About Domoticz

Introduction

As mentioned, Domoticz is free and open source. It can be used on Raspberry Pi, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and embedded devices. The system is designed to operate in various operating systems. The user-interface is a scalable HTML5 web frontend, and is automatically adapted for desktop and mobile devices. Domoticz is compatible with all browsers. Please note for Internet explorer users: You need version 10+.
The first release of Domoticz was in december 2012.

Software architecture

Domoticz is written in C++. (sources on Github)

It uses it's own embedded web server, written in C++, for efficient execution and to avoid dependencies.

Event Handling logic is user-programmable, using either Blockly (for visual coding using interlocking graphics) or Lua (a rich script programming language ideal for embedded solutions). Also a Domoticz specific Lua implementation is developed: dzVents

Python Plugin Framework for creating hardware integrations (next to the existing C++ Hardware plugins)

SQLite database for storing all measurement data and switch/light logging.

The user-interface is a scalable HTML5 web frontend with javascript extensions.

Donations

Donations are more than welcome and will be used to buy new hardware, devices and sensors so they can be implemented in Domoticz. Please refer to the Domoticz website for details on how to donate.

Domoticz team

-under construction-
Domoticz is driven by a group of people, who contribute to the Domoticz project on a completely voluntary base.
Of course there is 'Gizmocuz', the developer of Domoticz. He works on Domoticz almost daily!
He gets support from other developers.
To see a full list of all developers who are contributing to this project see https://github.com/domoticz/domoticz/graphs/contributors

Of course there are also other members, like those who maintain the forum (10 people) and those who keep the wiki up to date.
But in fact, everybody with a login is member of the team, as everyone can contribute to this project!

Gizmocuz Interview

Gizmocuz released an interview for a french blog domo-attitude.

See below the translation in English:

Gizmocuz Interview By www.domo-attitude.fr 12/01/2017

- What is your professional background?

1984 when I was about 9 years old (language Assembly on the Commodore C= 64). As profession I, created games/graphics for television shows (deal or no deal, elections (touch screen) and many more). Today I own a software company that monitors/analyze digital television signals coming from various sources (satellite/cable/terrestrial/IPTV(OTT)/multicast) For instance, your cable operator has 100 channels, it is impossible to monitor this with a single person (problems in audio/video/data).

- How come the idea to create Domoticz?

Many years ago I bought my first home automation controller from company x. This did not at all have all my expectations. Some of my wanted features where build in, but it took way too much time. Therefore, I created my own application, supporting the Dutch P1 Smart Meter and all devices of the RFXCom RFXtrx433 transceiver. At Christmas 2012, I pushed it out on the World Wide Web as open-source.

- How long it takes?

The initial project took me a half year. Today it is still not finished as we get more protocols/devices/hardware)

- What is home automated @ your home / office?

Not sure, I understand this question. I use Domoticz of course. If you ask what type of hardware I use: - RFXCom RFXtrx433e for all my normal sensors (temperature/humidity/barometer/rain/wind/uv/....) and some switches - P1 Smart Meter (electric/gas usage) - ZWave for switches/power meters - RFLink for some security devices - I have one 1Wire temperature sensor - Amazon Echo - Netatmo - Logitech harmony

I do want to mention that it is VERY important to understand that Home Automation is NOT cheap! You do not want to install cheap/bad hardware that works 50% or sometimes not at all. This means, try to avoid cheap hardware. It is better to buy a switch from Aeotec/Fibaro from 60 euro, then to buy one on AliExpress/eBay from 20 euro.

- What is your best event script or blockly?

I am not in need of scripts at all. It is very important that my wife can operate anything with a real switch if needed. Sure everything is automated, we do not use actual switches anymore, but in case there is a problem with the software, there is no panic (not that this happens a lot of course). I do use some scripts from our forum (sun/moon) and I created a script to upload some data to weather underground.

- Which feature is the best for you?

- Timers/Scenes/Groups - Amazon Echo

- Which one is the worst?

The worst? I don’t know, I probably do not use it. The most complex? That is ZWave for sure, but once everything is configured correctly, it is a very solid system.

- Do you plan to provide an event?

You mean like an actual event where people can attend too? Yes, this is still on the Todo list, we already had one (in 2014 I believe), and some users demonstrate it on exhibitions but time is also the problem.

- As Domoticz is an open-source what did you expect from contributors?

That they respect the code style, that they test it on multiple platforms (windows/Linux). We received many patches that need a second review, and I am not talking about compile errors/warnings. I am very glad we now have some good contributors. It is very hard to do everything alone, and my priority is different.

- Which will be the next big add for Domoticz?

There is a big need to change/refactor some code. For instance the whole ZWave implementation actually needs to change, and this probably means all users will get new devices (of course we try to make a good upgrade script, which we've always done and try to avoid this). The user interface needs to be more AngularJS style (version 2). We are working hard to integrate a new Python plugin system, with this it should be easy to support more hardware. We also try to create a plugin store.

- What is Domoticz future?

Be one of the best and easiest home automation software that exists. My goal was always "keep it simple", but sometimes we cannot avoid some complexity.

- What is home automation future?

The feature is now. It only has to be made easy and affordable for everyone. I do expect some more 'Amazon Echo' implementations to come forward.

- Which next feature is missing to this sector?

1 standard, 1 protocol, everything else we try to do with Domoticz.