One Button DSI setup

Hi all,

I am currently in the middle of a Cbus install using mostly Fluoro lighting through out the house.

Most of the lighting will be dimmable and will be controlled using DSI ballasts and Dimmer.

The way i understand both DSI and DALI is if i dim them down to 0% they still have 240v at the fitting. If i want to totally turn off the circuit i will need to use Relay channel to control on/off.

The customer ( and I ) want to have lights on/off/dim all from just 1 button per room.

Is this possible ?? Im assuming that as both the Dimmer and Relay channel for a circuit are using the same lighting group ( in toolkit) it should work but do not have any of the hardware to test it.

If not am i going to have to put the on off feature on 1 button and use another just to Dim??


Any help is muchly appreciated

Kurt

 

Wonder if you wire it up

dsi -> through relay -> dsi side of light fittings

GA's in both channels of dsi and relay the same.
Set the relay turn on threshold to 1.

that way the dsi signals would only be sent though when the GA is greater then 1%.

or you could just wire it

dsi -> control side of light fitting
relay -> 240v side of light fitting

Either way you need just as many relays as you do dsi channels.
And I dont know for sure that the light fittings would power up in time to receive the dsi signals.

Interesting ideas though. I'd like to know how this pans out.

 

Thought 1 wont work. the light would never turn off.

sorry.

Thought 2 'should' work i think

 

You need to wire it up as though it`s a switched ballast.240v - relay - ballast.Then wire a seperate pair from the + & - of the DSI unit to the + & - of the ballast.Do not connect the DSI signal wires to 240v.If the DSI signal is broken,the ballast will power up at 100%.I have used DSI without a relay without any problems.There will always be 240v at the fitting but if local isolation & warning labels are present i don`t see a problem.The only drawback is the ballast will draw a small amount of current when the lights are at 0%.(about 2w)

 

Kurt,

As you stated, if you give them the same group address it will work.

 

Just be careful with this, as we have experienced problems on some jobs in the past using one relay channel to isolate power to a number of DSI channels. Some ballasts (will have to go back and check) will flash momentarily when power is first applied - not a good look.
General rule of thumb is to use one relay channel per DSI channel.

Regards,

Mark

 

DSI Happiness

Mkay,

Thanks all for replys - just took a long time to get back here

For this exercise i got hold of a 5500CNI, a 12 Channel Relay and an 8 Channel DSI dimmer - and a ugly neo switch...

For each room with up to 4 pl light fittings each i have dedicated 1 channel from the Relay, and 1 from the DSI Dimmer

- i hadn't even thought about multiple rooms per relay channel - and would not really be inclined to use this as an option.

I have just finished wiring it all up and after much swearing and cursing at the CNI - (apparanlty you have to cycle the power when setting the IP address.... at least i will remember this in future) and done the test.

Either way the mission was a great success and on/off and dimming from one button works quite well.

Thankyou all for your replys and help

Kurt