Unable to control Hue lights with Basic UI

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
1
  • Platform information:
    • Hardware: Raspberry PI 4
    • OS: Openhabian 1.5
    • Java Runtime Environment: Zulu Embedded OpenJDK Java 8
    • openHAB version: Openhab 2.5.5-1
  • Issue of the topic: Unable to control Hue lights with Basic UI

I’m relatively new to Openhab2 and have started my first installation. Everything went well and I’ve configured my Hue lights with PaperUI without any problems.

I can discover the Hue Bridge and all the lights and motion sensors as things and then create the corresponding items. I’ve then created a sitemap and tried to create a .things file with my hue-lights in order to get them into a Basic UI configuration for my house.

Unfortunately, I’m absolutely unable to configure the lights and looking at the logs the only message I get is the following:

2020-06-24 15:38:04.709 [ome.event. ItemCommandEvent ] - Item ‘F2_MasterBedroom_BedDJ’ received command ON
2020-06-24 15:38:04.712 [nt. ItemStatePredictedEvent ] - F2_MasterBedroom_BedDJ predicted to become NULL

Also when I look at the PaperUI I can actually see every light I’ve defined in the .things file now twice in the Inbox, once as the original Philipps - Hue light the way I can see it in the App and once the way I defined it in the .things file. Is this normal?
The third thing which is odd is that I can’t find the userName in the events.log although I press the authentication button. I can see a user name in the PaperUI, however since it’s starred out I can’t use that user name for the .things - file. So I used a userName from a previous installation where I could actually see the name. What can I do to get the correct userName and is that the root of the problem?

I appreciate any help. Below you can see some code-snippets

.things-file:

Bridge hue:bridge:1 “Hue Bridge” [ ipAddress=“myIP”, userName=“myUserName” ] {
…
0210 F2_MasterBedroom_BedDJ “Bett DJ” [ lightId=“1” ]
…
}

.sitemap

sitemap myHome label=“My Home” {
…
Frame label=“Second Floor” icon=“attic” {
Group item=F2_Bathroom
Group item=F2_Bedroom
Group item=F2_Hallway
Group item=F2_MasterBedroom
}
…
}

.items
Switch F2_MasterBedroom_BedDJ “BedDJ” (F2_MasterBedroom, gLight) [“Lighting”, “Switchable”] {channel=“hue:0210:1:brightness”}
Group:Switch:OR(ON, OFF) gLight “Light” (Home) [“Lighting”, “Switchable”]

2

Not sure if this is gonna fix it.
But you dont have to have a things.file if your things are allready in basic UI.

You can go to your things and use the channel to make a item.

image
image1172×579 22 KB

then make a item file and add the channel to your item.

Dimmer Huiskamer1 <bulb> (Huiskamerdimmer) { channel="tradfri:0100:gwa0c9a0d94d2d:65547:brightness"}

Maybe first try without groups and just put the item file in your sitemap like this:

Switch item= Kitchen

And test if the item is working before you start putting stuff in groups

So there is no need to have a seperate thing file.

If you go to control in paper UI can you control some of the lights?

image
image1899×820 241 KB

3

Thank you for your support here.

As a matter of fact it works this way.

I removed the .things file
I simplified my .items file and the .sitemap file and now I’m able to control the light with a simple switch.

To answer your question yes I’m able to control everything out of the Paper UI

I don’t yet get exactly what was wrong but I’ll work on that.

Thank you so much.

4

Thats good to hear.

I think it was the double things that made openhab not understand it.
Or you used the channels from your thing file in the items. Wich probably did not work.

Now you can make groups etc in the files how you want.

Btw there is no need to have this in your group if the items are switches:

Group:Switch:OR(ON, OFF) gLight “Light” (Home) [“Lighting”, “Switchable”]

Something like this should work:

Items:

Switch Led1 <bulb> (Lights) 
Switch Led2 <bulb> (Lights) 
Switch Led3 <bulb> (Lights)

Group

Group Lights <bulb>

sitemap:

Switch item= Lights
5

That looks a lot easier. I actually configured this items file with Paper UI but probably I should start with easier configs :slight_smile:

6

Depends on what you like, both options are there to use.
But yes, most folks on openhab use the files to code most of the things instead of using the Paper ui for rules and items