Decoding 433 MHz Devices With SDR

There are lots of simple devices broadcasting messages in the air at 433MHz. Things like weather stations, doorbells, remotes, and even car tyre pressure readers. In this video I go through how to set up the program rtl_433 on a Raspberry Pi to decode these messages.

SDR setup video

[jaredbater]

Very cool stuff. It's comforting to know that I'm not the only nerd walking around my neighbourhood doing strange stuff with RF ;)

[gavinguy]

Great video, I remember using your original video to get my pi receiving the data from my oil tank. I then scripted it to replicate Json output from a Tesla battery so I could integrate the percentage remaining in my smart home setup. Thanks

[elesjuan]

Late to the party; watched this the day you posted, but just now got around to the project. Thanks for this video! You actually reminded me of the ability to decode ISM environmental sensors. Funny enough, I'm sitting on my couch watching your video, then I happen to look outside at the weather station my neighbor put up at our property line a few weeks ago. Then you get to "that means I have a weather station" and it clicked. Todays project was to spin up a new LXC container in proxmox, install ubuntu LTS, compile the rtl/rtl_433 apps and get to sniffing. Immediately found his station on the 915MHz ISM band, put together a quick script to ensure rtl_433 is always running and pump the data into MQTT.

Side benefit? Not only do I now have his weather station data in my Home Assistant, but I also managed to find my friggin natural gas meter in the same band! Today was all about winning! :D

[TheMadMagician]

Look forward to the future of this!
Great to see you have found a decoder; makes me want to pull the old HackRF out. I used to sniff about in the 915-928, 313 and the 433/434 bands, just to try and see what was out there, but never found decoding software to make much sense of it and see what things really were. It would be cool to be able to generate 915 or 433 signalling and punch it over TCP/UDP to a remote SDR transceiver :-)

[itsmestevieg]

Congratulations, you have now inherited a weather station :) thanks for another awesome video mate. Would love to catch up with ya sometime (as I'm from Brissy too). Cheers

[stormchaser]

imagine the fun you could have ringing peoples door bells from a distance lol😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[MrGeekGamer]

I live on quite literally the opposite side of the planet and I've never heard of Abarth cars. As soon as I fired up rtl_433 I started seeing TPMS readings from "Abarth-124Spider", just like in the video.

I suspect that other Stellantis vehicles, probably Fiat, are using the same sensors.

[Wairoakid]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for covering.

[jono]

"sudo bash, no mucking around" 😂👍

[williameats]

Great video, gives me inspiration Thanks, I'm off to get some rtl sdr dongles and get some antennas up on the roof

[loc]

I've got a bit of interest in radio so thanks for the vid. Oh and BTW, you'll get better reception with an antenna specifically tuned for the 433MHz band.

[padden]

Neighbour watching: *I better get 100 digits on my wifi password* :-)

[murrij]

Just found your channel. Great content. Thank you.

[jaromanda]

I use my SDR dongle to track aircraft - i.e. like flightradar24 - even plotting on a map - pretty decent range using the standard TV antenna too - oh, and it's a bargain basement dongle, nothing fancy

[JoshuaFawcett]

@CWNE88 Do you mean 433Mhz? The title says 443Mhz.

[systemG]

I love this! I have been using RTL SDR for years mostly as a curiosity but I think this might help with a project. I have heard that when debunking ghosts/hauntings, people will look for correlations between an "event" and radio traffic. Point being that some people fake ghosts using tricks, and sometimes that trick is a RF remote activating something. So if you can clearly show that every time the ghost knocked on the wall there was a 433mhz transmission, then you probably just have a hoax.

Do you think you need a big antenna or would the default RTL SDR antenna be good enough for detecting these signals even if they came from outside a house?

[nrdgrrrl]

Lol yes the tire pressure sensors, they have unique serial numbers too and temperature sensors too. Fun tracking neighbors

[dickolij]

where can find the installation file sudo bash etc named in the video ?

[robertsulley]

Great video. Looking forward to the follow-up. Is the doorbell modulating anything or is it just a carrier?

[triularity]

Waits for the follow up video, "Pranking my neighbors for youtube likes using SDR" =)