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Creation sheds light on DALI

May - 2016
Dharmendra Patel - MD



Brilliant minds and brilliant lighting…what do they have in common?

If you link the word ‘Dali’ only to the maverick Salvador Dalí, best known for his iconic representation of melting time as depicted in his painting of melting clocks, The Persistence of Memory, then it’s time for me to refresh the concept. Let me introduce you to the Dali, of the lighting world - a brilliant key lighting protocol whose acronym is just as well known.
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(Digital Addressable Lighting Interface)
A DALI system enables an intelligent structure for communications for lighting control on complex Building Systems. It supports the key objective to provide intuitive cost efficient system components.
Point 1
Simple and Interface free
 
DALI bridged the gap between conventional 1-10V protocol and other complex lighting protocols.

By eliminating requirements such as wiring topographies or termination resistors (protecting cables against reflections), DALI facilitates easy solutions for compound lighting tasks for control units, ballasts, lamps and lighting systems. Any intelligent component can communicate effortlessly.
Point 2
System Design
 
Over a single interface line, a maximum 64 individual (ballast) addresses for control devices and units in 16 group addresses can be assigned drawing no more than 250 mA current. The address allocation or modification is implemented by the software without affecting the physical installation allowing flexibility without requiring any rewiring.

A system designer must consider the individual power consumption of each component connected over a single line to avoid loss of communication. It is strongly advised to allow spares for an extension in the future, easily managed by re-addressing all or individual devices and units as per the design specification.
Point 3
Features by DALI
  1. 64 Individual addresses.
  2. 16 Group assignment addresses.
  3. 16 Light scene values.
  4. Fading times.
  5. Automatic search of control devices.
  6. Emergency lighting level (System Failure Level).
  7. Configurable levels for Power On, Minimum, and Maximum.
  8. No requirement to control the mains power supply via relay.
Point 4
Installation options
  1. Non-parallel wiring (no group formation, no polarity).
  2. Concurrent control of all units by broadcast addressing (built-in functionality).
  3. Status messages of control devices with reports for units, groups or both.
  4. Formation of groups by “flashing” lamps.
  5. Logarithmic dimming behaviour – matching the eye’s sensitivity.
  6. Default values of lamp operational tolerance stored as default values.
Point 5
Typical Layout

A Building Management System and DALI units are connected via a gateway (translator) which establishes a two-way connection between the areas, as shown below.
Typical DALI Layout Diagram
Point 6
Some of our DALI Executions
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