How to set up DALI integration with Express Control

Express Control’s on-board DALI port can be used to trigger DMX and DALI lighting changes from received DALI messages, or to send commands to a DALI installation.

While the controller’s built-in schedule allows the controller to operate your lighting without any additional hardware, using DALI integration enables expanded functionality of your lighting installation without introducing additional controllers.

Examples of what’s possible using DALI integration include:

• Augment an existing DALI installation with DMX fixtures using Express Control.
• Add DALI wall stations as user interfaces to control your DMX and/or DALI installation instead of, or in addition to, the Express Touch mobile app and Express Touch wall stations.
• Recall a specific DALI scene (e.g. ‘Dim Houselights’) when a specific tag is active on Express Control (e.g. ‘Party’).

On this page

Creating a DALI interaction

In Express 1.1 or later, do the following:

1. Click ‘Configure Interactions…’  from the Control tab of the Tools menu to open the interactions helper
2. Click the add button to create a new interaction
3. Click ‘Select an input…’ and choose from the available DALI input types
4. Select the DALI Group to be used with this interaction
5. Click ‘Select an output…’ and choose how you want Express Control to respond to the DALI input you selected in the previous steps
6. Depending on the output you select, the helper may present additional configuration steps*
7. Click ‘Create interaction’ to finish

*Some interactions have properties which must be configured before the interaction can be saved. In this case, click ‘Edit the properties for…’ to link input and output by creating a mapping or defining a threshold. For example, when creating an interaction between ‘DALI Scene’ and ‘Active Scene’, a mapping must be created to define which of your Express project’s scenes should correspond to each DALI Scene in the group.

Supported Commands

Express interactions currently support the following DALI commands as inputs:

Description	Range	Destination	Command	DALI Description
DALI Scene	0-15	Broadcast, Groups 0-15	16-31	GOTO SCENE 0-15
DALI direct level	0-254	Broadcast, Groups 0-15	999	DIRECT ARC POWER 0-100%
DALI level off	–	Broadcast, Groups 0-15	0	OFF
DALI level up	–	Broadcast, Groups 0-15	1	UP
DALI level down	–	Broadcast, Groups 0-15	2	DOWN

Note: Express has a literal implementation and will not react to broadcast commands if the interaction input is set to group 0.

The following DALI commands are currently supported as outputs:

Description	Range	Destination	Command	DALI Description
DALI Scene	0-15	Groups 0-15	16-31	GOTO SCENE 0-15

Note: Only the commands listed are supported. Express does not currently support DALI 2 commands: IEC62386 part 301-306.

DALI wall station compatibility

There is a wide range of third-party DALI wall stations available, with many manufacturers clearly stating the commands each wall station will output. If you’re not sure what commands a particular DALI wall station will output, we recommend asking the manufacturer for further information.

If you have the hardware to hand, you can use a DALI sniffer to see the commands being sent on the bus.

💡 Tip: Set Express Control’s log level to ‘debug’ to view DALI messages on the bus.

List of compatible DALI wall stations

Below is a non-exhaustive list of DALI wall stations compatible with DALI interactions in Express 1.1 and later. If you know of a compatible DALI wall station not listed here, please let us know via support@pharoscontrols.com.

Incompatible DALI wall stations

Pharos Express does not currently support DALI 2 wall stations. (IEC62386 part 301-306).