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DALI Solutions Overview

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This article provides a brief overview of the DALI solutions from Enlighted.

DALI Overview

DALI stands for Digital Addressable Lighting Interface. It is an International Standard (IEC 62386) lighting control system, providing a simple and efficient 2-wire interface for 'control gear' such as ballasts, drivers, and electronic control devices such as lighting controllers. The DALI standard is owned by the Digital Illumination Interface Alliance (DiiA), an open, global consortium of lighting companies that aims to grow the market for lighting control solutions based on DALI.

Best Practices and Limitations

  1. The total maximum aggregated supply current for the DALI bus must be < 250mA.
  2. The Enlighted sensor can read energy from up to eight drivers. The best practice is to enable one PSU in a group of drivers. Each Enlighted sensor supports up to eight SR/DALI/D4i drivers or external PSUs.

The SR driver has a built-in PSU that can be enabled and disabled. The SR driver built-in PSU is enabled and ready for external DALI Control Devices by factory default. The SR PSU can be disabled/re-enabled with Signify MultiOne configuration tools and software.

Warning: According to Signify specification, a maximum of four SR drivers with enabled PSUs are allowed to be connected in parallel, not to exceed the maximum allowable SR bus current of 250mA. If more than four SR interfaces are connected in parallel, then the PSUs of additional drivers must be disabled as each PSU provides 60mA.  Also, note that the maximum number of drivers with PSUs enabled depends on the driver manufacturer. In OSRAM 2-wire Dexal drivers, the maximum number is three enabled PSUs. Consult the OSRAM driver supplier for the specification.   

D4i (DALI for IoT)

Enlighted is a member of the DiiA. The Enlighted Gen 5 '2-wire' sensors are DALI compatible sensors (DALI 1 and DALI 2) for lighting control of the drivers. Enlighted's  '2-wire' sensors are certified as a DALI control device under the DiiA D4i (DALI for IoT) program to simplify selecting compatible drivers for our customers. 

The D4i specification allows the drivers to incorporate a “Power Supply Unit” (PSU) into the driver to provide DALI bus power, which can power a sensor connected to the DALI bus. In Enlighted systems, only one sensor may be connected to a 2-wire bus to control one or more fixtures. Up to eight drivers may be connected to the DALI bus segment by this single sensor, and at least one PSU must be present, either internal to the drivers or as a separate unit. If more than one PSU exists, be sure that the maximum aggregated supply current for the DALI bus does not exceed 250mA—the DALI Bus max current per segment.  

Fixtureless Sensors

In addition to using the ‘2-wire’ Gen 5 sensors to simplify the connection to drivers in fixture control applications, you can also use the 2-wire sensors in installations where the sensor is NOT connected to any fixture drivers or ballasts (fixtureless sensors).

Fixtureless sensors are used when a higher sensor density is required for Enlighted applications such as Location Intelligence  for real-time location services and mapping for asset tracking for collecting data. The advantage of using the 2-wire Gen 5 sensors is that up to 15 sensors may be connected to a single DALI PSU or power pack, simplifying system wiring and reducing cost.

In this special version, Enlighted has factory disabled the DALI bus communication for use in installations where no fixture is connected, or additional data collection coverage is needed. The fixtureless sensors only draw power from the DALI PSU but do not use the bus for any data transmissions. 

Enlighted provides this special version of the Gen 5 (SU-5S) 2-wire sensor with the FL (fixture-less) product code suffix. Be sure to install -FL sensors ONLY when no fixture is connected to that sensor and ALWAYS when multiple sensors (up to 15) are connected to a single PSU or power pack.

You can order the High Bay and Ruggedized, 2-wire sensors as fixtured or fixtureless (FL) using specific product codes. Refer to the respective Spec sheet for product codes.

For additional information, refer to Gen 5, 2-wire, Install Solutions for Fixtureless Sensors for details.

External DALI PSUs

For applications that utilize traditional DALI drivers that do not have an integrated PSU, you can add an external PSU. While there are many manufacturers of quality PSUs worldwide, Enlighted offers the following DALI PSUs. Download or view the DALI PSU Spec Sheets. 

  1. DALI PSU-4-200 Fixture Mount form factor, and
  2. DALI PSU-6-200 Nipple Mount form factor

The DALI PSUs can be used either as a

  1. DALI Bus PSU for a fixtured sensor or as a
  2. Fixtureless Sensor Powerpack.  

DALI Bus PSU for a Fixtured Sensor

As a DALI Bus PSU, the PSU is connected to a single 2-wire sensor and up to eight 2-wire (DALI) drivers. This is for a FIXTURED sensor, and the rule is at least ONE DALI PSU per sensor.  Only one sensor can be connected to the DALI bus segment, and the bus can have up to 8 standard DALI drivers.

Note that when SR or Dexal drivers are used, there is no external PSU. The PSU is built into the drivers, and that is why for SR and Dexal, there is a four-driver limit since each driver’s built-in PSU can source up to about 60mA. If there were two or more SR drivers (with built-in PSUs), then the polarity of the SR driver connections to each other would matter. SR+ would need to connect to SR+, and SR- would need to connect to SR-.  Again, the connection to the senor will not matter.

Refer to the following articles:

Fixtureless Sensor Powerpack

  1. As a FIXTURELESS sensor powerpack, where there are NO DALI drivers connected to the sensors, a single DALI PSU-4-200 or PSU-6-200 can power up to 15 sensors. 
  2. When using the High Bay Sensor, 2-wire, (SU-5S-2W-H), or the Ruggedized Sensor, 2-wire (SU-5S-2W-HRW/LRW), there is a better option to order the SU-5S-xxx-FL (fixtureless sensor). This is a native 2-wire sensor where the DALI bus communication has been factory disabled. The advantage of using the SU-5S-xxx-FL is that there is no polarity dependence, and there is no need for a special 2-wire adapter cable.
  3. Refer to the following articles:

DALI Emergency APIs 
(For use outside of N. America)

Enlighted also supports Emergency Lighting fixtures equipped with DALI Part 202 (IEC 62386-202) compliant "Self-contained emergency lighting" drivers. These are battery-backed-up drivers, which will automatically cause the fixture LED to become illuminated to the emergency light level when there is a loss of power. The DALI Emergency Lighting APIs allow the external application to send Emergency Lighting commands or get Emergency Lighting status from specific sensors in the system. You can send these commands to sensors or fixtures designated as emergency fixtures connected to the DALI emergency driver. Refer to the DALI Emergency APIs.

Fixture Mount Control Unit for DALI Drivers
(CU-4D-FM)

Finally, in support of our traditional 8-pin sensors and enabling hardware energy metering of traditional DALI drivers, Enlighted will continue to offer the Fixture Mount Control Unit for DALI drivers for ONLY in the EU countries accepting the CE mark.  Please note that the  Control Unit for DALI incorporates the DALI PSU, so there is no need to procure a separate PSU.  The Control Unit for DALI does NOT support Tunable White (DT8) or Emergency Lighting (DT1) functions, but it has the ability to meter energy. 

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