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Chapter 1: Before you start

Is openHAB2 the right choice for my home automation project?

Be aware that openHAB2 is an OPEN home automation solution which is strongly living from a very supportive community. If you want to have a plug and play solution with supplier guaranteed service level and a high likeliness that all the features are working and all the hardware is compatible, you might be better off in getting a ready to use home automation kit including the designated controller (like e.g. devolo or homematic IP). Consider this especially if you are planning to do safety related automation or emergency detection like fire alarm. If you, on the other hand, are willing to spend a few hrs/days in learning how to do a little installation and coding yourself and have no problems with the service level of a Raspberry Pi 3 (it is not as failsafe as other controllers) you might find a perfect environment with openHAB2 for your low cost, very flexible and continuously improving home automation environment.

Introduction:

This tutorial is targeting beginners like me to get a step by step guideline to get all the things installed. Since I am no coding expert and have no experience in Raspberry and Raspbian I am trying to go through the things step by step, so you should be able to get everything done, even without exactly having to go into all the details. That is one of the reasons I am also using the graphical GUI PIXEL for Raspbian since I think it makes it easier for the beginners to get started (and you might want to use PIXEL anyway when you are using the Raspberry 7” display as interface for your home automation controller) This tutorial is also based on having a Windows PC to support the setup process. You might be able to completely do it without the support of an extra PC, if you can get a MicroSD card with a pre-installed Raspbian OS and use the display options (the Raspberry 7” display or HDMI Display) for the Raspberry.

DISCLAIMER: This tutorial might contain some typos, errors or ways of setting up, which can be done in a better way. I am just reflecting my process of starting from scratch and slowly working my way through hundreds of online tutorials, manuals, forum threads etc. and on the way, highlighting the issues I had in getting things working. There will be no guarantee that the given instructions are working for your project as well.

Anyway I hope this tutorial will help some beginners to enjoy home automation with openHAB2.

A few words about the 2 in openHAB2:

The 2 in openHAB2 is important! The tutorial is based on the openHAB2 and will not go into all the details of the old version. You just have to be aware, that a lot of online documentation is still for the openHAB version and will not be applicable for openHAB2! So the best thing is always to go to the official webpage of openHAB2 and start from there, and only if you really can’t find the information or the link there, go to google and search for other solutions. I was always using the search setting (last year) so it was more likely to the results considering openHAB2 and not openHAB.

Chapter 2: Preparation

Shopping list: As mentioned before, I am basing this tutorial on the graphical GUI of Raspbian named PIXEL so the shopping list is also containing parts for this optional setup:

Hardware list:

Minimal hardware setup of the controller with external display:

Description	Image
Raspberry Pi 3
MicroSD card 16GB (minimal to have some buffer for the future) Make sure you have the right card reader to plug the MicroSD card into your computer!
Designated Raspberry power supply (min. 2,5A 5V, I recommend 3A) Do not use other USB chargers since insufficient power supply (shown in GUI as lightening symbol in the upper right corner) will result in serious issues like e.g. Bluetooth not working) A cable switch might be a good thing since you might have to hard-reset your Pi in the early days more often and the Pi itself does not have a power switch
USB Mouse
USB Keyboard
HDMI cable, full size to whatever your display needs (Obsolete, if you going for the 7” Raspberry display setup)
Display with HDMI input (Obsolete, if you going for the 7” Raspberry display setup)
Optional: Raspberry case (Obsolete, if you going for the 7” Raspberry display setup)
Optional: Ethernet cable (Obsolete, if you not want to use WiFi to connect the Raspberry to your gateway)

Additional hardware for optional setup of the controller with 7” Raspberry display:

(I found it very useful to have one permanent GUI interface mounted on your controller, you can also use this touchscreen interface directly to interact with your home automation):

Description	Image
Raspberry Pi 7" Touch-Display
Premium case for Raspberry Pi 7" Touch-Display (closed version) often sold in bundle with Touch-Display, should be available in black, white and transparent. This is a very good case if you want to place the controller on a table or counter since it is protecting the Raspberry from the back.
Alternative: Cases for Raspberry Pi 7" Touch-Display. You will find a wide range of other cases. The open versions might give you a better access to the Pi GPIO pins or for changing SD card. Please consider: since you can rotate the image of the GUI on the display you can also choose to switch from landscape to portrait orientation.
Bluetooth keyboard (optional, since the optional on screen touch keyboard for Raspbian PIXEL was not working without errors, I decided to go for a Bluetooth keyboard which makes the typing much easier)

Z-Wave Controller hardware

If you want to use the Z-Wave technology for your home automation project you have to have one Z-Wave controller connected to your Raspberry.

NOTE: Be aware that the details serial numbers or item names may vary since you have to always make sure to use the hardware which is allowed in your country!

Description	Image
UZB Z-Wave PLUS USB stick by Z-Wave.Me Pros: Cheapest controller, small. Cons: For inclusion, the controller has to be plugged into the Raspberry, so for mounted devices like wall switches , you have to take the Raspberry in close proximity of the device or do the inclusion before you mount the switch inside the wall.
Alternative: Aeotec by Aeon Labs Z-Stick Gen5 Pros: Allows offline inclusion of Z-Wave devices which makes it very easy since you only have to take the stick to the mounted device, not the entire Raspberry. Cons: Including battery powered devices into openHAB2 requires a special process and might cause errors(see tutorial]
NOT REALLY an Alternative: Z-Wave Z-Wave.Me Razberry 2 Daughter Card for Raspberry Pi Home Automation (not plug and play compatible with optional setup of the controller with 7” Raspberry display!)Pros: will be mounted directly on the Raspberry so it is not using a USB port Cons: will be mounted directly on the Raspberry which is blocking the GPIO pins for e.g. the Display power supply or additional cooling fans, so you have to manually solder the power wires at the back of the razberry. Is using the i/o port of the Raspberry Pi 3 on board Bluetooth, so a lot of additional configuration is needed to get the razberry and the Bluetooth running in parallel. Most expensive controller.

Z-Wave sensors, switches and actuators

NOTE: Be aware that the details serial numbers or item names may vary since you have to always make sure to use the hardware which is allowed in your country! Since I am doing a German based home automation project you may find that some Z-Wave devices are not sold in your required country configuration ( e.g. Z-Wave NodOn Smart Plug not available e.g. in the US)

*** This list is showing you all the devices I was testing. Your shopping list hast to be adopted to the desired setup of your project. You might have to alter some parts in this walkthrough (things, items, rules etc.) accordingly to your hardware list. ***

Description	Image
Z-Wave Fibaro Double Switch 2 FIBEFGS-223, Z-Wave Plus Smart Switch (comes at almost the same costs than the single switch and gives you 2 channels. (2x1500W) Only reason to go for single switch is you need the full power range of the single switch since the double switch has slightly lower range) NOTE: This switch is designed to be installed in the electrical power wiring of your home (inside a distributor case). In some countries this may only be allowed to be done by special trained staff (insurance and/or law).
Z-Wave Fibaro Single Switch 2 FIBEFGS-213 (1x 2500W)
Aeotec Multi-Sensor 6 ZW100-C - Z-Wave Plus
Aeon Multi Sensor Gen5
devolo Home Control door sensor (it also provides you with raw temperature and lumincance readings)
ZME_WALLC-S multi swith by Z-Wave.me
Z-Wave Aeon Labs ZW088 Z-Wave Key Fob, Gen5
Z-Wave NodOn Smart Plug (not available e.g. in the US)
Alternative: Fibaro wall plug FIBEFGWPF-102 (allows you to switch up to 2500W)

NOTE: If you want to by other Z-Wave devices always make your they are listed in the Z-Wave device list of the openHAB2 Z-Wave binding to make sure they are supported correctly in the context of openHAB2:

http://www.cd-jackson.com/index.php/zwave/zwave-device-database/zwave-device-list

LAN devices (cable or WiFi)

A lot of things you are using at home are already connected to your LAN and can be integrated into your openHAB2 home automation project if the right binding is available for that device. You can find an overview on

http://docs.openhab.org/addons/bindings.html

NOTE: Be aware that not all the bindings to include devices are already included in the stable version of openHAB2 and may require a manual installation of a so called snapshot version of the binding (how to install snapshot bindings is explained later in this tutorial since we will need it for the WiFi LED controller)

Description	Image
WiFi XCSOURCE Magic UFO-WiFi LED-Controller Type LD382 (other brand names might work as well, but you have to make sure it is Type LD382, LD382A or LD686) REMARK: I was using a WiFi controller on purpose since: It is only about half the price of a Z-Wave WiFi controller. You can control the device as well via smart phone (like light to music feature of the app). But some things you have to be aware of using WiFi LED instead of Z-Wave LED: You have to have a WiFi network to which your Raspberry and your WiFi LED controller is connected. You have to manually install a beta / snapshot version of openHAB2 or manually install the WiFi LED Binding on top of the package based installation of openHAB2 (see tutorial).
RGB LED stripe incl. power supply 12V DC bundle. While you can buy the stripe and the power supply bundle separately, most of the times the bundle will come at the same price or even cheaper. The included power supply plug should directly fit into the power inlet socket of the WiFi controller. REMARK: It also allows you to attach the stripe without soldering since you can just cut the cable of the RGB bundle controller and use it to connect the LED stripe to the WiFi controller.
Optional: White LED stripe. Since the WiFi LED-Controller is allowing you to at additionally control plain colour LED stripe (or in case of controller type LD686 even two) you might want to get an additional strip in e.g. plain white to create ab clear white illumination. NOTE: You might be fine with just the stripe if you already got the power supply with the RGB stripe
Optional(in my case it was already there and I just included it into my project): Yamaha Receiver RX-V581

433MHz devices

NOTE: Be aware that the details serial numbers or item names may vary since you have to always make sure to use the hardware which is allowed in your country!

