Home automation with the openHAB platform
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© Lead Image © naiklon, 123RF.com
OpenHAB is an open source facility-automation platform that lets you network your smart devices independently of vendor or protocol.
OpenHAB [1], or the Open Home Automation Bus, is a vendor- and technology-independent open source facility-automation platform that can act as the brain of a smart home. OpenHAB follows the "Integrate Everything" principle, currently supporting more than 400 technologies and systems, including EnOcean, KNX, LCN, Loxone, Modbus, MQTT, Philips Hue, Z-Wave, and Zigbee. In fact, openHAB can integrate, visualize, and automate more than 3,000 different devices. You'll find a list of the supported technologies and systems at the project website [2].
See the box entitled "openHAB History" for some background on the openHAB project. One of openHAB's aims is to simplify sequence control. The openHAB control engine offers various options for automation, from UI-based rules, to Blockly based visual scripts, to full-fledged programming languages, such as JavaScript, Python, Ruby, openHAB DSL (with a Java-like syntax), full Java, and Groovy. You will even find official help libraries for JavaScript and Ruby that simplify the use of openHAB's Java interfaces. Less experienced programmers can use Blockly (Figure 1), then check out the generated JavaScript code and familiarize themselves with the JavaScript environment in openHAB.
OpenHAB is platform independent: It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and you can set it up on an Intel-compatible PC, a Raspberry Pi, a NAS appliance, or a Docker container. Users can access the applications via a web interface, but also via iOS and Android apps, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or Apple HomeKit.
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