i stopped reading after “a
z wave zigbee dongle” (which are two completely independent technologies) and then noticed you mentioning home assistant…
honestly… smart home is only as smart as the person configuring it.
let that sink in.
Let me blow your mind:
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My OH experience in a few words:
Winter 2018:
I started with a small configuration on my notebook to get in touch with it, it took me half an hour to install and see the paper ui for the first time. After some playing around and creating example items and sitemaps I decided to setup a real system.
I installed openhabian on a raspberry pi 3 and configured everything I got at this time. It worked out well for one year.
Winter 2019:
After some changes in my electric cabinet (several Siemens LOGO modules) I had much more opportunities like window blinds, lights, motion detectors, energy meter, watering…
I used a new raspberry 4 and installed all my software to control my devices and openhab via docker image. It took some time again to learn about the differences to the installed version but then it was running a year. My software provides a REST interface that is configured in openhab to be able to control the devices.
Winter 2020:
I changed the LOGO module from REST to MQTT to be able to have a notification when values change in the PLC. In the vacation I will create a configuration for OH to use MQTT, but there are still some things to learn.
This is a work in progress, there is more to come…
Conclusion:
Whenever you want to try something new there is stuff you have to try out, learn, understand, adapt. I’m using OH for some Features I don’t want to provide by myself (like UI, mobile phone app, persistence) and it just solves my Problems.
I struggle with some things and still have questions (how to backup configuration done in paper ui?) but I’m pretty sure that there is no system that perfectly good my needs, because Home automation is a field with many different combinations of hardware.
My requirements are
- no vendor lock in (I could have used Siemens web ui)
- flexibility and support for evolution
- active development
- modularity (just half with stuff you really need)
- stability (I really don’t want to care for it during summer)
- easy learning curve
OH did satisfy this needs more or less. Whenever I had problems I got help in the forum. People are friendly and really try to help (Thanks to everybody making this great project real).
I just wonder why you can’t get a system up and running within three weeks. Maybe you need a solution that is even more easy to start with. But I wonder why you say “openhab is a joke”. In my opinion it’s not. This is software how it should be.
Good luck with whatever solution you will use in future. I hope you will not write such replies when the system works different from your expectations.
Best regards,
Tom
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HI Paul
Sorry you have not had a good run with Openhab and i would like to wish you all the best,
i have come from lmce and moved over to openhab 4 years ago i have to say its been absolutely fantastic !!! i have an rpi3 thats run rock solid apart from the odd power out, its running a dmx controller and alexa a squeeze server and also lifx lights
I WOULD JUST LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE THATS BEEN INVOLVED WITH THIS PROJECT AND WISH THEM A MERRY XMASS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
Regards steve
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Guys, he is not reading the forum anymore, just a troll:
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Well, it proves the old adage you can’t please all the people all the time. I and thousands of others, many of whom share their insights, experience and help on this forum, have working OpenHAB systems. Are we all mistaken or is this one user who it didn’t suit?
A thread like this should have been deleted after beeing posted. It gained no purpose what so ever. Subject said it all, and OP moved on, which makes me wonder, why even post then, except for spending just a few more minutes on something he didnt care for… I just dont get it!
Luckily people are not alike!
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I’m not using OpenHab yet, but I’m in the process of looking for something “offline” to replace Samsung Smartthings.
In website construction I started using MODx 15 years ago because they had a full setup routine that walked you through getting a site running. There was no editing of text files and uploading separately. Then later on in v2 they created a plugin store to automatically handle adding or removing additional features into the system. There is still infinite flexibility with MODx, but you’re not wasting time fiddling with basic stuff.
This thread makes it sound like OpenHab isn’t that far along on the fit and finish. That might be something to focus on in v3.xx. I definitely prefer a system that streamlines things that can be easily streamlined.
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There is definitely more of a UI focus in OH3. openHAB 2 got sidetracked trying to attract some help from commercial companies. That left them with a newer, unsupportable UI. That has been replaced for openHAB3 which will be released before the end of the year.
Currently the best openHAB 3 documentation is in wiki threads in this forum.
openhab-cli backup backups up everything. If you want to do it manually, you will want to grab everything in the userdata folder (/var/lib/openhab2) except the cache and tmp folder.
Thinks, Items, Links and Rules are stored in the USERDATA/jsondb folder. OH 3 includes more stuff there as well. Other stuff is in the USERDATA/config folder (e.g. HABPanel configs).
If you are using Docker as you indicate, you should already have mounted a volume to userdata so you can just grab that volume as part of your backup. If size is an issue, skip the cache and tmp folders. I actually check all that into my git repo too (only in addition to cache and tmp I exclude the persistence folder as well.
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Many thanks, Rich! (again)
Well OH is certainly not a joke. It can be frustrating at times but you have to remember what it is and who is creating it. It is not a commercial enterprise. I assume the creators are donating their time as I have not seen any method for them to profit from this.
There are commercial solutions, I tried a SmartThings and a Wink hub. They both worked but didn’t really do anything useful, haha.
I find the Java aspect the most frustrating part of OH but I’m old and need to learn new stuff to keep the brain fresh. So I like it. Keep up the great work guys!
Correct. Everything is 100% volunteer driven. Contributions to the openHAB Foundation go towards paying hosting for this forum, myopenhab.org and stuff like that.
Ironically, old coders hate Java because it’s new and new coders hate Java because it’s old. It may not be the best choice in language today, but a decade ago when Kai first decided “I can do better” I would have been hard pressed to choose any language other than Java. And for all the hate, it has it’s uses and it’s advantages. Of course, the average OH user never need mess with Java beyond installing a runtime.
