wmbusmeters

The program receives and decodes C1 or T1 telegrams (using the wireless mbus protocol) to acquire utility meter readings. The readings can then be published using MQTT, curled to a REST api, inserted into a database or stored in a log file.

FAQ/WIKI/MANUAL pages

The program runs on GNU/Linux, MacOSX and Raspberry Pi.

OS	Status
GNU/Linux & MacOSX

Static Scan	Status
Linux G++

Run as a daemon

Remove the wmbus dongle (im871a,amb8465) or the generic rtlsdr dongle (RTL2838) from your computer.

make; sudo make install will install wmbusmeters as a daemon that starts automatically when an appropriate wmbus usb dongle is inserted in the computer. (Note! make install only works for GNU/Linux. For MacOSX try to start wmbusmetersd /tmp/thepidfile from a script instead.)

Check the config file /etc/wmbusmeters.conf:

loglevel=normal
device=auto
logtelegrams=false
format=json
meterfiles=/var/log/wmbusmeters/meter_readings
meterfilesaction=overwrite
logfile=/var/log/wmbusmeters/wmbusmeters.log
shell=/usr/bin/mosquitto_pub -h localhost -t wmbusmeters/$METER_ID -m "$METER_JSON"

Then add a meter file in /etc/wmbusmeters.d/MyTapWater

name=MyTapWater
type=multical21
id=12345678
key=00112233445566778899AABBCCDDEEFF

Now plugin your wmbus dongle. Wmbusmeters should start automatically, check with tail -f /var/log/syslog and tail -f /var/log/wmbusmeters/wmbusmeters.log (If you are using an rtlsdr dongle, then make sure the binaries /usr/bin/rtl_sdr and /usr/bin/rtl_wmbus exists and are executable.)

The latest reading of the meter can also be found here: /var/log/wmbusmeters/meter_readings/MyTapWater

You can use several ids using id=1111111,2222222,3333333 or you can listen to all meters of a certain type id=*.

Run using config files

If you cannot install as a daemon, then you can also start wmbusmeters in your terminal using the config files in /etc/wmbusmeters.

wmbusmeters --useconfig=/

Or you can start wmbusmeters with your own config files:

wmbusmeters --useconfig=/home/me/.config/wmbusmeters

The files/dir should then be located here: /home/me/.config/wmbusmeters/etc/wmbusmeters.conf and /home/me/.config/wmbusmeters/etc/wmbusmeters.d

Running without config files, good for experimentation and test.

wmbusmeters version: 0.9.4
Usage: wmbusmeters {options} <device> ( [meter_name] [meter_type] [meter_id] [meter_key] )*

As <options> you can use:

    --c1 or --t1 listen to C1 or T1 messages when no meters are supplied
    --debug for a lot of information
    --exitafter=<time> exit program after time, eg 20h, 10m 5s
    --format=<hr/json/fields> for human readable, json or semicolon separated fields
    --logfile=<file> use this file instead of stdout
    --logtelegrams log the contents of the telegrams for easy replay
    --meterfiles=<dir> store meter readings in dir
    --meterfilesaction=(overwrite|append) overwrite or append to the meter readings file
    --n1a to --n1f listen to N1 messages (perhaps)
    --oneshot wait for an update from each meter, then quit
    --separator=<c> change field separator to c
    --shell=<cmdline> invokes cmdline with env variables containing the latest reading
    --shellenvs list the env variables available for the meter
    --useconfig=<dir> load config files from dir/etc
    --verbose for more information

As a <device> you can use: auto
which will look for the links /dev/im87a,/dev/amb8475 and /dev/rtlsdr (the
links are automatically generated by udev if you have run the install scripts.)
and start wmbusmeters with the proper tty device or rtlwmbus background process.

As a <device> you can also use: the exact /dev/ttyUSB0 to your dongle if you do not want
to install the udev rule.

