DALI tunable white and color control

Tunable white

Along with familiar dimming functions, tunable white and color control expand your freedom to create different ambiances in spaces that support specific activities - guest welcome, presentations, relaxation, creativity, concentration, etc.

DALI has two applicable standards: DALI 207 and the more recent DALI 209. Tunable white and color control are available on the following controllers:

  • The DDBC120-DALI supports up to 64 addressable DALI 207/209 tunable white and RGBWAF luminaires.

  • The DDBC320-DALI supports up to 192 addressable DALI 207/209 tunable white and RGBWAF luminaires.

  • The DDMC802 modular controller’s DGBM200 signal dimming module has two DALI Broadcast channels with support for DALI 209 tunable white luminaires.

Configuring DALI Tunable White and Color Control

DALI 209 provides single-channel control of:

  • Dimming and color temperature for warm-white/cool-white (WWCW) drivers.

  • Dimming and color for Red-Green-Blue-White-Amber-Free (RGBWAF) drivers.

DALI 207 provides two-channel (WW+CW) dimming control. The WWCW driver combines these two channel levels to determine the correct light intensity and color temperature.

The controller detects the type of lamp driver during the enumeration process. When the driver is assigned to a channel, System Builder (SB) automatically sets the correct tunable white channel type.

If precommissioning, you can set the channel type manually.

Manually set DALI 209 tunable white or RGBWAF channel type:

  1. In Areas view, create or select an area.

  2. Click an existing sb icon channel not set channel or click sb icon new channel Insert New Channel (Ctrl+H) to create a new channel in the area.

  3. Click the Channel Properties tab.

  4. Under channel properties, click the Type dropdown box and select Tunable White or RGBWAF.
    The sb icon channel tunable white tunable white or sb icon channel rgbwaf RGBWAF channel icon is displayed under the area.

    sb channel properties dali 209
Manually set DALI 207 tunable white channel type:

  1. In Areas view, create or select an area.

  2. Click an sb icon channel not set existing channel or click sb icon new channel Insert New Channel (Ctrl+H) twice to create two new channels in the area.

  3. Click the Channel Properties tab.

  4. Under channel properties for the first channel, click the Type dropdown box and select Cool White.
    The sb icon channel cool white cool white channel icon is displayed under the area.

  5. Under channel properties for the second channel, click the Type dropdown box and select Warm White.
    The sb icon channel warm white warm white channel icon is displayed under the area.

    sb channel properties dali 207

Configuring tunable white lighting scenes

A tunable white channel has two components that can be adjusted independently:

  • Channel level: This determines the light intensity. Click the sb icon checkbox tick Percent checkbox to toggle between percentage (0-100%) or 8-bit (0-254) channel level values.

  • Color temperature: The color temperature is set in Kelvins (°K), ranging from 2500°K (warm reddish hue) to 7000°K (cool blueish hue).

sb area presets editor tw
Program presets for tunable white channels:

  1. In Areas view, open the Presets editor and select an area.

  2. Select an existing preset or click sb icon new preset New to add a preset.

  3. Either:

    • Click the Level Adjust property to adjust the Color Temperature and Channel Level sliders.

    or

    • Click the Color Temperature property and enter a value in °K.

    • Click the Level property and enter a percentage (0-100%) or 8-bit (0-254) value.

  4. If applicable, click the sb icon checkbox tick Color Exclude checkbox so the color temperature does not change when the preset is recalled.

  5. If applicable, click the sb icon checkbox tick Level Exclude checkbox so the channel level does not change when the preset is recalled.

  6. The preset stores the channel level and color temperature for each channel. When a preset is recalled that includes a tunable white channel, both the channel level and color temperature fade to the recalled values.

sb area presets editor tw 2

Tunable white fixture type

Add a tunable white fixture to the floor plan:

  1. In the Fixture Palette, click sb icon add fixture to palette Add Fixture to Palette to open the Fixture Profile Editor dialog.

  2. Set the Fixture Type to Tunable White (DALI-209).

  3. Click the OK button.

    sb fixture profile editor tw

  4. Click the desired location on the floor plan to place the tunable white fixture.
    Hover the mouse over a fixture to see the Fixture Information tooltip.

On the floor plan Area Information tooltip, you can use the sliders to adjust the color temperature and channel levels. Hover the mouse over an area and click the > icon next to a channel to show the sliders.

sb floor plan tooltip 209
sb floor plan tooltip area

Configuring RGBWAF lighting scenes

An RGBWAF channel has two independently adjustable components:

  • Channel level: This determines the light intensity. Click the sb icon checkbox tick Percent checkbox to toggle between percentage (0-100%) or 8-bit (0-254) channel level values.

  • Color saturation: This uses six color parameters (Red, Green, Blue, White, Amber, Free), each with a 0-255 saturation value. Presets can recall specified light intensity and color for each RGBWAF channel, and the Color RGB Channel Level enables you to ramp the color saturation as a percentage.

sb area presets editor rgbwaf
sb preset editor rgbwaf channel level
Program presets for RGBWAF channels:

  1. In Areas view, click the Preset Editor tab.

  2. Select an area.

  3. Select an existing preset or click sb icon new preset New to add a preset.

  4. Either:

    • Click the Level Adjust property to adjust the RGBWAF Color and Channel Level sliders.

    Or:

    • Click the Level property and enter a light intensity value (0-254).

    • Click the RGBWAF property and enter a saturation value (0-255) for each color, or select a specific color from the Custom/Default/Recent Color(s) palettes.

  5. If applicable, click the sb icon rgbwaf exclude RGBWAF Exclude boxes to ignore unneeded colors when the preset is recalled.

  6. If applicable, click the sb icon checkbox tick Level Exclude checkbox so the channel level does not change when the preset is recalled.

  7. The preset stores the channel levels (light intensity) and color levels for each channel. When a preset is recalled that includes a RGBWAF channel, both the channel level and the color fade to the recalled preset values.

Requesting the levels for a preset that includes RGBWAF channels returns both the color and channel level.

RGBWAF fixture type

Add RGBWAF fixture to the floor plan:

  1. In the Fixture Palette, click sb icon add fixture to palette Add Fixture to Palette to open the Fixture Profile Editor dialog.

  2. Set the Fixture Type to RGBWAF.

  3. Click the OK button.

    sb fixture profile editor rgbwaf

  4. Click the desired location on the floor plan to place the tunable white fixture.
    Hover the mouse over a fixture to see the Fixture Information tooltip.

On the floor plan Area Information tooltip, you can use the sliders to adjust the color and channel levels. Hover the mouse over an area and click the > icon next to a channel to show the sliders and color selectors.

sb floor plan tooltip rgbwaf
sb floor plan tooltip area rgbwaf

DyNet commands

A DyNet2 logical command is used to set/request the color temperature/color channel level and channel level.

Standard preset and channel level commands remain unchanged.

Use the standard Channel Level command to set or request just the channel level.

The Action Chain Editor enables you to configure a user interface to send Color Temperature and Color Channel Level commands. To access the editor from the Button Editor, set the Function to Custom and click the Modify button.

sb action chain editor color temp
Color Temperature action
sb action chain editor color channel level
Color Channel Level action