Pine64 with Openhab2 - Starting guide/accessories

[g_t_j]

So, with Openhab2 available I thought I might get myself into home automation.

Could anyone please let me know what do I need to start?

Do I need to get the Pine64 Z-Wave module or I'm better off with a USB stick instead?

What would you recommend me to buy in terms of accessories/peripherals as absolute basics to start with the project?

Many thanks!

[BatoXan]

Hello!

To start with openHAB and home automation you don't necessarily need any special hardware. You can for example start by connecting openHAB to your Sonos Sound System, Samsung TV or Kodi Media Center.

That said, you probably want to connect hardware, which you will need in order to connect special devices. You didn't mention this but I get it you are interested in Z-Wave? In this case the Pine64 board is a great logical addition to your Pine A64. A very famous alternative would be the "Aeon Labs Z-Stick Gen 5".

To start experimenting with openHAB you should look into openHABian, the official openHAB image for the Pine A64 (including openHAB and all mandatory and recommended settings and applications). http://docs.openhab.org/installation/openhabian.html

For all further in detail questions regarding openHAB, openHABian and device integration, e.g. Z-Wave, check out the documentation http://docs.openhab.org and the very active and friendly openHAB community forum: https://community.openhab.org

Best luck for your automation endeavors

[g_t_j]

Hello!

To start with openHAB and home automation you don't necessarily need any special hardware. You can for example start by connecting openHAB to your Sonos Sound System, Samsung TV or Kodi Media Center.

That said, you probably want to connect hardware, which you will need in order to connect special devices. You didn't mention this but I get it you are interested in Z-Wave? In this case the Pine64 board is a great logical addition to your Pine A64. A very famous alternative would be the "Aeon Labs Z-Stick Gen 5".

To start experimenting with openHAB you should look into openHABian, the official openHAB image for the Pine A64 (including openHAB and all mandatory and recommended settings and applications). http://docs.openhab.org/installation/openhabian.html

For all further in detail questions regarding openHAB, openHABian and device integration, e.g. Z-Wave, check out the  documentation http://docs.openhab.org and the very active and friendly openHAB community forum: https://community.openhab.org

Best luck for your automation endeavors

Thanks for the very helpful response!

Yes, I'm interested in home automation but was not aware that I could start without having a proprietary module (either Pine64 one or the Z-Wave stick). I'm not sure I have a readily available device to operate in an automation environment but for starters, I will install Openhabian on my Pine and experiment with the UI.

Then from what I understand, I'd better get the stick than the PoT module to start with.
Many thanks again

[kenneth558]

Hello!

To start with openHAB and home automation you don't necessarily need any special hardware. You can for example start by connecting openHAB to your Sonos Sound System, Samsung TV or Kodi Media Center.

That said, you probably want to connect hardware, which you will need in order to connect special devices. You didn't mention this but I get it you are interested in Z-Wave? In this case the Pine64 board is a great logical addition to your Pine A64. A very famous alternative would be the "Aeon Labs Z-Stick Gen 5".

To start experimenting with openHAB you should look into openHABian, the official openHAB image for the Pine A64 (including openHAB and all mandatory and recommended settings and applications). http://docs.openhab.org/installation/openhabian.html

For all further in detail questions regarding openHAB, openHABian and device integration, e.g. Z-Wave, check out the  documentation http://docs.openhab.org and the very active and friendly openHAB community forum: https://community.openhab.org

Best luck for your automation endeavors

Thanks for the very helpful response!

Yes, I'm interested in home automation but was not aware that I could start without having a proprietary module (either Pine64 one or the Z-Wave stick). I'm not sure I have a readily available device to operate in an automation environment but for starters, I will install Openhabian on my Pine and experiment with the UI.

Then from what I understand, I'd better get the stick than the PoT module to start with.
Many thanks again

I have the same question, so there should be no need to start another thread, I figure. 

I set up my Pine64 to run my furnace and a few 120vac outlets for lights and making coffee using gpio-controlled relays or open-drain/collector transistors to SSRs, and straight DietPi os (having come from longsleep's Ubuntu, and before that a RaspPi w/Ubuntu and/or Arch Linux in times past).  To control the furnace relays as needed, my Pine64 is reads a DHT11 temperature sensor. The DHT11 gets read by a little compiled shim called from script.

Everything is front-ended with command line and scripts.  Currently, I have acquiesced to getting everything running under systemd after having been happy for over a year with sysVinit.  I'd rather just stay with systemd now 100%...no more cron, /var/log logs, nor init files that are sysVinit based.

I would like to bring all this over into OpenHAB so I can have a nice GUI, but evidently OpenHAB is not meant to accommodate that low of level automation. Or am I missing something?

My question is, exactly how will I get clickable OpenHAB icons/buttons interfaced to my current scripts?  I'll want to understand if I can VNC in, or is the system an HTML 5 server without any local DE, or what?

(...Note that I just now waited long enough with the openHABian image to get to a command line login prompt, but eth0 under openHABian is not retrieving a DHCP address like my other image does.  What is that all about?... :-(...I'll take helpful suggestions to fix that, but I sure hope I get it figured out myself well before anyone has a chance to reply.  Here goes....)

[BatoXan]

Hey Kenneth,
you have many questions which I'd highly recommend you ask in the openHAB forum. Over there you'll meet a ton of users able to answer everything.

In short, I think openHAB is perfect for your application. Low level is where openHAB can shine (other than most proprietary solutions). Here's one example where you can see all that in action. A command is executed, the output further evaluated and a nice view is generated for the openHAB frontend: https://community.openhab.org/t/7611 - you will find many more Example implementations using external tools and scripts in the forum.

Regarding VNC or HTML5: Let's say "non of the above". openHAB provides a Web UI for general administration (Paper UI) and the end user control frontend (sitemaps in Basic UI). Besides that configuration and scripting is mostly done in configuration files which you can edit via the Samba network shares openHABian will set up for you. The last important piece is viewing the logs, till now the best option for that still is the ssh console.

Regarding DHCP: Nothing special here. If your device didn't receive an IP address somethings not right in your network.

Good luck and hope to see you in the community forum soon!