Control

Dimming is a means for adjusting or controlling the lumen output from a luminaire. Different dimming or control protocols can be used such as phase-cut (mains dimming), DALI, DMX, Wireless or 1-10V. Dimming can also be achieved through local or on board control.

Control protocols can be used to schedule lighting changes relating to timed sequences, utilise inputs/triggers from motion or lux level sensors and pass information to building management systems. Information to building management systems may include luminaire (or emergency lighting) fault/condition reporting, inputs to the building management system can be used to trigger other events and to link to other systems (for example automated window blinds/shutters)

Stoane lighting hold no affiliation to any single control system protocol and will do our best to supply products with control compatibility that’s most appropriate for your project.

DALI

This protocol, Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI), was always intended as a lighting control protocol. We offer most fittings with DALI driver options.

It can offer you up to 64 DALI addresses on one control line and it is typically a more stable and robust system to implement than DMX systems. With DALI drivers, no addresses are assigned by us at HQ, the DALI control system on site and commissioning engineers will assign addresses as per your requirements.

Over the years, the DALI protocol has seen some revisions. DALI-2 is common for most products we manufacture and drivers we supply.

In the context of tuneable white, its important to understand the difference between a DT6 and a DT8 device. Assuming for a start that a tuneable white product will have two sets of LEDs, of two colours that are mixed to set colour points between them; a DT8 product can use one DALI short address and the control system will allow CCT and intensity to be set. A DT6 product by contrast will use two DALI short addresses and the control system will either require that intensity/mix of the two colours is set manually to achieve the intended CTT and intensity, or, the control system has within it an algorithm or programming such that a CCT and intensity can be requested and the system calculates the intensity/mix of the two CCTs.

It is very important to consider driver to control system compatibility especially when using tuneable white products. Consult with the controls equipment manufacturer.

DMX

DMX is also referred to as a Digital Multiplexed Signal. It is a control protocol in which a DMX controller communicates with and controls DMX devices. It is not just used for lighting and has its roots in the theatre world. We can offer DMX controllable drivers for most LED fittings. It is often used for the more complicated of control scenarios where there are large numbers of fittings or LEDs within fittings that need to be controlled (such as RGB applications).

It can support up to 512 independently controllable addresses in what is referred to as a DMX universe. It requires a single pair of wires in a cable with a shield.

You assign DMX addresses to each DMX driver so that the controller can tell each light fitting what to do. Duplicating addresses is not a problem and is quite common. It is often much less complicated if these addresses can be assigned by our team at HQ to save time and confusion on site so we will ask you to consider addressing and specify addresses on our approval drawings.

A DMX driver (or luminaire) may take several addresses. An RGBW luminaire for example may take 4 addresses, one for each colour.

DMX can be 8bit or 16bit. This refers to the dimming ‘resolution’, the number of intensity set points between off and full on. 16bit is higher resolution. Some drivers/luminaires can be set at either 8 or 16bit but some only have one option. You must use a DMX controller that is compatible with the driver/luminaire. 16bit luminaires use two addresses per control channel and this might be relevant when considering networks; an RGBW 8bit product will require 4 addresses whereas an RGBW 16bit product will require 8 addresses.

In order to guarantee the stability of the network, to protect against flickering etc., there are several dos and don'ts. This is all about following DMX wiring good practice on cable spec, shielding, connection, wiring topology, signal boosters, optical splitters and line termination.

0-10V

This is option is nice and simple; the trade-off is that you no longer have the independent control of fittings that you get from DALI, DMX and wireless for example. All 0-10V dimmable fittings on one control line will dim together.

Generally, 0-10V dimmable drivers can also be controlled using a local potentiometer either on the side of the fitting (on board dimming) or somewhere close by. A simple dimmer knob can be fitted to the potentiometer for integration into furniture, display cabinets or wall plates.

On board dimming

Luminaires that have a rotary knob or potentiometer to control light output might be referred to as having on board dimming. Luminaires with sensors that trigger light level or on off changes might be referred to as having on board control.

Mains

Mains, or phase-cut, dimming comes in two forms, namely Leading Edge and Trailing Edge. By chopping up the AC voltage waveform, in effect the mains dimmable LED drivers and power supplies receive less power and the light sources attached to them dim.

You need to be careful to ensure that mains dimmers and mains dimmable light fittings are compatible and produce stable results. For example a leading edge dimmer will not work at all with a trailing edge dimmable light fitting. A leading edge dimmable luminaire may not even work well with a leading edge dimmer either! Furthermore, low loads from LED light fittings can cause stability issues and different manufacturers systems don't all work well with one another.

Another trade-off with the convenience of this type of dimming is that often products cannot be dimmed reliably to such low levels as with DALI or 0-10V.

Because of these issues, at HQ we've got our hands on some of the different manufacturer’s dimmers so that we can assess compatibility for specifiers before the fittings make it to site. It's called the Wall of Pain. Give us a call and tell us about what you have and we will see what we can do to help. The best thing you can do is either use a more predictable control protocol or (accepting that phase-cut dimming has its place) organise a sample to test with your dimmer/control system.

Wireless

With the extra cost and complexity of installing control wires and equipment, wireless dimming and control can be very attractive, especially in retrofit or historic building projects where it may be difficult to run new wires through very old building fabric. The interconnectivity and communication IoT (Internet of Things) benefits also allow complex, automated and experience focused implementations.

With wireless lighting control, it's important that control devices and controllers talk the same language. Whilst efforts have been made in the industry to standardise, there are several emerging options often but not always based on BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).

Stoane Lighting commonly use Casambi and Xicato controls but have also used several others including wireless DMX. We will use whichever system is agreed with the specifier as being most appropriate for the application.

IoT

The Internet of Things enables enabled luminaires to communicate with each other and with other internet-enabled devices. Like smartphones and gateways, creating a vast network of interconnected devices that can exchange data and perform various tasks autonomously.

In the lighting context this can include: lighting scene/experience triggers based on presence, luminaire and sensor systems that monitor and adjust light exposure on paintings to preserve sensitive pigments (managing lux hour budgets) or as a mesh network of position markers for wayfinding and occupancy tracking.