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Tool

rtl_433

Receives and decodes transmissions from ISM-band devices such as weather sensors, remote controls, doorbells and alarm sensors, using RTL-SDR or SoapySDR receivers or recorded I/Q files, and emits decoded fields as JSON, CSV, MQTT and other outputs. For signals no built-in decoder recognizes, a pulse analyzer reports OOK/FSK timings and hints for a flexible -X decoder that slices frames into bits; its analysis guide leaves mapping those bits to values to the analyst, working from known readings.

Requirements and limitations

  • Live reception needs an RTL2832-based RTL-SDR dongle or a SoapySDR device; the README names LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, HackRF One and SoapyRemote among actively tested devices, and rtl_tcp servers are accepted. Without a receiver, it reads recorded CU8, CS16 or CF32 I/Q and AM sample files, and -S saves captured signals as files.
  • Written in portable C99 and built with CMake; RTL-SDR and SoapySDR libraries are optional at build time, and OpenSSL is needed only for TLS outputs. Packages exist for Debian/Ubuntu (rtl-433), FreeBSD and Homebrew; release 25.12 (2025-12-12) ships Linux, macOS arm64 and Windows binaries, and the reviewed master commit is dated 2026-10-11.
  • At review the README listed 380 device protocols numbered up to 386, 44 of them disabled by default and enabled with -R or a configuration file. Built-in decoders cover those listed models only; for other signals the analyzer and flex decoders frame OOK/FSK pulses and slice them into bits, and do not infer field meanings or protocol semantics.
  • GPL-2.0. The optional HTTP API output listens on 0.0.0.0:8433 by default. No capture, decoding or analysis was run, and no device compatibility is implied.

About this entry

Type
Tool
Category
Protocol analysis tools
Relationship
Foundation tool
Targets
Protocol

Sources reviewed

The description was reviewed against primary sources. This does not establish runtime testing, security auditing or verified compatibility.

Primary sources

  1. README.md GitHub · merbanan/rtl_433 · Revision 80f7bcc
  2. docs/ANALYZE.md GitHub · merbanan/rtl_433 · Revision 80f7bcc
  3. docs/BUILDING.md GitHub · merbanan/rtl_433 · Revision 80f7bcc
  4. COPYING GitHub · merbanan/rtl_433 · Revision 80f7bcc
  5. https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433/releases/tag/25.12