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How to get a RTL-SDR receiver on a Synology NAS

Posted: Saturday 27 March 2021 15:26
by JackD
Hi there,

I am stuck getting a USB RTL-SDR receiver to function in Domoticz.

I am running Domoticz on a Synology NAS in a Docker container.
This setup is running stable with a UBS Zwave dongele and A RFXCOM PRO/XL transceiver for a while now.
I am now in the process of adding a USB RTL-SDR dongle to get support for a few specific 433mhz devices which the RFXCOM does not support.
I have not installed any specific RTL-SDR USB drivers on my Synology NAS, only the driverpack from "http://www.jadahl.com"

The RTL433 worker in Domoticz does start, but I can not pick up any 433mhz devices?
Is it correct that the RTL USB dongle does not have a USB port (see hardware screenprint)
Do I manually have to install RTL drivers?, My Synology NAS seems to recognize the RTL gongle.
Or am I doing something else wrong?

Hope that some of you experts can give me advice or point me in the good direction on how to get the USB RTL-SDR dongle functioning in Domoticz . I am not a Linux command line expert, so perhaps my questions sound stupid, forgive me.... :mrgreen:

Re: How to get a RTL-SDR receiver on a Synology NAS

Posted: Saturday 27 March 2021 15:29
by JackD
And a few more screenshots.
Hope that someone can help me.

Re: How to get a RTL-SDR receiver on a Synology NAS

Posted: Monday 03 May 2021 1:11
by tlkg
So basically, yes you have to install the RTL_SDR driver and RTL_433 software. I just did this on my Raspberry Pi using the following. Don't know if this would be the same on the Synology box, so can't help you there !

Good Luck !

************* Install RTL_SDR ****************

From: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tag/install-guide/

# Install RTL-SDR
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rtl-sdr

************* Install RTL_433 ****************

# Install rtl_433
cd ~/sdr
git clone https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433.git
cd rtl_433
mkdir build
cd build && cmake ../
make
sudo make install

+++++++++++++++++ Let default driver to ignore rtl28xxu ************************
echo 'blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu' | sudo tee --append /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-dvb_usb_rtl28xxu.conf
echo 'blacklist dvb_usb_rtl2838u' | sudo tee --append /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-dvb_usb_rtl2838u.conf

Domoticz rtl433 parameters:
-F json -M newmodel -C si -M level

Re: How to get a RTL-SDR receiver on a Synology NAS

Posted: Thursday 06 May 2021 22:23
by JackD
Sorry for the late response.....

The advice you gave, I already tried, sadly with little success, but I am not a IT expert so it is probably just me :oops:
I decided to go an other way, the "Docker containerway"
This works on my Synology NAS, and seems to be very stable, but it is a substantial amount of work to get it all functioning.

I get the data from my 3 sensors from the RTL-SDR receiver in MQTT format from the RTL_433_receiver Dockercontainer. Then you need the Mosquitto broker container to transmit the MQTT messages around your network. You also have to change the initial MQTT messages to something that the Domoticz MQTT Client Gateway understands. I changed the MQTT messages with NodeRed(You need to make flows in NodeRED). These altered MQTT messages I then direct by "IDX"(in the MQTT message) to the proper virtual sensor destination in Domoticz. I have Domoticz also running in a Docker container.

I did tried a virtual Linux machine on my Synology to get everything running, but I quickly abandon this idea. I soon discovered that this solution takes way to much system resources. Docker on the other hand runs extremely light, uses next to no resources.

I got the 3 sensors I wanted to use now running nicely in Domoticz (Acurite lightningsensor, Misol soil moisture, Misol air quality PM2.5)