I have been reading about Openremote and I feel it will fit my needs.
I have a samsung SmartThings hub with about 30 devices attached to it.
will Openremote work with my Hub, and if so, how can i set up?
So I am going to assume there is not alot of support…
There is plenty of support...
I assist with all things Velbus but am very busy with commercial clients.
If your request is commercial, please contact the the team via the OpenRemote.com site.
If you are looking for free / user group support, it's possible that no-one with experience of Samsung smart things has seen your post.
I have SmartThings and OpenRemote and 65 devices. I’m going to use “Z-Wave” because I’ve purged my HomeAutomation network(s) of any Zigbee.
Answering this question in less than a hundred paragraphs is a challenge…
I have several “controllers” on a single Z-Wave network. Smartthings and OpenRemote are the most used of the controllers but I also have a Staples Connect (the first Z-Wave controller I purchased,) and a Wink (v1 pretty much never used.) I also have an Aeon MiniMote that can send commands of a sort.
Any controller can send commands to any device it knows about. The device will do as it’s told… most of the time, but that’s a different question and answer.
Some controllers can pair with most of my devices. Certainly the SmartThings controller pairs with every Z-Wave device I own. OpenRemote pairs (using the Aeon Z-Stick) pairs with about 50 of my devices. In other words, if I get a device that won’t pair to SmartThings, I don’t need it and will return it. If it ALSO pairs to OpenRemote, super! If not, I must decide if it’s a dealbreaker.
For example, I have a (Linear) Garage Door Opener… same product, multiple resellers. It won’t pair with OpenRemote. Turns out I don’t care. Before I ever got it to work, I had a Tilt Sensor and now, I have two… the original tilt sensor and the one that comes with the device that speaks through the device. So OpenRemote knows everything there is to know about my Garage Door, just can’t open or close it. Wasn’t a deal breaker.
When I get a new device, I pair it with one controller, then with the second (and third, fourth, etc.).
I think this is an important fact. The second controller isn’t “working with” any other controller. They are pretty much independent…
Imagine you get a wall switch… pair it to two controllers. Either controller can tell it what to do BUT neither controller will know what the other did!
Same with toggling the switch on the wall. It usually will tell the first controller it paired with that the state changed, but it probably will not tell the 2nd. OpenRemote can be told to get the status of a device and make decisions with the result, but that’s because it is sending a command and getting a response. On demand polling, pretty much.
Bottom line is… that although there are times the two controllers are unable to DISPLAY accurate status, it has never prevented them from sending commands.
Let me add an additional view…
I TRY and implement to the philosophy: If I must reach for a phone or tablet to make my smart home smart, I’ve done it wrong.
In other words, I don’t WANT to see the status of devices on a handheld thingie… I feel that if I must do that, I need another gizmo to fix that. I have 9 Aeon MultiSensors stuck on walls throughout my house, for example. Most everything I need occurs automagically. Lights come on when we enter a room, go off when motion stops for some room specific time (Kitchen has a longer time than a hallway, for example.) This room is too warm?? the Multisensor’s temp indicator triggers a fan.
As the “creator” of my home’s Automation, yes, I find I am reaching for the phone/tablet. The other 3 people in the house not only don’t, they’ve never learned how… no need is the why, I hope!
Note: The “Aeon MultiSensor 6” is one device I’ve never gotten to pair with OpenRemote fully. I’m running under the hypothesis that it’s paired securely and will only pair to one controller in secure mode. Hypothesis 2: it’s a “status only” type of device, it must send status to a controller, it’s only going to send it to one, and therefore I’d rather have it send to SmartThings since that’s where WebCore’s logic engine is so much easier to use with it’s GUI pull downs. (I program in several languages everyday, which makes memorizing yet another spelling /syntax hurdle distasteful.) I have a perfect looking node96.xml for the latest multisensor I bought. Just never gotten a status from it on OpenRemote since it was paired to SmartThings first.
This is the same philosophy which I’m implementing too. Other users of my home never look at phone or tablet and still use the automation I’ve created. IMHO this is the way it should work. For sure the automation must save you time, reaching for a phone adds to it.
I’ve used to implement PIRs and various delays to switch lights/fans with different delay like you. However, with arrival of Alexa I don’t do it anymore. I have several of them in my home and just saying to it is so easy so it takes over the need of the fine tuning of delays (should the light go off after 1 or 4 minutes when I leave my living room for the bedroom? Just say “Alexa turn off light in the living room”).
Kind regards,
Michal Rutka
I think I would continue to use both, if ever I added Alexia or similar. I cannot count on others to say the words. My 2nd philosophy I implement to is: Save electricity. It has to turn off, even if someone didn’t say to.
As you know (but others might not,) the PIR driven Motion Sensor will trigger on motion and then ignore motion for some setable period. The Aeon MultiSensor 6’s I use have a default of 240 seconds (4 mins). It’s a battery consumption decision, but I usually set mine for 30 seconds or less. Additionally, it’s common to use the OFF to turn off the light/fan/appliance. I never do. The Off from the Motion Sensor is ignored, by my system. Off is always driven by a timer. Getting an ON from the multisensor restarts the timer, off does nothing, and thus one after the LAST motion triggered On, the light/fan/appliance is turned off. I have this in my kitchen where people are always moving around. PIR reset time is 17 seconds, is 15 minutes.
IF Kitchen Motion, then Turn on.
Else wait 15 mins, Turn off.
Every 17 seconds after a motion has been sensed, the PIR starts looking for motion again… any motion occurring in that 15 min delay, restarts the whole thing. Said another way: someone walks through the Kitchen and the lights come on… 14.5 mins later they walk back through the kitchen, the lights would be on for a total of 30 mins. Anyone pushing the wall button to turn off the lights or speaking to (my imaginary) Alexia would also successfully turn off the lights, but if everyone forgot, they would eventually go off, thus saving electricity.
Well, I’m still continue to use the old technology too, but I see the shift already. Alexa is a still a very young technology, but it is promising. Just an example what I’ve done lately:
I have many lights turned on/off by PIR sensors, they usually work OK but have some drawbacks:
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when you don’t move a light can turn off on you if its timeouts and you must move to get it on again;
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PIR can sometimes switch the light on when it should not, especially annoying if you have one it the bedroom.
Recently I’ve started to switch off the PIR-lights coupling at my house, because saying to Alexa when the light should actually be on or off is so easy. Just my UX.