AMRSCM2MQTT: Send AMR/ERT Power Meter Data Over MQTT

Copyright (c) 2018 Ben Johnson. Distributed under MIT License.

Using an inexpensive rtl-sdr dongle, it's possible to listen for signals from ERT compatible smart meters using rtlamr. This script runs as a daemon, launches rtl_tcp and rtlamr, and parses the output from rtlamr. If this matches your meter, it will push the data into MQTT for consumption by Home Assistant, OpenHAB, or custom scripts.

TODO: Video for Home Assistant

Changes from Original Project

This fork is specifically tuned for reading SCM messages (but can easily be changed back to IDM with a few edits)

• Supports TLS (server-side) for encrypted communication
• Symbol lengths are tuned (and can be adjusted) to reduce CPU consumption
• Uses a single MQTT session running in a background thread
• Only updates MQTT when the value changes
• More robust availability handling

Example Topic: meters/32109876/reading

Requirements

Tested under Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit) (Debian Bullseye)

rtl-sdr package

Install RTL-SDR package

sudo apt-get install rtl-sdr

Set permissions on rtl-sdr device (check your device info via lsusb)

/etc/udev/rules.d/rtl-sdr.rules

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bda", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2832", MODE:="0666"

Prevent tv tuner drivers from using rtl-sdr device

/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 backoff

Install paho-mqtt and backoff packages for python3

sudo pip3 install paho-mqtt

golang & rtlamr

Install Go programming language & set gopath

sudo apt-get install golang

https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SettingGOPATH

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, I'm copying 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/jherby2k/amridm2mqtt.git amrscm2mqtt

Configure

Copy template to settings.py

cd /opt/amrscm2mqtt

sudo cp settings_template.py settings.py

Edit file and replace with appropriate values for your configuration

sudo nano /opt/amrscm2mqtt/settings.py

Install Service and Start

Copy amrscm2mqtt service configuration into systemd config

sudo cp /opt/amrscm2mqtt/amrscm2mqtt.systemd.service /etc/systemd/system/amrscm2mqtt.service

Refresh systemd configuration

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start amridm2mqtt service

sudo service amrscm2mqtt start

Set amridm2mqtt to run on startup

sudo systemctl enable amrscm2mqtt.service

Configure Home Assistant

To use these values in Home Assistant,

mqtt:
  sensor:
    - name: Gas Meter
      state_topic: meters/12345678/reading
      availability_topic: meters/availability
      unit_of_measurement: m³
      device_class: gas
      state_class: total
      value_template: '{{ (value | int(0) * 0.0283) | round(2) }}'  # Optional, converts readings in cubic feet to m³

Testing

Assuming you're using mosquitto as the server, and your meter's sends SCM messages with id 12345678, you can watch for events using the command:

mosquitto_sub -t "meters/12345678/reading"

Or if you've password protected mosquitto

mosquitto_sub -t "meters/12345678/reading" -u <user_name> -P <password>

If all else fails, you can listen to the base topic to see what's actually getting posted

mosquitto_sub -t "meters/#" -u <user_name> -P <password>