I'd suggest it would be quite wasteful to ship 100W of power any real
distance at 12V (unless you own a copper mine :) ). If using a few
large modern LED panels it's not hard to get to 100W quickly.
Note that commercial fixtures may not be just LEDs, these days it's not
unusual to have some active circuitry. I'd be looking for information on
the fixtures to see what they actually need. They may do something
magic (e.g. inverse-parallel strings) that actually needs AC to work
correctly. Do you already have the fixtures? This may predicate your
choice of controller/power supply.
Aside from the control aspect, also consider standalone solar lights
(though they become a battery maintenance problem over time).
I will make a general comment that 'Internet-of-Things' devices that
might use a smartphone app or allow external control are often a
security risk. They 'phone home', and many have been compromised through
poor design. Those "home-assist speaker" devices are a case in point.
davidt
On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 10:42:54PM -0400, Mike Gordon via olympus wrote:
> Appreciate all the comments. Seems we have two votes for the DC controller.
> I am trying to roll my own but am talking 3-4 fixtures only. The commercial
> esthetic LED landscape fixtures
> will be from different manufacturers. They all recommend their own
> transformers and no data is provided on whether they have any kind of LED
> driver. Except for Kichler it seems most
> transformers are AC. Asking the the other manufacturers whether the DC LED
> controller will not void the warranty is like pulling teeth--they say must
> use their unit or one "approved."
>
> I wish to be able to control the lights from my phone. I think the Vera plus
> will do fine with that. Our driveway T's in front of our house and that and
> the walkway are quite dark. When a Nor'easter last March
> destroyed our two cherry trees we looked into putting up a lamp post but
> putting in a conduit for 110V was problematic ---around here at least. We
> get reports of our energy consumption compared to our neighbors and we are on
> the frugal side. I also value dark skies but just want a few lights so we
> and company can see enough to maneuver and it may as well be an aesthetic
> addition.
> Thanks again,
> Making progress, Mike
>
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