Description	Image
433MHz Transmitter / Receiver bundle
433MHz Antenna (purchase)
Optional: 433MHz Antenna (DIY) 173 mm (6,81 in) wire (I used an insulated tie wire). Coil the antenna wire around a pen/chopstick
Jumper cables (Female-Female)
433MHz Plug sets like Brennenstuhl RCS 1000 N Comfort or Elro AB440S (In my case I was able to use existing devices of other brands as well)
Optional: 433MHz Plug sets supporting the code selection by 10 bit dip switches
Optional: 433MHz Plug sets with other code selection or predefined codes

Software list:

NOTE: This list is just an overview. The details in how to download and install the software are included later in the document so don't start downloading now.

Windows Download list:

My tutorial is using a MS-Windows windows machine for the PC part (You should be able to get it done with Mac or Linux PCs as well, but you have to go online to look up the differences and do some adaptions on the tutorial e.g. mounting the Raspberry file system to PC)

Description	URL
The latest Raspbian (Raspberry OS) image. You have to download the “Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL - Image with PIXEL desktop based on Debian Jessie” since this tutorial is using PIXEL	https://www.Raspberrypi.org/downloads/Raspbian/
Etcher (to write the Raspbian image to the SD-Card)	https://etcher.io/
Eclipse Smart HomeDesigner (optional but strongly recommended for easy editing of OpenHAB2 configuration files; incl. syntax highlighting). You have to choose the right version for your PC	https://www.openhab.org/downloads.html
To use Eclipse Smart HomeDesigner you need Java Runtime Environment JRE (if not already installed on your PC)	https://java.com/
PuTTY or KiTTY portable to access the Raspberry console from your PC	http://www.putty.org/ or https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/kitty-portable
WinSCP portable to access Raspberry file System directly from your PC (might become obsolete if you use a SAMBA server on your Raspberry, see tutorial)	https://winscp.net/eng/download.php

Raspberry downloads:

How to download software will be explained in the tutorial, but as a reference you will use:

openHAB2 Package repository based installation or manual installation (be aware that the file locations on the Raspberry will be different based on which kind of installation you choose)
Samba server (for access of Raspberry files from Windows machine; needed for Eclipse Smart HomeDesigner)
git-core to get code from the git repository (needed for the 433MHz controller)
wiringPi to send commands using via GPIO (needed for the 433MHz controller)
433Utils to communicate with the 433MHZ controller (needed for the 433MHz controller)
xscreensaver (optional if you are using the display setup, to easy control screen blackening or screen savers)

Chapter 3: Raspberry hardware and Raspbian OS installation

General information about Raspberry interfaces and GPIO pins:

Raspberry input Overview:

Raspberry GPIO pin Overview:

Preparing MicroSD card - writing Raspbian image to MicroSD card (PC required):

Description	Image
Download latest Raspbian Release (*.zip file) to a Windows folder
Extract latestimage.zip file to receive latestimage.img file
Use Etcher to write image to a MicroSD card: 1. select image 2. select drive with MicroSD card plugged in to 3. start flashing

Connecting the hardware to the Raspberry

Basic hardware setup:

Description	Image
Connect keyboard, mouse and Z-Wave controller to the USB ports
Insert the MicroSD card (pins facing the circuit board)
Connect Raspberry with display using HDMI (Obsolete, if you going for the 7” Raspberry display setup)
Connect the Raspberry with Ethernet cable to your gateway (optional)
Connect the power supply to the micro USB power input Make sure that you have everything plugged in and the Raspberry is clear of any metal items since this step is already powering up your Raspberry.

433MHz devices preparation and setup:

Solder the 433MHz antennas to the circuit boards of the transmitter and receiver:

Connect the transmitter and receiver according to the wiring table below:

433MHz Transmitter

Transmitter Pin	Raspberry pin number	Raspberry pin name
GND	9	GND
VCC	4	5V PWR
DATA	11	GPIO 17

433MHz Receiver (permanently)

NOTE: If you are running the 7” Raspberry display setup, you will not be able to connect the receiver permanently since the display is using the same power supply pins. You will have to build (solder) yourself a Y-patch cable to fit into the display cover (A breadbord might not fit into the case). But be aware that a temporarily installation of the receiver will work as well for this setup. See section 433MHz Receiver (temporarily).

Receiver Pin	Raspberry pin number	Raspberry pin name
GND	6	GND
VCC	2	5V PWR
DATA	13	GPIO 27

433MHz Receiver (temporarily)

NOTE: Sice we do need the receiver only in the setup process for reading the code of unknown 433MHz remote controls you might not need the receiver installed permanently.

If you have to read codes from a unknown 433MHz remote control you can temporarily use the power sockets of the transmitter. How to read the codes will be explained later in the section Adding 433MHz things.

Receiver Pin	Raspberry pin number	Raspberry pin name
GND	9	GND
VCC	4	5V PWR
DATA	13	GPIO 27

After reading the codes you can remove the receiver completely from your raspberry and reconnect the transmitter to the power supply pins.

Optional: Installation of 7” Raspberry display and display case:

The full tutorial will be found on:

https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-78156/l/Raspberry-pi-7-touchscreen-display

and a clip on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK-w-wDvRTg

REMARK: I had an issue with plugging in the power supply to the micro USB power input on the circuit board of the display (like shown in the video). The Raspberry was still showing me the low power symbol (lightening symbol on the upper right corner) SOLUTION: I had to plug in the power supply to the micro USB power input on the Raspberry itself. The display is now powered via the jumper cables. The standard display case is also allowing for both micro USB power inputs to be used.

NOTE: If the image on the display is having the wrong orientation, you can rotate the image by changing the configuration of Raspbian (see tutorial section Initial configuration of Raspbian > Change display orientation)

Display installation pictures:

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:

Step 6:

Step 7:

Step 8: Assembly of the standard display. (Make sure you have inserted the MicroSD card since you won’t have access to the slot as soon as you mounted the case!)Just pull the back plate off the case, insert the display including the mounted Raspberry (make sure that the path cables and the display cables are not crushed between case and board), tighten it with the 4 screws and put the back plate into place. Here is a good clip on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpSxibZOmoo

Chapter 4: Raspbian basic configuration

Starting up Raspberry or the first time – Raspbian PIXEL desktop

Since this tutorial is focussing on using the PIXEL GUI here are a few basic tips.

Raspberry start-up screen:

PIXEL basic desktop (including the programs used in this tutorial) not unlike other PC OS desktops:

NOTE: If you are working with the 7” Raspberry display setup you might need to flip/rotate the display orientation. Just check the section” Optional: Change display orientation” later in this chapter

Working with the Terminal:

NOTE: As soon as you have connected the Raspberry to the network you might find it easier to open the Terminal remotely using PuTTY. This also allows you to directly paste command lines from this tutorial into the Terminal. (Right click in PuTTY terminal is pasting the content of the clipboard into the terminal)

Basic terminal commands and functions:

The full list can be found on:

https://www.Raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/usage/commands.md

Command	Description
`help`	Is showing you basic commands
`sudo othercommand`	is allowing you to run other commands as super user aka root user
`ls -la`	Shows the files in a directory incl. additional information
`cd`	Is changing the shell working directory. It can be used with attributes
`cd`	No attribute => working directory is changed to user root directory.
`cd ..`	Working directory is changed to directory one level above
`cd directory`	Working directory is changed to the named directory inside the current directory
`cd /directory/directory`	Working directory is changed to the directory defined by the full path /directory/directory
`nano filename`	Is stating a basic editor in the terminal to open or create a simple text or configuration file. Closing the editor is done by Ctrl+x and then choosing whether you want to save your changes or not
`sudo nano filename`	Is stating a basic editor with write access in the terminal to open or create a simple text or configuration file with root user rights. Closing the editor is done by [Ctrl+x] and then choosing whether you want to save your changes or not

Initial configuration of Raspbian

The following steps make sure, that basic Raspbian configuration is done.

NOTE: There may be many tutorials in how to set-up and configure Raspbian and going into more details about user rights and other Raspbian features. This tutorial is showing the way which worked for my project aiming to run openHAB2 on the Raspberry. Since this tutorial is using the PIXEL GUI I always refer to the PIXEL way of configuring and only go back to the terminal way (text only) if it is required.

Localisation:

The first thing you want to do is changing the localisation settings to make sure your keyboard layout and WiFi settings are matching.

