openHAB 2 Basics - Setting up Things Channels and Bindings

[@MrBobWareham]

I have joined your channel as you explain in a normal way and no music so I can hear what you say thanks Bob in the UK

[@jamesmoroz6863]

Excellent use of the diagrams to describe the abstract scema and features of openhab.

[@philohara3756]

Thanks so much for this series on OpenHab. I have been playing around with OpenHab for some time and I have been very frustrated by it. There are a few things in this series I think are just excellent and really helped me overcome some of the issues I have been having. Keep up the excellent work!

[@peterm85]

Very well explained, the video doesn't miss its purpose. Great content

[@edmundwilliams253]

Great video series so far. My personal goal this year is to finally get openHAB set up and running. Your videos are a great time saver. Looking forward to working through your list.

[@BKHobby]

Thanks!! Definitely get openHAB installed and running - and keep watching the series (I'll be coming out with new "Basics" videos soon ;)

[@daviddav2646]

Thank you so much , I was struggling with openhab until I discovered your videos

[@BKHobby]

Thank you!! This is exactly why I make these videos (and yes, there will be more coming soon :)

[@jeremyvonk6853]

Your Openhab videos are great! Everything I've seen about Openhab, previous to finding your videos, was very overwhelming. You do a great job of explaining this all, step by step! Thanks!

[@HackerSrijan]

love your openhab series.... please continue making more of these awesome openhab videos for newbies like me... they are really helpful... :)

[@BKHobby]

Thank you, that is exactly what I love to hear!! :) I'm glad you're finding these helpful - I'll keep making them, you keep watching/sharing! ;)

[@hailothanks523]

thanks a lot. Your videos are very helpful to the newbie I am

[@geartechreview4370]

I followed your videos and wanted to look at something. I then discovered the devices I had added were nowhere to be found. I'm using an Insteon hub and a hue hub, the devices work, but I cant find them in my demo.items file. Where are they located? Thanks

[@emyprinso]

is there a link with a list of products/devices that are compatible with openhab? I will appreciate if I get such link.

[@kmtsvetanov]

I can't wait for the next video :)

[@BKHobby]

I'm working on it right now, but it is a huge topic (Items), so it may take a little while longer :)

[@steffenroesler1945]

Hi, thanx for the video. Could you explain (maybe in another video), how to create the things in config files? If you use auto discovery and the Inbox you do not have the file.things How do you backup and restore in this case?

[@BKHobby]

@Steffen Roesler - in my experience, Things are OK with just being auto-discovered, even when restoring to a brand new configuration. In worst case, you'll just need to modify the Thing configuration to change its ID to match what you already have defined in your .items file channel definition.

[@message2prateek]

@@BKHobby I'm trying to learn openhab and found it confusing that you didn't teach creating things using config files. Maybe annotate the video with this comment of yours. Your videos are awesome and I wouldn't have decided to learn openhab without your channel.

[@message2prateek]

Also, please cover configuring mqtt devices with the latest binding.

[@russelltech]

What kind of sensor cube is that in your video? I can't understand what the make and model is in your video. Thank you! :)

[@dhcpy]

Hey @Bk Hobby. So if I started configuring in PaperUI and now want to go to config files, where do I find the things, items and all the stuff I already loaded via PaperUI? how can I backup or use that in the config files?

[@BKHobby]

@dhcpy - there isn't really a way of doing that. Think of PaperUI and config file configurations as two separate ways. You can't export PaperUI items/things/etc. into config files, and vice versa. That said, if you want to use config files going forward, just start putting items in them, and maybe slowly remove them from PaperUI (same item name/links to Things, etc, so that they fully replace the item you're getting rid of). In my setup, I use config files for everything but Things. I let PaperUI find my Things based on the bindings i installed via addons.cfg, and I reference the Thing channels by name/id in my item config files. At worst, if I have to recreate my OH install, I'll just have to search/replace the Thing ID in the Items file with the new one PaperUI creates. I know - this is all very confusing and all over the place. And, it's one of the major points being discussed by openHAB developers and users on the OH forums, i.e. how to make the PaperUI more useful, and how to allow text configuration to live alongside the PaperUI configj. I'm sure with OH version 3, this will be resolved.

[@dhcpy]

@@BKHobby thank you!

[@donkeytube77]

Can you do a video on how to install Azure IOT hub connector? It doesn't seem to have any help files around at all.

[@kfash5198]

Is there a way to secure openhab on the local network ? I.e a username and password

[@jepeswe]

Hmmm, i followed your guide and now i ran into trouble. When i click control i paper ui i dont see any of of my things, wgere did i go wrong?

