Dali or DMX for new build?

[Trey Sheldon]

Somewhat in line with the recent announcement of the DALI2 certified extension, I'm curious what people are thinking in terms of central lighting control.

The big choice I'm facing is either dali or dmx -- mains dimming is not something I'm too interested in factoring in due to the desire to run mainly low voltage LED lights.

Biggest negative I can think of are dali's baud rate, but for general lighting, that doesn't seem too bad (not running a club out of my house or anything). The plus for dali is 2way comms with the driver.

The DMX extension definitely wins at price per channel and even when maxing out at 4ch per device:

* DMX 128 4ch devices, roughly $3.23 per device.

* DALI has 64 devices, roughly $12.15 per device.

Am I overthinking this? Any guidance / suggested reading?

Thanks!

[Daniel Feist]

Hi,

Is this for downlighters, low-level lighting, LED's or everything?

Few things to think about:

- The availability of DALI vs DMX drivers for the light fittings you plan to use.  For residential lighting, almost everything is available with DALI drivers, but DMX is harder to find.  (we used a mix of Iguzzini and Orluna neither of which supplied DMX)

- The cost uplift for DALI vs. DMX drivers.

- Do you plan for any tunable white or RGBW fittings (I'm unsure what the Loxone DMX support for tunable white is like where DALI DT8 works well)

The other thing to think about is your topology,

- Do you plan to use a local DALI/DMX driver for each fitting which allows endless options from an after-the-fact zone creation perspective

- Or, do you want to use a bank of mains-dimming DMX actuators in your Loxone panel and then wire up downlighter circuits the same way you would with mains dimming? (Here DMX provides the control, but wiring/dimming is same as mains dimming)

From a cost perspective, there are alternatives to Loxone DALI and DMX extensions that might be worth looking at.

Thanks,

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[Techdoctor]

I would take a look at Shelly devices. They can be integrated into Loxone, but its not a plug and play solution more like a plug and prey solution. I have 5 shelly devices connected to my Loxone set up and it works well. 

[Jonathan Dixon]

> desire to run mainly low voltage LED lights.

I think this is the key decision. Figure out what exactly you'll use for low voltage LED, and to what lighting design, and from there figure the best way to drive them. Constant current vs constant current makes a big difference, and price point and light rendering quality will define what options are most practical.

I've mostly worked with higher quality architectural light fittings recently and these make DALI a no brainer. But if looking at budget "contractor" downlights the options are more limited (or rather, more off piste)

 DMX is a strict daisy chain and finicky so personally I'd always keep DMX cables internal to dimmer cabinets (maybe one per floor) whereas Dali is very flexible topology and ideal if you'd rather distribute the drivers, mostly keeping them local to the light fitting 

[Andrew B]

I think the key decision is what wires to put in the walls, and their topology.  You basically can’t change this decision so it’s a good idea to make a choice that doesn’t lock you into only one possible design.  I ran standard mains voltage wires, but home ran everything to a central point where I could put a cabinet.  I run low voltage DC over this, but someone could replace that with mains voltage if they wished without ripping out drywall.  I have 2 DMX boards with enough channels for the whole house, and the actual fixtures/bulbs are as simple as possible.  I have a couple of conventional mains voltage fixtures  in key areas (ie so I can have light when I work on the low voltage system in case of a failure),  

Those 6 mains voltage led bulbs have more bulb failures than the whole rest of the house (which has about 50 bulbs and 40 Dow lights)!  Don’t put stuff you need access to inside walls (sounds obvious, but…), and anything with electronics might fail.

[Stefan L]

In the most recent build we did: 

DMX

24V power supply

24V throughout - Even standard E27 outside lights have 24V bulbs  

Cheap D4 RGBW dimmers 24V

Downlights sourced from China, seems to be good, with no failures during 2 years now. 

For some mains control you can use solid state relays behind the D4s or shelly products 

24V also means you can use some very small boat/RW lights 

/Stefan