I have another question/challenge that I’d like to ask for advice on here.
I would like to use openHAB to integrate our BTicino system with a few wireless plugs from Shelly. The goal is to be able to switch those plugs both from openHAB and from BTicino. The challenge now is how to implement this on the side of the BTicino system and the binding to openHAB, without there being a real physical actuator on the BTicino side.
My first idea was to use an A/PL address in BTicino, same as for all other devices, but without an actuator that actually has this address. However, it seems the openHAB binding does not really react well to this kind of setup.
I have created a thing with the A/PL address in openHAB and then an item for that thing. If I switch only in BTicino it works fine and updates the status of the item in openHAB correctly. However, if I start switching in openHAB it does not work as expected.
First thing I noticed, switching the item to ON in openHAB does not generate an OWN message. This by itself would not be a big problem, because there is no device to be switched in BTicino anyway.
However, then, if after switching the item ON in openHAB I switch it to OFF in BTicino, there is an OWN message, but the binding does not seem to process it, the status in openHAB remains ON. Only if then I switch in BTicino to ON and then OFF again it seems the two get in sync again and also the item in openHAB is set to OFF. This is a problem, because it prevents me from properly switching the device from both worlds.
So, my first question is, is the binding somehow relying on the state of the physical actuator, or how can this be explained? If I run the same tests on a device with an actuator in BTicino everything works as expected.
And my second larger question is, how would you recommend implementing this, i.e. a link between a BTicino wall switch and a light controlled by openHAB? In a way that I can switch the light both from the BTicino switch and openHAB?