Let's Talk About Tech!

Background Since February 2025 , this blog has been very quiet. I had health issues, and I did not give this space the time it deserved. Now I am giving myself a challenge: bring it back to life with practical projects. At the same time, I moved from Domoticz to Home Assistant .  Domoticz served me well for more than 10 years on a Raspberry Pi 3, but I felt I had reached its limits for my needs. I wanted more flexibility and a cleaner path forward. After switching to Home Assistant, one problem remained: I wanted a way to see critical values instantly, without opening my phone or the full HA web interface. That requirement became a project.

Background In a previous article , I demonstrated how to control Somfy devices using php and the Somfy API. Now that it's working, we need to identify some useful activities related to this new functionality. Why not begin integrating it into a Home Automation platform like Domoticz? Let's dive into it.

Background I recently bought a pergola with solar blinds, dimmable LEDs and a orientable roof blades. This is great to enjoy the summer without getting too much hot air or direct sun. It is coming with a Somfy Tahoma controller box that allows controlling the different devices with a SmartPhone. How cool is this ? Ok, but how does it work ? Can I control this myself with my own scripts and integrate it into an home automation system ? Let's have a look !

Background Sometimes, when using a self managed counter, you are getting fancy values. Could be test, could be an error, could be wrong value read from a sensor .... Basically, it happens. This is a problem since it is faking your statistics. There is a way to remove those values but it does not always work. Let's find out how to solve this problem.

Background I like home automation and home improvement. One way to become more sustainable is to measure various home consumption (electricity, water, heating, ...). Then, base on the numbers, you can act appropriately and improve the overall figures. Recently, I have created a IoT device to measure and record my solar production, this time we will have a look at the water usage.

Background Sometimes, it is cool to receive important notifications directly to your phone when something critical is happening. It's even more true when talking about smart home / home automation : basement water flood, some temperature drops, ... really anything you can think off. There is a Telegram integration in Domoticz, but I was not finding what I was looking for in the official documentation. Let's see how it works !