With my old “dumb” meter, I used to use a hall sensor in combination with an ESP32 and esphome to automatically track my water usage, it was quite precise, easy and worked fine for a long time.

Now I’ve had a *smart meter* for a while, and I’m only now trying to connect it to my system but for all its smartness, it looks like I can’t easily get a readout myself (other than reading the numbers of course). You can get data from yesterday on Waterlink’s website, which is nice but not instantaneous, and the API isn’t public.

The smartmeters installed by Waterlink in Flanders are Kamstrup Multical 21 and they broadcast every 96 seconds a wireless M-BUS message (on 868 MHz) with the latest data. It’s easy enough to receive the messages thanks to [wmbusmeters](https://github.com/weetmuts/wmbusmeters) (and those of my neighbours, as well as messages from gas meters) but of course (and thankfully) they are encrypted. Users in Norway (or Sweden? I’m not sure anymore) seem to receive the “.kem” file corresponding to their meter that allows them to decrypt messages.

Well I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking for by writing this, but I’ve sent a message to Waterlink asking for this and I expect *exactly nothing* from it. But I still wonder if anyone here maybe has already tried to do anything with these meters already.

Thanks for reading this message that went nowhere. I’m just a bit frustrated that my new smart meters gives me less information than my old dumb one.

7 comments

  1. I’m having the same problem.
    The API isn’t public as you said, but after you login to the Water-Link website, you can use this link to view your data (Jason formatted):
    https://water-link-customer-portal.waylay.io/api/daily?meter=123456

    I can’t auto download it, the login don’t let me. But it shows al my history data. So for analysis it is ok, for live updates not so much.

    Please keep us informed if you solve this problem.
    Succes!

  3. About a year ago I asked the IOT platform they use for an API key, they were ready to give it to me but then asked what company I needed it for. Told them I wanted to access my data as a consumer and they shut down immediately. Same for water-link directly. The manufacturer has a pulse-module you can attach for something like €150 (!!).
    There really should be a law that guarantees equal-access to the customer to all ‘smart’ meter’s data (and a P1 port is not enough).

    Now I’m off-and-on working on making [this ESP based optical water meter reader](https://github.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device) work on my water-link stuff.

    Also, since your water meter pretty much shows when you are not home I consider that very sensitive data; I have things that must not be stolen thankyouverymuch. Eventually I’m probably going to be wrapping that thing in alu foil, occasionally “airing” the data out.

  5. I’m looking forward to get the smart meter… But looking more forward to the repair of the leakage on the old water meter. 2 months and counting. About 10 buckets a day.

  6. Ugh, the usual nonsense “it will allow you to monitor your usage better”, but actually it will allow us (WaterLink/fluvius/…) to monitor your usage better/cheaper and we’ll bill you for the privilege of forcing that on you.

  7. > and the API isn’t public.

    I’ve already contacted them about this and they simply say they do not support the API. This is, of course, complete and utter bullshit. What use is a smart meter that constantly reports data if you can’t even access that data? The API kinda sorta “works”, it’s just completely undocumented.

    I REALLY want to monitor my water usage with Home Assistant but the “smart” meter is just as dumb as the old one.

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