I stumbled across a line of landscape low voltage lighting transformers by Paradise described as “Smartphone compatible over WiFi.”
Does anyone know anything about these and whether Paradise has published their API?
The Paradise website appears to be out of date and doesn’t list the products. To find them, you can search for Paradise GL33210, where you’ll quickly find all shopping results you can handle.
I reached out to the company for API resources. I’ll update here when I hear back from them.
Thanks Brian for looking into this. Did you hear back from Paradise? Have you found any other vendors for SmartThings compatible low-voltage transformers for landscaping lighting? I’m about to install a system in my yard, but ideally I’d like to be able to control it thorugh SmartThings and separate zones, use IFTTT for programing or something similar. There doesn’t seem to be many options on the market, so if you find anything, please post it! Likewise, I’ll share anything I find in my research.
Wow, I actually got an email response with the phone number and extension of one of their engineers.
I called and left a voicemail. Fingers crossed for a Friday response… We’ll see where this goes.
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve been searching the Big Box Stores in my area, and all the transformers that Home Depot and Lowes sell are all “dumb”. It seems like the low-voltage lighting arena is ripe for someone to come in and make a killer product. Has anyone else found other vendors that sell smart transformers? I’d really like to control multiple zones with a single transformer, and the only way I can see doing that now with a “dumb” transformer is to buy multiple transformers and multiple z-wave switchable outlets, which is clumsy and expensive. Any thoughts?
Following this thread! I purchased one of these and have it all setup, but was a little let down by the “wifi” compatibility. So far, it appears that the only way to communicate with the transformer is to connect to the transfers wifi SSID. There has GOT to be a way to interface with this thing like other smart home devices.
I’ve looked into a smart landscape lighting solution now for almost a year and while there are a couple of proprietary (re: expensive) options this is the closest thing I’ve hear of do date. I have to ask though, in lieu of replacing an existing transformer with a smart one. What functionality are you looking for out of the transformer that couldn’t be accomplished via a ‘dumb’ transformer and a smart switch? I briefly considered swapping the outside receptacle my transformer plugs into with one of the GE/Jasco receptacles or one of the outdoor rated “dongle” style plugs. This would allow me to control on/off energy usage etc if the model allowed for that. Everything else I could want to do could be setup using lighting manager or CoRE.
The only thing that comes to mind is if you have one of the big honkin (official term) transformer with 6 or 8 connections (zones) on the bottom and were looking for control each of them separately. There have been a couple people on here who used smart switches to control dumb transformers to achieve something very similar to this.
Personally I’m very disappointed that landscape lights are practically ignored in the smart lighting segment but I’m not really surprised. Go to a Lowes/Home Depot and quarter after quarter they have the same lights and supplies in store. Come spring through fall the local stores to me get pallets and pallets of cheap solar lights. I think people are often just not technical enough or to lazy to install “real” landscape lighting. I almost never see people walking around with low voltage lighting supplies in their carts but see the cheap $10 6-packs of solar lights all the time.
I talked to the engineers at Paradise Lighting, and @jkeck3’s experience is pretty much what I expected. Sorry for not updating sooner. The WiFi function is simply an ad-hoc network handled by the transformer that won’t connect to your home network; however, it will allow you to connect directly with your WiFi device (phone, laptop, tablet, etc) and a web browser to modify its timing and dusk-to-dawn features.
If that’s your thing, then cool; however, it’s not what I think SmartThings users are looking for.
Like @LCSteve said, a dumb transformer plugged into a smart outlet is pretty much the state of the SmartThings art, today.
Having said all that, Paradise Lighting is trying, and even though this product doesn’t hit my sweet spot of demand, it’s good to see them stepping up with a market experiment where no other company has ventured. The engineer I talked to said this was their first shot at testing the market demand for smart transformers. I really don’t expect this model to be a huge success for them, but if you want to write with product suggestions, this is their website: http://www.paradisegardenlighting.com/
Thanks everyone for sharing their findings! Hopefully they’ll come up with a more fully fleshed out system in the future with full SmartThings support. The search for a smart transformer still continues. If anyone finds anything, post a link in this thread.
I purchased the transformer last month. Expecting much more. Very disappointing.
Has anyone looked at/considered Dekor Lighting? They offer an add-on wifi module with an app for iOS and Andriod.
www.dekorlightinig.com
UPDATE:
Contacted DEKOR and their response is below:
“Thank you for your interest in the DEKOR WIFICONTOLLER. The DEKOR WIFICONTROLLER is designed to be a standalone/ all-in-one dimmer timer system with the capability to add more controllers and control them all under the DEKOR WIFI App using a home router. In your case trying to integrate the DEKOR WIFI Controller with the Samsung Smart Things will not work. That system has its own proprietary protocol to talk to its peripheral devises. No DEKOR does not offer an API for developers”
Another close-minded company…
We use the Tru-Scapes smart transformer. It’s under $300 and has dusk till dawn setting, different day and timer settings along with a built in wattage meter. Very easy to connect.