Newbie looking for directions

[easy]

Hello, I just registered so please bear with me if my questions are a little silly. There is no Newbie subforum here, so I picked the "Other". Please move this post, or suggest me some other subforum, if my choice was wrong.

Why I am oriented towards Domoticz
I've got a largish home where I used the GeekLink Thinker, plus several GZ-1 IR blasters, mainly to
- Remotely control lights and other on/off appliances via IR power sockets
- Remotely control aircons (Mitsubishi and Daikin)

However, I hated the phone-app-only approach (it must be a Chinese thing), and the closed system - even if they boasted "open source" on the Thinker marketing material, possibly because it runs a custom version of OpenWRT.

So I couldn't edit the system on my computer, I didn't have an HTML control interface etc. It was hell. Even system configuration backup was fidgety. The straw that broke my back: they changed the app and broke backward compatibility. For several years, I was without any domotics.

What I would like to accomplish
Be able to control those devices from my computer and my mobile phone, at least from inside the house. I use a DDNS and know how to forward ports, so some things could even be controlled from the outside. I'd like to re-use as much as possible of my hardware, with minimum work to set up everything again. I do understand a bit of programming, networking etc. I am very bad with hardware though: I couldn't solder if my life depended on it.

How realistic do you think my goal is? I'm ready to study if pointed to suitable resources. Any suggestions will be welcome.

Thank you!

[HvdW]

Welcome!
You didn't mention the device that is running domoticz.

My own experience.
Domoticz is my choice because it is so easy tuning using dzVents.
Nowadays I just ask AI to write a script. It's a question of learning to define exactly what you want to accomplish. AI wrotrs dzvents as easy as it does python or php.
I tried homeassistant several times. HA is more sophisticated. Still I'm stuck with Domoticz because it is so easy when you like writing scripts.
I didn't encounter a task that couldn't be accomplished yet.

Regarding outside access I'm using pihole and pivpn.
This combination gives me encrypted access from my phone on public networks and a secure access to my domoticz @home plus the reward of add filtering everywhere.

Tbh I am too lazy to learn yaml which is used in homeassistant despite the fact that it is a more modern scripting language.
I like the straightforward structured style of this 'old' language lua and dzVents derived from it. As far as I know there is no programming language that is easier to understand than dzVents.

[easy]

Hello and thanks for your reply.

I still haven't gotten around to installing anything: I'm just testing the waters. It is my intention to run Domoticz on my home server, a desktop computer running Win10. I plan to use my phone as a remote controller when I'm not sitting at the computer, but I'd like to do all setup work on the big screen.

My main concern at the moment is: will I be able to just use the deployed IR blasters, and possibly the Thinker, strategically placed where all of them can be reached? I don't want to build the whole thing fron scratch, again.

[jannl]

When you start, check docker, makes it so much easier to (test) upgrade(s). Explanation and howto are in the Wiki.

And also docker uses yaml, whch I do not see so much as a scripting language but more as a configuration language.

[waltervl]

I do not see any references for a Domoticz integration for GeekLink Thinker.
If there is a python module somewhere available that can contact and control directly with the device without going to the cloud or external servers then it should be possible that domoticz can work with it. But you have to program it yourself.....

[easy]

I'm ready to give up on the Thinker, as long as I still can use IR blasters. I guess they need some kind of repeater in their range, is that right?

By the way, some simple Python programming is not beyond me, but delving into unpublished protocols is above my pay grade

[waltervl]

In latest stable Domoticz 2025.2 there is now support through MQTT AD and Zigbee2MQTT to support for IR Blaster (Tuya iH-F8260)

See also https://github.com/domoticz/domoticz/issues/6359

[easy]

Hello @waltervl and thanks for the good news.

I just installed domoticz on my linux machine (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS), but I have no external hardware I can easily interface it with.
How do IR blasters work in general: where do they get the signal to "blast"? WiFi? IR? RF? I am clueless with hardware. I hope the Geeklink GZ-1 can be supported, or it is compatible with the Tuya iH-F8260. I have a half dozen of them!

Any hints where I can study a bit?

[waltervl]

You have for example broadlink wifi IR blasters. There is a whole topic in this.

But going to zigbee (you have to buy a zigbee usb stick) will open up a lot of other smart home devices (lights, switches, all kind of sensors etc). And it is more secure as going to wifi.
https://wiki.domoticz.com/Zigbee

As said, if there is a geek link API or python module you can easily, without a lot of programming knowledge, make a simple send IR command and couple this script to a dummy Domoticz device with the on/off action scripts https://wiki.domoticz.com/Managing_Devi ... Off_Action