Assistance with initial openHAB Config

Plugins & Plugin Development openHAB MiOS Binding
#1

I followed all the instructions in this forum on setting up OpenHAB. I have it all installed and I played around with the demo.sitemap. I am trying to create my own sitemap with just one swich at this time. This is what my sitemap looks like:
sitemap home label=“My Home”
{
Frame {
Group item=GRoom1 label=“Kitchen Sink Light” icon=“kitchen”
}
}

When I bring the sitemap up in my browser it shows the Kitchen Sink Light. When I click on it I get the following:
Kitchen Sink Light Configured -
Kitchen Sink Light Last Update -, -/- -
Kitchen Sink Light First Configured -, -/- -
Kitchen Sink Light Status
Kitchen Sink Light Load Level Status 0 %
Kitchen Sink Light Load Level Target

None of the items are able to control my sink light. Is there something else I have to do to connect the command to my vera unit? I did input my vera’s IP address into the openhab.cfg

Update: I ending up getting it to work. I double checked the openhab.cfg and I had the unit name as “house”, when it should have been “home”. I think some how its
configured as a switch, rather than a dimmer. It only off or 100% brightness. Where can I change that? Also, is there a way so that just one item appears for the light. Right now its shows all the items listed above.

#2

[quote=“MikeH, post:1, topic:190173”]Kitchen Sink Light Status
Kitchen Sink Light Load Level Status 0 %
Kitchen Sink Light Load Level Target

…

I think some how its configured as a switch, rather than a dimmer. It only off or 100% brightness. Where can I change that? Also, is there a way so that just one item appears for the light. Right now its shows all the items listed above.[/quote]

The pieces of each Z-Wave device are exposed/exported by default, and added to the specific “Room” by the MiOS Item Generator code. In MiOS each Dimmer is also a Switch, so you’ll see both “parts” of the device broken out by the Generator.

You can tweak the generated output as much as you like. For example, you can remove any “bits” of the config that you don’t want in the room by removing the [tt]GRoom1[/tt] annotation from each Item… at least in the way you’re currently setup with a Sitemap (UI)

In the above, the Dimmer part of the UI is the Kitchen Sink Load Level Status, and the Switch part is Kitchen Sink Light Status

In the Items file, they’ll looks something like the following (these are mine):

Switch   KitchenSinkLightStatus "Kitchen Sink Light" (GSwitch,GManagedEmergency,GManagedGoodnight,GManagedSwitch) {mios="unit:house,device:99/service/SwitchPower1/Status"}
Dimmer   KitchenSinkLightLoadLevelStatus "Kitchen Sink Light [%d %%]" <slider> (GDimmer) {mios="unit:house,device:99/service/Dimming1/LoadLevelStatus", autoupdate="false"}

From your Sitemap, you should get a Switch rendition for one, and a Slider/Dimmer rendition for the other, based upon the types of the Generated Items.

#3

Thanks for your help, guessed. I ended up commenting out the ones I didn’t want showing up in my sitemap using: /* … */. That removed them from my sitemap menu so that it only shows the LightLoadLevelStatus. When I click on the up arrow on the icon it goes right to 100%, nothing in between. Here is the line from my home.items file:
Dimmer KitchenSinkLightLoadLevelStatus “Kitchen Sink Light [%d %%]” (GDimmer,GRoom1) {mios=“unit:home,device:5/service/Dimming1/LoadLevelStatus”}
I actually added the and changed GDevices to GDimmer to match yours. But it still doesn’t work. Any Idea what I’m doing wrong?

#4

[quote=“MikeH, post:3, topic:190173”]Thanks for your help, guessed. I ended up commenting out the ones I didn’t want showing up in my sitemap using: /* … */. That removed them from my sitemap menu so that it only shows the LightLoadLevelStatus. When I click on the up arrow on the icon it goes right to 100%, nothing in between. Here is the line from my home.items file:
Dimmer KitchenSinkLightLoadLevelStatus “Kitchen Sink Light [%d %%]” (GDimmer,GRoom1) {mios=“unit:home,device:5/service/Dimming1/LoadLevelStatus”}
I actually added the and changed GDevices to GDimmer to match yours. But it still doesn’t work. Any Idea what I’m doing wrong?[/quote]

I vaguely remember having issues with dimmers and OpenHab under certain browsers. I don’t use the OpenHab UI for anything but testing, so I don’t remember exactly. Maybe try a different browser and see if it is related to the way the controls render?

Doug

#5

I figured it out. You have to hold the mouse button down on the dimmers up arrow while the % dimmed moves up. I was just clicking on it thinking it would go up
gradually every time I clicked on it.

#6

Glad you worked it out.

On my desktop I run the HTML “Classic” UI under Chrome, and I use the iPhone/iPad applications. It’s the latter I’d use the most to manually interact with openHAB.

I don’t tend to interact with the UI often, since most things are automated with Rules (off the Alarm Panel, etc), so I probably don’t see a bunch of it’s quirks.

#7

Now that I have a basic sitemap and rules setup I was wondering if I could clean up my “item” file. Can I delete the extra line items relating to light switches, motion detectors and other alarm sensors that I’m not using or is there I reason that I could need them in the future? Also, I definitely want to thank guessed for his item file generator and Gerry for his “Getting Started” post. I’m not sure I could have got this far without there help.

#8

Unless you’re running a very resource constrained openHAB machine the easier to just leave them there.

It’s painful to have to add them back in when you realize you want them. :slight_smile:

#9

I commented out or deleted the ones I knew I wouldn’t want. I just liked having the cleaner items file. But I have had to add a few back, and that was a bit of a bother. (regenerate, copy, paste, verify everything, restart)