That was pretty much the information I was looking for, thank you. So it is indeed the concept of OpenHAB to do even simple checks within rules. It makes sense, but sounds a bit cumbersome for simple use cases like the one described above.
I have implemented that already but now that I have more insights I’m wondering if I should have that online channel at all? After all I can just set the device to offline if it is not available. So should I have an online channel or is it just a waste?
What is the better approach? That is exactly something I was wondering about. Which solution would be more flexible and fit better into the OH architecture?
Proxy items was something I was wondering about. How would a proxy item look, which gets its on/off state from one channel and sends ON/OFF to my transmitter channel so I can send the appropriate button codes? Is this possible without using rules?
Thanks for your input.