NOTE: Do not change the password before you have changed the keyboard layout since you might put in a different password than you expect (e.g. US qwerty vs. German qwertz results in “Raspberrz” instead of “Raspberry”)

Description	Image
Open Raspberry Pi Configuration >Application menu >>Preferences >>>Raspberry Pi configuration
Configure >Localisation >>Set Locale >>>Language >>>Country
Go to tab Localisation >Localisation >>Set Timezone >>>Area >>>Location
Go to tab Localisation >Localisation >>Set Keyboard >>>Country >>>Variant
Go to tab Localisation >Localisation >>Set WiFi Country >>>Country
Accept the reboot

Changing Password:

This is important to secure your standard Raspberry user “pi” before you connect the Raspberry to the network.

NOTE: Make sure you have changed the keyboard layout to your requirements before change the password.

Description	Image/Command
Open Raspberry Pi Configuration >Application menu >>Preferences >>>Raspberry Pi configuration
Change the password >System >>Change Password
Enter initial (for standard user “pi” it is “raspberry” and your new password	`raspberry` > `yourpassword` > `yourpassword`

Enabling interfaces:

This is required for the communication to the PC (SSH) and to the Z-Wave stick (Serial).

Description	Image/Command
Open Raspberry Pi Configuration >Application menu >>Preferences >>>Raspberry Pi configuration
[SSH: Enable] to access the Raspberry via Network and [Serial: Enable] to enable Serial Port for Z-Wave controllers - >Interfaces >>SSH >> Serial

Connect Raspberry to network:

Either by plugging in a Ethernet cable or by connecting to a WiFi network:

Description	Image/Command
Click on the network symbol	3 lines and 2 red crosses if no connection is available
Select WiFi network	[yourwifi]
Enter WiFi password	`yourwifipassword`

Check the IP address of the Raspberry:

To do so you have to check the IP address of the Raspberry in the terminal:

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
use the command	`ifconfig`
Result: the terminal shows you the ip configuration and the IP addresses for the different connections	Ethernet cable: [eth0] `xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx` or WiFi: [wlan0] `xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx`

NOTE: You might want to set your IP address of the Raspberry to static, if you get problems with the lease time setting of your gateway (IP address is changing whenever you reconnect to the network)

Update / Upgrade Raspbian:

Raspbian is proving online updates so make sure that you have the latest installed before you go further in the configuration.

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
use the command (be aware that the upgrade function will take several minutes to complete if you run it for the first time) and confirm prompts with Yes	`sudo apt-get update` & `sudo apt-get upgrade`>`y`

Optional Raspberry settings and configuration:

The following settings and configuration is just for additional information and might not be needed to setup openHAB2. Some of the settings and configuration might still be useful.

Change display orientation

If you are working with the 7” Raspberry display setup you might need to flip/rotate the display orientation for specific cases

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
Open boot config.txt file in nano editor	`sudo nano /boot/config.txt`
Add the line at the bottom of the file:(This will flip the display orientation)	`lcd_rotate=2`
Optional: You can choose from different angles
0 degrees rotation	`display_rotate=0`
90 degrees rotation	`display_rotate=1`
180 degrees rotation	`display_rotate=2`
270 degrees rotation	`display_rotate=3`
horizontal flip	`display_rotate=0x10000`
vertical flip	`display_rotate=0x20000`
Exit and save the file	[Ctrl+x] > `y` > [Enter]
Reboot the Raspberry for the changes to take effect	`sudo reboot`

Check partition size on MicroSD card:

Make sure Raspbian is using the full capacity of the MicroSD card (normally while starting up Raspbian for the first time, it is done automatically and the Raspberry will restart automatically):

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
use the command	`sudo fdisk -l`
Result: the terminal shows you the partition size of the two partitions on the MicroSD card summing up to the total capacity
If the capacity is not completely used (e.g. you were using not a plain Raspbian image) you have to expand the partitions manually in the terminal configuration
Start terminal configuration with command	`sudo raspi-config`
Select Option (Be aware that the option numbers might change in newer Raspbian releases)	7 Advanced Options
Select Option	A1 Expand Filesystem Prompt will tell you that the file system has been increased
Now select to exit the configuration	[Finish]
Allow reboot	[Yes]

Create a Desktop icon and link it to a application

To be able to create a Icon you have to first create a yourdesktopfile.desktop file NOTE: This example is creating the desktop icon for the user “pi”

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
Go to the directory desktop for your “pi” user	`cd /home/pi/Desktop`
Create a specific desktop file using nano editor	`sudo nano yourdesktopfile.desktop`
Enter parameters into the file accordingly	(see example file content below)
Name:	YourShortcutName
Comment:	Your Shortcut Comment
Icon:	YourIcon.png
Application for shortcut:	YourShortcutApp

Example file content:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=YourShortcutName
Comment=Your Shortcut Comment
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/YourIcon.png
Exec=/usr/bin/YourShortcutApp
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Terminal=false

Enabling root user:

Since by default the “root” disabled it can’t be used. You might want to enable it for certain purposes like e.g. enabling the root user for samba file server to get full access to the directories from a PC (see chapter setup samba server)

NOTE: There is a reason for the “root” being disabled! Enabling the user is allowing full access to the Raspbian and therefore creating a security risk . Please always consider whether you really want to enable this user!

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
Since the user already exists you just have to set the password. NOTE: you can also use the command to change the password later on	`sudo passwd root`
Just enter twice the new password for the “root” user	`rootpassword` `rootpassword`

Enabling remote SSH access for root user:

NOTE: There is a reason for the “root” not being enabled for SSH! Enabling the user for SSH is allowing full remote access to the Raspbian and therefore creating a significant security risk. Please always consider whether you really want to enable this user for SSH!

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
Open sshd.config file in nano editor	`sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config`
Find the section in the file	`# Authentication`
	`LoginGraceTime 120`
	`PermitRootLogin without-password`
	`StrictModes yes`
Change the line	`PermitRootLogin yes`
Reboot the Raspberry for the changes to take effect	`sudo reboot`

Optional: Raspbian PIXEL screensaver (xscreensaver)

If you are working with the 7” Raspberry display setup you might want to use a screensaver as well. Installation of xscreensaver:

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
Install xscreensaver and some additional screen saver themes	`sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl-extra`
Confirm installation	[Yes]

Configuration of xscreensaver:

I am showing an example configuration which is first switching on a screensaver and then turning off the display completely.

Description	Image/Command
Open Screensaver Preferences: >Application menu >>Preferences >>>Screensaver
Configure [Display Modes] - NOTE: This is just a sample configuration selecting one screensaver after 5 minutes
Mode	[Only One Screen Saver]
Screensaver	[Barcode]
Blank After	[5] minutes
Cycle After	[0] minutes
Configure [Advanced] - NOTE: This is just a sample switching off the screen after 10 minutes
Power Management Enabled	[x]
Standby After:	[10] minutes
Suspend After:	[10] minutes
Off After:	[10] minutes
Quick Power-off in Blank Only Mode:	[x]
Close the Screensaver Preferences - NOTE: There is no save button

Optional: Start Chromium Web server on Raspbian boot

Configure the autostart file:

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
Open the autostart configuration file with nano editor	`sudo nano /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart`
Add the line at the end of the file	`@unclutter`
Add the line at the end of the file - (`--noerrdialogs` to ignor error dialogs)	`@chromium-browser --noerrdialogs`
Optional parameters (example command):	`@chromium-browser --noerrdialogs --kiosk --incognito http://yoururl.com`
For full screen mode. NOTE: to exit full screen mode you have to press “Alt+F4” on the keyboard of the Raspberry, so you have to have a keyboard installed to exit this mode!	`--kiosk`
For incognito mode of the browser	`--incognito`
For selecting the URL directly in the configuration file. NOTE: selecting the URL via Chromium settings might be easier	`http://yoururl.com`
Exit and save the file	[Ctrl+x] > `y` > [Enter]
Reboot the Raspberry for the changes to take effect	`sudo reboot`

Select the start URL for Chromium web browser:

NOTE: You can also select the URL in the autostart file, but using the browser functionality is giving you a simpler access (no terminal) and you can check the result without rebooting.

Description	Image/Command
Open Chromium and go to the Settings (3 bullets icon)
Enable in the On start-up chapter the option Open a specific page or set of pages [x] and click on the link [Set pages] to enter the requested start URL
Enter the requested start URL `http://yoururl.com`, [OK] your URL - Now Chromium is allowing you to enter an additional URL which you can ignore
To check if it is working >Close Chromium browser >Open Chromium browser >>Result: `http://yoururl.com` should be loaded on startup
Optional: If you have completed your openHAB2 configuration and want to use HABPANEL as GUI you can just use the URL or even start specific pages in the HABPANEL GUI (just use the URL shown in the browser when you access the HABPANEL page) - NOTE: If you are linking to pages hosted on the same raspberry, most likely ou will receive an error message since yon startup the service has not started up. Just refresh the page after a few minutes.	`http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/HABPANEL/index.html#/`

Chapter 5: Setting up Raspbian for access via PC

Connect to the Raspberry terminal your windows system using, KiTTY or PuTTY:

Description	Image/Command
Open KiTTY or PuTTY on your PC
Enter Hostname (pi@ in front of the IP is giving the user you want to use for connecting, in this case the standard user “pi”), Port and Connection type. Select Open to launch the terminal
Optional: save the session
On first connection an security alert is coming which you have to accept
Now a terminal window is opening on our PC asking you to enter the “pi” user password
The terminal window is now starting up in the user home directory
You can now use the PC terminal window the same way you us the terminal on the Raspberry itself

Optional: Connect to the Raspberry file system from your windows system using WinSCP:

NOTE: The connection can only access the rights of the Raspberry user. So the standard user “pi” will not have the writing rights for multiple directories. For full access you have to use the user “root” (user needs to be enabled since it is disabled in standard setup, procedure shown later in the tutorial), but enabling this user for SSH access is opening up a significant security risk, so it is recommended to use as Raspberry based Samba server for full access to specific directories (shown later in the tutorial).

