When you want to automate tasks at home there are different solutions from big vendors, like Ikea or Philips Hue. Only most solutions are note compatible with each other, each vendor only supports their own hardware. There is the possibility to build your own open source home automation system that supports a wide range of vendors.
First you need a piece of hardware to run the home automation system. It will also function as a gateway to operate the devices at home. There are pre-build solution available like this Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Domoticz 8GB or you can use your own hardware and install Domoticz on it.
Since a lot of home automation devices work with Zigbee (like Ikea and Philips Hue), you need to add a transceiver to it. This will talk to the devices and can be controlled from Domoticz, it coordinates all the routes between the wireless devices. For example the following device can be used https://a.aliexpress.com/_EGEHbtd
To control the devices there are two pieces of software that need to be used additionally. When for example you turn on a light in domoticz, domoticz send a message to the MQTT server and the Zigbee2mqtt will listen for messages and forward them to the right device.
MQTT
MQTT, which stands for Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, is a lightweight and efficient messaging protocol designed for low-bandwidth, high-latency, or unreliable networks. It was originally developed by IBM in the late 1990s and is now an open standard maintained by the OASIS consortium. MQTT is widely used in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) and for various other applications that require real-time communication between devices and services.
Zigbee2mqtt
Zigbee2mqtt is an open-source software project that enables communication between Zigbee devices and MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) servers or other home automation systems. It acts as a bridge or gateway between Zigbee-based smart devices and your chosen home automation platform, allowing you to integrate and control a wide variety of Zigbee devices with different brands and models within a single, unified ecosystem.
When Zigbee2mqtt is installed you can enable a web interface to easily manage your wireless devices.
