Are folks here happy with Domoticz?
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I want to pick a controller, but I don't want to jump in feet first only to find out later that it's somehow seriously flawed. Domoticz, Openhab, and Vera appear to be the most popular based on number of topics and posts. I think I can rule out Vera based on prior negative experience with it. So, I guess that makes it Domoticz vs. OpenHAB. Any reasons to prefer one over the other? The built-in graphing in Domoticz looks very appealing.
@NeverDie I tried for days. Too buggy, and not enough support. I landed with MyController, which takes advantage of MySensors, plus allows a lot of scripting, etc.
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@Anticimex don't you think MQTT is better suited for this task? I am still quite new to node-red and haven't tikered with it much as learning javascript is low on the priority list :D
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@Anticimex I'm referring to the task of communicating between 2 or more platforms/devices: it was built for that. If I knew how to do it, I'd try to make it myself 😅
@gohan ok, well I use node-red. It works for me, and I can easily hook in anything imaginable (including MQTT things) while also having the ability to easily inspect and manipulate the data as it flows through the grid. Perhaps MQTT offer that by itself. I don't know.
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with node-red as middleware you can in theory filter nodes out that you won't let domoticz handle..
Or run both domoticz and pidome (or another controller) in parallel, for example if you want to switch controller for some reason, then move things slowly over to the new platform. I have done this a couple of times, when I wanted to check out a new controller..
MQTT could probably be used, as it can have multiple clients listen to the same data. I just want to get in between the mysensors network, and everything else, so I can manipulate data as I see fit. And that is possible with node-red. You don't need javascript knowledge for basic stuff.. As it's a graphical click and draw thing, and quite intuitive imho.
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I have used Domoticz for about 2+ years. I like it a lot but wish for something...more.
Pros:
Quick setup for mysensors nodes
One-stop location for data storage and data presentation
Android app is very good
Customizable scripting options once you leave their scripting environment and use API values.Cons:
Event scripting (lua? really?) needs more advanced features.
Has interesting issue lately where if I lose power to the Pi I lose all data back to May 23 of this year. I have a cron job that backs up the DB nightly and send to my NAS so I can lose hours instead of days. But, man, is this annoying - I have not tracked down the reason yet.
Graphs are just sort of...there. I do data viz at my job and use Highcharts (Domoticz' charting library) daily. The charts in Domoticz need a lot of work.I have started writing my own front end that calls data from the Domoticz API (as well as other APIs) for showing info in our house. Nothing crazy cool, but it will eventually work fine for me.
Which brings me to the point - there is no perfect controller. You need to find the one that is right for you.
@wergeld said in Are folks here happy with Domoticz?:
Event scripting (lua? really?) needs more advanced features.
You should check out dzVents which makes LUA-scripting much more powerful and even simpler.
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with node-red as middleware you can in theory filter nodes out that you won't let domoticz handle..
Or run both domoticz and pidome (or another controller) in parallel, for example if you want to switch controller for some reason, then move things slowly over to the new platform. I have done this a couple of times, when I wanted to check out a new controller..
MQTT could probably be used, as it can have multiple clients listen to the same data. I just want to get in between the mysensors network, and everything else, so I can manipulate data as I see fit. And that is possible with node-red. You don't need javascript knowledge for basic stuff.. As it's a graphical click and draw thing, and quite intuitive imho.
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@wergeld said in Are folks here happy with Domoticz?:
Event scripting (lua? really?) needs more advanced features.
You should check out dzVents which makes LUA-scripting much more powerful and even simpler.
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I've used domoticz for a few years but got more-and-more stuck on it's limitations. I'm not a great fan of lua either. I'm more a c# and javascript person.
I have invested my time in OpenHAB2 lately and I'm very happy with it. Much more solid in terms of software design imho. Very large hardware support. Seems to be a larger community as well.
Setup is not as easy as with Domoticz, takes more reading and getting used to, but in the end I'm happy that I switched to OpenHAB.
HabPanel is a nice extension to OpenHAB for building UI's. -
Exactly the same as @stefaanv and many others, I started with Domoticz and used it for few years, but after a while it was a bit too much "this script for this", and "this hack for that", and this in python and seven virtual switches for that hack... So I was looking into a more robust solution, and I was sold on presentations that leading people of OpenHAB held online, showing the architecture, the reasons and plans, having clear roadmap and long term plan for the system. I feel I understand how and why openhab works the way it does, why it is organized in such a fashion. And that is very important with any software, to have a good documentation (technical, not just for the users).
With domoticz, almost no idea about how it was internally organized, why and what the future plans are. It was always somehow "well this is what we have, it works, and here are the workarounds... with bunch of hidden difficult to find virtual switches and rest api"When I started making more "abstracted" rules about events and logic, then lua showed quite a few challenges, but it was mainly having 30-40-50 virtual switches, a pain in the ** keeping track them all, making rules for each of them (f.eks. switches for datetime: isSunrise, isMorning, isAfternoon, isEvening, isNighttime, isDaytime..... isSomeoneHome, isMeHome, isWifeHome,... ) And this was actually the biggest issue I had with domoticz, handling and organizing the automation part and virtual switches. At the end I had like 6-7 times more virtual switches then physical ones.
Then I moved in another apartment and decided to try openhab2. It is just way more robust. It didn't took me a long time to get up and running, and having items defined in a text file is a blessing as you can just do a backup, organize them in multiple files, use git (or backup) for versioning. Writing comments also helps A LOT when you come back to the item after few months/years.
Only thing I was struggling a bit is the RFlink, whose binding is not quite ready yet. But I managed to install and use rflink->mqtt "gateway" and all works as expected.
I am also using node-red for logic as @Fabien which I am still learning, but so far it looks much much better and easier to debug.Not all challenges from above are domoticz related, some are also "me a rookie" related, so not to downspeak on domoticz, it works great! As long as you are comfortable with all above and dont plan to overgrow it. My goal is to make "smarter home", more then just basic rules and remote home. (about remote home, my.domoticz.com for remote access never actually worked for me, noone could/tried to solve it, so I felt it didn't work)
And that is where the community comes in place, it feels that the people on the openhab are more technical, and generally have great technical discussions about best solutions and approaches. F.eks. only for persisting values, you can have multiple completely different database systems, using the advantage of each of them. And each is very easy to install, as they all comply to some "technical rules and documentation". Now that is a downside, as you need to know that you need persistence strategy at all, I wish some would come predefined, but...
I am not developing anything, but I feel there are "big boys" who think hard about issues and then develop a long term and best solution for the problem. And I want a stable and long term solution for my home automation, and waf :)On the other side, openhab is a bit more technical, but I think that someone who can change mysensors sketches and make that work, can make openhab work as well. They are very focused on "non-technical" user these days, and it shows with every update. I guess home-assistant is pushing its way forward.
(a novel about my life and divorce with domoticz will be published someday, snippet above is just the preview, I have too much caffeine cannot sleep help)