Description	Image/Command
Open WinSCP on your computer
Configure your session
Select	[New Site]
Select File protocol	[SCP]
Enter Host name	`xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx`
Enter port	`22`
Enter User name	`pi` (standard user with limited access to the file system)
Enter Password for “pi”	`yourpassword`
Optional: save the session	[Save]
WinSCP is launched showing the windows directory on the left side and the “pi” user home directory of the Raspberry on the right side of the window

Optional: Generic setup of Samba server on Raspbian

To have access to the Raspberry file system using the PC file explorer you have to install a Samba server on Raspbian. With the server installed you can map the selected folders (share) on your Raspberry as a network drive.

NOTE: Skip this section to the end of this chapter, if you only want to use the Samba server for openHAB2 purpose. You will find an openHAB2 centric installation guide later in this document.

Description	Image/Command
Open Terminal
Make sure Raspberry is updated (optional)	`sudo apt-get update`
Download samba server to Raspbery	`sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin`
Open the samba server configuration file in nano editor	`sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf`
Go to the end of the file and add following lines	`[RaspberryPiDirectories]`
	`comment = Your full access to Raspberry Pi directories`
NOTE: / is setting the share to the root directory. You can share dedicated directories by detailing the path (e.g. /etc/openhab2)	`path = /`
	`read only = no`
Optional: Change the workgroup name if needed, otherwise uncomment and enable WINS support in the section	`# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section`
	`# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server`
	`wins support = yes`
Exit and save the file	[Ctrl+x] > `y` > [Enter]
Now you have to activate a user, e.g. “pi” as a Samba user	`sudo smbpasswd -a pi`
Now enter the password for the external access of the network share	`sharepwd` `sharepwd`
NOTE: The access to the selected folders (share) on your Raspberry will be limited to the user rights of the Raspbian user you activated as a Samba user.
Optional: Create a dedicated sambausr. This allows you to do a more precise rights management of the shared files on Raspbian. (Details how to manage access rights can be found online)
First you have to create the user in Raspbian	`sudo adduser sambausr`
Then you have to enter your password sambausrpassword and optional information you can just leave empty and finally save with `y`	Adding user sambausr' ...
	Adding new group sambausr' (1001) ...
	Adding new user sambausr' (1001) with group sambausr' ...
	Creating home directory /home/sambausr' ...
	Copying files from /etc/skel' ...
	Enter new UNIX password:`sambausrpassword`
	Retype new UNIX password:`sambausrpassword`
	passwd: password updated successfully
	Changing the user information for sambausr
	Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
	Full Name []:
	Room Number []:
	Work Phone []:
	Home Phone []:
	Other []:
	Is the information correct? [Y/n] `y`
Then you have to activate the dedicated sambausr as a Samba user	`sudo smbpasswd -a sambausr`
Now enter the password for the external access of the network share	sambausrsharepwd``sambausrsharepwd
Mandatory: Check the syntax of the samba configuration file. Result: there should be no error message (red) in the prompt	`testparm`
Now you have to restart the services to reload the config file	`sudo systemctl restart smbd.service` `sudo systemctl restart nmbd.service`
Make sure that the services are running again without errors	`sudo systemctl status smbd.service` `sudo systemctl status nmbd.service`

Command	Description
`sudo systemctl status smbd.service` `sudo systemctl status nmbd.service`	Check if all the services are running
`sudo systemctl restart smbd.service` `sudo systemctl restart nmbd.service`	Restart the samba services
`sudo systemctl stop smbd.service` `sudo systemctl stop nmbd.service`	Manually stop the samba services
`sudo smbpasswd -a sambausr`	Create a new Samba user mapping
`sudo smbpasswd -d sambausr`	Disable a Samba user
`sudo smbpasswd -e sambausr`	Enable a Samba user

Optional: Mapping Raspbian samba directories to Windows (IOS and Linux mapping process can be found online):

Description	Image/Command
One time map the Raspberry folder to a windows drive (in this case Z) enter in the CMD Prompt (just put CMD in the search of Windows 10 to open the command prompt)	`net use Z: \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\RaspberryPiDirectories /user:sambausr sambausrpassword /persistent:no`
Persistent map the Raspberry folder to a windows drive (in this case Z) enter in the CMD Prompt (just put CMD in the search of Windows 10 to open the command prompt)	`net use Z: \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\RaspberryPiDirectories /user:sambausr sambausrpassword /persistent:yes`
You can also create a simple .bat file for easy double clicking. Open the editor by just putting notepad in the search of Windows 10. Enter the line. Save as yourmapping.bat	`net use Z: \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\RaspberryPiDirectories /user:sambausr sambausrpassword /persistent:no`

Chapter 6: Installation of openHAB2 on Raspberry

This tutorial is only focussing on the package repository installation of the stable version and only on the add-ons for the listed hardware. All other installations are described on the openhab.org site installation for Linux:

http://docs.openhab.org/installation/linux.html#package-repository-installation

For the Raspbian you have to go for the “Apt Based Systems” part of it.

NOTE: All the commands in this chapter are terminal commands, so you have to open the terminal:

First, add the openHAB2 bintray repository key to your package manager and allow Apt to use the HTTPS Protocol

wget -qO - 'https://bintray.com/user/downloadSubjectPublicKey?username=openhab' | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

I choose the stable Official (Stable) build. The stable builds contain the latest official release with tested features.

echo 'deb https://dl.bintray.com/openhab/apt-repo2 stable main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openhab2.list

Next, resynchronize the package index:

sudo apt-get update

Now install openHAB2 with the following command:

sudo apt-get install openhab2

Optional but recommended: When you choose to install an add-on, openHAB2 will download it from the internet on request. If you plan on disconnecting your machine from the internet, then you will want to also install the add-ons package.

sudo apt-get install openhab2-addons

If everything went well, you can start openHAB2 and register it to be automatically executed at system startup:

sudo systemctl start openhab2.service
sudo systemctl status openhab2.service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable openhab2.service

Common openHAB2 service commands:

Command	Description
`sudo systemctl status openhab2.service`	Shows the status of openHAB2
`sudo systemctl start openhab2.service`	Start the service of openHAB2
`sudo systemctl stop openhab2.service`	Stops the service of openHAB2
`sudo systemctl restart openhab2.service`	Restarts the service of openHAB2
`sudo apt-get purge openhab2`	This commands uninstall openHAB2 from your Raspbian
`sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openhab2.list`	and delete the source list

openHAB2 configuration for the samba server:

This is required to grant the PC based Eclipse Smart Home Designer access to the requested configuration folder on your Raspbian.

NOTE: This is for using samba for openHAB2 ONLY. If you already have set up a samba with a different user and a full access to raspberry, this might be obsolete.

The shares are configured to be not open for guests nor to the public. Let’s activate the “openhab” user as a samba user

sudo smbpasswd -a openhab

Enter the password openhabpassword which will be used to map the share on your PC

New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:
Added user openhab.

Be aware, that creating and later using a specific user will ensure that permissions are honoured. Make sure, the “openhab” user has ownership and/or write access to the openHAB2 configuration files. This can be accomplished by executing:

sudo chown -hR openhab:openhab /etc/openhab2

Restart the samba service to allow the changes to be utilized

sudo systemctl restart smbd.service

Map the Raspberry folder to a windows drive (in this case Z) enter in the CMD Prompt (just put CMD in the search of Windows 10 to open the command prompt)

net use Z: \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\RaspberryPiDirectories /user:openhab openhabpassword /persistent:no`

openHAB2 Privileges for Common Peripherals

An openHAB2 setup will often rely on hardware like a modem, transceiver or adapter to interface with home automation hardware. Examples are a Z-Wave, Enocean or RXFcom USB Stick or a Raspberry Pi add-on board connected to the serial port on its GPIOs. In order to allow openHAB2 to communicate with additional peripherals, it has to be added to corresponding Linux groups. The following example shows how to add Linux user openHAB2 to the often needed groups dialout and tty. Additional groups may be needed, depending on your hardware and software setup.

