Belkin WeMo Device (Light Switch)
Belkin WeMo Device (Light Switch)
Product Links:
Belkin WeMo Light Switch: http://amzn.to/2r6Co1Q
Belkin WeMo Mini Smart Plug: http://amzn.to/2qnNWLa
Belkin WeMo insight Switch: http://amzn.to/2qooYLu
Hey guys Matt here from MKSmartHouse.com and in this video I am going to show you how to connect a Belkin Wemo device to your OpenHAB 2 System.
I personally use the Belkin Wemo light switches and use them to control the ceiling lights. If you want to control lights I highly recommend the Belkin wemo light switch. But any Belkin wemo device will use the same process to be connected to the openhab server. The only thing we are going to need for this video is the Belkin Wemo device, I will leave a link to all the Belkin wemo devices in the description and over on my website but, personally I have only used the switch. For this guide I am going to assume you already have the device installed and it is running perfectly using the setup instructions Belkin provides and you can control it from the WeMo app. I am also going to assume that you have a sitemap file and items file. If you do not then go take a look at my video where I explain how to setup the configuration files in openHAB. I will not be making two seperate videos using Mac and PC because the process is really similar the only difference is that on mac you use Terminal to ssh and on PC you use putty.
1. The first thing we have to do is ssh into the OpenHAB Server.
I recommend having my website guide open when you do this so that way you can just copy and paste commands.
2. Now type in sudo nano /etc/openhab2/items/home.items and press enter.
In this step we are going to create the Switch item which we can then later bind the WeMo device to.
3. In the file paste or type in:
//Light Switches
Switch MKLightSwitch "Ceiling Light" <light>
Now let me explain what we wrote and what you can change. If you are adding something other than a light switch then change the comment to whatever you want or are adding, I just commented Light Switches because I have a couple of these devices. The next part is Switch and this is just the type of openhab item we are creating because it will just be in the on and off state which is what a switch does. Even if you are adding a wemo socket keep the item type as Switch. The next part is the name of the item, you can change it to whatever you want just make sure you remember it later for the sitemap file and when we bind the wemo device. After that is just the text that will show up in the user interfaces like basic UI, you can change this too if you would like. Then the last part is the image that will show up in the user interfaces like basic UI, I made mine a light.
4. Once that is done press control x then y and enter to exit and save the file.
5. Next type in sudo nano /etc/openhab2/sitemaps/home.sitemap and press enter.
Now we are going to add the item we created, to the sitemap so we can see it in the UI and interact with it.
6. Find the bracket or place in the sitemap you want to put your wemo device. This light switch is in my room so I am going to put it in the MK-Room bracket.
7. When you find the place type in Switch item=MKLightSwitch all this piece of text does is show the switch we created in the items file, so make sure the name of the item matches the one in the items file.
8. Now press control x then y and enter to save and exit.
9. Great that is it with the actual files on the server, at this point if you want you can go into basic Ui and confirm that the switch is there.
Now we are going to connect the switch to OpenHAB so make sure it is on and functional.
10. Then go into your web user interface and then go to Paper UI.
11. After go into addons and in the search type in Wemo.
12. Click install next to the one that says Wemo binding.
13. Once it installs go to Inbox and in there it should automatically discover all the Wemo devices on your network.
As you can see that for me it found two wemo devices. For this video I am only going to add one and I will add the other one not in this video because it is the same process.
14. Anyway click the checkmark next to the device you want to add.
15. It will then ask to name the device so give it a name and press add as thing.
16. Then on the left side click on configuration and then things.
17. On the things page click on the wemo device.
18. In the channels section click on the blue circle next to the word switch.
19. After that Click the item dropdown and select the switch item we previously created in the items file and press link.
That it is it the device is now connected to openHAB.
20. Let’s test it out by either going into basic Ui or using our mobile device. If we press the switch the wemo device should turn on or off.
Great! The device is connected and working! Now we can control this wemo device from our openhab system using either a mobile device or any of the web user interfaces! Alright thank you for watching and If you have any questions leave them in the comments section below or head over to mksmarthouse.com/forum where you have a better chance of it getting answered. Good Bye!