I needed a couple of motions sensors to automate lighting in hallways and other rooms. Since the lights should only turn on when it is dark, the system also needs to know the ambient light level in the location where the motion was detected — so I added a simple brightness sensor to each node.
Continue readingCategory: openHAB
Weather-mood-alarm-light
When my alarm clock goes off in the morning, the lamp on my bedside table also turns on, to help me wake up, and its color indicates outside temperature: from red for warm through yellow and green to blue and violet for “it’s freezing outside”.
Continue readingopenHAB proxy items and groups
Lights in my home automation setup may be controlled multiple ways: by a physical switch hardwired to the light, by a button on a UI screen, or by a rule in response to some other events. To keep it simple, I combine the design patterns for Proxy Items,for Groups and for Associated Items. I define rules for the desired behavior at the level of a group, and then assign the lights to that group.
With this setup, the proxy item will always correctly reflect the status of the light, independent of what caused that status (command from a rule, gesture on a physical control, gesture on a UI element).