Hi
I used Open Habian to setup openHAB 2 on my raspberry pi. So I have very little knowledge on how openHAB works. I have read the vast amount available on the openHAB website but dont exactly understand it all. I currently am a smartthings user but have always wanted the power of openHAB specifically the ability turn on logitech harmony devices with Alexa using individual commands and not activities. So my air conditioner can be turned on with out my tv going off 
so I have been trying to set everything up. Using the paper UI it was a breeze to set up and connect the harmony binding with my hub. Now I am able to control my air conditioner with openHAB on the paper ui. I am familiar with smartThings so I created a virtual switch through smartThings. Then went on Iftt connected openHab with openHAB cloud connector and said when the SmartThings virtual switch is turned on then send Power On to the correct channel. But it the applet fires and nothing happens. I have no clue how to see what is going on. I attached screenshots to see what I am talking about.
Thanks for your help!
First off, welcome to openHAB! I switched from SmartThings last November and havenāt looked back!
Iāll warn you that I was never satisfied with the speed of the integration between ST and OH using IFTTT. It works, but often the delays are unacceptably long. Once you get used to the lightning fast response time of openHAB, itās hard to go back. So, it might not make sense for your use case to put lots of effort into it just to be disappointed in the results.
It might be worth looking into this project. I did have it successfully installed and integrated with openHAB, though I stopped using SmartThings completely in March and have no further use of it. Itās a bridge that allows all of your SmartThings devices to be exposed to openHAB via MQTT, which is very stable and well supported on openHAB. That said, it might be a bit fiddly to get set up depending on your comfort level with Linux.
Another suggestion Iād make is to reduce the number of points of failure in your setup, then gradually add things one at a time. Iād start with a virtual switch in openHAB as well. You can define it in a .items file, or in the PaperUI (though I admittedly prefer the text based setup).
I see you have notifications from IFTTT turned on - are you getting notifications when you trigger the switch?
Either way, a good next step is to check out your logs. Since you used openHABian, you can install it by executing this command from the command line:
sudo openhabian-config
Select āOptional Components,ā then āLog Viewer.ā Once the install is complete, you should be able to view your openHAB logs at http://192.168.1.100:9001, though youāll need to change the IP address to match that of your openHAB installation.
You can also check out your SmartThings logs to see if anything is making it through.
I know openHAB is a steep learning curve, but donāt give up! Itās soooo much better than SmartThings and the community is great. Just keep trying, and searching the forums and the Docs pages.
Thank you!! After looking at the log I realized the space was not needed in my IFTTT command. OpenHAB blows Smartthings out of the water. This is amazing considering openHAB is all open source and Smartthings is a large corporation. Is it possible to create a virtual Switch in any of the open hab UIās ? Then I could eliminate the need for IFTTT completely. Thanks again for your help.
Yes, openHAB is a fantastic platform. Once I started to āget it,ā my only regret was not leaving sooner. Iāve been following the meltdowns over at the ST forums with the latest hub and mobile client releases and am very grateful to have switched already!
Iām not positive I understand - by virtual switch, I just mean a switch that isnāt bound to a physical item. Youād still need IFTTT to talk to SmartThings with that switch (or the MQTT bridge). But yes, you can create one in PaperUI, under Configurations -> Items. You will need to add this item to a Sitemap in order to see it in BasicUI or the mobile app.