As a <device> you can also use: rtlwmbus
to spawn the background process: "rtl_sdr -f 868.95M -s 1600000 - 2>/dev/null | rtl_wmbus"
You can also use: rtlwmbus:868.9M to use this fq instead. Fq tuning can sometimes
be necessary. Or you can specify the entire background process command line: "rtlwmbus:<commandline>"

As meter quadruples you specify:
<meter_name> a mnemonic for this particular meter
<meter_type> one of the supported meters
<meter_id> an 8 digit mbus id, usually printed on the meter
<meter_key> an encryption key unique for the meter
    if the meter uses no encryption, then supply ""

Supported water meters:
Kamstrup Multical 21 (multical21)
Kamstrup flowIQ 3100 (flowiq3100)
Sontex Supercom 587 (supercom587)
Sensus iPERL (iperl)
Apator at-wmbus-16-2 (apator162) (non-standard protocol)
Water meter Techem MK Radio 3 (mkradio3)

Supported heat cost allocator:
Qundis Q caloric (qcaloric)

Supported heat meter:
Heat meter Techem Vario 4 (vario451)

Supported electricity meters:
Tauron Amiplus (amiplus) (includes vendor apator and echelon)

Work in progress:
Heat meter Kamstrup Multical 302 (multical302)
Electricity meter Kamstrup Omnipower (omnipower)

The wmbus dongles imst871a and amb8465 can only listen on one type of wmbus telegrams at a time. So you can listen to multiple meters as long as they all require the same radio mode C1 or T1. If you use rtlwmbus, then you can listen to both C1 and T1 at the same time.

Usage examples

wmbusmeters /dev/ttyUSB0 MyTapWater multical21 12345678 00112233445566778899AABBCCDDEEFF

wmbusmeters will detect which kind of dongle is connected to /dev/ttyUSB0. It can be either an IMST 871a dongle or an Amber Wireless AMB8465. If you have performed make install or added the udev rules yourself, then you can use auto instead of the exact usb device.

Example output:

MyTapWater 12345678 6.388 m3 6.377 m3 0.000 m3/h 8°C 23°C DRY(dry 22-31 days) 2018-03-05 12:02.50

(Here the multical21 itself, is configured to send target volume, therefore the max flow is 0.000 m3/h.)

Example format json output:

wmbusmeters --format=json auto MyTapWater multical21 12345678 00112233445566778899AABBCCDDEEFF MyHeater multical302 22222222 00112233445566778899AABBCCDDEEFF

{"media":"cold water","meter":"multical21","name":"MyTapWater","id":"12345678","total_m3":6.388,"target_m3":6.377,"max_flow_m3h":0.000,"flow_temperature":8,"external_temperature":23,"current_status":"DRY","time_dry":"22-31 days","time_reversed":"","time_leaking":"","time_bursting":"","timestamp":"2018-02-08T09:07:22Z"}

{"media":"heat","meter":"multical302","name":"MyHeater","id":"22222222","total_kwh":0.000,"total_volume_m3":0.000,"current_kw":"0.000","timestamp":"2018-02-08T09:07:22Z"}

Example format fields output and use rtlsdr dongle with rtlwmbus tuned to 868.9MHz instead of the default 868.95MHz.

wmbusmeters --format=fields rtlwmbus:868.9M GreenhouseWater multical21 33333333 ""

GreenhouseTapWater;33333333;9999.099;77.712;0.000;11;31;;2018-03-05 12:10.24

Eaxmple of using the shell command to publish to MQTT:

wmbusmeters --shell='HOME=/home/you mosquitto_pub -h localhost -t water -m "$METER_JSON"' auto GreenhouseWater multical21 33333333 ""

Eaxmple of using the shell command to inject data into postgresql database:

wmbusmeters --shell="psql waterreadings -c \"insert into readings values ('\$METER_ID',\$METER_TOTAL_M3,'\$METER_TIMESTAMP') \" " auto MyColdWater multical21 12345678 ""

You can have multiple shell commands and they will be executed in the order you gave them on the commandline. Note that to single quotes around the command is necessary to pass the env variable names into wmbusmeters. To list the shell env variables available for your meter, add --shellenvs to the commandline: wmbusmeters --shellenvs auto Water iperl 12345678 "" which outputs:

Environment variables provided to shell for meter iperl:
METER_JSON
METER_TYPE
METER_ID
METER_TOTAL_M3
METER_MAX_FLOW_M3H
METER_TIMESTAMP

You can use --debug to get both verbose output and the actual data bytes sent back and forth with the wmbus usb dongle.

