DOMIQ/Light – first steps

Lighting is apart form heating, ventilation and air conditioning one of the major costs of the use of building. In this tutorial we present the use of DOMIQ/Light module. It lets you build a cheap and efficient lighting control system. In the next part of this tutorial we de- scribed a standard configuration and software path of the lighting installation built of the DALI ballasts.

1. DOMIQ/Light – opportunities

DOMIQ/Light plays role of a master device in the DALI lighting installation. According to the DALI standard it can be connected with 64 DALI ballasts. The communication be- tween the DALI installation and the Light module is fully bidirectional. This is why the be- low functionality is available immediately:

• brightness update;
• notification about the lamp failure;
• notification about no power supply;Each DALI ballast can be assigned to 16 groups. It makes it much easier to order the ligh- ting control. This allows to create more advanced lighting control scenarios and makes the system more flexible.Configuration of the entire installation can be carried out with a simple interface, which is a part of the configuration interface of the DOMIQ/Base module (the Base module is ne- cessary for the Base module to work). The configuration software is free and very easy to use.All these features make DOMIQ/Light perfect for lighting installations in offices or indu- strial buildings and wherever large-area lighting with low operation cost is required.

2. Addressing of the installationThe configuration of the installation should be started from addressing the DALI ballasts. The Light module allows the use of two types of addressing: fully automatic or manual. All the described features are available in the interface of the DOMIQ/Base module in the DALI tab.

2.1. Automatic addressing

This type allows you to program the entire installation with a single click. In the case of automatic programming you can choose from its two forms. When you are dealing with a new or even unprogrammed installation, use the All button in the section Random addressing.

If the button is pressed, addressing of the entire installation is initiated. Once the process is started the lamps will receive addresses in the range from 0 to 63. Assignment of the address will be confirmed by lighting of a given lamp. Bear in mind that once you start ad- dressing, all the previous addresses are deleted.

If your installation is already partially programmed and you would like to add new ballasts to it, you should initiate the programming by pressing the Unassigned button. It causes calling the procedure of addressing of those ballasts only that do not have any addresses assigned and the current addressing remains unchanged. In this case if the address is as- signed, it is confirmed by lighting of the lamp.

The Starting address field allows you to set the starting address, towards which the ad- dresses will be assigned in the procedure of the automatic addressing.

Automatic addressing is sometimes also called random addressing due to the fact that during the automatic addressing the addresses are assigned to the ballasts on the ran- dom basis. Therefore the addresses are not a reflection of the ordered assembly of lamps.

2.2. Manual addressing

If you would like to keep the order of addresses in accordance with the order of assembly of ballasts, you should first of all conduct the automatic addressing and then use the option of changing the address manually. To do this select the lamp on the list of availa- ble ballasts and then in the Addressing section enter a new address and confirm it by pressing Set. In some cases you may need to change addresses of the two ballasts. In this case, you should lead to a situation in which both ballasts have an identical address, and then turn addresses crosswise.

3. Ballasts configuration 3.1. Ballasts parametrization

All DALI ballasts have a set of the predefined parameters: maximum level, minimum level, level by error, step and ramp. These parameters can be changed using the configuration interface. In the preview window of the installation first 5 columns are read-only, while the other ones allow you to change the above mentioned parameters of the ballast. The new value of the parameter is automatically sent to the ballast at the time of switching the cur- sor elsewhere in the interface

3.2. Groups

Each ballast can be assigned to max. 16 groups. Grouping lets you organize controlling in a given way – for example, division into rooms or sections of the room etc. Grouping also helps to reduce configuration and movement on the bus, because instead of multiple commands you can send just one – to the group.

Assignment to the group is very simple – just check the box next to the number of the se- lected group. If you uncheck the box, the ballast will be removed from the group.

The full list of commands to control DALI groups can be found in the DOMIQ/Base documentation.

3.3. Light scenes

16 scenes can be programmed in each lamp. This allows for convenient control of lighting levels. In order to set the scene, select it from the list and then enter the brightness value in the Brightness column (range from 0 to 255). Confirm it by pressing the Save button. To load the scene just press the Load button.

Saving and loading scenes is also available by using commands that can be combined with buttons in the Remote application, on visualization or as effect of an event etc.

