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Things you can do with a Software Defined Radio (2024)

(blinry.org)
940 points mihau | 2 comments | 16 Sep 25 14:35 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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EvanAnderson ◴[16 Sep 25 15:29 UTC] No.45263615[source]▶
Receiving 433Mhz sensor data using rtl_433[0] with an RTL SDR was a lot of fun when I started doing it last year. There's MQTT output if you want to send it to Home Assistant, et. al., as well as simple text output to stdout. It was great fun seeing my neighbors' sensors, tire pressure sensors in passing vehicles, etc.

There a ton of devices that use 433Mhz. You can also extend rtl_433 pretty easily.

[0] https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433

replies(2): >>45263911 #>>45264091 #
1. rpcope1 ◴[16 Sep 25 16:04 UTC] No.45264091[source]▶
A lot of the 433/915 band devices you can pick up with rtl_433 seem to be much more bullet proof and have longer battery life than equivalent WiFi and Zigbee devices too. Building new protocol decoders for rtl_433 also surprisingly isn't too bad either. One of my favorite ones is the water meter decoder which has saved me a lot of money when I've had irrigation water leaks and not noticed them (but saw conspicuous usage patterns reported).
replies(1): >>45266094 #
2. jdc0589 ◴[16 Sep 25 18:37 UTC] No.45266094[source]▶
ive got ~15 deployed sensors/transmitters and I haven't touched a single one in 14 months since initial setup. its super reliable if you can get your receiver/antenna somewhere that works well.

WAY cheaper than the other options too.