The future of Domoticz?

[heggink]

Which hardware are you referring too? The only one that will be phased-out unfortunately is the native-, old, deprecated-, and not maintained OpenZwave. Which is not a design decision but more are forced consequence. And the hardware is not abandoned, as there is a good/better alternative for Zwave devices. And yes, it is not domoticz native anymore so a little more work to get it working again.

Better is a matter of opinion. A NAS isn't exactly a mainframe so from my perspective moving to a CPU unfriendly primary handler is not an improvement to say the least. And I'm also noting that with various 'hardware' systems the original authors appear to have abandoned Domoticz. Don't know where all of them went, but I read the automatedhome forum too and it was mentioned there that the author of the Evohome code now only supports HA. Call me a pessimist but that seems like a perfect candidate for being phased out next due to being unmaintained.

Sure but realise that these systems are all open source so we all depend on people's time to make things work. If the only answer ends up being HA then that's not good either. Whilst it looks great and has a lot of support for various devices, it's really lacking decent scripting (python, dzvents). Yaml isn't exactly that at all. I would hate to switch but agree we need people to help maintain. If the evohone dev doesn't want to do it, maybe someone else will...

[waltervl]

My 2 cents (wishes):
1. Some kind of Matter integration so Domoticz can see and control connected devices (through MQTT?). This will need a stable and general available Matter border router and/or protocol https://www.theverge.com/22832127/matte ... -explainer
2. A more flexible user interface. So easy to move devices over tabs/rooms/whatever and easy to style with stylesheets.
3. Continue to support Python Plugins as this seemed to be an easier way to maintain integrations. More People know Python then C++.
4. Make it easier to create a C++ integration. There is almost 0 documentation what functions are available (unlike Python plugins). It also needs a large number of files to update. A python plugin only needs 1 file to publish.

[solarboy]

2. A more flexible user interface. So easy to move devices over tabs/rooms/whatever and easy to style with stylesheets.

I think Dashticz (very beautiful and written in the webs natural language) could possibly cover this but with some kind of WYSIWYG editor and a default template that could emulate the existing Domoticz GUI which although unstylish to some, is very functional.

I would add that it would be nice the resize more important elements so, for example, my main outdoor temperature sensor could be much bigger than the one in the utility room. This is possible in Dashticz but a bit "clunky" at the moment.

[solarboy]

Something else for the backend I think could be helpful would be an "edit" button next to each entry, similar to the "log" button in the "Devices" view. Sometimes the Devices page is a much easier place to find things than the "switches" tab and then easily modify them.

[psubiaco]

Many people say that "HA has a lot of integrations, HA is nicer, ...."
I also say that Domoticz looks old, and I believe that a possible improvement is to permit users to add, to some devices (temperature, humidity, power, voltage, and other meters) the possibility to have a bar widget like in the picture below, specifying:
* min value
* max value
* 2 or more ranges with associated color (usually green, yellow, red)
I've taken a snapshot of some devices and drawn with inkscape some types of bar indicators, just to explain.
I know it's easy to ask for new features, is more difficult and time spending to implement those features in coding.

domoticz_meters.png (73.16 KiB) Viewed 1674 times

[lost]

Many people say that "HA has a lot of integrations, HA is nicer, ...."

All those who tried also says scripting & stability in HA is not on par with Domoticz, that's for sure well designed... Not sure UI is the main issue in this thread but current HW integration path.

Maybe someday zigbee or zwave controllers will present a MQTT interface to the outside allowing more straightforward and (radio/)protocol agnostic integration. But for now that's not the case & when you are forced to rework a system that was working since years, your first concern is "will my current HW still with no doubt be usable/manageable?" (look at the labyrinthine SW pile now needed for zwave!). Then "do stability remains/can still be a strength?". Your own script goodies rewrite only IMO comes third in such situation.

[Kedi]

I use Domoticz to automate our house. I mean everything that could be automated I look for a solution to do so.
I have some 100+ dzVents scripts running to do the job.
Simple things like: if backdoor is open roller shutter may not close
To more complex things as when the roller shutters should close and when they should open without human intervention.
So I hardly use the GUI, everything is done on an automated way and if I have to intervene I use Google (dzga) with an voice command.
This works for years now to my and even my wife satisfaction.
There is (currently) only 1 one wish left and that is a "Number" device with min. and max. as setting.
I have several devices which need such a device, like:
Sirenes which expose duration, Roller blind/shades drive motor which expose speed, a Fingerbot which expose lower and upper limit and delay.
Now I have to that with an external MQTT call in dzVents.
Except for the short comming (in my opinion) I use Domoticz. I tried HA but could not succeed with all my scripts.

[HvdW]

HA is like iPhone, Domoticz is like Android.
HA auto integration is better, Domoticz dzvents, and python integration makes finetuning every detail possible.
I'm running both on two separate RPI's

Domoticz is the workhorse, HA is a reference.
Example HA and ESPHome.

[acaonweb]

Domoticz + DzEvents + Node-Red + MQTT, virtually you can do everything.
Following tutorials for HA, I've integrated everything in my home, with a little bit of work, and I'm not a programmer.

I think Domoticz has to be improved in GUI, Customization (for example homebrige-ui is more modern than domoticz )
Unfortunally the HA community is bigger so new devices are integrated immediately.

[ronald1827]

Hi,

I am using domoticz for years now and it\s a fantastic engine.
couple of years ago tried HA , and it works but stayed on Domoticz because it's flexible.
A point of improvment would be , i use Tasmota and have 3 PM5002 Air quality sensors and the particle sensors are al separate and not al the other data can be seen . when i tried this in my HA test setup i could see them all , maybe it's possible in Domoticz to achieve the same goal, but i could not make a custom tile for it.
But mostly i use Zwave with the new Docker powered JSUI with is great with auto discovery in Domoticz, it just works great
Smart meter P1 interface , works like a charm
THe UI of Domoticz could use i little improvement , but i read there are plugins for it and the current UI of Domoticz just works for me.
The scripting is flexible , must admit that things that can be done in blockly i do there most of the things can be achieved with blockly, want to improve ny skills on Dzevents
a few day's ago bumped into a issue with a zwave Fibaro dimmer , the % level of dimming can not be used in a script to turn on of off a second table light in the roo, so is used the energy sensor of the zwave device , read on google that was not possible to use % level dimming , tried to slave the other device but not working , so the power meter work around does work.
Maybe this sort of things can be improved , but Domoticz is ver very flexible and am very happy with the system, like to thank the developers for making such a nice peace of software it does great things for home automation.

The zwave part is still around because that was my first setup in domoticz, but all the new sensors are all Tasmota based MQTT , Athom is my favourite supplier of this.
Smoke sensors are just not MQTT and CO2 meters also , so that is zwave which is working fine use the on and off action fields to make the sirene scream when one of the smoke or CO2 sensors are in alam , use Pushover to notifi my smart phone , booytrapped my package post box with a modified 433 door sensor , put a DIL ceramic reed relay in the box and when the ld opens my Ubiquiti G4 door camera is taking picture and get a mail and a push notification that i have mail.
you can do so many things with Domoticz it's just great.