DXing TPMS sensors with RTL_SDR

[jwt873]

I recently picked up a wireless doorbell. Right off the bat it was getting triggered by nearby 433 MHz signals.

Looking at the waterfall from my NooElec R820T I noticed that it was really busy around 433.920. I was wondering what these signals were.

So I installed the RTL_433 device decoding program on my Linux computer and plugged in the NooElec R820T SDR dongle. I connected it to my 21 element 432 MHz Yagi pointed at the road 200 feet from my house.

Darned if I'm not picking up tire TPMS sensors from a lot of the passing cars. Along with that I'm getting someones weather station.

I understand the RTL_433 program is also available for Windows and as a plug-in for SDR#

I've never DXed TPMS sensors before.

 

[devicelab]

and just imagine what you could hear from the NSA's TPMS sensors designed by the TAO engineers!

 

[smason]

I remember when I first joined RR and there was discussion about monitoring drive-thru on 49?mhz.
I thought - what could be less interesting than drive-thru comms.
Now I know.

 

[BinaryMode]

Look at all those unique IDs...

Make and model of wireless doorbell?

 

[Spleen]

I remember when I first joined RR and there was discussion about monitoring drive-thru on 49?mhz.
I thought - what could be less interesting than drive-thru comms.
Now I know.

Admittedly, I was somewhat addicted to firing up the scanner on 49MHz when some of the apartment buildings still used that range for the doorbell/intercoms. Friday or Saturday night, when the bars started closing...in an urban environment...good times...those convos beat drive through and (most) cordless phone conversations hands down...

 

[Jphila20]

I recently picked up a wireless doorbell. Right off the bat it was getting triggered by nearby 433 MHz signals.

Looking at the waterfall from my NooElec R820T I noticed that it was really busy around 433.920. I was wondering what these signals were.

So I installed the RTL_433 device decoding program on my Linux computer and plugged in the NooElec R820T SDR dongle. I connected it to my 21 element 432 MHz Yagi pointed at the road 200 feet from my house.

Darned if I'm not picking up tire TPMS sensors from a lot of the passing cars. Along with that I'm getting someones weather station.

I understand the RTL_433 program is also available for Windows and as a plug-in for SDR#

I've never DXed TPMS sensors before.

I'm a little familiar with Unbuntu, novice to be more like it, and have used OP25.

Will the RTL_433 device decoding program work in Unbuntu and is it a stand alone software?

I looked on Github and I don't see a windows version. I mostly use Unitrunker and SDRTrunk.

Thanks!

John

 

[R0am3r]

Anyone with a few skills can build the Windows executable by cloning the rtl_433 github repository with Visual Studio. The build instructions are included in the BUILDING.md file. I believe you will need PothosSDR installed. During the PothosSDR installation, choose "Add PothosSDR to the system PATH". The git clone repository is located here:

GitHub - merbanan/rtl_433: Program to decode radio transmissions from devices on the ISM bands (and other frequencies)

Program to decode radio transmissions from devices on the ISM bands (and other frequencies) - GitHub - merbanan/rtl_433: Program to decode radio transmissions from devices on the ISM bands (and oth...

github.com

 

[jwt873]

I'm a little familiar with Unbuntu, novice to be more like it, and have used OP25.

Will the RTL_433 device decoding program work in Unbuntu and is it a stand alone software?

I'm using Neon, which is based on Ubuntu. rtl_433 is a stand-alone program that you run from a terminal.

If you've set up a repository for software updates etc, you can install the program by opening a terminal and typing:

sudo apt-get install rtl-433

Your system should fetch it from the repository and then install it. After that, type: rtl_433. If it recognizes your SDR receiver, it should run.

One thing to note.. To install it, you use rtl-433 (with a dash). To run it you use rtl_433 (with an underscore). Not sure why they did that.

 

[Jphila20]

I'm using Neon, which is based on Ubuntu. rtl_433 is a stand-alone program that you run from a terminal.

If you've set up a repository for software updates etc, you can install the program by opening a terminal and typing:

sudo apt-get install rtl-433

Your system should fetch it from the repository and then install it. After that, type: rtl_433. If it recognizes your SDR receiver, it should run.

One thing to note.. To install it, you use rtl-433 (with a dash). To run it you use rtl_433 (with an underscore). Not sure why they did that.

Thanks for info!!

 

[merlin]

I installed and played with this a bit on Windows. Running the test, my dongle passed, so now to look for something to log.
Not much here, once in a pink moon, maybe a key fob.
Cool program.

 

[merlin]

I remember when I first joined RR and there was discussion about monitoring drive-thru on 49?mhz.
I thought - what could be less interesting than drive-thru comms.
Now I know.

Baby monitors - Smooz

 

[R0am3r]

For even more excitement, don't forget about those power meters. You will also need rtl_tcp for this one to work.

GitHub - bemasher/rtlamr: An rtl-sdr receiver for Itron ERT compatible smart meters operating in the 900MHz ISM band.

An rtl-sdr receiver for Itron ERT compatible smart meters operating in the 900MHz ISM band. - bemasher/rtlamr

github.com

 

[dlwtrunked]

For even more excitement, don't forget about those power meters. You will also need rtl_tcp for this one to work.

GitHub - bemasher/rtlamr: An rtl-sdr receiver for Itron ERT compatible smart meters operating in the 900MHz ISM band.

An rtl-sdr receiver for Itron ERT compatible smart meters operating in the 900MHz ISM band. - bemasher/rtlamr

github.com

And residential natural gas meters.

 

[they4kman]

It's amazing to me how well rtl-433 and rtlamr work. For about a year and a half, I had rtlamr feeding my meter readings to my personal website, where I'd integrate it with residential rates automatically extracted from the most frustrating of APIs: PDF files. Being able to view second-by-second (well, the meter really only yelled into the ether every 15s, IIRC) power bill amounts was a guilty pleasure... until the power company switched out the RF for the new, fancy Zigbee meters =/

 

[HamImports]

A while back, I wrote a small NodeJS program to consume output from rtl_433 and generate some stats about local devices. rtl_433 will spit out stats to a syslog server, so my program acts as one of those to receive the data. It's far from polished, but I could post it to GitHub if anyone is interested.