Adding openhab user to groupds dialout an tty

Enter command (This is adding the openhab user to the group dialout)

sudo adduser openhab dialout

Enter command (This is adding the openhab user to the group tty)

sudo adduser openhab tty

Optional: Enter command (If you are looking to enable sound privileges for openHAB2, it will also be necessary to add openHAB2 to the “audio” group.)

sudo adduser openhab audio

Granting java environment access to serial ports

Change to directory

cd /etc/default/

Open openhab2 file in nano editor

sudo nano openhab2

Change the text from (nothing between the “”)

EXTRA_JAVA_OPTS=""

To (something between the “”

EXTRA_JAVA_OPTS="-Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts=/dev/ttyUSB0:/dev/ttyS0:/dev/ttyS2:/dev/ttyACM0:/dev/ttyAMA0"

Exit and save the file [Ctrl+x] > y > [Enter]

Reboot the Raspberry for the changes to take effect

sudo reboot

Chapter 7: Installation of Eclipse Smart Home Designer

(Optional but strongly recommended for easy editing of openHAB2 configuration files; incl. syntax highlighting)

The complete installation guide can be found on:

http://docs.openhab.org/installation/designer.html#setup

Installation guide for windows (Eclipse Smart Home Designer and Java Runtime Environment):

Download Smart Home Designer

Download the Windows 64 bit version

http://eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/smarthome/releases/0.8.0/eclipsesmarthome-incubation-0.8.0-designer-win64.zip

Optional: Download the 32 bit version since there are reports about the “stable” 64 bit version running not stable

http://eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/smarthome/releases/0.8.0/eclipsesmarthome-incubation-0.8.0-designer-win.zip

Optional, but not recommended for beginner: Download a snapshot version

https://github.com/eclipse/smarthome/blob/master/docs/documentation/community/downloads.md#designer-builds

Unzip the downloaded file to a destination of your choice yourpcdrive:\yourdestionation\eclipsesmarthome

Optional: Download the offline Java Runtime Environment.

NOTE: If you do not have a java environment installed, you have to additionally install Java Runtime Environment to be able to run Eclipse Smart Home Designer. In this case we will install the Java files directly into the Eclipse Smart Home Designer folder which will create a “portable” version of the Eclipse Smart Home Designer. (The folder can be copied/moved to different locations or machines without the need of reinstalling).

Go to the java homepage download section https://java.com/en/download/

Optional: Go directly to: https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Download the 64bit version (something like jre-8u131-windows-x64.exe ) or the 32bit depending on your system

Install the Java Runtime Environment to the Eclipse Smart Home Designer folder Start the Java installer. Select on the first screen “Change destination folder”

[Change destination folder] & [Install]

Change the folder to \jre inside your Eclipse Smart Home Designer folder yourpcdrive:\yourdestionation\eclipsesmarthome\jre since this is the location the Eclipse Smart Home Designer is expecting the JRE.

[Change] yourpcdrive:\yourdestionation\eclipsesmarthome\jre [Next]

Launching Eclipse Smart Home Designer first time:

Execute the SmartHome-Designer.exe yourpcdrive:\yourdestionation\eclipsesmarthome\SmartHome-Designer.exe

Link the Eclipse Smart Home Designer to the configuration folder on your Raspberry NOTE: Make sure that you have mapped the samba drive before (see openHAB2 setup for the samba server)

Example: If you have chosen Z:\ as drive letter the path would be: Z:\etc\openhab2

Eclipse Smart Home Designer should now recognize the file structure inside the configuration folder and augment the different folders with different icons.

Chapter 8: Initializing openHAB2 (finally: first startup)

To open the openHAB2 you have to access the web GUI with a browser on your PC or directly from your Raspberry, depending on your setup. The URL will be:

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/start/index

Just replace the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the IP of your Raspberry. First the GUI will ask you to select the initial setup configuration. The walksthrough is based on the [Standard] so click on it. This will install a standard set of GUIs in openHAB2.

After a few minutes of installation the standard openHAB2 start GUI will come up, showing you the icons for the pre-installed GUIs:

[BASIC UI] , [PAPER UI] and [HABPANEL]

NOTE: Now you are ready for the configuration of your home automation project in openHAB2!

Chapter 10: General information about configuring openHAB2

NOTE: Make sure to double check with the official website of openHAB2 since in the end this is where you will find the correct answers if something in this tutorial is not working:

http://www.openhab.org/

As a start you should read the beginners tutorial form beginning to end so you understand the basic concept of things, items, rules etc. and how they are mend to work together;

http://docs.openhab.org/introduction.html

openHAB (no 2) vs. openHAB2

One of the most important things I had to learn is that there is also an openHAB (no 2)! So here are a few things if found out to be considerable if you are using openHAB2:

Always make sure, that you are looking at the right version of openHAB when it comes down to documentation, since a lot of older online documentation is refereeing to the openHAB (no 2). When a few things might be done the same/similar way in openHAB2, other things have changed and will not work in openHAB2
You will also encounter two different ways of storing configuration in openHAB. -- In openHAB (no 2).configuration was stored in files only -- In openHAB2 you can still use the files, but also can use database storage for certain typs when you do the configuration with PAPER UI. This now might lead to some confusion since you will not be able to change e.g. items in PAPER UI which were configured using a text file. Also you would not have the correct syntax highlighting in the Eclipse Smart Home Designer is expecting file configuration only an items configured in PAPER UI will show up as errors. -- But be aware that some configuration in openHAB2 still has to be done via text file like e.g. rules. You might find already some progress in the snapshot release of openHAB2, but I decided to base this tutorial on the stable release with limited functionality in PAPER UI database
Regularly check the website of openHAB2 for news since a lot of new features are expected to be implemented.
Meanwhile be not afraid to go and sign up the openHAB community: https://community.openhab.org and ask your questions there. I got replies to my problems within days, sometimes even within hrs. There is also a designated area for beginners.

Chapter 11: Configuring openHAB2 using PAPER UI

Since the online documentation is mostly referring to PAPER UI GUI I will try to stick to this GUI as long as possible.

HABmin GUI will be needed for Z-Wave network management
HABPANEL GUI will be used to create the final user frontend for this project NOTE: Since you will be regularly starting and switching the GUIs I highly recommend creating quick links in your browser for each GUI

Installing Add-ons:

Start PAPER UI

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/paperui/index.html#/inbox/search

Installing Bindings:

Select >[Add-ons] >>[BINDINGS]

Install the Bindings: [Exec Binding] , [WiFi LED Binding] , [YahooWeather Binding] , [YamahaReceiver Binding] and [Z-Wave Binding]

Result: The icons of the bindings should change to blue The install option should change to uninstall. (Sometimes you have to reload the page if the update is not coming up for a few minutes).

NOTE: If you already have connected devices to the same LAN as the Raspberry, a message in the inbox will show up, telling you a new thing was found (e.g. Yamaha Receiver) How to add this thing will be explained later.

Check the installed bindings:

Select >[Configuration] >>[Bindings]

Result: You should see now all the installed bindings.

NOTE: You should also see the [WiFi LED Binding which] we installed before manually.

Installing User Interfaces:

Select >[Add-ons] >>[USER INTERFACES]

Install the User Interface [HABmin] (Required for Z-Wave network administration)

Result: [HABmin] GUI is installed.

General process of adding new things to the configuration

NOTE: To be able to add new things to openHAB2 depends on whether they are connected to the LAN (if you use IP), whether they are included in the Z-Wave network of the Z-Wave controller or whether your Raspberry is online if you use online sources like YahooWeather

Select >[Inbox] and click on the >>[+] (the blue plus icon) to start adding things.

Result: This will now show you all the installed Bindings which can be used to add things.

Select [>] (arrow to right) next to the required binding and go through the binding specific adding process for new things.

Checking the added things

Select >[Configuration] >>[Things]

Result: You should see now all the installed things.

Adding local things connected via network (IP):

NOTE: Make sure that the device is connected to the Raspberry network via IP.

Result: The connected devices should come up automatically in the inbox.

Adding Things using YamahaReceiver Binding:

Select >[Inbox] and click on the Yamaha Receiver [checkmark] (the blue checkmark icon).

Result: The YamahaReceiver Binding dialogue will open, allowing you to enter/edit the name.

Confirm the adding by clicking on the [ADD AS THING] button

Adding Things using WiFi LED Binding:

Select >[Inbox] and click on the WiFi LED [checkmark] (the blue checkmark icon).

Result: The WiFi LED Binding dialogue will open, allowing you to enter/edit the name.

Confirm the adding by clicking on the [ADD AS THING] button

Adding online things connected via network (IP)

NOTE: Make sure the Raspberry is online.

Adding Things using YahooWeather Binding:

Select >[Inbox] and click on the >>[+] (the blue plus icon) to start adding things.

Result: This will now show you all the installed Bindings which can be used to add things.

Select [>] (arrow to right) next to the YahooWeather Binding.

Select [>] (arrow to right) next to the Weather Information.

