A general approach for setting up a lighting control with DALI shall be to reduce traffic on the DALI bus. The more ballasts and input devices are located on the bus, the more events and commands need to be sent. This raises the risk for collision on the bus. Collisions will lead to missed events or not executed commands.
If available try to avoid the "Report Event" or set long durations greater than 20s.
For input devices reduce the amount and type of events, that can be fired.
When there is the need to query a value and this value exceeds a resolution of 10bit, consider how often you will need to query the whole value.
When there is the need to query a value and this value exceeds a resolution of 10bit, consider how often you will need to query the whole value.
Generic Inputs
Generic Inputs are all input devices that do not have an additional specification that will describe the input device more detailed.
Events are defined in the additional specification, so generic inputs do not have events. So these devices need to be polled. After creation of the virtual instance of a generic input and matching it with a real instance this mechanism is not active. You need to set a timer, that will query the generic input periodically.
The length of the query depends on the resolution of the value. A 64bit value will be queried by 8 commands and 8 one byte responses.
With a full DALI line choose an interval that is not too small. 30s and more seem to be a good approach.
The generic input will deliver a value in a range from 0 to 2n-1 bits depending on the resolution n. In order to get a value, you will have to calculate it. The Math block in the workflow will help here.
The generic input will deliver a value in a range from 0 to 2n-1 bits depending on the resolution n. In order to get a value, you will have to calculate it. The Math block in the workflow will help here.
Absolute Inputs
Absolute Inputs are user operated inputs, that will deliver a value instead of states.
These can be used for switches, sliders, rotary buttons or turning knobs, sometimes in combination with DALI buttons.
These can be used for switches, sliders, rotary buttons or turning knobs, sometimes in combination with DALI buttons.
Absolute Inputs can send events and also send repeated events. Normally repeated events without value change will not arrive at the workflow in order to reduce workflow actions. If you want to react on each report event, then in the DALI Absolute Input block properties uncheck "Only Value Changes".
A deadtime assures, that the sent events are limited to an amount, that can be handled by the DALI bus.
If you want more reliability on the value, switch on the report timer. This will cause periodic traffic on the DALI bus. A good value is 20s or greater.
If you do not need it,
switch it off by setting it to 0.
When there is a slider or rotary knob, that can be set to discrete values, the DALI bus might also get flooded when operating this absolute input.
Here it makes sense to limit the amount of sent events by setting the deadtime timer in a range of 100ms to 300ms. The more input devices and instances are on the DALI bus, the higher the value should be.
When I as a user drag the slider, I will receive 10 to 3 events with value updates per second.
Here it makes sense to limit the amount of sent events by setting the deadtime timer in a range of 100ms to 300ms. The more input devices and instances are on the DALI bus, the higher the value should be.
When I as a user drag the slider, I will receive 10 to 3 events with value updates per second.