I am brand new to Openhab. Moving to Openhab from another Home automation system.
VERY impressed with OpenHab so far !!
I primary use Insteon but will be adding some ZWave+ devices in the near future.
I have installed the latest version of OpenHab for Linux Ubuntu and successfully installed and configured the Insteon Binding. I assume the Insteon Binding I have installed directly from the OpenHab site is the latest and the one I should use.
I have installed a USB PLM and once configured I had 30+ inbox messages about the devices (Things?)
Have had no issues configuring my various Switches and module in the Location topology.
In fact - I have been able to initially configure the Thermostat too.
I was able to discover and add for example the ambient temp, ambient humid, current Heat setpoint, current cool setpoint, mode, etc. All worked fine.
I can even change the system mode from Openhab without any issues.
I can see the current Heat or Cool setpoint that has been set via buttons on the thermostat.
My only issue is changing the current Heat or current Cool setpoint FROM OpenHAB. When I click on either of these 2 items - I get some kind of historical graph instead of a slider type control.
Is anyone using this binding to control (i.e. manually set) the Cool setpoint or the Heat setpoint FROM OpenHab.
Yes, if you install through the Add-on Store you get the version of the add-on that is compiled to work with the version of OH you have installed.
If you download a jar file from some random place, then you have to pay very special attention that the version of the jar matches the version of OH you are running.
Kind of, maybe.
The default widget shown for any Item is going to be based on the type of the Item, the State Description pattern, and the semantic Point and Property tags applied to the Item.
I don’t know the Insteon binding but it should recommend reasonable values for all of these when you use “add equipment to model” or “add equipment from thing” or one of those types of forms to create your Items.
Typically a temperature setpoint would be a Number:Temperaure type Item and the Point tag would be “Setpoint” and the Property tag would be “Temperature”. MainUI should then present that with a setpoint widget:
You don’t show your Item configs nor did you provide enough details about how these Items got created. So I’m only able to guess at what might be the problem. You probably only need to set the point and property tags correctly. If that doesn’t work, click on the Item’s code tab and paste the YAML you find there. Use code fences:
```
code goes here
```
Note that even if you do everything right, MainUI may still not guess at the correct way to represent an Item or you want something different. In those cases, you can add “default X widget” Item metadata to the Item (click “add metadata” and choose the type of widget you want to configure, default list item widget is what’s used to show the Item in the cards on the locations, equipment, and properties tags). You can choose the widget type and set various properties to get it how you want.
If you have a bunch of Items you want to appear the same way, you can then copy that code and go to Developer Tools and create a custom widget out of it. Then you can choose the custom widget for the default and you don’t have to configure the same widget over-and-over.
But for a temperature setpoint, MainUI should get it right if the Item is properly tagged.
I am VERY NEW to OpenHab… but I have been doing Home Automation since the 80’s using x10 - so i am pretty good at digging into this stuff.
Where do I find the “point and property” tags so i can check them and if needed - set them properly.
Sorry if these are stupid questions… but I just started with OpenHab about a week ago - and I think I have gotten pretty far in a pretty short time. Espeically since my old Home Automation system was a MS Windows Program called PowerHome (that I had running under WINE on Ubuntu…).
So much to learn (really fun too).
Settings → Model → Find your Item in the tree or search for it
Click “edit” on the right and you’ll see “Semantic Class” and “Semantic Property” among the list of properties. You can also see what the two tags are in the tree in small print under the Item.
That’s one way to get to it.
You can also go to Settings → Items → Find your Item → Edit so see and change the semantic tags tags.
You can also hit alt-shift-d and search for an pin the Item then click the pencil to go to the Item’s configuration page.
Semantic Class should be “Setpoint” and and Semantic Property should be “Temperature”.
That’s the link between the Channel and the Item. That’s not relevant to the current problem.
Assuming the Insteon binding is implemented like it’s supposed to be, in the furture it will be easier on you to choose “add equipment to model” from the Thing’s Channels page. That should set these semantic tags to reasonable defaults automatically.
No, because it’s a Number:Temperature Item tagged with “Point” as the semantic tag, MainUI is treating it like a sensor instead of a control. By making the Point tag be “Setpoint” it will know it’s an Item to command, not a read only sensor. Interacting with the widget will result in commands to the Item instead of showing the historic values.
Note: Screen shots were fine in this case, but often in order to priovide all the information about something in context, clicking on the “code” tab and pasting in the YAML text you see there to a post will be better for us compared to screen shots. For Items you can find the code tab after clicking “edit” on the Item’s page.
Default Standalone Widget: used when placing this Item on a custom page you are creating
Default List Item Widget: used in the cards on the Locations, Equuipment, and Properties tabs of the Overview page
Default Cell Widget: also used when placing this Item on a custom page you are creating
I you set the Point and Properties tags correctly, you’ll get a stepper for all three of these without needing to change each one individually.
If you are going to use the semantic model, you really need to make sure all your Items have reasonable tags. Otherwise everything is going to be shown as a sensor and you won’t be able to control anything.
Later, once you’ve got a better feel for OH, you can start messing with custom default widgets to get the look and feel you want in MainUI.
Yeah, I haven’t got around to the sematic model . So sorry for that. For the slider you need to set some of the parameters like min/max, step. Anyway @rlkoshak advice is more complete. He is the rock star of the OH forum.
Rich/Bob,
Sorry it has taken me so long to get back.
Been traveling ALLOT AND my VM Host that runs my Ubuntu Guest OS Crashed.
Everything is FINALLY back online…
I really appreciate your help !!
I actually got my thermostat 99% fixed in the last set of posts right before my VM Crasted by changing my setup of this:
label: Heat Setpoint
type: Number:Temperature
category: Temperature
groupNames:
- Insteon_2441TH_Thermostat
tags:
- Point
My only issue is the slider actually moves in .5 degree increments. Looks like the thermostat actually uses whole number integer values. Is there a way to adjust the slider to move in whole number increments ? I am guessing there is some text I can insert below the “- Setpoint” label in the tags to make it increment in whole numbers ?
I guess my issue could also be that the Cool Setpiont and Heat Setpoint are being displayed as Floating Point - and I really need them to be Integer ??
BTW - got the System State to work properly for both HEATING and COOLING !! Also if you notice that some of the settings do not line up with each other - the reason is my thermostat is not connected to my HVAC system in my home yet. I have the Thermostat on my desk connected to a 30VAC transformer for power. Wanted to get the Thermostat completely working and tested BEFORE I connected it to my homes HVAC system. Don’t want to do something “bad” that could damage my home’s HVAC in the middle of winter in New England !
. So sorry for that. For the slider you need to set some of the parameters like min/max, step. Anyway 