OpenHab Question

Hi

After having a quick look at OpenHab, it has got me thinking. Do i need Vera at all?

Are there many people who have removed Vera altogether and use only OpenHAB?

HabPanel looks lovely!!!

I run openHab2 on an RPi. It’s a fairly nice system, but there is no doubt that it has growing pains. I think the Z-wave binding is definitely behind what Vera currently offers, but Chris is catching up quickly. Once he does it will be more viable for me. However, I also find that the rules of openHab2 are a bit convoluted. I prefer coding in lua. OpenHab2 is improving in this area too so maybe it will be better in the future. Overall I’m not ready to move completely to openHab2, but it is possible in the future.

Is it possible to use Vera and OpenHab as a primary / secondary controler setup? I’d like to give OpenHab a try, but not at the expense of dismantling my current setup, more to see which I prefer.

Regarding LUA, as it’s an open source scripting engine it would probably not be too hard to add as a module in OpenHab at some point.

thanks for the reply. I have a esxi host ticking away so will spin up a Ubuntu VM and give it a go

Any tips or hints to get me going?

Thanks

@alpha1 - just make use of the openHab forums - they are very good. My install went quite well. The concepts of openHab can be a little confusing at first with Things, Items, and sitemaps and rules, etc., but you’ll get used to it.

By the way, the prime example that I’m referring to for Z-wave weakness is the secure inclusion. They are just getting this to work and Schlage locks have been especially troublesome. But Vera’s certainly not perfect on its Z-wave support either.

@rge - regarding the primary/secondary - I think it would be best to ask on the openHab forum. I can’t really answer this.

The JSR223 binding is just coming to life for openHab2. Seeing the difficulties with that I’d be surprised if Lua ever got there. Maybe some day, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

no, you don’t need vera, but its a much easier learning curve and robust GUI.

OH2 is not for the programming-challenged and requires a lot of granular configuration.

I am not using both, and OH2 is very powerful but steep steep STEEP learning curve.

Depends on your needs… I am using both and will eventually make one a failsafe for the other.

I do not believe one brain controlling each device. if the brain fails, your house is ‘dead’.

I like the human body model, multiple systems that work idependent of each other, but are controlled at a higher level by a brain (vera or OH2) but can also continue to work without either running… like the human body, so to speak.

that’s how my system is condifured, and how my phulosophy works, and its paid off several times.