So I purchased a couple sets of the Sylvania Lightify by OSRAM gardenspot lights to use around our pool cage. I must say the lights look really good despite my horrid picture, and they interface well with my smart things hub.
Since they are daisy chained together, I am now left with another RGB LED power supply and zwave controller to fool around with. I thought I could find some RGB landscaping spotlights that I could wire up to the lightify receiver.
Well this is what the lightify connector looks like
Scouring the internet, I finally found something that may work! They are the Paradise multi color nano spot lights. Cheap generic chinese made remote and controller, but I figured the connectors seen on the home depot website looked similar, so I’d give them a shot.
I ordered them “opened, but never used” off ebay. Once they arrived I noticed the connectors that are on these spots are much bigger than the lightify connectors.
Damn. There goes my hopes of an easy install. The pinout probably wasn’t going to be the same anyway, so who knows if the lights would have worked correctly to begin with. Well now it’s time to figure out what kind of pinouts I’m working with on these connectors.
The paradise lights were relatively easy to pinout. I “took apart” the light controller by destroying as much plastic housing as possible. The chinese conformal coating made this a real pain. Once down to the circuit board, the pins were actually properly labeled, and I verified with my multimeter. +5v on the R, G or B pin depending on what color was chosen.
Paradise pinout:
The lightify connector was a little more difficult to pinout. Since I couldn’t access the controller, I had to do some fiddling with my trusty multimeter and narrow down the ground pin. Then setting the lights to Red, Green and Blue, I was able to figure out what pin corresponded to which color. Lightify pinout:
Rigging up some quick jumper wires on the ground and red proved at least I was correct on the red!
Now I have to figure out how to connect these 2 mismatched connectors. I contemplated cutting one of the paradise’s extension wires to cannibalize the connector. I searched amazon some more and found a product that looked like it may fit at least one of my connectors.
The 4 Pin Waterproof Male Female Connector Cable RGB LED Strip with Rubber was a little overkill, as I realistically only needed on male or female.. whichever would fit one of my connectors. But they were cheap, and prime same day, so I ordered them. Now I have 9 left for other jobs…
Anyway the female plug of these connectors fits into the lightify connector, but the waterproof screw-in cap does not. Oh well, I’ll figure that out later.
Now I had connectors to both ends. I cut off the connector from the paradise controller, figuring I’d never need that controller again. So now time to splice the connecting wire. Following the pinouts, I soldered the 4 wires together.
I’ll worry about waterproofing this at a later time. The moment of truth……
Boom.. The test light works with the lightify controller, and I can change color/intensity through my smart things app. Sweet. Hook them all up and….
Shit.. the “fully tested” ebay lights seem to have a defect. One of the spots isn’t responding to any red input. Oh well.. I’ll be keeping the color on the yellow end of the spectrum so it will do.
On to waterproofing my homemade adapter cable. Using some silicon conformal coat, I coated the heat shrink wrapped connections and most of the exposed wire – because why not?
Then I broke out my liquid electrical tape and really coated everything, making it as waterproof as I care to make it. I also used the liquid electrical tape to seal the white end into the lightify connector, since the screw on cap didn’t fit.
Now to place my newly customized zwave enabled landscaping spotlights! I’m still playing with the layout, but here they are in the front of the house. Programmed to turn on/off with the rest of the outside lights through smart things.
——–
List of purchases for this project:
Amazon
| Qty | Product | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Sylvania Lightify Garden Spots | $51.99 | Previously Purchased |
| 1 | 10 pcs White 4 Pin Waterproof Male Female Connector Cable RGB LED | $9.99 | |
| 1 | MG Chemicals Silicone Conformal Coating | $18.33 |
Ebay
| Qty | Product | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Multi Color LED Nano Spot Light (4-Pack) | $40.00 |
Hello I just saw your post, doesn’t the Paradise spot requires 12v as the Osram garden spot uses 5v, you got the paradise to work with the 5v power adapter ?
Honestly I didn’t even look at the voltages, so I guess the if the paradise need 12v, that may have been the source of some of my inconsistencies. I have since run them over with the lawnmower – so they are no longer in service!