0-10v Lighting

[Jeffrey]

The 0-10v drivers I've seen are sourcing units that require a sinking controller. It appears to me that the analog outputs of the Loxone miniserver are also sourcing outputs, but I've seen references on this forum of using them to control the drivers. Can someone clarify if and how the analog outputs of the miniserver can control a 0-10v sourcing driver?

[Jeff]

Are any of you actually using the analog outputs for lighting control? If so, what drivers / fixtures are you using?

[Duncan]

ive used a single 0-10v cc driver with a 100v max output to drive a single string of 20 x 3w white leds and it works fine from loxones 0-10v output

but it is definately a sink driver, not source
this is similar but not as high voltage
http://www.ltechonline.com/html/en/products/1-10V/1-10V-CC-Dimming-Driver/LT-701-CC.html

[Jeff]

Thank you. That helps. I found two PDF documents that clarify my confusion. Excerpts:

There are actually two existing 0-10V standards. They are not compatible with each other, so it is essential to understand which type is required. The original 0-10V control was used for controlling theatrical lighting. A lighting console provides a separate 0-10V output for each dimming channel that connects to the input to dimmer modules located in a remote panel. The other 0-10V control method was developed for, and is used as, a standard means for controlling fluorescent dimming ballasts. It has now become popular for some drivers used for LED lighting.

The two 0-10V control types are current source (a theatrical dimming standard) and current sink (a dimming ballast standard).

The IEC analog protocol is sometimes confused with another 0-10 VDC protocol, ANSI E1.3-2001 (R2011) Entertainment Technology – Lighting Control Systems – 0 to 10V Analog Control Specification, but the two protocols are not compatible. The fundamental difference between the standards lies in which product supplies the control voltage: the controller or the device under control (e.g. ballast, LED driver, dimmer, etc.). The entertainment technology protocol requires that the controller generate, or “source” the low voltage signal.

Recently, manufacturers have incorporated 0-10 VDC sinking control into new products, including LED drivers, to ensure that their products will respond to the many
controllers available in the marketplace. However, not all the new products follow the standard to the letter.

What this tells me is that fixtures which come with their own 0-10v driver are probably not going to be compatible with the Loxone.

References:

www.lutron.com/en-US/Education-Training/Documents/10V.pdf
www.legrand.us/-/media/brands/wattstopper/resources/bulletins/controls-compatible-with-industry-standard-ballasts-and-led-drivers-technical-bulletin.ashx

Also for reference:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/107842/convert-sourcing-0-10v-to-0-10v-sinking