Month: August 2016

First tests with HABpanel (PanelUI)

Because openHAB2 is an open system, its possible to add new user interface modules, e.g. dashboards. There is an very promising, but early prototype of HABpanel “PanelUI” which is worthwhile to have a look on. I will keep updated this article if there is progess on that tool. This post is just an outlook.

Prerequsites

If you want to check it out, download the .jar file  from github and drop it into your addons folder. I added the entry “panelui” in  file <conf>/services/addons.cfg. Afterwards it will be installed automatically.

# A comma-separated list of UIs to install (e.g. "basic,paper")
ui = basic,paper,classic,panelui

Please be aware that its currently a prototype and persistence is still restricted to browser and not saved on the server at the moment, see forum contribution by the author of PanelUI in openHAB2 community.

From this community source I have taken two screenshots to demonstrate the big potential for smartphone and tablet usage:

PanelUISmartPhoneFormat   PanelUITabletFormat

How to test it

Its very simple: You find this GUI in your browser by your entry openHAB2 URL, in simplest case

http://localhost:8080/

PanelUIStart

You will be requested to add a new dashboard.In next pictue there is already this one I created for my first test.

PanelUI_NewDashboard

Lets create now “Frank2”, With edit button PanelUI_EditButton  you wil get an “Add widget” Button which currently allows you to add following widgets:

PanelUI_Widgets

Each created widget possesses a configuration button PanelUI_ConfigButton where you should define your widget, in case of switch gadget:

PanelUI_ConfMenu

For other widget types you are able to modify color or orientation. Please try it – it’s so simple that no more description is needed.

The size of widget can be changed via the white triangle in lower right corner. Via drag&drop you can change the arrangement of widgets.

Finally go to “run mode” PanelUI_Runmode and you will admire the result:

PanelUItest

Many thanks to user “ysc” for this wonderful addon!

 

 

Integrating EDIMAX Smart Plug Switch into openHAB2

Many thanks to user “derHeinz” who implemented a new EDIMAX binding for openHAB2, see github. Until now my plug switch SP-2101W was controlled via Android app, therefore I want to integrate it into openHAB2, too:

edimax_concept_slide.PNG

The thing (plug switch) communicates via WLAN in my house. Similarly to Android EdiPlug App we want to switch this module on/off and to get information on current and power consumption.

Prerequisites

Edimax smart plug switch should be already part of the home network. The local IP address is not really requested, but you need the MAC address of the plug switch. My router (Fritzbox) provides this address in list of connected devices.

You need to download the binding from github and copy the jar-file into your openHAB2 addons folder (<conf>/addons). This binding is not shown by PaperUI (it is currently not part of the “official” OpenHAB release), it’s even not shown by “feature:install”. But you can verify the installation with command

bundle:list | grep Edi

Hint: A capital “E” is requested. Here is my result, everything is fine:

edimax_bundle_Karaf

In case of trouble: It is not confirmed by the author, but my observation was that the HTTP binding should be available (either via PaperUI or manually in addons.cfg). May be I’m wrong. Nevertheless,  the “openHAB 1.x Compatibility Layer” is required as it is for all OH1 bindings. The HTTP binding itself may also be an old OH1 binding request.  Just put the “org.openhab.core.compat1x…jar” file to the addons folders as well as the edimax binding jar.

Lets start

Some hints for openHAB(1) configuration are given by “derHeinz”, see readme.

 

I added in my existing items file (may be you can create a separate one) three items according to above specification:

Switch EdimaxSimple {edimax="801F02FA6BB5:4711"}
Number EdimaxCurrent "Current [%.1f]" {edimax="801F02FA6BB5:4711:CURRENT"}
Number EdimaxPower "Power [%.1f]" {edimax="801F02FA6BB5:4711:POWER"}

For the numbers a formatting rule is given. The interesting part is the binding. Because the binding is not Eclipse Smart Home compatibel, there is no thing and consequently no channel in openHAB2. Therefore we have to use the legacy binding in curly brackets. The long number is the mentioned MAC address you get from your router (or from FHEM 🙂

The second part is the password. You can assign a new one (in my case “4711”) with above item definition (or with EdiPlug App) or simply insert the existing password that you assigned by EdiPlug. We can double check the results in Karaf console:

edimax_items

Secondly, the sitemap file should be extended. I added a new frame in the existing sitemap from my article Small examples: Yahoo Weather, NTP and Systems Service.

Frame label= "Power Plugin" { 
       Switch item= EdimaxSimple 
       Text item= EdimaxCurrent icon="battery-50"
       Text item= EdimaxPower icon="battery-50"
 }

The numbers are  shown as Text. Additionally I selected some icons. The result is as expected:

edimax_BasicUI.PNG

Excellent work by the author of the binding. Thanks!

Here you can find a list of my openHAB2 postings.

 

 

 

Tips and Tricks

In this article you can find tips and tricks for operation of openHAB2 in alphabetical order. Additional topics will be added step-by-step….

Addons

see command “help feature”

Addons query:

Q: Which bindings/addons are installed/started?

console -> feature:list

console -> feature:list | grep <text>        e.g. feature:list | grep fs20

Icons

You are allowed for beautifiing your sitemaps by icons (e.g. item = “temperature”).

The classic icon set is shown here. There is also a list of default icons for openHAB2 from ESM project.

Items

see command “help items”

Q: Which items are defined? What is the status?

console -> items:list

console -> items:list  <pattern>             e.g. items:list | ntp*

Log

see command “help log” and here

Q: How I can see logs and change the log level?

Log level:

console -> log:set  e.g. log:set ERROR  (default is WARN, others: DEBUG, INFO, …)

see your settings: log:list

Log display:

console -> log:tail

Yon can filter log display for certain bindings: log:display org.openhab.binding.edimax

SSH/Remote access

Use Kitty (or) Putty in order to access your Raspberry running openHAB2. Enable SSH in “rasp-config”

My Smart Home with openHAB2

As newcomer in openHAB2 I want to share my findings with you. Here the list of my existing and planned articles:

openHAB2 concepts

Smart home applications

Automation

  • The rules concept

Operation