I am new to openHAB and am thinking of a home automation project.
Before digging deeply into it, I am trying to find the right solution for me.
I do not have, as of now, any z-wave, wi-fi smart things and I am testing openHAB with Kodi binding and Plex binding to learn the application.
Kodi binding works but Plex binding can’t control Samsung U TV + Plex application, though it shows all information of the currently playing media file.
But my question is not of why Plex doesn’t work.
Where things created in Paper UI are stored?
What is /things folder for?
If I understand it correctly, I can store manually created .things files there. Does it compliment that “thing” created in Paper UI?
I have found that Kodi thing created in Paper UI successfully connected to the Kodi Media Center, but Basic UI control / phone sitemap didn’t do anything, neither passively nor actively, until I added (from Kodi wiki) to /things folder:
They are stored in a database managed by openHAB located in $OH_USERDATA/jsondb (if you installed on Linux that would be /var/lib/openhab2/jsondb, see the installation instructions for your OS for the path on those systems).
The JSONDB, as the name implies, is JSON formatted text so you can open the files and review them. Do not manually edit them without stopping OH first though. It is usually better to use the UIs or REST API to make changes to the JSONDB.
You have the option to manually define Things using a different syntax (usually described by the binding README). Those go into .things files placed in $OH_CONF/things (e.g. /etc/openhab2/things for an installation on Linux).
No, you must use one or the other for any given Thing. You cannot define a Thing in PaperUI and then change parameters on that Thing in a .things file. It must wholly be defined in PaperUI (REST API) or wholly defined in the .things files.
I don’t use this binding and all bindings have their own quirks about how they work. Someone who uses and understands this binding will have to answer. I suspect Kodi supports some automatically discovered Things and also may require some manually created Things. Assuming they are not doing something different in this binding, you should be able to manually create that Thing by clicking on the Inbox, click the +, click “Manually create Thing” and select Kodi from the list.
And it’s worth iterating here in case there was a missed step and for future beginner readers, Things do not appear on the sitemap. Only Items are used on the sitemap. If you don’t see anything about Items in PaperUI, you have Simple Mode turned on. Do yourself a favor and turn that off and manually create Items and use a meaningful name for your Items.
@rlkoshak, thank you for you for your prompt response.
I will try some more meaningful home automation applications like z-wave stuff.
How does Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5, Z-Wave Plus USB work with Ubuntu 18.04?
Thinking of moving openHAB to LXD/LXC container and to pass this stick to the container.
Any experience with this USB controller?
All USB controllers that have the zwave logo on it will work with the zwave binding. The Gen 5 is one of the more popular controllers but I’ve no direct experience with it. I use a HUSZB-1 dual zwave/zigbee dongle.
I run OH in a docker container and it works well, but there will be some bindings and integrations that may not work as well for you (e.g. the Exec binding, automatic discovery of things depending on the network config, etc).
I have completely moved openHAB2 to the lxc/lxd container and so far no problems with the Exec binding and other stuff that worked on the host. A docker container is a bit different.
