Mighty Mule FM231 Driveway Sensor RTL_433 to MQTT HA Configuration

I would like to configure HA so that the ‘Mighty Mule FM231 Wireless Driveway Alarm’ is recognized as a device via RTL_433 to MQTT. The FM231 is a coil sensor, located by the driveway, that generates AM modulated RF signals at 433.92Mhz to a corresponding receiver, located in the home, that generates a sound.

  • The FM231 is installed and the receiver sounds an alarm when a car disturbs the magnetic field around the coil sensor.

  • Mosquitto Broker integration is installed and communicating to a LILYGO® LoRa32 V2.1_1.6.1 433 Mhz board flashed with OpenMQTT Gateway v7.0 with Auto Discovery enabled.

  • Multiple AcuRite RTL_433 Indoor Outdoor Temperature and Humidity Sensors (592TXR) were discovered and configured as devices in HA

  • The FM231 is not discovered by HA and I’m unable to identify its topic in MQTT Explorer.

I did find Add support for mightymule driveway alarm FM231 which references MightyMule-FM231.conf.

Is the FM231 not a known device to OpenMQTT? I’m using the default switch settings on both sensor and the receiver … would modifying that help? Is there an additional step that I’m missing?

Thanks in advance!

I am VERY interested in this, and you sound way more advanced on this topic. I did a lot of work trying to get a signal into HA, but concentrated on trying to use a dry contact switch to key off te LED in the mighty mule receiver. I ended up using a ZOOZ switch that was very cumbersome. I did find where some guy had used homebridge to tie into HA and pick up the 433 mhz signal, but I am not familiar at all with home bridge.

I love the mighty mule magnetic driveway sensor, as I have tons of deer around, but none are magnetic, turns out.

merkurmaniac thanks for the reply … apologies for the delayed response, I’ve been off playing with TrueNAS … so, I’m still trying to sort this out.

I’m ‘guessing’ the real issue is that the FM231 is NOT a known device to the OpenMQTT Gateway (it doesn’t include MightyMule=FM231.conf) so it’s unable to decode the FM231 RF signals.

Next steps …

  • Move the OpenMQTT Gateway closer to the FM231 to confirm that it’s not a range issue.
  • Use a Shelley Plus 1 as a binary sensor (detached mode enabled) connected to the buzzer/led on the FM231 receiver. Power the relay from the receivers’ 12V DC power.
  • Compile the OpenMQTT Gateway to include the FM231 decoder. While this would be the most eloquent solution, it’s a skill that I don’t currently possess.

You can ask on the OpenMQTTGateway forum

francisp thanks for the suggestion. I’ve asked for clarification/assistance on the Theengs (OpenMQQT Gateway) forum.