[@BKHobby]

@Jerry P - did you select "Demo" mode after installing openHAB? If you didn't, check your Paper UI - Configuration - System - Item Linking setting. If it's turned ON, OH will create Items and link them to your Thing channels automatically - otherwise, you have to link them yourself. If you select "Demo" mode, that option is turned on by default. Bottom line, only those Things that are ONLINE and Channels linked to Items will show up in the Control tab in Paper UI.

[@3adelz90]

There is something unclear. You said "they will be unistalled the next time I open the openhab if I didn't list them". Actually i have mqtt binding working correctly even if I reboot and I installed it from paper ui. How is that possible that you said so ? Maybe that happened because the CFG file overwrites what you do in paper ui ?

[@BKHobby]

@ahmedadelhosni90 - What I mean is that if you put anything in the "bindings" line of the addons.cfg file (even just uncommenting it - removing the "##"), openHAB will read that line and assume that you want NO bindings installed and uninstall any that you installed with PaperUI. If you comment it out, any PaperUI installed bindings will remain.

[@BKHobby]

@ahmedadelhosni90 - Exactly! The CFG file overwrites what you do in PaperUI!

[@3adelz90]

Good. Not its clear. Thanks for the great and organized video.

[@HenrikDatBoi]

Bought a Raspberry Pie to set up openhab, thanks for great help!

[@dreadroberts7523]

thank you, im about to buy.

[@walberg61]

I also dit a usb stick and now every time i start openhabian config the system is reloding a lot of stuf

[@walberg61]

And. Is. Starto

[@walberg61]

HI80m

[@LandscapeInMotion]

My openHAB user does not have access to adafruit ws2801 library as I accidentally installed it in local user directory. So when I execute my python script through my RULE I get permission denied. Any ideas?

[@LandscapeInMotion]

And if I try to reinstall it under the openhab2 directory it says it’s already installed...

[@BKHobby]

You can try fixing permissions for the openhab user (in openhabian-config), or move the ws2801 library via cp? Are you trying to use the GPIO pin to drive the LEDs?

[@LandscapeInMotion]

BK Hobby yes using GPIO. But if I move the whole adafruit directory to /home/openhabian I think the references will break?

[@BKHobby]

hm, I'm not very familiar with running this library with GPIO, but it seems to me in order for your scripts to work, the library has to be in a folder that the openhab user has access to (i.e. /etc/openhab2/...

[@LandscapeInMotion]

BK Hobby ok got it. So do you think just moving the adafruit library will work then?

[@michaeldavison9808]

Warning - several items in early videos are now obsolete and invalid.

[@LandscapeInMotion]

great video! Sound is very poor unfortunately.

[@BKHobby]

@LandscapeInMotion - Thank you! Unfortunately, I reimaged my PC before recording this video, and ended up screwing up my settings (had the gain in WIndows set too high, causing all the distortion and noise). Hopefully, it''ll be better in future videos :)

[@terry5008]

I'm new here, so let me get this straight: So, where does Paper UI put its settings if not in the addons.cfg file? And why on earth does it need to be in a different place? A beginner could spend a lot of time getting things working in Paper UI, and then need to get a bit more granular in text CFG files, then POOF! Things disappear in Paper UI and you have to redo it all in CFG files. This seems positively obnoxious.

[@BKHobby]

@Terry Davis - great question and that is one of the "quirks" of openHAB 2 and absolutely something I want new users to understand, so they avoid the issues I've had while learning openHAB. So, with openHAB 1, everything went in config files (and there was NO PaperUI or the concept of Things). OH 2.0 added those concepts/UI, and along with it, began storing configuration in two places. One, the still supported config files (to allow OH 1 users to bring over their configuration more easily), and two, a runtime database. The problem with trying to keep everyone happy is that you now have two locations for configuration storage, and one is incompatible with the other (there is no way to import/export configuration from the DB to config files or vice versa). Because of this, most long time OH users (myself included) use config files to store everything except for Things (which is easier for auto-discovery and because Thing config file syntax is not as familiar to everyone yet). I hope that explanation makes things clear as mud ;) The good news is that for OH 3, there are some good discussions taking place on how to fix this, so that either we go to a UI-only config (which is a point of contention for the hard core users with thousands of lines of config files), or allow both the DB and config files to work together (which would be my preference)....We'll see what happens! Either way, you won't go wrong whichever path you choose for your configuration, and you *can* make both work :)