The following command is used to load scenes in single ballasts: C.DALI.1.evg.adr=load:xx, where adr, stands for ballast address and xx is the scene number.
The following command is used to load the scenes in a group of ballasts: C.DALI.1.group.g=load:xx, where g, stands for the number of the group and xx is the scene number.
Saving scenes using commands is similar: just replace the word load with save. The command which saves the scene will assign the current brightness to the scene.

4. Integration with LCN

The DOMIQ/Base module allows you to control the Light module directly from the LCN system. In the next part of this chapter we will present how to control the DALI lighting using the LCN wall buttons. In order to minimize costs just use any logic LCN module, which allows connection of buttons such as LCN–UPS or LCN-SHS.

4.1. Configuration of the LCN module

The LCN module should be configured in such a way, that pressing the buttons is passed to the Base module. For this purpose use the Send buttons key, while as the recipient of the command indicate the Base module. The definition of the command Send buttons should be repeated for all DALI commands that will be controled with wall buttons. In this case we describe the use of four commands: on/off and lighter/darker. For this purpose we are going to reserve keys from D1 to D4 with the command short and assume that the address of our module is 10.

4.2. Configuration of the DOMIQ/Base module

If you would like pressing buttons to result in sending commands to the Light module and to the DALI bus, you should define the events that will implement it. In this case there are four events, each for another DALI command. All definitions are the same, so we will pre- sent the first in details but in case of the next ones we will just indicate the differences. For this purpose let’s assume that the command is sent to the ballast with address 1.

1. Add a new event.
2. In the Channel field enter: E.LCN.key.0.10.D1, and in Value: hit.
3. In the actions click on Add command…. In the new window in the Name field enter: C.DALI.1.evg.1, and in Value: on.
4. For the other commands repeat steps from 1 to 3. Remember to change the number of the button and change the names of the commands to : off, up, down.

The above example can be expanded by adding support for invoking scenes, controlling groups etc. Similarly you can control a group.

4.3. Direct sending of the DALI commands

Due to the fact that the Base in LCN–Pro is a segment coupler, the LCN–Pro software will not allow you to select Base as the recipient of the DALI commands. You can do this, however, by assigning another LCN module or group as the recipient of the table and then changing the recipient to the Base module. The procedure is as follows:

1. As recipient select any LCN logic module.
2. As command type select DALI and set the type of command that should be sent.
3. Save the module configuration.
4. Change the recipient of the command for the Base module.
5. Repeat the above mentioned actions for all DALI commands, that should be control- led using LCN wall buttons.

5. Notifications about failures

As mentioned in the introduction, thanks to the bidirectional communication the Light module receives information about failures from the ballasts: information about burning out lamps and power failure. In the aspect of service it is very important to receive notifi- cations of failures which occur in the installation. The Base module allows you to send an e-mail. In the next part of this chapter we will present how to use this functionality in order to send notification about failures. In view of the fact that there are two types of failures, you should define two separate events for each type. In both cases the definition is almost the same. It was described below.

At first we will present the event informing about the power failure.

1. Add a new event.
2. In the Channel field enter: E.DALI.1.evg.%d+.powerfail, and in Value: 1
3. In Actions click on Add command…. In the new window in the Name field enter: SC.EMAIL.<address1>, where <address1> stands for the e-mail address on which the notification should be sent. There may be several recipients. In such case divide them with a comma. Examples of usage:

•  A single recipient: SC.EMAIL.service@example.com
•  Many recipients: SC.EMAIL.service1@example.com,service2@example.com,service3@example.com.

4. In the Value cell enter the subject of the message and then the contents divided from the subject with a semicolon: subject;contents. In this case we will send informa- tion about the lamp with a failure: Power failure;Power failure occured: ballast $C1.
5. Similarly we create an event informing that a lamp has burn out. In the Channel field replace the word powerfail with lampfail and modify the subject and message. The other actions remain unchanged.

The presented events will be triggered in case of failure of any lamp (pattern matching %d+ is responsible for this).

6. DALI on visualization

In this chapter we present how to display the status and control the DALI ballast on the vi- sualization. The configuration is very easy:

1. Add Light to visualization.
2. In the Channel field enter: DALI.1.evg.xx, where xx stands for the address of the lamp.
3. Save the configuration. From now on you can just turn on and off light and at the same time the current status of ballast will displayed.

Example visualization of the DALI installation is shown in the picture below:

More information on the DALI control commands and a detailed description of the configuration interface can be found in the configuration manual of the DOMIQ/Base module.