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OpenHAB 3 MQTT Binding



Configuring the MQTT Binding

MQTT Broker

I will start by adding my INSTAR IP camera as MQTT Broker to OpenHAB. The broker is configured as follows:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Go to the Things settings and click on the blue plus icon to add the MQTT broker

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Select the MQTT Binding:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Select the MQTT Broker preset:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Give your Broker a unique ID and label and add all the information from your MQTT broker like IP, port and login:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Then click on Save to add the broker to OpenHAB.

MQTT Client

I now want to add Thing that allows me to switch the Alarm Areas of my camera. For this I will add a Generic MQTT Thing:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Add a unique ID (and a unique label that I forgot in the screenshot), add the MQTT Broker we created in the first step and click on Create Thing:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Now click on the Thing and switch to the Channel tab to add channels for the 4 alarm areas of your camera:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Again, add a unique ID and label and assign an ON/OFF Switch as a template:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

This opens up the advanced configuration options. First we need to assign the State and Command topic that we want to switch with the toggle:

AREA 1 AREA 2 AREA 3
STATE cameras/117/status/alarm/area1/enable cameras/117/status/alarm/area2/enable cameras/117/status/alarm/area3/enable
COMMAND cameras/117/alarm/area1/enable cameras/117/alarm/area2/enable cameras/117/alarm/area3/enable

Note: that my camera is configured to use the cameras prefix and 117 client ID.

The ON value has to be set to {"val":"1"} and the OFF value to {"val":"0"}.

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Click to save the Channel and then continue by Linking it to an Item so that you can start using it inside the UI:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Repeat those steps for all 4 areas:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Now switch to the Overview page and switch to the Properties tab:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker

Since I assigned the created items to the Presence property, the switches will be listed there:

Trying out OpenHAB 3 in Docker