The DALI protocol allows for up to 16 DALI Scenes to be saved locally in the fixture to be recalled on command. We can also programme DALI fixtures in a more traditional way using flexible Designer Scenes, which can then be placed on a timeline or triggered as required. In this Tips and Tricks, we will cover the two ways to approach working with DALI ballasts in Designer.
DALI Scenes
The first place to explore this is within the DALI view, under DALI Scenes. This can be accessed by clicking on the DALI tab, then Scenes in the modal picker at the top.
These are scenes that can be uploaded to a ballast and can be recalled from the ballast at any stage. These are not project specific, so will recall the same scene if the ballast receives a “Recall Scene” command. However, these DALI Scenes are limited to intensity only and to only affecting DALI ballasts.
DALI Scenes can be created by first creating a new scene by selecting the ⊕ icon…
… then selecting your ballasts and adjusting the Intensity Slider.
Note: Only intensity is supported in DALI Scenes. For RGBWAF, XY or Colour Temperature, please see Scenes with DALI.
Once the scenes have been created, you will need to Upload the configuration to the ballasts. This step is not the same as uploading to the controller, and you must ensure that your DALI ballasts are patched first This will be covered in the DALI Configuration Tips and Tricks. You will need to navigate back to the DALI Interface page, then select Upload Configuration. By nature of this process, it is a slow upload, so we would recommend trying to complete everything first.
DALI Scenes are then run through the Recall DALI Scene action or on a timeline.
With this action, we can tell all ballasts within the selected Interface, a specified group or ballast to go to the desired scene.
NOTE: Interfaces and groups will be covered in the DALI Configuration tips and tricks
DALI Scenes can also be run on a timeline is the same way as DALI presets, occupying the same row.
Scenes with DALI
We also offer an alternative form of scene control, found in the Scene view. In this view, you can not only set your DALI ballasts in the same scene as your non-DALI fixtures, but here is where we have implemented wider DALI control, such as colour and temperature for DALI XY, DALI RGBWAF and DALI Tc. These will not, however, be uploaded to the DALI ballasts, so any specified Recall Scene command to the DALI ballasts will not return these scenes and will instead recall the scenes that were either set up in the previous view, or scenes that were already pre-programmed into the ballasts. Instead, in this mode, we will send a “Set Level” command instead.
To get started, first create a new scene
Then, select any of your fixtures; you can select both DALI ballasts and LED fixtures at the same time and set them within the same Scene.
If you have ballasts selected, a new tab will appear in the Scene Properties panel.
The options that show are dependent on which parameters the ballasts can support. In the above example, we have selected 3 ballasts; an RGBW and a RGBA ballast (hence the colour wheel) and a Tc ballast (hence the temperature slider). If we deselect the Tc ballast, our options change.
Note that now, the colour temperature slider has been removed, and we now have the option to select Direct Control, which will take us to our Direct Colour Control functionality.
To recall those Scenes, there are two approaches, similar to DALI Scenes: via the Start Scene action or by placing on a Timeline.