Alexa and OpenHAB app control issues

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
1

Hello, I am using a new install of OpenHAB 2.5.9 on Windows, I have added a few items, a smart switch and a powerley thermostat. I seem to be able to go in PaperUP to control, and I can switch the smart switch on and off, and mess with all the thermostat settings. If I tell alexa, “set thermostat mode heat” Alexa responds back “Is set to heat”. The status of the thermostat though does not change, and the event log shows:

2020-09-29 08:51:18.157 [ome.event.ItemCommandEvent] - Item ‘Mode’ received command 1

Same with the command to turn the smart plug on or off, Alexa responds with OK, and in events log it logs:

2020-09-29 08:53:18.382 [ome.event.ItemCommandEvent] - Item ‘LightSwitch’ received command OFF

Yet the state does not change.

I also can go into the OpenHAB app,. which I am connecting direct to OpenHAB and not the cloud, I can see the devices on the main home screen, I can see there state, but if I try to toggle something, nothing happen, and if I refresh the page, it will switch back to the original value.

My question is, are these issues related? if so what am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

2

As a new install, I would first suspect some confusion amongst Items? Do you have Simple Mode set? (It is more hindrance than help)

That is encouraging, the hard part Alexa to openHAB is working.
Next step is to see if your Item LightSwitch is associated with any real device.

What do you see in your events.log in that case?

3

Yes, I had simple mode on, i just turned it off.

I do not fully understand what exactly is needed for the .itmes file, but for the switch I have this line:

Switch LightSwitch “Radio” {alexa=“PowerController.powerState”}

The device is an Aeotec Smart Switch 6, Alexa sees it as “Radio” I think once I get one of these to actually work with Alexa, then I will get a better understanding of what I need to correctly do for the next one.

As for the event logs when I try to toggle something in the app, it shows nothing, so it looks like I toggle something, it toggles in the app and never gets sent to the server, or at least that is my theory.

Thanks for your help,
geoff

4

Okay, I’m not really sure what app you are talking about or what exactly you are toggling. The general action for openHAB UIs is that poking something sends commands to the linked openHAB Item.

Your Item “LightSwitch” appears not to be linked to any real device.

Meantime, Simple Mode will probably have auto created an Item with an unhelpful name linked to your Aeotec device. Using PaperUI, I think I’d delete that and then link your Aeotec Thing’s channels to your intended Item.

5

I am referring to the OpenHAB app, seems when I set it to direct connect to my local instance of OpenHAB it lets me see everything, I can toggle items, but it never seems to send it back to the server. Either way, I just reconfigured it to connect to myopenhab.org and that works fine, so I can live with that.

As for the switch, turning simple mode off, removing and recreating the thing, and naming the device to something useful fixed it up. Thanks for your help, I do appreciate it.

geoff