Colour picker not publishing to MQTT

Hi all,
I have openhab 1 running on a Pi and want to control RGBW LED strip connected to an ESP8266 wifi node from openhab .
white LED (ch4) can be turned on and off from openhab but the RGB LEDs do not respond.
MQTT spy shows nothing gets published when using the color picker.

In items I have ..

Group WIFI_RGB_2 "WiFi RGB 2" (All)
Color fWIFI_RGB_2 "RGB" <slider> (WIFI_RGB_2)
String WIFI_RGB_2_RGB (WIFI_RGB_2) {mqtt=">[broker:/openHAB/RGB_2/Color:command:*:default]"}
Switch WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1 "W1" (WIFI_RGB_2) {mqtt=">[broker:/openHAB/RGB_2    /SW1:command:ON:100],>[broker:/openHAB/RGB_2/SW1:command:OFF:0]"}

In rules I have …

import org.openhab.core.library.types.*

var HSBType hsbValue
var int redValue
var int greenValue
var int blueValue
var String RGBvalues

rule "Set RGB 2 value"
 when
 Item fWIFI_RGB_2 changed
 then
 hsbValue = fWIFI_RGB_2.state as HSBType

 redValue = hsbValue.red.intValue
 greenValue = hsbValue.green.intValue
 blueValue = hsbValue.blue.intValue


 RGBvalues= redValue.toString + ";" + greenValue.toString + ";" + blueValue.toString
 sendCommand( WIFI_RGB_2_RGB, RGBvalues )

 logInfo( "fWIFI_RGB_2", RGBvalues )
end

In sitemap I have …

Frame label="RGB" {
Colorpicker item=fWIFI_RGB_2 icon="slider"
Switch item=WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1 label="Ch4"
}

In openhab.log …

2018-07-24 18:58:23.840 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker

org.openhab.core.items.ItemNotFoundException: Item 'WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1' could not be found in the item registry

2018-07-24 18:58:14.200 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl] - Refreshing model 'default.sitemap'
2018-07-24 18:58:22.293 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker
2018-07-24 18:58:22.311 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker
2018-07-24 18:58:22.350 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker
2018-07-24 18:58:22.364 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker
2018-07-24 18:58:22.479 [WARN ] [.o.u.w.i.render.SwitchRenderer] - Cannot determine item type of 'WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1'
org.openhab.core.items.ItemNotFoundException: Item 'WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1' could not be found in the item registry


2018-07-24 18:58:22.511 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Switch
2018-07-24 18:58:22.540 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Switch
2018-07-24 18:58:22.590 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Switch
2018-07-24 18:58:22.595 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Switch
2018-07-24 18:58:22.849 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item teac2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Slider
2018-07-24 18:58:22.883 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item teac2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Slider
2018-07-24 18:58:22.923 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item teac2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Slider
2018-07-24 18:58:23.840 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker
2018-07-24 18:58:23.856 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker
2018-07-24 18:58:23.879 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker
2018-07-24 18:58:23.889 [ERROR] [o.u.i.items.ItemUIRegistryImpl] - Cannot retrieve item fWIFI_RGB_2 for widget org.openhab.model.sitemap.Colorpicker
2018-07-24 18:58:23.995 [WARN ] [.o.u.w.i.render.SwitchRenderer] - Cannot determine item type of 'WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1'
org.openhab.core.items.ItemNotFoundException: Item 'WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1' could not be found in the item registry

Can anyone explain why the color picker is not publishing to MQTT and how to fix it ?
Can post more logs if needed.
Thanks

All of the errors in openhab.log are pointing to Items not existing. Either you have a syntax error in your .items file or something like that is going on. But as far as OH is concerned WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1, fWIFI_RGB_2 , and teac2 do not exist.

Thanks for the reply Rik,
I issued http://192.168.100.225:8080/static/version
It seems I am running ver 1.8.3 openhab where sliders are broken.
Could this cause these errors in my log ?
Is it possible to downgrade to ver 1.8.1 where sliders apparently do still work ?
I do not want to upgrade to ver 2 openhab yet,unless is really necessary.
Sorry for all the questions !

Well, the last update to OH 1.x was over two years ago IIRC. There are very few users still running OH 1.8 and even fewer of those are helping people on this forum. So largely, if you do not want to upgrade to OH 2.x you are largely on your own. There are not many people left with the knowledge to help anymore.

I’ve no idea any longer how/whether it will be easy to downgrade to OH 1.8.1 and what bugs were fixed between 1.8.1 and 1.8.3.

I’ve also no idea whether the sliders issue that exists in 1.8.3 would cause this error log, though that seems unlikely. It seems more likely to me that you have a syntax error in your .items file preventing everything after the error from being loaded.

The big space between RGB_2 and /SW in the MQTT config for WIFI_RGB_2_Switch1 looks suspicious.

Ah, I see the space you refer to,that was added when copying and pasting from my items file somehow ??
The .items file does not have the extra spaces.
Will see if I can find a solution or will upgrade to ver 2.
Thanks