View Full Version : DALI lighting control???
hornydragon
24-08-2004, 10:03 PM
Any body help me out with DALI lighting control interface/control??? i just dont get it!
simoncope
26-08-2004, 1:29 PM
What do you want to know?
Each lamp has it's own ballast which is addressable and sits on a control bus.
hornydragon
26-08-2004, 6:59 PM
stupid really the topology is a loop? What sort of cable, Specifically talking about helvar control.
simoncope
26-08-2004, 7:03 PM
Never installed a DALI system before...
But I think the topology is fairly open - loop or home run, or combination. Not sure about the cabling.
Out of interest, why are you installing DALI? Are you using the fixture monitoring, or does the client require incredible scene setting flexibility?
Or is it just for fun cos you've not done it before (always a good reason!)?
hornydragon
26-08-2004, 7:39 PM
Are you using the fixture monitoring, or does the client require incredible scene setting flexibility?
Apparently having 6 preset scenes for one room is not enough! He is very keen to have 6 circuits in his living dining kitchen area, all one room with lots of scene choice!
simoncope
26-08-2004, 7:44 PM
Apparently having 6 preset scenes for one room is not enough! He is very keen to have 6 circuits in his living dining kitchen area, all one room with lots of scene choice!
What about using a 6 circuit GrafikEye from Lutron? There's the regular 4 scenes available from the buttons on the front, plus another 4 if you use the 8-scene IR remote. If you use an RS232 interface, or are clever with keypads, you can recall up to 16 scenes.
hornydragon
26-08-2004, 7:50 PM
thats the other option a 6 circuit grafic eye, only cant control the other 3 rooms he wants 2-3 circuits and a couple of scenes.
I guess there's no space/option to put in a proper system?
Are you looking at a fully decorated built/finished room at the moment?
hornydragon
06-09-2004, 9:34 PM
nope its in first fix at the moment, meant to give you a call Rik but far too mch hassle with contractors at this stage but interested in finding out more tho, do you use Dali kit?
The Polaron (http://www.marata.co.uk/light.htm) kit is based on an RS485 network, and uses Cat V cable as it's basis. You can pop 128 devices on one of these, and is much quicker than the Dali system, as you would expect.
If you're looking at 8 channels or more then a single Polaron rack will work out cheaper. We are due to launch the Modulo4 (http://www.marata.co.uk/light-prods.htm) before Christmas, to compete on the simple low cost, easy install side of things. (Grafikeye etc.)
As a side note, we bought iLight (http://www.ilight.co.uk/) last week. So it will be interesting to see how our product portfolio expands in the next year.
hornydragon
06-09-2004, 9:51 PM
The Rack is the worst part of the system.......... Someone please stick one of these in MR controller!!!