DALI Network

Hi friends,

Is there any restriction on topology of DALI ballast wiring?

In addition to this, I am using OSRAM 150W, ATCO T 300W, 1000W DALI ballast and Philips 25A DALI dimmer in our C-Bus system. Do I require any extra software (DALI commissioning software..)? Will this combination work?

Regards,
Manas

 

hey mate i know that dali and cbus will work together can be a bit of messing around though... as far as i am aware you will have to use dali programing to get the ballists to respond

 

Ya. It will be a complicated part. But I am particularly interested in topology. What about topology? Should I follow daisy chain connections of Star topology is accepted?

 

Dali itself is a lighting control system so you will require some way to program the Dali side.

We use the Addict from http://www.creativelighting.com.au/

Usually I address each fitting separately then place them into groups as needed. The groups are then addressed through a cbus Dali gateway for control. You can also just group them together by giving each fitting the same address but that could give you headaches down the track.

Wiring is basically the same as for DSI so you will require a supply voltage (switched via a cbus relay if your trying to wring every last penny of energy savings) plus the Dali control cable.

I believe you can wire it anyway you want, Star, Daisy Chain, Combination of the two but for sanity of anyone who may need to trace your cables at a later date I would highly suggest the Daisy Chain method.

 

DALI / C BUS Interface

I am planning on installing DALI light fittings and controlling via C Bus, I was unaware that you needed to program the DALI network, surely you just need to set up the individual address for each ballast just as any C Bus device? The control must be from C Bus otherwise why interface?

 

Yes thats what I meant, use a DALI USB and free config software from Tridonic to set the address of each ballast and then configure in C Bus?

 

Wow! Thanks a lot! This will help.

Regards,
Manas

 

The problem people have with DALI is Tridonic will give you the software if you're using Tridonic ballest but if your using another brand - there's no free programming support software so you need to use the addict etc

With programming you do ust address the fittings, you may also want to group the fittings into DALI groups. This makes control via C-Bus much easier it larger installs.

 

And set the ramp rate to match that of Cbus otherwise your lights will appear to do strange things while dimming

 

Why don't C-Bus has it's own DALI commissioning software? Which would work in sync with toolkit... Just a suggestion.

 

Does the CBus DALI interface provide power to the DALI network or do I need to add a DALI supply?

 

The version with power supply comes with two din rain power supplies... one for each DALI network (the cbus interface controls 2 dali networks).

 

It is generally not recommended to power off the DALI ballasts via relays. This is a recommendation by the ballast manufacturers due to a variety of factors. Firstly, powering on and off ballasts can cause problems within the ballast itself. Secondly, when a ballast is powered on it goes through a startup or 'boot' sequence which introduces lag and room for error. Finally, the power consumption of today's ballasts are less than 0.3W (an improvement on the 1W or so when they were first introduced on the market, where the power-saving-train-of-thought originated).

At the end of this year, the latest DALI ballast standard will be released which again improves on the power consumption. First reports show that this value will be close to unmeasurable.

This can be achieved through a standard 5-core cable (A, N, E, Da, Db) similar to that which is provided by Moduline M3 soft wiring.

 

DALI TOP is simple, just connect two DALI wire from DALI BUS to ballast DALI port then OK.DALI BUS connect to C-BUS EIB etc need a gateway.