Hi all,
I started with my homeautomation addiction 2 months ago. Looking up all different options I decided to go for Openhab2 even though in beta still. I have to say I do not regret it, now my washing machine tells me by voice and mail once done, I got my hue lights, harmony hub control, homematic (keymatic, movement detection) all setup to make my home more smart. The documentation of openhab is still lacking where my biggest concern is that it seems to be spread over different places. With my basic programming knowledge it was possible to get it running but I felt like Sherlock Holmes figuring out how it all ties together some times. Anyhow I love it and I got some questions and there will be more in the future I am sure. Hopefully it is ok to get them placed here otherwise please redirect me where a good place for newb questions would be.
My setup:
Intel NUC (also used as media player with Kodi) running windows 10
My general openhab2 questions:
- Is the revision of openhab2 shown somewhere? I think I installed beta2 offline but I am not sure.
- What is the difference between offline and online distro beside having the files local? Is the benefit of the online distro to update bindings once they get released via paper UI?
- Is there a standardized way to update openhab2? I saw openhab2 beta 3 got released but I have no clue how to perform the update. Which files/folders need to be copied and which settings have to be redone?
- So far I did like everything with paper UI and Eclipse Smart Home Designer. I looked at but can’t figure out why I should use others like “rest api” (for debugging?), “habmin” (for graphical coding?), basic and classic UI (just other UI?). What are the use cases to use those?
- My internet provider is unity media and I just had to replace my good old modem since it was broken. I got a unity media modem/router which I can’t use as bridge and therefor I can’t get my vpn to my frixbox running anymore (also no vpn possible to this crappy unity media router). I saw that there is the option to use my.openhab but I also read it might get discontinued and I don’t know if openhab2 is supported. Having control over my home from everywhere is one of the key requirements in homeautomation but I somehow got stuck and don’t know which way to go there.
My binding questions:
6. Is there a openhab2 withings binding? If not how would I use the openhab1 withings binding (or any other openhab1 binding) in openhab2?
7. Is there a way to figure out what I can do with the channels in detected and installed “things”? e.g. I got the thing from homematic “keymatic” (the wireless door lock). There is a channel “open” and a channel “state”. But there is no closed state so I assume it can be done via the “open” channel. But how? And where to look it up?
8. Is there a way to read existing harmony hub activities? It seems like using the logitech harmony pc and iPad configuration apps are showing different names for activities.
9. Is there a way to use existing hue scenes or do I always have to manually “code” them (as I do atm)
Well and finally I would have a future request:
10. Since automated knowladge if you are at home or not is one of the key things to differentiate between comfort automation and security automation it would be nice to have some out of the box solutions within openhab already. I tried already the Fritzbox iPhone detection which would be nice beside the iPhone is turning off wlan while in sleep mode. I read solutions where with some third party apps a message could be sent before having the ping but thats sounded to me too much trouble and not really reliable. I tried geofencing but failed miserable to set it up with my double router layout. Near filed beacons sound interesting but I did not started that approach. So again having someone figuring out a solution which would work for many people already build in would be a great!
Sorry if I posted my questions at the wrong place and I don’t expect to get everything answered but some would be great already
NoTechi