svetz
Works in theory! Practice? That's something else
The power company reads your ITRON meter via packet radio protocol using the Encoder receiver transmitter (ERT) protocol developed by Itron for automatic meter reading using radio frequencies (RF) and you can too using a cheap USB dongle!
Here's a link to how to the GitHub project: https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr
I finally had some time to try out the dongle I got from Amazon, and I had it up and running pretty quickly. Here's the dongle out of a hub next to the antenna on a tripod:
Basically there's two software packages: rtl_tcp and rtlamr which you can get precompiled. The protocol information can be found here, The two that look useful to me are IDM (time of use data) and SCM (usage information).
Here's a sample from my ITRON Centron C3A2H output using the -msgtype=all and cutting out all of my neighbors meters:
{Time:2020-02-05T14:23:21.097 IDM:{Preamble:0x555516A3 PacketTypeID:0x1C PacketLength:0x5C HammingCode:0xC6 ApplicationVersion:0x04 ERTType:0x08 ERTSerialNumber: 37023436 ConsumptionIntervalCount:83 ModuleProgrammingState:0x5F TamperCounters:00000A02B007 AsynchronousCounters:0x00 PowerOutageFlags:010000010A00 LastConsumptionCount:635437056 DifferentialConsumptionIntervals:[418 0 32 298 32 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0] TransmitTimeOffset:1954 SerialNumberCRC:0x0B42 PacketCRC:0x0553}}
{Time:2020-02-05T14:32:51.859 SCM+:{ProtocolID:0x1E EndpointType:0x08 EndpointID: 37023436 Consumption: 266 Tamper:0x0000 PacketCRC:0x365B}}
{Time:2020-02-05T14:32:52.030 SCM+:{ProtocolID:0x1E EndpointType:0x08 EndpointID: 37023437 Consumption: 9696 Tamper:0x0000 PacketCRC:0x1475}}
{Time:2020-02-05T14:32:52.204 SCM+:{ProtocolID:0x1E EndpointType:0x08 EndpointID: 37023438 Consumption: 210 Tamper:0x0100 PacketCRC:0xDF08}}
I was a little surprised that the meter's deliver, dnn, and receive numbers consisted of 3 messages with sequential EndpointIDs based on the meters id (37023436/7/8 ).
The IDM messages are either broadcast at random intervals or more likely the radio wasn't on the correct frequency all the times. I've seen times of 3 to 10 minutes on the IDM information and for SCM+ information 2 to 6 minutes. Possible that can be be fine tuned by only listening for specific IDs or adjusting the software.
Here's a link to how to the GitHub project: https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr
I finally had some time to try out the dongle I got from Amazon, and I had it up and running pretty quickly. Here's the dongle out of a hub next to the antenna on a tripod:
Basically there's two software packages: rtl_tcp and rtlamr which you can get precompiled. The protocol information can be found here, The two that look useful to me are IDM (time of use data) and SCM (usage information).
Here's a sample from my ITRON Centron C3A2H output using the -msgtype=all and cutting out all of my neighbors meters:
{Time:2020-02-05T14:23:21.097 IDM:{Preamble:0x555516A3 PacketTypeID:0x1C PacketLength:0x5C HammingCode:0xC6 ApplicationVersion:0x04 ERTType:0x08 ERTSerialNumber: 37023436 ConsumptionIntervalCount:83 ModuleProgrammingState:0x5F TamperCounters:00000A02B007 AsynchronousCounters:0x00 PowerOutageFlags:010000010A00 LastConsumptionCount:635437056 DifferentialConsumptionIntervals:[418 0 32 298 32 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0] TransmitTimeOffset:1954 SerialNumberCRC:0x0B42 PacketCRC:0x0553}}
{Time:2020-02-05T14:32:51.859 SCM+:{ProtocolID:0x1E EndpointType:0x08 EndpointID: 37023436 Consumption: 266 Tamper:0x0000 PacketCRC:0x365B}}
{Time:2020-02-05T14:32:52.030 SCM+:{ProtocolID:0x1E EndpointType:0x08 EndpointID: 37023437 Consumption: 9696 Tamper:0x0000 PacketCRC:0x1475}}
{Time:2020-02-05T14:32:52.204 SCM+:{ProtocolID:0x1E EndpointType:0x08 EndpointID: 37023438 Consumption: 210 Tamper:0x0100 PacketCRC:0xDF08}}
I was a little surprised that the meter's deliver, dnn, and receive numbers consisted of 3 messages with sequential EndpointIDs based on the meters id (37023436/7/8 ).
The IDM messages are either broadcast at random intervals or more likely the radio wasn't on the correct frequency all the times. I've seen times of 3 to 10 minutes on the IDM information and for SCM+ information 2 to 6 minutes. Possible that can be be fine tuned by only listening for specific IDs or adjusting the software.
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