Now you have to configure the thing. In this case you have to enter the WOEID which is a 32-bit reference identifier of the weather information location. You can look up the WOEID on e.g. http://www.woeidlookup.com/

Remark: More information on WOEID on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOEID

In this case we choose Berlin WOEID: 638242

Add the thing by clicking on the [checkmark] (the blue checkmark icon)

Adding 433MHz things

Install additional code and configure Raspbian

Open the terminal:

Install git-core

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git-core

Install WiringPi

Change to home directory and download wiringPi

cd
sudo git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi

Change to wiringPi directory execute build wiringPi

cd wiringPi
sudo ./build

Install 433Utils

Change to home directory and download 433Utils

cd
git clone https://github.com/ninjablocks/433Utils.git --recursive

Change to 433Utils/RPi_utils directory and execute make

cd 433Utils/RPi_utils
make all

Change to home directory and move the 433Utils to the /opt/433Utils directory to make the command line works for every user

cd
sudo mv 433Utils /opt/433Utils

Allowing openHAB2 to send commands to the 433MHz transmitter

Since the 433Utils send tool is using sudo (root) rights you have to allow the openhab user to execute the sent tool with those sudo (root).

Open the sudoers config file:

sudo nano /etc/sudoers

Search for the chapter:

# User privilege specification
 root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Add the line:

openhab ALL=NOPASSWD: /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/codesend*
openhab ALL=NOPASSWD: /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/send*

Exit and save the file [Ctrl+x] > y > [Enter]

Determining the device code and testing the setup

The 433Utils tool is able to process two different kind of codes:

send comand is processing an unaltered code systemCode unitCode command which can directly taken from some 433MHz devices. The command will determin to switch the device ON 1 or OFF 0
codesend comand is processing a single Ninja Blocks compatible decimalcode which can be sniffed using the 433MHz remote controll and the 433MHz receiver with the sniff command.

Determining the `systemCode` and `unitCode` directly form the 433MHz devices

Since I am running a German setup I only can use devices witch a German certification. I can confirm the Brennenstuhl RCS 1000 N Comfort or Elro AB440S will have the code setting with 10 bit dip switches like shown in the picture.

From this 10 bit dip switches you can directly read the unaltered code from the device.

Dip switch 1-5 is defining the systemCode, the same code you will have to set at the 5 bit dip switch of the genuine 433MHz remote controller of the set. Dip switch A-E is defining the unitCode. NOTE: As specified in the genuine 433MHz remote controller manual, only one dip switch is allowed up to define the unit number.

bit	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
dip name on device	1	2	3	4	5	A	B	C	D	E
`systemCode` dips	x	x	x	x	x
`unitCode` dips						x	x	x	x	x
`unitCode` decimals						1	2	3	4	5

Example: Refering to the picture above, the dip setting is:

bit	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
dip name on device	UP	DOWN	DOWN	DOWN	DOWN	UP	DOWN	DOWN	DOWN	DOWN

This represents the systemCode 10000 and the unitCode 1

REMARK: You might be able to determine manually the systemCode and unitCode for non 10 bit dip devices following instructions on this sites (German only):

https://wiki.fhem.de/wiki/Intertechno_Code_Berechnung#Original_Intertechno_System https://isn-systems.com/tools/it2elro/

Optional: Determining `decimalcode` for unknown 433MHz devices by sniffing the remote control code

NOTE: before you can start sniffing, you have to make sure, the receiver is connected to the GPIO of the Raspberry.

Start the sniffing:

sudo /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/RFSniffer

Press the required button on the 433MHz remote control.

You will recieve a decimalcode while you keep the button pressed and one ohter decimalcode when you release the button.

You will have to use the decimalcode while you keep the button pressed, in this example 1394001

Repeat the process for all buttons you want to sniff:

Stop the sniffing process by pressing [Ctrl+c]

Test sending the codes by terminal command line

Unaltered code `systemCode unitCode command`

Sending an unaltered code systemCode unitCode command

sudo /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/send systemCode unitCode command

Example: If you want to switch a device with the dip setting.

bit	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
dip name on device	UP	DOWN	DOWN	DOWN	DOWN	UP	DOWN	DOWN	DOWN	DOWN

To switch the device ON:

sudo /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/send 10000 1 1

To switch the device OFF:

sudo /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/send 10000 1 0

Single Ninja Blocks compatible `decimalcode`

Sending a single Ninja Blocks decimalcode

sudo /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/codesend decimalcode

Example: If you want to switch a device with the sniffed code 1394001.

sudo /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/codesend 1394001

Adding 433 MHz Things using Exec Binding:

Open the PaperUI and select >[Inbox] and click on the >>[+] (the blue plus icon) to start adding things.

Result: This will now show you all the installed Bindings which can be used to add things.

Select [>] (arrow to right) next to the Exec Binding.

Select [>] (arrow to right) next to Command.

Enter the [Command] sudo /opt/433Utils/RPi_utils/send 10000 1 1 (The same command line you used in the terminal to test the 433MHz setup).

Set the [Interval] to 0 so the command is not repeated.

Add the thing by clicking on the [checkmark] (the blue checkmark icon)

Adding things connected via Z-Wave controller

NOTE: first you have to use the Z-Wave binding to add the Z-Wave controller as a thing. After this you will use HABmin to further include things into the Z-Wave network. These things should show up automatically in the inbox of PAPER UI.

Adding Z-Wave controller

Open the PaperUI and select >[Inbox] and click on the >>[+] (the blue plus icon) to start adding things.

Result: This will now show you all the installed Bindings which can be used to add things.

Select [>] (arrow to right) next to the Exec Binding.

Select [>] (arrow to right) next to Z-Wave Serial Controller.

Now you have to configure the thing In this case you have to enter the serial Port of the Z-Wave controller The standard port where the UBS-Z-Wave controller should come up is: /dev/ttyACM0

Add the thing by clicking on the [checkmark] (the blue checkmark icon)

Adding Z-Wave things to the Z-Wave Network using HABmin UI

To include further devices to your Z-Wave network and make them available as openHAB2 things you have to use the HABmin inclusion functionality. Please also consult the online documentation for general information about Z-Wave :

** https://github.com/openhab/org.openhab.ui.habmin/wiki/ZWave-Device-Installation **

Using a standard Z-Wave controller like UZB Z-Wave PLUS USB stick by Z-Wave.Me

Start HABmin

Direct URL: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/habmin/index.html#/home

Select >[Configuration] and >>[Things]

HABmin will show you all the things which are available in PAPER UI as well

To start the inclusion mode of your Z-Wave controller in HABmin you have to select the add thing icon of HABmin [magnifying glass]

Select the [Z-Wave Binding]

This now is triggering the inclusion mode of your Z-Wave controller

Put the Z-Wave devices in inclusion mode to be detected by the Z-Wave controller. Please refer to the Z-Wave devices manual how to put them in inclusion mode.

When the device is included in the Z-Wave network, the [plug icon] will show a green box with the number of the included devices.

Click on the icon to show the details of the included devices.

Just select the green [Add] button to include this device as a thing for openHAB2

NOTE: some devices may come up as “unknown device” at first. The normal reason for this is that the device was not able to finish the communication with HABmin during the inclusion process. This might be very likely for battery powered devices since the will go to sleep mode after a certain amount of time. You can still add the device because there is a way to cure this device by manually waking up the device (see device manual) multiple times (up to 10 times) so the communication can be completed and the device is recognized as a proper thing in HABmin.

The newly added thing should now be visible in the HABmin GUI things tab Now you can switch to the PAPER UI and find the new things in the inbox or check the new things in the things tab.

Using the Aeotec by Aeon Labs Z-Stick Gen5 Z-Wave controller

The special feature of the Aeotec by Aeon Labs Z-Stick Gen5 which is the offline inclusion. This means that the battery powered stick must not be plugged in for the Z-Wave network inclusion process. You have to unplug the stick and press the inclusion button on the stick to start the inclusion mode of this Z-Wave controller. (Please refer to the Aeotec by Aeon Labs Z-Stick Gen5 documentation for further details.)

To start the adding ot the included things to openHAB2 you have to again plug in the stick and make sure the stick is not offline but online.

Open the PaperUI GUI and select >[Configuration] >>[Things]

The Z-Wave Serial Controller must be [ONLINE]

NOTE: If the Z-Wave Serial Controller shows up as [OFFLINE]

Restart the openHAB2 service with the terminal command sudo systemctl restart openhab2.service. After a few minutes when the service is restarted the controller should show up as [ONLINE] .

Now start the standard inclusion process in HABmin.

NOTE: Since the Aeotec by Aeon Labs Z-Stick Gen5 is using offline inclusion almost every battery powered item will come up as “unknown device” because the timespan between including the battery device to the stick and starting the inclusion process in HABmin inclusion after you plugged the stick back in will be too long and most of the devices will have gone back to sleep. You might prevent this by manually waking up the device again just seconds before you start the inclusion on HABmin. If this does not work you can always cure this device by manually waking up the device (see device manual) multiple times (up to 10 times) so the communication can be completed and the device is recognized as a proper thing in HABmin.

The newly added thing should now be visible in the HABmin GUI things tab Now you can switch to the PAPER UI and find the new things in the inbox or check the new things in the things tab.

