A controller for outdoor led landscape lighting? (dimming, on/off, zones)

I’m looking at the Garden Spots as well from Orsam.

Have you tried them?

anyone used Fibaro RGBW mini dimmer? it takes low-voltage input and can either control a multi-color LED strip or can control separate monochrome LED fixture (including strip or other types). it is small. it is not ridiculously expensive (considering that it gives you four independently controllable outputs and works with z-wave). it uses pulse-width modulation dimming.

two slight problems i see: first, it requires 12-24V DC, whereas the old standard for low-voltage landscape lighting power seems to be ~12V AC - so afaik, you can’t just connect this to your existing landscape lighting transformer. otoh, it seems like many LED bulbs and fixtures require 12 or 24V dc anyway… …except a small number that seem to be designed to work with AC landscape power (however they often don’t state clearly whether they are AC or DC, making it quite difficult to be confident in what you are buying).

second is that even if you go with DC power supply and the Fibaro multi-dimmer, you still have to make sure that the individual lighting loads that you attach to it will handle dimming. not all do. some may simply go from full on to full off when the voltage drops below a certain level. worse, some may flicker or blink on/off. whereas all incandescent landscape fixtures are dimmable, LED generally only dim if their drivers are specifically designed to support it. you have to have the right kind of LED driver circuit. fortunately, its getting a bit easier these days. you can buy a fixture that that takes MR16 bulb (even incandescent), then find an LED MR16 that is dimmable. fortunately, amazon sells them.

I set these up for our lights outside. They work great and are cheap.

https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-smartlife-h801-rgbw-led-wifi-controller/51182

Does this describe what you’re looking for?

http://avidz.net/media/NoW_Light_Demo.MTS

I am new here…hope to learn a lot! I’m in the midst of a major home renovation and of course home automation is key…This thread interested me as I am doing deck lighting and ultimately landscape lighting. I am a dark sky nut so I want to have lots of control, including dimming. I’ve looked at the posts here. Has anyone tried using a dimmable led driver and a zwave wall switch/dimmer? Something like this driver… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J1ZVKSQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_lVtCybJVYBZJN

I use the lights from FamousmodsLED.com for my customers who want zone control, dimming, color etc. They’re Wifi and require no extra work. here’s an example of a deck I did when they were bluetooth

Take a look here for 12v controllers https://www.mydimmerswitch.com/reviews/outdoor-dimmer-switch-reviews/

I am also looking at outdoor lighting, but have a different type of setup and I don’t see a solution I want yet. The electrician installed a switch in my living space that controls an outlet in my basement where the Transformer is plugged into (also indoors). I thought simply replacing the switch to a GE Z-wave plus Dimmer would do the trick, but it keeps triping the GFCI outlet. After reset the GFCI it works for dimming, though not well, and when I turn GE switch off and back on it trips. I removed the switch and replaced with non-dimmer version of the switch and it works fine other than sans dimming. I’m trying to determine if I should just remove the outlet and have the magnetic transformer (WAC lighting 9075-TRN-SS) powered directly from dimmer, or replacing dimmer switch with something different.

Just found this:

http://www.kichler.com/products/product/200w-dc-led-controller-15dc200.aspx

It has z-wave and works with Vera. Can someone make this work with Smartthings?

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Why not just buy a powerpack with no timer and plug it into a zwave outdoor outlet. That is why i did. Granted mine is under an outdoor kitchen island. But it works nicely .

Hello rtahb,

I know I’m really late to this conversation.

Here is a dimmer that might do what you want.http://www.letzgoproducts.com/ac-low-voltage-digital-dimmer/

It goes on the secondary side of the transformer and can handle 10 amps. You can make 3 separate runs…one dimmer for each