What is DALI?

Lighting control with DALI – the “Digital Addressable Lighting Interface” (DALI) is a communication protocol for building lighting applications and is used for communication between lighting control devices, such as electronic ballasts, brightness sensors or motion detectors. The manufacturer-independent protocol is defined in the IEC 62386 standard and ensures interoperability of control devices in digitally controllable lighting systems, such as transformers and power dimmers. This standard replaces the often-used analog 1 to 10 V dimmer interface.

Building Lighting Control: DALI Applications

The DALI protocol is used in building automation to control individual lights and lighting groups. Assessment of individual lights to operating elements and grouping of lights are performed via short addresses. A DALI master can control a line with up to 64 devices. Each device can be assigned to 16 individual groups and 16 individual scenes. With bidirectional data exchange, not only are switching and dimming possible, but status messages can also be returned to the controller by the operating unit.