Where is it coming from?

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
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1

I have added a ZWAVE plus door sensor to my system to watch the front gate. When I look in PaperUI I can readily see the the status of the sensor

If I try and add it to a sitemap the label prints correctly but the status/state is blank. When I look at the status/state in the Rest API I see it is set to NULL

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I have looked through all of the items and can not find a single item where the staus/state is set to OPEN…where is this coming from?

My item that I am using is:

String GateStatus "The Gate Is: [%s]" { channel="zwave:device:ad34b696:node5:sensor_door" }

What am I doing wrong?

2

A door sensor normally reports its state through a contact item, not a string. So try changing your item to Contact.

1 Like
3

Thank You ! - That’s exactly what I needed works as intended

I hope you’ll allow me to ask 2 quick follow up questions.

  1. I’m going to add tilt sensors to the system to monitor my garage doors, would the tilt sensors report back using the CONTACT item type as well?

  2. I’ve noticed that the OPEN/CLOSE status of the Gate Sensor is blank after a period of time. If i OPEN or CLOSE the gate the status will update from a "- " to the correct state. My initial assumption is that I need to enable persistence…is this correct? I have yet to enable persistence on my OH system. If this is correct is one of the options easier to implement so I can get a handle on what I need to do?

Many thanks,

Squid

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4

It depends on the sensor, but I guess it will be a Contact item. In general: you need to use the default item type from the zwave binding, you cannot change it (that was only possible in openHAB1)

Correct.

MapDB would be the right choice for that. You need to use the restoreOnStartup option for that.
http://docs.openhab.org/addons/persistence/mapdb/readme.html
One possible mapdb.persist file would be:

Strategies {
everyMinute	: "0 * * * * ?"
everyDay        : "0 0 0 * * ?"
default = everyChange
}
Items {
* : strategy = everyChange, restoreOnStartup
}
5

Thanks for this…So where do I find the default item type for each device? Is that in the ZWAVE database?

6

Easiest way is to use HABmin and the add button, then you will see the item type:

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7

Perfect - Thanks again for all of your help!