If the meter does not use encryption of its meter data, then enter an empty key on the command line. (you must enter "")

wmbusmeters --format=json --meterfiles auto MyTapWater multical21 12345678 ""

If you have a Multical21 meter and you have received a KEM file and its password, from your water municipality, then you can use the utils/XMLExtract.java utility to get the meter key from the KEM file. You need to unzip the the KEM file first though, if it is zipped.

You can run wmbusmeters with --logtelegrams to get log output that can be placed in a simulation.txt file. You can then run wmbusmeter and instead of auto (or an usb device) provide the simulationt.xt file as argument. See test.sh for more info.

Builds and runs on GNU/Linux and MacOSX (with recent XCode)

make && make test

Binary generated: ./build/wmbusmeters

make HOST=arm to cross compile from GNU/Linux to Raspberry PI.

Binary generated: ./build_arm/wmbusmeters

make DEBUG=true

Binary generated: ./build_debug/wmbusmeters

make DEBUG=true HOST=arm

Binary generated: ./build_arm_debug/wmbusmeters

make HOST=arm dist

(Work in progress...) Binary generated: ./wmbusmeters_0.8_armhf.deb

System configuration

make install installs the files:

/etc/wmbusmeters.conf /usr/bin/wmbusmeters /usr/sbin/wmbusmetersd /etc/systemd/system/wmbusmeters.service /etc/udev/rules.d/99-wmbus-usb-serial.rules /etc/logrotate.d/wmbusmeters

creates these directories: /etc/wmbusmeters.d /var/log/wmbusmeters/meter_readings

and adds the user wmbusmeters with no login account.

This means that when a im871a/amb8465 dongle is inserted, then the appropriate /dev/im871a or /dev/amb8465 link is created. Also the wmbusmeters daemon will be automatically started/stopped whenever the im871a/amb8465 dongle is inserted/removed, and the daemon starts when the computer boots, if the dongle is already inserted.

If you do not want the daemon to start automatically, simply edit /dev/udev/rules.d/99-wmbus-usb-serial.rules and remove ,TAG+="systemd",ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}="wmbusmeters.service" from each line.

You can also start/stop the daemon with sudo systemctl start wmbusmeters

Source code

The source code is modular and it should be relatively straightforward to add more receivers and meters.

Read for example the text file: HowToAddaNewMeter.txt

Good documents on the wireless mbus protocol:

https://oms-group.org/download4all/

http://www.m-bus.com/files/w4b21021.pdf

https://www.infineon.com/dgdl/TDA5340_AN_WMBus_v1.0.pdf

http://fastforward.ag/downloads/docu/FAST_EnergyCam-Protocol-wirelessMBUS.pdf

http://www.multical.hu/WiredMBus-water.pdf

http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:847898/FULLTEXT02.pdf

http://projekter.aau.dk/projekter/da/studentthesis/wireless-mbus-based-extremely-low-power-protocol-for-wireless-communication-with-water-meters(6e1139d5-6f24-4b8a-a727-9bc108012bcc).html

The AES source code is copied from:

https://github.com/kokke/tiny-AES128-C

TODO: CRC checks are still missing. If the wrong AES key is supplied you probably get zero readings and sometimes warnings about wrong type of frames.

There is also a lot of wmbus protocol implementation details that probably are missing. They will be added to the program as we figure out how the meters send their data.