What is DALI?
DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) is a transport mechanism and data protocol. DALI was developed jointly and the specification written by a number of leading manufacturers of lighting equipment. The standard protocol of DALI makes lighting control systems easier and simpler to specify and operate, while also promoting competition to reduce installed cost.
What is DALI-2?
DALI-2 is based on version 2 of IEC 62386, which includes control devices (Part 103 and Parts 3xx) for the first time. All new Parts of the standard will be published as DALI-2 versions. Some (but not all) older Parts will be updated to DALI-2. The figure below extracted from DiiA.
The DALI standard (IEC62386) – International Standard for Lighting Control – has been cleaned up and tightened up to allow for better interoperability of DALI devices from different manufacturers and backward compatibility with the original standard. DALI is administered by DiiA (Digital Illumination Interface Alliance) MOONS’ is an associate member of DiiA.
The Difference between DALI & DALI-2
So, what has changed? DALI-2 is now with us and, perhaps more importantly, DALI-2 products are now in circulation. DALI-2 is fundamentally backward compatible with DALI, but there are a few areas that can catch out the unwary. DALI-2 brings a number of improvements: it adds additional addresses for control interfaces, which means that your control panels no longer need to eat into the 64-fixture address space. The biggest change is the introduction of color control.
DEVICE TYPES
DALI-1 contained the concept of Device Type (DT) but it was of limited significance to the average user. The table below shows the Device Types defined in DALI-2
| DT Number | Device Type |
| DT0 | Fluorescent lampsDT1 |
| DT1 | Emergency lighting |
| DT2 | High intensity discharge |
| DT3 | Low voltage halogen |
| DT4 | General purpose dimmable |
| DT5 | Analogue convertors |
| DT6 | LED modules |
| DT7 | Switching or relay |
| DT8 | Color control |
Device Types DT7 and DT8 did not exist in DALI-1. To a large extent, Device Types in DALI-1 did not affect the actual control system. For example, many LED modules report that they are DT0 (Fluorescent) when they should report DT6 (LED module). As both Device Types have a simple, single-channel intensity control (called ARC) – it does not matter – they can be controlled in the same way. This is not true of DT8.
MOONS’ DALI-2 Product
MOONS’ dual output LED drivers have successfully completed the DALI-2 certification process, including verification by DiiA. They are true of DALI DT8, Using 1 address to achieve tunable white application (Dim the color temperature).
