Is there a guide for new beginners?

[garethhowell]

I'm completely new to Domoticz, having decided to move from domotiga. However, I can't find anything that gives a gentle introduction: e.g. the LUA section goes straight into an expert tutorial.

Is there something that goes at an easier pace to cover system architecture, setting up devices, scenes etc? The manual only seems to cover installation and settings.

Gareth

[sijones]

The wiki has quite a lot of info in it but i'd not say a guide as such.

It's fairly easy to work out. Once installed, check settings page, I'd suggest turning on allow new devices until you have everything added (not hardware but devices).

Then go to hardware and add any gateway i.e. RFXCOM, Aeon Z-wave. And then the devices will start to appear in the devices list, you then add then with the green button to the right.

Once the devices are added as above you can then see switches/util/temp, and use them in scenes and blocky (events). Leave Lua for now until you get this bit working

[garethhowell]

Thanks for the pointers.
I've done the things you've recommended; though more by guesswork. I've got a collection of devices on various pages, and I've got a couple on the dashboard, but what now?

I'm going to be deliberately provocative, but, what's a scene? what's blocky? Nothing in the wiki about blocky. Lots of references to scenes, but nothing about what they are, how to create them, what they give you etc. Why would I even think to look for information about these elements in the wiki?

I think this reveals a common failing of wikis as a source of information. They are great as a way of holding reference information but their anarchic "anybody can create a page, we don't need to worry about structure" nature does not lend them to be used as a teaching tool. if you don't know what to search for ....

What a new user really needs is "Your first, second, third day with Domoticz" based on a real world example. When I can learn enough I'll probably write one myself. Even a general search on Google reveals nothing beyond an advanced scripting "tutorial". No blogs or anything.

I understand that domoticz is still a relatively new venture but it seems to me that the initial learning step is very high and this could put off its wider adoption. This would be a pity, because I'm impressed with what I've seen so far; however I can't get past first base.

Gareth

Gareth

[sijones]

I can understand where you're coming from Gareth. I done some development on Domotiga before moving to Domoticz as it's a much better architecture and reliability.

Blocky is the event system, menu -> setup -> more options -> events, it's visual programming basically, once you work out how to use it you'll find it makes things easy but does take a bit of getting use to.

Scenes are turning things on/off i.e. like moods, to create one just go to scenes and click add scene, then add each device in that you want the scene to control, could be turning all things off, certain lights on and to a certain level etc.

I can't tell you why you would need a scene or a blocky script, that depends on what you want to do and how you want the system to work for you.

[ThinkPad]

I have written this topicstart about Domoticz: http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/lis ... es/1650110 which is the beginners guide you are looking for.
Unfortunately it is in Dutch (the Tweakers.net forum is Dutch, that's why), and looking at your nickname, i think you are not Dutch .
Maybe Google Translate can help?

[pvm]

Have you seen the manual ?

[sijones]

Have you seen the manual ?

haha oops i forgot about this!

[garethhowell]

I haven't read all of the manual, but I read enough to see that it is a reference manual. i.e. "This is how you do X", or "Do X". It doesn't appear to have "This is why you might want to do X" or "Doing X will allow you to ..." or "If you are trying to do X, you can do Y, Z..."
That's why you need a tutorial of some sort. Something that is scenario based. Something that opens with "Assuming you live in a typical house, you can start by ... and this is how you can use ..."
It's the sort of thing you typically find in people's blog posts, but there seems to be very little of this in the Domoticz world.
Compared to the wealth of similar information in the domotiga world (where I've come from), or Indigo prior to that, this is surprising.
Or am I totally missing something, wrong search terms eg.


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[gdb3]

I agree with Gareth's comments. I now have a better understanding of how to use Domoticz after much frustration, but there are a lot of things that I would still love to do. E.g. how to control the lights from my mobile phone when I am sitting in a cafe somewhere; I can switch lights off and on with my mobile inside my house using Andromoticz.

Perhaps it would be nice to get local users groups meeting once a month/quarter and have helpful face to face discussions. I saw that Domoticz once had stall at a computer show(?), (in the Netherlands?), it would be great if these were advertised and perhaps it would give users a chance to meet the developers?

[technoholic]

I too agree with Gareth's comments. With enough trial and error I can generally figure out how to do something, but finding out why to do something is harder, it would be great to know how to solve real world problems (like my question about using the smoke sensor to trigger something), it might be obvious to long time users that you need to do XYZ but i wouldn't know about XYZ in the first place. I can now do the basics and have it set up the way my old Vera was and it has now replaced it, but i'm sure it can do a lot more.

[happer66]

A beginners guide for 'real world problems' sounds good in theory, but it will go out of scope pretty fast I reckon. When the author hits chapter III and start explaining computer/network fundamentals and what app would work for which scenario and the required hardware/software needed for it... I don't think it will be about domoticz all that much for quite a few chapters thereon..

But then again, stranger things have happened.

The problem with many projects (and it's not limited to open source projects!) is lacking documentation. I've only written a few minor applications, but the documentation part would sometimes eat up 15% of my time that I would rather be spending coding away... (then again, I was never the structured type to begin with)

That's why I like forums, most beginner question tends to get resolved (answered) pretty quickly.

Props to everyone who do blog posts and post tips in the forum, it's really appreciated!
I found lua mind boggling (still do sometimes, haha) but for me, grabbing a code sample and modifying it has been my learning method. Leaving the heavier stuff for when the need arises.

So if all else fails, try that approach perhaps?
Tried Blocky once, but the save button never worked properly for me (tried 3 different browsers, and on different OS/s). Ohwell, you can't have it all!

[KroontjesPen]

This tread is almost a year old and I bump in to the same problems still. First I try Domoticz on my pc under Windows and was very impressed.
Thinking of replaced my KaKu/COCO/Trust ICS-1000, friends give me the hind to look for Raspberry Pi.
So I have to learn to use a pi including Linux and Domoticz from scratch.
Do the disadvantage from the English language with it and you go lost very easily.

Take the RFXCOM - RFXtrx433 USB 433.92MHz. In the tread could be a sticky post how to activated it in Domoticz.
It take me 3 days to find out because of the misinterpretation of LAN.

For now I am looking still what I have to put in the app. for IP-address. Is it your internet or intern-network. With WiFi its OKE.

PS
This post cost me 20 min to make.

[Dutchsea]

Hi, send me a personal message in Dutch and I'll see where I can help.
I have been where you are and still struggling with specifiek things nevertheless Domoticz works very well on Raspberry pi and my ices-1000 is collecting dust for 2 years already

[KroontjesPen]

Hi, send me a personal message in Dutch and I'll see where I can help.
I have been where you are and still struggling with specifiek things nevertheless Domoticz works very well on Raspberry pi and my ices-1000 is collecting dust for 2 years already

Thanks Dutchsea, I did already.
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May I give an other example.
When I was looking in the form about Blockly I came to topic with a problem what I thought it could help me. It become a link to al ink to a li... nothing.
But taking the following phrase to the search "making virtual switch", there came 17 possible cases but no one was the right one.

Later I found a topic where there was something that I maybe could use.
"....................create a new virtual switch using the "Create Virtual Sensors" button in the Virtual Hardware, under the hardware tab."
This is not easy to follow. It is thus: Hardware tab => Virtual Hardware => Create Virtual Sensors.
The Hardware tab I have found and then nothing.
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There is one tip I found in my search that was very use full:
"Right click the "and" block and set "external inputs". I find the logic much easier to follow like that."
In deed that is, thanks.