Rollershutters and windows control via GPIO

Setup, Configuration and Use Items & Sitemaps
1

Hi there, I am fairly inexperienced with Openhab and the Raspberry Pi, so please bear with me:
I have several electric Windows and Rollershutters (Velux) that I would like to control with Openhab. Because they use a proprietary signal I have wired several Velux remote controls to the Pi’s GPIOs to control the Windows/rollershutters. This works, I can simulate long and short button presses with scripts. My question is the following:
Is there a way in Openhab to activate GPIOs for as long as I press a switch and how would I implement this?

Really looking forward to the answers,
Jonas

2

For GPIOs there is PiFace

If you want to work with the scripts use the Exec binding.
Exec Version 2
Exec Version 1.X

Hope this helps.

3

Does the PiFace offer advantages over using the GPIOs directly. I can already type a command to for example set a pin to High for 5 seconds, resulting in the rollershutter moving for that period of time. The question is whether I can define an item in Openhab that activates the GPIO pin for as long as it is presses.

Best,
Jonas