settings.MQTT_USER, 'password':settings.MQTT_PASSWORD}
# send data to MQTT broker defined in settings
def send_mqtt(topic, payload,):
try:
'#!/usr/bin/env python3
'''
Runs rtlamr to watch for IDM broadcasts from power meter. If meter id
is in the list, usage is sent to 'readings/{meter id}/meter_reading'
topic on the MQTT broker specified in settings.
WATCHED_METERS = A Python list indicating those meter IDs to record and post.
MQTT_HOST = String containing the MQTT server address.
MQTT_PORT = An int containing the port the MQTT server is active on.
'''
import subprocess
import signal
import sys
import time
import paho.mqtt.publish as publish
import settings
# uses signal to shutdown and hard kill opened processes and self
def shutdown(signum, frame):
subprocess.call('/usr/bin/pkill -9 rtlamr', shell=True)
subprocess.call('/usr/bin/pkill -9 rtl_tcp', shell=True)
subprocess.call('/usr/bin/pkill -9 amridm2mqtt', shell=True)
sys.exit(0)
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, shutdown)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, shutdown)
auth = None
if len(settings.MQTT_USER) and len(settings.MQTT_PASSWORD):
auth = {'username':settings.MQTT_USER, 'password':settings.MQTT_PASSWORD}
def send_mqtt(topic, payload,):
try:
publish.single(topic, payload=payload, qos=1, hostname=settings.MQTT_HOST, port=settings.MQ$
except Exception as ex:
print("MQTT Publish Failed: " + str(ex))
time.sleep(30)
# start the rtl_tcp program
rtltcp = subprocess.Popen([settings.RTL_TCP + " > /dev/null 2>&1 &"], shell=True,
stdin=None, stdout=None, stderr=None, close_fds=True)
time.sleep(5)
# start the rtlamr program.
rtlamr = subprocess.Popen([settings.RTLAMR,
'-msgtype=scm',
'-format=csv'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
while True:
try:
# rtlamr's readline returns byte list, remove whitespace and convert to string
amrline = rtlamr.stdout.readline().strip().decode()
# split string on commas
flds = amrline.split(',')
if len(flds) != 9:
# proper SCM results have 9 fields
continue
# make sure the meter id is one we want
meter_id = int(flds[3])
if len(settings.WATCHED_METERS) and meter_id not in settings.WATCHED_METERS:
continue
# get some required info: current meter reading, current interval id, most recent interval $
read_cur = int(flds[7])
current_reading_in_kwh = (read_cur * settings.WH_MULTIPLIER) / 1000
send_mqtt(
'readings/' + str(meter_id) + '/meter_reading',
'%s' % (current_reading_in_kwh)
)
except:
time.sleep(2)
Then edit the service configuration into to point to this new file
ssudo nano /opt/amridm2mqtt/amridm2mqtt.systemd.service
Modify this line ExecStart=/opt/amridm2mqtt/amridm2mqtt
so it points to the new file:
ExecStart=/opt/amridm2mqtt/amrscm2mqtt
then copy service configuration:
sudo cp /opt/amridm2mqtt/amridm2mqtt.systemd.service /etc/systemd/system/amridm2mqtt.service
Refresh systemd configuration
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Start amridm2mqtt service
sudo service amridm2mqtt start
Set amridm2mqtt to run on startup
sudo systemctl enable amridm2mqtt.service
Configure Home Assistant
To use these values in Home Assistant,
sensor:
- platform: mqtt
state_topic: "readings/12345678/meter_reading"
name: "Power Meter"
unit_of_measurement: kWh
- platform: mqtt
state_topic: "readings/12345678/meter_reading"
name: Gas Meter"
unit_of_measurement: M3
Here is the settings for current value. Since my meters send data approx. every 5 minutes, I did an average based on a 10 minute average. I used these settings because my current reading would do a false spike when home assistant was restarted, as the statistics minimum value would reset to zero:
sensors:
- platform: template
sensors:
current_power_consumption:
value_template: >
{% if states.sensor.power_stats_mean.attributes.min_value | float == 0 %}0
{% elif states.sensor.power_meter.state | float <= states.sensor.power_stats_mean.attributes.min_value | float %}0
{% else %}
{{((states.sensor.power_meter.state | float) - (states.sensor.power_stats_mean.attributes.min_value | float)) * 1000 / 10 * 60 | max (0) | round(2) }}
{% endif %}
unit_of_measurement: 'W'
friendly_name: "Average Current Power Consumption (10 min)"
- platform: template
sensors:
current_gas_consumption:
value_template: >
{% if states.sensor.gas_stats_mean.attributes.min_value | float == 0 %}0
{% elif states.sensor.gas_meter.state | float <= states.sensor.gas_stats_mean.attributes.min_value | float %}0
{% else %}
{{((states.sensor.gas_meter.state | float) - (states.sensor.gas_stats_mean.attributes.min_value | float)) * 1000 / 10 | max (0) | round(2) }}
{% endif %}
unit_of_measurement: 'cdm/min'
friendly_name: "Average Current Gas Consumption (10 min)"
- platform: statistics
name: gas_stats
entity_id: sensor.gas_meter
max_age:
minutes: 10
friendly_name: "Gas Stats"
- platform: statistics
name: power_stats
entity_id: sensor.power_meter
max_age:
minutes: 10
friendly_name: "Power Stats"
For the current daily usage:
sensors:
- platform: template
sensors:
todays_power_consumption:
value_template: >
{{ ((states.sensor.power_meter.state | float) - (states.input_number.midnight_power_consumption.state | float)) | max (0) | round(2) }}
unit_of_measurement: 'kW'
friendly_name: "Today's Power Consumption"
- platform: template
sensors:
todays_gas_consumption:
value_template: >
{{ ((states.sensor.gas_meter.state | float) - (states.input_number.midnight_gas_consumption.state | float)) | max (0) | round(2) }}
unit_of_measurement: 'M3'
friendly_name: "Today's Gas Consumption"
input_number:
midnight_power_consumption:
name: Midnight Power Level
min: 0
max: 999999999
midnight_gas_consumption:
name: Midnight Gas Level
min: 0
max: 999999999
automation:
- id: '1527474342231'
alias: Power Consumption start of the day
trigger:
platform: time
at: '00:00:00'
action:
- service: input_number.set_value
data_template:
entity_id: input_number.midnight_power_consumption
value: "{{ states.sensor.power_meter.state }}"
- service: input_number.set_value
data_template:
entity_id: input_number.midnight_gas_consumption
value: "{{ states.sensor.gas_meter.state }}"
Testing
Assuming you’re using mosquitto as the server, and your meter’s id is 12345678, you can watch for events using the command:
mosquitto_sub -t "readings/12345678/meter_reading"
Or if you’ve password protected mosquitto
mosquitto_sub -t "readings/12345678/meter_reading" -u <user_name> -P <password>
Hope this helps someone else with their setup. It took me a while to get it working.
