Domoticz - basic questions

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  • DorrisMancer
    Automated Home Guru
    • Nov 2017
    • 129

    Domoticz - basic questions

    I've been looking at Domoticz for the first time and am struggling to get it set-up. Some newbie questions:
    1. I have two controllers ("upstairs" and "downstairs"). When I <add hardware> the upstairs devices appear in the device list but how do I get the downstairs devices to appear?
    2. What will Domoticz do for me?
  • DanD
    Automated Home Ninja
    • Feb 2016
    • 250

    #2
    Hi,

    My thoughts are:

    1. I assume that you're using the 'Evohome via Web API' hardware device in Domoticz. If so, then the default settings assume that you only have one location defined on your Honeywell account. If you have more than one, then you have to add a separate hardware device for each additional location. I have 2 controllers and here are the changes I made for the second device (selecting the 'show location' option adds the location name to each device in Domoticz which makes things a lot clearer if you have duplicate room names):

    Domoticz Evohome Location Setting.png

    2. I think the main use for Domoticz is as a tool to review the temperatures in each of zones versus their setpoints. For example, I was just reviewing the zone temperatures in my system from the last 24h and it helped me spot that one room was always failing to reach its setpoint and it seemed happy to sit about 2deg below the setpoint. It turns out that the radiator needed bleeding and was only about half full for some reason. Domoticz can do far more than this, allowing you to link to other home automation devices you may have.

    Regards,

    Dan

    Comment

    • DorrisMancer
      Automated Home Guru
      • Nov 2017
      • 129

      #3
      Thanks!
      I'd tried setting that field to "0,0,1" but not "1,0,0" - success!

      A couple more questions:
      1. The evohome controllers appear under the "Switches" tab, can I get anything useful from them (fault reports, perhaps)?
      2. Is there any way to see the status of the BDR91s?
      Last edited by DorrisMancer; 28 January 2019, 03:43 PM.

      Comment

      • DanD
        Automated Home Ninja
        • Feb 2016
        • 250

        #4
        1. No, there's not much log information, the main use of this 'switch' device is to simply show the current operating mode of the controller or to change this via one of the quick actions. This simply reflects the limited information that's available via the Honeywell API.

        2. No, the individual status of the BDR91s isn't visible via the API. If you have the Evohome Hot Water kit, then you can see whether the Hot Water is either on or off, but not any further level of detail e.g. if the water is currently being heated or not.

        If you're interested in digging into Domoticz further and obtain more detailed information from your Evohome installation you need either a Honeywell HGI80 USB device (or similar 868Mhz transceiver device).
        This allows Domoticz to actually monitor and interpret directly the Evohome wireless communications between all the devices in your home. I need to highlight though that the decoding of the Evohome messages within Domoticz via the HGI80 is an ongoing 'work in progress' as there is no public API available. In particular, the controller error log isn't available.

        Comment

        • DorrisMancer
          Automated Home Guru
          • Nov 2017
          • 129

          #5
          Thanks again, Dan.
          Everything seems to be working so I can't justify time playing with an HGI80, especially if the APIs are so limited.

          Comment

          • DorrisMancer
            Automated Home Guru
            • Nov 2017
            • 129

            #6
            and more questions ...
            1. there seems to be API documentation here - are all these functions (such as displaying the set temperature) implemented in domoticz?
            2. what are the advantages of domoticz compared to conrad connect?

            Dave (very many years since I did any coding, these days I just want something to work)

            Comment

            • DanD
              Automated Home Ninja
              • Feb 2016
              • 250

              #7
              Hi Dave,

              Sorry, I should have been clearer in my previous reply. The web API documentation is available and extensive details are available to developers and the majority of the functionality is implemented within Domoticz via the 'Evohome via Web API' hardware device. Monitoring the Evohome system via Domoticz with a HGI80 is a different story and the Evohome Domoticz code has been developed by extensive reverse engineering and trial and error. There's no public API available for the messages captured via a HGI80 and a few of us continue to expand the code within Domoticz with help from other users. The main benefits of using Domoticz with a HGI80 are that you can monitor and log the heat demand from each zone which some users find useful additional information and the ability to monitor messages from all devices which can help with troubleshooting some problems.

              I can't really answer your second question about Conrad connect vs Domoticz as I haven't used Conrad connect. My only thoughts are that some users may prefer to capture the information themselves via a Domoticz server running on their own machine rather than relying on additional external services.

              Regards,

              Dan

              Comment

              • DorrisMancer
                Automated Home Guru
                • Nov 2017
                • 129

                #8
                After a bit more playing around, yet another question: how do I get the battery levels to appear? Currently they are all marked "-"

                Comment

                • DanD
                  Automated Home Ninja
                  • Feb 2016
                  • 250

                  #9
                  The battery levels are another item which is not supported by the web API and is only available if monitoring using a HGI80 or similar type USB device.

                  Comment

                  • DorrisMancer
                    Automated Home Guru
                    • Nov 2017
                    • 129

                    #10
                    I'm getting to like the graphs - is there any way to generate graphs for a week as well as day/month/year?

                    Comment

                    • DanD
                      Automated Home Ninja
                      • Feb 2016
                      • 250

                      #11
                      I'm getting to like the graphs - is there any way to generate graphs for a week as well as day/month/year?
                      Unfortunately no, not within Domoticz. This is one of its limitations and there's only the standard graphs you've described. You have to export the data into another package if you want create your own custom graphs.

                      Comment

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