Except in rules, which is where the real power of OH is for me. I had a hard time figuring out how timers work in Java. Also data types and converting between them was tricky to me. I’m not complaining though, I truly believe you need to keep learning difficult things for your mental health.
Java is not supported for writing openHAB rules. The languages supported are
- Rules DSL: A domain specific language that only exists in openHAB and is similar to (but not exactly) Xtend
- ECMAScript 5.1: AKA JavaScript, an embedded version that runs on the JRE named Nashorn
- Jython 2.7: A variend of Python 2.7 that runs on the JRE
- Groovy: another scripting language that runs on the JRE
- Blockly: a way to build code graphically (like Scratch)
There is no Java. But there are Java classes that get exposed to all of these languages. These are the classes that allow us to interact with openHAB itself (Items, Timers, etc.).
Timers as they exist in openHAB are an openHAB only thing. They are implemented by OH and the createTimer action is implemented by openHAB.
I just want to make sure that people don’t confuse what they are doing in Rules with Java programming. They are very dissimilar.
Hi there.
Beginner here, trying to beat the learning curve. So what to do? Guess read an introduction…
Where?, guess this must be the authoritative source: https://www.openhab.org/docs/
Found this definition:
- Things are the first openHAB (software) generated representation of your devices
Sitting next to:
- Items are the openHAB (software) generated representation of information about the devices
Ohhh. k.
It’s going to be tough getting my mind around this, with this level of abstraction was my initial thought.
According to the definition above there is no significant difference between a “thing” and an “item”, but none the less there is apparently channels connecting them.
So I’m presented with two fundamental building blocks, which to me looks like twins.
People in general often have difficulties identifying twins, I at least need to learn them pretty well before I with certainty can identify either.
Searching down on the page for the small example that would clarify my doubts and set things straight.
Ah, no, none in sight. 
Ok, change of mind. I will learn as I go along. Reading documentation is anyway overrated.
Downside here is you are pretty fragile in case something does not behave like expected. You don’t even have the vocabulary to ask nice people for help 
Fast forward.
-
I disregarded the advice to go for a PI.
I have a win10 laptop, which in my view is much faster for experimenting/learning stuff.
(When i get successful i can presumably redo it on a PI.) -
installed OH3-M4. Got it running pretty quick, but then
[image|690x402]( upload: / / gGLXXFWDIufJRmDMGXifR18jAlG.png)
which dont look much like:
[image|631x337](upload: / / sjzJVCqI6HVsT6fqUh1dNTP7MW.jpeg)
OK, “things” change (pun intended i guess), so
- Back to safe harbour, install “openhab-2.5.10” in a folder next to M4.
And it was a safe harbour.
I got a bit further, (although i also here found differences to the guide).
If only my MQTT server on my Debian machine hadn’t sidetracked me I would probably be banging my head at another element in OH which i need to learn the hard way.
I will then have a look at the Wiki, just after I press send… 
PS: New users apparently cannot insert images. Grrr. but if you reply, add a “!” in front and remove the blanks after “:” guess you can see them anyway,
PPS: Me: Bsc, 40 years in SW development, 6 years dev Java (2001-2007) now leading a small group af CS architects in a company with 200+ colleagues in the SW department.
I would suggest opening a new thread for your problems, so others can find it easier an help you out. But as for the Thing-Item question, I’ll try to clarify:
- A Thing represents a physical or virtual (e.g. a webservice) device that can provide information to and/or be controlled by openHAB. A Thing can have several channels representing different pieces of information about the device.
- An Item represents a single piece of information (a single number, such as temperature, or some boolean state like ON/OFF). Items can be connected to one or more channels on the Things (usually just one) or no channel at all. In the latter case it can be used internally by openHAB e.g. to keep some state that is used by different rules.
Example: A thermostat could be represented by a Thing with two channels: Room temperature and setpoint. Each channel could then be connected to an Item, which holds the values for the different channels. The temperature channel would be read-only, and just update the Item when the temperature changes. The setpoint on the other hand could be commanded by OH, making the thermostat change when you e.g. change a slider in a UI os sends a command in a rule. If you’re not interested in controlling the setpoint from OH, but still would like to see the temperature, you only need to create one Item and connect it to that channel.
Hope this clears it up a bit!
Ok so you’re a dev hence you don’t RT(F)M but you then are aware of the difficulty to write manuals to match each and every expectation from noobs to proficient users to devs in a single document, aren’t you? What about nonetheless reading on for another page or two ?
PS: welcome to openHAB
To somewhat keep on topic, you said you finally got it. So my challenge back to you is that note that you understand the difference between a Thing and an Item, what would you charge to the docs to make it more clear for new users.
“Bring me a rock! No not that rock!” is simply never going to make things better. We already know openHAB is hard. We already know that the docs need work and there are things that can be made more clear.
But frankly, we have already done the best we can with the volunteer effort that has been offered. Demanding we “bring another rock” without giving us something to describe what you want is just not going to lead anywhere.
And we remain where we are.
It took me some time and a lot of frustration to get my, admittedly fairly simple, openhab installation running. However now it is working it is pretty rock solid and has run my heating and a few lights without any faults (other than mine) for the last three years or so.
Openhab is very powerful, but with that comes complexity. Bear in mind it is a free system supported by volunteers so will take some effort on your part.
Bearing in mind you are not paying for Openhab, I think it would have been wise and polite to ask for advice before writing your rant. By the way, if you are going to go the ‘no punctuation or capital letters’ route, maybe read some e e cummings or possibly James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake to get an idea of how to make that writing style work for you!
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