For details documentation on the Z-Wave Binding usage in HABmin consult:

http://www.cd-jackson.com/index.php/openhab/habmin/10-habmin-zwave-binding-initialisation

Creating items form things

The concept of Things, Channels, Items and Links:

Before we start please read first the concept of Things, Channels, Items and Links which is directly tanken from the openHAB2 User Manual page

http://docs.openhab.org/concepts/index.html#things-channels-items-and-links

Things are the entities that can be physically added to a system and which can potentially provide many functionalities at once. It is important to note that things do not have to be devices, but they can also represent a web service or any other manageable source of information and functionality. Things provide their functionality through a set of Channels. Channels are “passive” and can be regarded as a declaration of a Thing, what it can offer. It is up to the individual setup, which of the Channels are actively used through Items (see below). Items represent (fine-grained) functionality that is used by applications - as user interfaces or automation logic. Items have a state and they can receive commands. The glue between Things and Items are Links. Links are associations between exactly one Thing Channel and one Item. If a Channel is linked to an Item, it is “enabled”, which means that the functionality that the Item represents is handled through the given Channel. Channels can be linked to multiple Items and Items can be linked to multiple Channels. To illustrate these concepts, take a two-channel actuator that controls two lights:

The actuator is the Thing. This might be installed in the electrical cabinet, it has a physical address and needs to be setup and configured in order to be used. The user is instead interested in the two lights, which are located at different locations in his home. These lights are the desired functionality, thus the Items and they are linked to the Channels of the actuator. A Link can be regarded like a physical wire in this example.

The basic process of creating Items in PAPER UI:

http://docs.openhab.org/tutorials/beginner/configuration.html

This beginner tutorial is showing a general quick overview of the complete configuration process.

Creating a Item walkthrough (KeyFob_Gen5 Scene Number)

Open the PaperUI GUI and select >[Configuration] >>[Things] and select the KeyFob_Gen5 thing:

A list of all the available channels of the thing will be shown:

Now click on the blue icon in front of the channel number to link this channel to an item:

A link channel window will come up. Select the pull down option for the item:

The next window coming up will allow you to select already existing items or: In our case [+ Create new item…]

The next window will allow you to configure the item you want to link to the thing channel. You can also change the name of the item if you are planning to run with your own naming convention. Select [LINK] button to create your new item:

Now the blue icon to the left of the name will change [white dot in the center] . By clicking on this icon the channel will expand and show you the linked items to this cannel:

Select >[Configuration] >>[Items] to check the new created item:

Chapter 12: Creating a dashboard for your home automation project

Every user interface on openHAB2 is providing its own style of dashboards to control your home automation project, display current item states and attribute values or even include online information like web pages. The complete overview of all available user interfaces can be found on:

http://docs.openhab.org/addons/uis.html

In the walkthrough configuration there are 4 different user interfaces available.

Open openHAB 2 start page

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080

In this configuration you will see the 4 different UIs:

User-Interface	Description
[BASIC UI]	The Basic UI is an HTML5 web application in Material Design, designed for operating openHAB.
[HABMIN]	HABmin is a modern, professional and portable user interface for openHAB, providing both user and administrative functions.
[PAPER UI]	The Paper UI is an AngularJS-based HTML5 web application in Material Design, designed for setup and administration purposes.
[HABPANEL]	HABPanel is a lightweight dashboard interface for openHAB.

Creating a dashboard in [BASIC UI]

In the Standard setup of openHAB2 which is used in the walktrhough, there is no pre-set sitemap, so you will only get the a Welcome! message.

To create your own configuration of the dashboard you have to work with text based sitemap files. Since this is a beginner’s tutorial trying to get things done using as less textual coding as possible, it will not go into the details of creating a dashboard for the BASIC UI.

You can find more information in how to customise a BASIC UI dashboard on:

http://docs.openhab.org/configuration/sitemaps.html

Creating a dashboard in HABMIN dashboard

HABmin will allow to create a dashboards based on widgets.

Since this is a beginner’s tutorial it will not go into the possibilities of how to create a dashboard with HABmin. But be aware the HABMIN is providing a powerful graphical way of creating dashboards you might want to have a look at. You can find the standard documentation on:

http://docs.openhab.org/addons/uis/habmin/readme.html

Creating a dashboard in PAPER UI

NOTE: Paper UI currently only supports limited use cases for dashboards. It is mainly meant for setup and administration purposes, not for operation.

The [Control] tab will show you a dashboard which is showing all the things you have already added which have items created for them.

You can also easily create different tabs of things by adding [Location] information to the thing configuration: NOTE: I had issues in updating a few things, so it will be good to it while creating the things.

Now you will have [Control] tab giving you various tabs with items grouped by their things. The [OUTSIDE] tab:

The [OTHER] tab (all the items with no location information):

Creating a dashboard in HABPanel

The HABPANEL UI is all about creation a dashboard for your home automation project being controlled by a touch screen. Especially in the 7” Raspberry display setup, this UI will be a nice UI for controlling your home automation project. It is still undergoing a lot of construction, so with every release you will enjoy new features. Therefore this walkthrough is detailing the creation of a dashboard in HABPanel.

Open HABPAnel start page

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/HABPANEL/index.html#/

A complete blank panel will come up asking you to start configuration. Click on the [gear icon] :

Select [+ Add new dashboard] :

Enter the name Your Dashboard and click [OK] :

You will see the created Your Dashboard. Optional: You can further configure the Dashboard settings by clicking on the [gear icon] at Your Dashboard:

Click on the Your Dashboard itself to start configuring the dashboard:

You will see now the Your Dashboard in configuration mode with the icons [Save] , [Run] and [Add Widget] . Using the >[Add Widget] [>> Switch] create switch widget:

Click on the [3 dots icon] and select Edit to start configuring the switch widget:

Enter the widget Name WiFi LED Switch, select the openHAB Item HF-LPB100-ZJ200_Power in the pull down list, select a Backdrop Item, check Center backdrop horizontally and click on [Save] to close the configuration.

Back in the Your Dashboard in configuration click on [Run] to test the dashboard:

You will now see the control layout of Your Dashboard. Clicking on the widget will now switch ON/OFF your WiFi LED:

Clicking on the [2 bars icon] will trigger the HABPanel menu where you can select between different dashboards (if created). Clicking again will close the HABPanel menu again.:

NOTE: Since HABPanels is designed for touchscreens you can also open and close the HABPanel menu by swiping left/right.

To Toggle full screen click on the [diagonal arrows icon] :

This will now show you the seamless control dashboard for your touchscreen:

To go Edit Your Dashboard again you have to hover over the dashboard name and then select the [pen icon] :

To reposition the widget you have to click and hold on the widget [crossed arrows icon] and drag the widget to a new location. Since the widget have to snap on a pre-set grid you will see a grey shadow indication the new grid location:

To resize the widget you have to click and hold on the [triangle icon] in lower right corner of the widget and drag the frame into the new size. Since the widget have to snap on a pre-set grid you will see a grey shadow indication the new size:

Now go on and create the missing widgets for the WiFi LED items:

Widget	Item
Color Picker	HF-LPB100-ZJ200_Color
Slider	HF-LPB100-ZJ200_Color

Position them accordingly on Your Dashboard:

NOTE: If you are configuring the dashboard on your PC it might not fit perfectly onto the 7” Raspberry display full screen due to the different aspect ratio.

Now go on and create the dashboards for all the other items you want to controll driectly.

NOTE: If you just want to alphanumerically display some values on your dashboard you should use the [Dummy] widget.

Chapter 13: Creating rules

I will try to give some basic rule examples to start with but you have to be aware:

DISCLAIMER: I am no coding expert at all and writing rules is still the most difficult part in my home automation project (finding the right commands, the right syntax and so on), so you might be better off using to other tutorials.

For the standard rules documentation incl. the rule syntax please refer to the online documentation:

http://docs.openhab.org/configuration/rules-dsl.html

You can also find some rules samples on:

https://github.com/openhab/openhab1-addons/wiki/Samples-Rules

And maybe some coding experts in the community will find the time to create a kind of an openHAB2 compendium to make it easier the non-experts to do rules.

REMARK: Yes, I know there are plenty of online documentation sites available, but the problem for me was the “plenty” part of it since I always had to go through plenty different websites to finally get the syntax right and make the rule do, what I wanted it to do.

Chapter 13: Creating rules

Since rules can’t be configured using the PAPER UI (stable version) you now have to go to the text files for now. For this part we will now use the Eclipse Smart Home Designer since it creates at least some syntax highlighting.

** REMARK: ** You might find already some functionality about configuration of rules in the PAPER UI snapshot versions so there will be some changes in the way of doing rules more easily in the future. Also HABmin is providing some kind of graphical rule engine.

Creating the myfirstrule.rules file

Start Eclipse Smart Home Designer on your PC Make sure you have mapped the Raspbian samba drive to your PC and Start Eclipse Smart Home Designer is set to the right folder in this samba drive (see Chapter 7: Installation of Eclipse Smart Home Designer -: part launching first time) You should now the augmented icons for the different folders. If you check the Rules folder you will only find a readme.txt file:

You need to create a file with the ending .rules to store your rules there. The fastest way of doing it is using the basic file management functionality of Eclipse Smart Home Designer. Right click on the readme.txt file and select copy:

Then right click again and select Paste:

A new window will ask you to enter a new file name. Change the file name to myfirstrule.rules an press [OK] :

A new file will appear in the Rules folder showing the rule icon. Now double click on the file to open it and select all the text [Ctrl+a], delete the old content [Del] to have a plain rule rile. Finally save the rule file again [Ctrl+s]:

Now you can start to use myfirstrule.rules file to store rules.

