Sub-$100 Networked 433Mhz Receiver for Home Assistant

I previously wrote about my install of RTL-433 on a Raspberry Pi, running Raspberry Pi OS Buster. With the release of Bullseye, rtl-433 is now merged into the repository and doesn't need to be compiled from source. So, I thought it would be a good time to revisit this project and make a video about it, this time using a cheap eBay thin client instead of a raspberry pi, and showcasing my setup a bit. As I'm using Home Assistant in my home automation system, anything that can publish to MQTT can be brought in, so buying fairly cheap off the shelf sensors which are rugged enough to survive for years outdoors is a great use case for me, even if there is virtually no security in the 433Mhz world. Overall, I was able to setup the receiver for under $100, which is pretty good as far as home automation products go.

Link to my blog post on this:

My Discord Server, where you can carry on the discussion or suggest future topics:

Link to the RTL-433 Github page, which includes a list of all supported sensors:

Buy the Nooelec SDR receiver I'm using in this demo:

Buy the Acurite 609TXC replacement sensor I'm using at my house:

Buy a Dell Wyse 3040 thin client on eBay:

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
00:52 - Hardware
03:01 - Software
07:40 - Systemd Service
10:47 - Home Assistant Configuration
11:00 - Conclusions

Some links to products may be affiliate links, which may earn a commission for me.
#homeassistant
#homeautomation
#433mhz

[miked]

I use a router with a USB2 port and flashed with Openwrt. RTL433 is available in the Openwrt repository.

[Qosmio]

Great tutorial and it works just great. I integrated sensors from my weather station into Home Assistant and it all toodled along perfectly until the batteries in the weather station went flat. When I put the new batteries in, the weather station gave itself a new ID number which meant that the mqtt path to the sensor was different to what I had configured in my yaml file. It took a while to suss it out, but all is good again...

[thewavesmith]

Thank you sir, this was a very usefull video that I managed to follow and get working happily. I only have a modicum of knowledge with pi’s and Linux but your blog description was perfect and I’m happily decoding to HA. I had to faff a big as I’m using a pi3 but we are all good. Thanks 🙏

[boristhegeek]

Such awesome stuff. I’m so trying this. I’ve been using decommissioned Dell wyse terminals from work (thanks to you) instead of RasPi as well. But I def want to try this. Also love the blooper outtakes at the end. Priceless. Thanks so much

[timfoster]

Most of this is over my head, but it's where I need to start. I have some 433 stuff lying around the house, and i want Home Assistant to control them, so....

[GeoffSeeley]

Thanks for this! I just setup HA but getting my SDR/Acurite sensors hooked into it was still on the todo list as I knew I'd have to do something like this after playing with the rtl_433 software. I'm going to take this one step further and do it in a Proxmox CT or VM.

[robertopontone]

Great topic, explained in plain simple way. Thank you 😊

[gold_space]

Very cool.. didn't know 433 mhz is used by these cheap sensors.. learned something new.. great usecase for my rtl sdr.

[CharcoalDaddyBBQ]

Cool!!! Thank you for sharing! More sensors for my home! Love it!

[Tntdruid]

Very cool, the 433 sensors are very cheap 👍

[boristhegeek]

Oh I just noticed RTL433 has a Docker image so I wonder if we can pass through NESDR to proxmox 🤔

[bitterrotten]

This is exactly what I needed. Thank you.

[nerd]

Awwww, Mister Sherlock just wants attention! :)

[magfal]

There's a reason most stuff on 433 is non encrypted: it's a legal requirement to broadcast on the frequency in many places.

[AntonisAsc]

Very nice video! I know I want to start learning to setup Home Assistant and 433 is in many sensors etc. Your cute cat has some objections and interrupts your video :3

[AshishK-el]

Can you suggest how to integrate the YALE 4109 model it has the RF Module plugged in pink 447.2625Mhz can you suggest how to integrate in Home assistant using the RF HUB which RF hub do you suggest

My TV tuner stick gets warm, almost hot by continuously running RTL-433 on it, so I'm not sure if it's a good idea to run this 24/7. It's one of those RTL2832U green RTLSDR sticks covered in aluminum from Ali Express. What is your experience with this? As you've said, 433MHz outdoor sensors are dirt cheap, so I'm considering this method.

[rboatguy]

Seems that 433MHz is on its way out in N America in favor of 915MHz. I'm going to try your method with some ecowitt devices that use that frequency. Did you have any issues loading Linux o the thin client?

[electronixTech]

I wonder if this would work with a 10-year-old La Crosse weather station I have. I can hear data from the sensor on my Uniden scanner at 433.787 MHz and was always interested in using the data from it and route it to my computer.

[jean-lucbezzina]

Hello
Thanks for your tutorial. I am French and came across your very interesting explanation.
i use 433 mhz in my project and also zigbbe with the mosquitto broker. But I see you are using homeassistant in a debian distribution. What I had managed to do because I did not want to free myself from the bone to do something else. Only I saw on I do not avsi the pluggins then qh'one has it when one loads a homeassistant version for RASBIAN.
Do you have an idea or a tutorial that explains how to do it?
Good continuation. Great !