So just dabbling around in all the things I can add to my SmartThings as I find extra money here and there, I am curious who all has intelligent lighting for the outdoors of their home. If so what do you have, how did you use it, and what has been your experience?
I use GE Z-wave outdoor lighting controller connected to my lighting switches. Works great.
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I’m experimenting with H801 controllers (https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-smartlife-h801-rgbw-led-strip-wifi-controller-bulb/) indoors at the moment, but the next step will be to re-do my outdoor seating/fire pit area with LED strips mounted under the slate bench.
I may also do some overhead lighting under the patio if I can find some good string lights that will work with ST.
There are a few outdoor lighting project reports on the “yard” list that you might find interesting. 
You can find the quick browse lists in the community – created wiki. Look in the “projects by room” section near the very end of the page.
Also, one of the simplest things you can do is just to use the Osram lightify garden spots. These work well with SmartThings. 
https://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-LIGHTIFY-Osram-Gardenspots-Adjustable/dp/B00R1PB2ZY
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Have the Osram gardenspots running down my walkway. One negative to them is they are what they say ‘spots’ so unless you aim them across the walk you are really just aiming a spotlight upwards. So they work well/best when you are providing raking light across a walk, or up the side of your house, or up bushes/trees. But have them on my walkway, then Cree connected bulbs in my front door light with a ST motion sensor triggering them. Dumb cree bulbs in lights on each side of the garage door but then a z-wave switch controlling them on a schedule of sundown - 1hour and off at 12:15am
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I have been thinking about trying Osram gardenspots.
Do the require the Osram hub?
I have also found them hard to find even on the Osram web site. Makes me wonder if they have been discontinued.
They connect directly to the smartthings hub. You do not use the Osram gateway if you are using the smartthings hub as the devices can only connect to one zigbee Coordinator at a time. Some people do by the gateway anyway if they can get a good price on it, because they use it to do firmware updates when needed.
Most people I have talked to just bought the gardenspots from Amazon:
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Yeah, typically Amazon warehouse will post when they have some at a big discount. You usually have to jump fast cause they sell out quickly due to popularity. Usually someone will catch them on sale and post in the forum.
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Thanks guys I will have to pick some up and try them next time I see a deal for sure, maybe sooner.
I’ve been leaning toward the Osram lights. Hell, I had them on my Xmas list this year. Just wanted to see what solutions people had gone with before I just pulled the trigger. So far I have tended to gone with the simplest, SmartThings ready solutions that I can. Makes for less headaches in my systems and things that just work all the time.
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I was leaning towards the osram lights but there is so many and just like someone stated above, they are basically mini spot lights. I didn’t want to illuminate every piece of a fence but needed light for the dark part of my corner property. I went with super bright led G-Lux spot lights. They are RGB and can be dimmed and changed. My only problem is that they are 2 pronged, so I haven’t figured out how to splice them to an H801 adapter yet. I can do it so they turn on and off but just haven’t played around yet. I do also have LED strips on my fence that come on at a certain time and off at a certain time. The H801 connector controls them and they are great. I can change the color or pattern from my phone. I’ll try and get pictures for you later at night.
So here are some follow up pictures I promised. They are day time vs night time. The fence LEDs you can see how much they light up, and the G-Lux light up the front of the fence. I have to aim and add a few to finish it off but just messing around in the winter waiting for it to get nice out. Anyways, just so you can get an idea of different options out there.
I just wrapped up a 4-zone lighting project around our newly installed pool. Obviously if you want dimming or color changing capabilities my setup would not work for you, but for regular smart control of your lights this is a pretty simple approach. I’ll attach some photos, but I just purchased these LED path and spot lights from Lampsplus.com. They have a perfect output and the warm white color is really nice.
For control of my four zones, I ordered four GE outdoor switches and these transformers and put them in this box with a simple indoor/outdoor power strip. The transformers seem to be doing great and with these particular lights, you can put 15 on one of these 60w transformers. I was worried about the GE switches not responding because of distance to the detached garage where I mounted them, but they work great and respond quickly despite our brick home.
I have the two zones set to dawn/dusk and two other zones that I turn on at dusk and off at about 2a to be mindful of energy use. However, the zones I have off will respond to house alarm and will respond to the outdoor motion sensors once I finish installing those just for extra security. I also wanted the smart control so I can kill the path lights and spots in one zone when we do outdoor movie nights.
It works out to about $78 per 60 watt zone, which is not much more than a decent timer transformer of the same wattage without smart control. Hope this helps!
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Can you post which light you chose?
I did. Just click the blue hyperlinks.
Just an update, this is still working well with absolutely zero lag or issues. Fingers crossed that it stays that way.
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This was posted in another thread but thought I would post it here. This summer (2018), there will be some new options for outdoor lighting from Hue…
And soon Philips Lighting will get a new name- Signify. This was reported in another thread as well.