Watchman oil tank monitor _NOT_ sonic

[s0x00c]

Hey

I bought a DVB stick to try and monitor my watchman oil tank monitor (NOT sonic version).
I started the monitoring but nothing came through.
After that I decided to increase the verbosity level to "-vv"
and now I can see this output:

[Protocols] Registered 204 out of 237 device decoding protocols
[SDR] Found 1 device(s)
[SDR] trying device  0:  Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001
Detached kernel driver
Found Fitipower FC0012 tuner
[SDR] Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Exact sample rate is: 250000.000414 Hz
[SDR] Sample rate set to 250000 S/s.
[Input] Bit detection level set to 0.0 (Auto).
[SDR] Tuner gain set to Auto.
[Input] Reading samples in async mode...
[SDR] Tuned to 433.920MHz.
Allocating 15 zero-copy buffers
[Baseband] low pass filter for 250000 Hz at cutoff 25000 Hz, 40.0 us
[markisol_decode] bits_per_row[0] = 1
[pulse_slicer_osv1] preamble 1  886 822
[philips_aj7010_decode] wrong number of bits (325)
[ert_idm_decode] rows=1, row0 len=650
[ert_netidm_decode] rows=1, row0 len=650
[markisol_decode] bits_per_row[0] = 0
[markisol_decode] bits_per_row[0] = 0
[markisol_decode] bits_per_row[0] = 0
[markisol_decode] bits_per_row[0] = 0
.
.
.
[markisol_decode] bits_per_row[0] = 1
[markisol_decode] bits_per_row[0] = 1
[markisol_decode] bits_per_row[0] = 1

Does this mean my Watchman oil tank monitor is not supported yet, since it can't decode the data it's receiving?

[zuckschwerdt]

Hard to say. You will need to find and grab a sample https://triq.org/rtl_433/ANALYZE.html
(transmissions might only be every hour or so unless you enter "rebinding" / sync mode, the magnet procedure)
Then inspect the sample file or upload as zip here.

[s0x00c]

Hey, I am monitoring now with "-S unkown"
I got some packets already, but I think the most interesting packets captures will be the ones attached:
packets.zip

[zuckschwerdt]

The first three are empty, the last one looks like LoRA maybe. drop on https://triq.org/pdv/ to check.

[s0x00c]

Hey, thanks for the suggestion, but I really don't understand what I am seeing there.
What should I be looking for? I don't really understand what all these settings mean.

[zuckschwerdt]

Look at the spectrogram above. It should look like one of these files: https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433_tests/tree/master/tests/oil_watchman

[s0x00c]

If I zoom in on the spectrum analyzer, I can see this:

Bright 'dashes' but they all seem to have the same length which is not what I expect if I am looking for a digital signal consisting of 0's and 1's.
Could it be that I need to monitor a broader spectrum? Meaning 433.2 to 434.5 or something like that ? Is that even possible?

[zuckschwerdt]

Yes, there does not appear to be any data. It's nearly hourly transmissions of 2.35 seconds of warmup/preamble only. It's not legal to transmit that long. Strange.
The frequencies is correct, no need to adjust.

[s0x00c]

Hey

packets.zip
I've been capturing all night, as I said I would, but I am afraid the pattern is just repeating itself constantly. (every hour'ish, not exactly but close enough)
one thing that did stand out was this morning, I think I captured someones garage port opener or remote control device.

But that really doesn't help my case in particular, just 'interesting'

[zuckschwerdt]

Seems like the sensor is broken then. Perhaps try a hard reset by taking out batteries. Or try the rebinding, move magnet close for some time (procedure should be in some manual).

[s0x00c]

The sensor is definitely not broken since the receiver in the house still updates without issue.
I pulled it from the socket yesterday to check if there were any marking stating it was working on a different frequency, but it's actually noted right in the plastic mould that it 433.92Mhz.
I will try the magnet method when I get a chance and find the exact procedure.
Thanks for the support thus far.

[zuckschwerdt]

Oh? The display unit still receives the sensor? Then maybe do full recording (Gigabytes needed) at the expected time. Use -w filename.cu8 -T 10m to record 10 minutes. (300MB). Maybe something is in there but not "seen" by rtl_433.

[s0x00c]

I did this, with a 20 minute interval. It gave me a file of nearly 600 Mb.
I've compressed it to 470 Mb and put it on 'wetransfer' since file size is limited here to 25 mb
I did execute with '-g 60' option as @merbanan suggested and '-vv'
Please find the link here: https://we.tl/t-ewhvyQ6LUt

[zuckschwerdt]

The band looks completly quiet expect for that one transmission in the middle. To extract it
dd if=file.cu8 of=watchman_433.92M_250k.cu8 skip=287 bs=1m count=2

And again there is no data in there. Sorry, no clue what's going on. If the "real" transmission is somewhere else try a wider band (-s 1024k) or shift the frequency around and look for other signals.

[s0x00c]

I did extract the data that you provided a dd command for and it ends up looking exactly the same as before (I've added to the post for completeness)
watchman_433.92M_250k.zip
I'll see what I can do with the -s 1024k that you suggest

[merbanan]

"Found Fitipower FC0012 tuner", this tuner needs a fixed gain setting to work at its fullest. Try tuning the gain.

[s0x00c]

Do you by any chance know the gain that I should configure?
Which setting is normal for this tuner?

[merbanan]

Try max, -g 60 will give that.