Example Rule: Switch on light when door is opend and it is dark

The aim is to use the devolo door sensor, which also gives you a luminance reading, to detect when it is getting dark and when the door is opend. Than 2 switches (wallmouted and plug) will switch on the ligt in the hallway.

Devices, Things and Items

NOTE: If you are using different hardware you might have to adopt this changes in the list.

Device	Thing	Channel	Item
devolo Home Control door sensor	Door_01	zwave:device:e442b469:node4:sensor_door	Door_01_DoorWindowStatus
devolo Home Control door sensor	Door_01	zwave:device:e442b469:node4:sensor_luminance	Door_01_SensorLuminance
Z-Wave Fibaro Double Switch 2	Doubleswitch_01	zwave:device:e442b469:node11:switch_binary2	Doubleswitch_01_Switch2
Fibaro wall plug FIBEFGWPF-102	Plug_02	zwave:device:e442b469:node2:switch_binary	Plug_02_Switch

The rules for switching ON and OFF the ligth will be:

// this is the rules file

rule "Door_open"

when
	Item Door_01_DoorWindowStatus changed from CLOSED to OPEN
then
	if (Door_01_SensorLuminance.state < 4) {
		sendCommand (Doubleswitch_01_Switch2, ON)
		sendCommand (Plug_02_Switch, ON)
}
end


rule "Door_close"

when
	Item Door_01_DoorWindowStatus changed from OPEN to CLOSED
then
		sendCommand (Doubleswitch_01_Switch2, OFF)
		sendCommand (Plug_02_Switch, OFF)
end

Since the door sensor is only providing very raw luminance reading you might have to adpot the value 4in the line Door_01_SensorLuminance.state < 4 accordingly

Further Rule examples based on this home automation project:

Switching ON/OFF switches based on luminance reading of the multisensory The rule is designed to switch ON/OFF the Singleswitch_01_Switch based on the illumination measured by the MultisensG5_01_SensorLuminance The trigger value is set to 10 LUX To prevent von switching on/off if the illumination is around 10 lumen and e.g. just a cloud is casting a temporarily shadow, there is a counter included which is measuring multiple times the illumination and only allows to triggering the switch if there reading is consistently (10 times) above or below the trigger value.

NOTE: Make sure you have create the item Counter_Item since it’s used in the rule (see: part “Creating an item the see the value of a variable of a rule online” in this chapter).

REMARK: This was done as some kind of coding and configuring HABPANEL exercise. You might get the same result in just checking the reading in a less frequent period, forget about the counter and just trigger the switch when the illumination reading is above or below the trigger value. You can also use this Counter_Item to display some tendency whether your light is about to switch ON/OFF depending on the value of the Counter_Item on your dashboard. So if you play a little with the “knob” widget in HABPANEL it might look like this:

Then you add some other readings of your multissor, the wattage reading and trigger of your switch, a clock widget and you have a complete dashboard of your real weather and let it trigger your outside ligth.

You can just add these lines at the bottom of your existing rule file or create a new file in the same folder:

// this is the rules file

var Number loop_counter = 0

rule "check_illumination"
// using the loop_counter to ensure that it is
// 10 times in a row darker/lighter before triggering switch

when
// every x seconds "0/x" the value is checked
// 0/30 means every 30 sec the value is checked 
	Time cron "0/30 * * ? * * *"
then
// reset loop_counter if required (counter outside -5 +5 range)
if (loop_counter >= -5 && loop_counter <= 5){
// <= 10 is defining the LUX value when ligth is swiched on/off
	if (MultisensG5_01_SensorLuminance.state <= 10) {
		if (loop_counter > -5) {
			loop_counter = loop_counter -1
			postUpdate(Counter_Item, loop_counter)
		}
		else {
			if (Singleswitch_01_Switch.state == OFF)
			sendCommand (Singleswitch_01_Switch, ON)
		}
	}
	else
		if (loop_counter < 5) {
			loop_counter =loop_counter +1
			postUpdate(Counter_Item, loop_counter)
		}
		else {
			if (Singleswitch_01_Switch.state == ON)
			sendCommand (Singleswitch_01_Switch, OFF)
		}
		}
else {
 		loop_counter = 0
		}
end 

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since this rule is using a manual Number Item please read the Tips and tricks section for how to creat a single item without a thing.

Chapter 14: Tips and tricks

Basic tips for debugging rules

Creating an item the see the value of a variable of a rule online

The standard way of debugging a rule would be to use a logfile. For simple problems you might also be able to visualize the variables online by creation item with the same type and posting the value of the variable inside the rule. So follow the steps:

Set the variable loop_counter in your rule file: var Number loop_counter = 0
Create a new item Counter_Item as type Number
Post the loop_counter variable value to the Counter_Item postUpdate(Counter_Item, loop_counter)
Use a HABPanel Dummy widget to visualize the Counter_Item value.

Creating a dummy switch item to trigger ON/OFF rules

If you are dependend on switches changing their stat and you can not physically do this, you can also use a dummy switch item to trigger the rule.

Create a new item Dummy_Swich
Use a HABPanel Switch widget to create an interactive dummy switch

88 KiB Raw Permalink Blame History Unescape Escape

openHAB2 Raspberry beginner’s walkthrough – Using Raspberry Pi 3 and openHAB2 to create a home automation controller for Z-Wave, WiFi LED, 433MHz plugs, Yahoo Weather and meteoblue.com weather widget

Chapter 1: Before you start

Is openHAB2 the right choice for my home automation project?

Introduction:

A few words about the 2 in openHAB2:

Chapter 2: Preparation

Hardware list:

Minimal hardware setup of the controller with external display:

Additional hardware for optional setup of the controller with 7” Raspberry display:

Z-Wave Controller hardware

Z-Wave sensors, switches and actuators

LAN devices (cable or WiFi)

433MHz devices

Software list:

Windows Download list:

Raspberry downloads:

Chapter 3: Raspberry hardware and Raspbian OS installation

General information about Raspberry interfaces and GPIO pins:

Raspberry input Overview:

Raspberry GPIO pin Overview:

Preparing MicroSD card - writing Raspbian image to MicroSD card (PC required):

Connecting the hardware to the Raspberry

Basic hardware setup:

433MHz devices preparation and setup:

433MHz Transmitter

433MHz Receiver (permanently)

433MHz Receiver (temporarily)

Optional: Installation of 7” Raspberry display and display case:

Display installation pictures:

Chapter 4: Raspbian basic configuration

Starting up Raspberry or the first time – Raspbian PIXEL desktop

Raspberry start-up screen:

PIXEL basic desktop (including the programs used in this tutorial) not unlike other PC OS desktops:

Working with the Terminal:

Basic terminal commands and functions:

Initial configuration of Raspbian

Localisation:

Changing Password:

Enabling interfaces:

Connect Raspberry to network:

Check the IP address of the Raspberry:

Update / Upgrade Raspbian:

Optional Raspberry settings and configuration:

Change display orientation

Check partition size on MicroSD card:

Create a Desktop icon and link it to a application

Example file content:

Enabling root user:

Enabling remote SSH access for root user:

Optional: Raspbian PIXEL screensaver (xscreensaver)

Configuration of xscreensaver:

Optional: Start Chromium Web server on Raspbian boot

Configure the autostart file:

Select the start URL for Chromium web browser:

Chapter 5: Setting up Raspbian for access via PC

Connect to the Raspberry terminal your windows system using, KiTTY or PuTTY:

Optional: Connect to the Raspberry file system from your windows system using WinSCP:

Optional: Generic setup of Samba server on Raspbian

Optional: Mapping Raspbian samba directories to Windows (IOS and Linux mapping process can be found online):

Chapter 6: Installation of openHAB2 on Raspberry

Common openHAB2 service commands:

openHAB2 configuration for the samba server:

openHAB2 Privileges for Common Peripherals

Adding openhab user to groupds dialout an tty

Granting java environment access to serial ports

Chapter 7: Installation of Eclipse Smart Home Designer

Installation guide for windows (Eclipse Smart Home Designer and Java Runtime Environment):

Download Smart Home Designer

Optional: Download the offline Java Runtime Environment.

Launching Eclipse Smart Home Designer first time:

Chapter 8: Initializing openHAB2 (finally: first startup)

Chapter 10: General information about configuring openHAB2

openHAB (no 2) vs. openHAB2

Chapter 11: Configuring openHAB2 using PAPER UI

Installing Add-ons:

Installing Bindings:

Check the installed bindings:

Installing User Interfaces:

General process of adding new things to the configuration

88 KiB

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Determining the `systemCode` and `unitCode` directly form the 433MHz devices

Optional: Determining `decimalcode` for unknown 433MHz devices by sniffing the remote control code

Unaltered code `systemCode unitCode command`

Single Ninja Blocks compatible `decimalcode`