openHAB2_beginners_walkthrough/openHAB2_beginners_walkthrough.md

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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?

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 thing 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.

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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:

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)

Description	Image
Z-Wave Fibaro Double Switch 2, Z-Wave Plus Smart Switch (comes at almost the same costs than the single switch and gives you 2 channels. 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).
Aeotec Multi-Sensor 6 ZW100-C - Z-Wave Plus
Z-Wave Aeon Labs ZW088 Z-Wave Key Fob, Gen5
Z-Wave NodOn Smart Plug (not available e.g. in the US)

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
Optional(in my case it was already there and I just included it into my project): Samsung TV Details MISSING NOTE: Even when the binding is not officially supporting your TV you might be lucky

Software list:

NOTE: This list ist just an overview. The details in how to download and install the software are included later in the document so dont 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)
• xscreensaver (optional if you are using the display setup, to easy control screen blackening or screen savers)

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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 and mouse 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.

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

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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
Enable SSH (to access the Raspberry via Network) Enable Serial (to enable Serial Port for Z-Wave controllers) >Interfaces >>SSH >> Serial	[SSH: Enable] & [Serial: Enable]

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 obolete.

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 jave envrionment 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 whick 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\eclipseSmart Homesince this is the loaction your 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. 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 some Z-Wave installation
• 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] , [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.

Install Bindings manually (snapshot bindings):

NOTE: Since we have installed the stable version, we have to manually install the WiFi LED Binding for openHAB2.

Open the terminal:

Change to the openHAB2 add-ons directory:

cd /usr/share/openhab2/addons

Download the addon to the add-ons directory:

sudo wget https://openhab.ci.cloudbees.com/job/openHAB2-Bundles/lastSuccessfulBuild/org.openhab.binding%24org.openhab.binding.wifiled/artifact/org.openhab.binding/org.openhab.binding.wifiled/2.1.0-SNAPSHOT/org.openhab.binding.wifiled-2.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar

Restart the openHAB2 service:

sudo systemctl restart openhab2.service

NOTE: The restart of the service can tanke several minuts. You will not be able to access the PaperUI GUI during the restart.

Check the openHAB2 service status:

sudo systemctl start openhab2.service

Remark: This binding will not show up in the >[Add-ons] >>[BINDINGS] tab but will show in the >[Configuration] >>[Bindings]

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 bidining 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 dialouge 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 dialouge 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)

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