Comments on: Reading my Water Meter in Home Assistant with USB SDR https://www.techopt.io/smart-home/reading-my-water-meter-in-home-assistant-with-usb-sdr Programming, servers, Linux, Windows, macOS & more Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:58:03 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 By: David Goguen https://www.techopt.io/smart-home/reading-my-water-meter-in-home-assistant-with-usb-sdr#comment-33 Fri, 07 Aug 2026 11:56:07 +0000 https://www.techopt.io/?p=860#comment-33 In reply to Kev.

It’s cool to see someone else from Ottawa on here!

I feel like this antenna should work.

My understanding of the rtl_433 software I mention in this blog is that it will only print signals it knows how to decode, so if it detects something it can’t decode it just won’t print anything.
I wonder if maybe the rtlamr2mqtt software is similar and just doesn’t know how to decode the signal. Since I’ve already confirmed rtl_433 does, it might be worth trying rtl_433 (even temporarily) just to rule that out.

Otherwise, how close is your antenna to your meter? The only other thing I can think of is I’ve got an external antenna tuned to the frequency, whereas on that dongle it looks like the antenna is much smaller and built in. You might need to have it pretty close to be able to pick up the signal.

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By: Kev https://www.techopt.io/smart-home/reading-my-water-meter-in-home-assistant-with-usb-sdr#comment-32 Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:57:46 +0000 https://www.techopt.io/?p=860#comment-32 Hey, it’s nice to see someone from Ottawa who is able to do this.

I’m trying to do the same thing by integrating city of ottawa water meter data into my HA but I can’t seem to pick up the signal from my water meter. This is what I’m using after my research
https://www.amazon.ca/NooElec-NESDR-Mini-Compatible-ESD-Safe/dp/B00PAGS0HO?pd_rd_w=tr2lU&content-id=amzn1.sym.a6222432-b80a-416c-8131-3f90f9db32fd%3Aamzn1.symc.c3d5766d-b606-46b8-ab07-1d9d1da0638a&pf_rd_p=a6222432-b80a-416c-8131-3f90f9db32fd&pf_rd_r=XDYSW6KAS43K7TEDSH19&pd_rd_wg=LoLUg&pd_rd_r=0d55f8b4-276a-4d39-a989-45d780f981fb&pd_rd_i=B00PAGS0HO

Do you know if this one will work the same way as your RTL? I used the rtlamr2mqtt add-on in HA which automatically integrates with the RTL. I can only pick up SCM and SCM+ signal but cant get any r900. It’s been configured to pull in these protocols scm,scm+,idm,r900.

Let me know what you think.

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