Effective control of lighting with RF DALI

However, the new possibilities associated with dimming, changing the color temperature of white light or RGB introduced a certain chaos into the way of control, which was caused by different time delays, due to the distances between switches and sources on the one hand, and the incompatibility of lights and controllers, which are usually produced by different companies. It is therefore not surprising that the market was looking for a universal solution to these problems. This solution became the universal DALI lighting control protocol, which at first was a privilege only for large electrical installations of the type of production halls, however, due to its simplicity, it gradually penetrated into apartments and houses as well.

ELKO EP implemented the DALI protocol long time ago, and our customers used it to control larger groups of lights within bus systems. However, these systems controlled by central units with support for the DALI protocol, such as the HELVAR Subnet DALI Controller or OSRAM DALI PRO 2 IOT, have one major drawback, and that is the price, which can easily climb to EUR 4300 even in the case of not very extensive installations. That’s why ELKO EP flirted for a long time with the idea of a compact and maximally universal unit that would be suitable and affordable. Now it already exists and name is RFDALI.

The compactness of RFDALI consists in the fact that, with the help of a small unit that fits into a mounting box under an ordinary switch, it is possible to control up to 4 relays (for the RFDALI-04B-SL version) or up to 32 addresses (RFDALI-32B-SL version), which there can be up to an incredible 32 lights.

ELKO EP ensured universality by implementing the unit in the iNELS Wireless system, so it is possible to use all the advantages associated with this unique wireless ecosystem. Do you want to use fancy wireless controllers to control the lights, no problem, do you want to control the lights with apps, why not…? If you want to connect home lighting control with the MQTT protocol, we have the eLAN Smart RF Gateway for that. And since the company ELKO EP is guided by the motto “always something extra”, they went even further in the versatility of the RFDALI element and allowed the user to control it with the help of a simple button, which, moreover, does not even have to be set, because the device will load it automatically. That it is still not enough, how about compatibility when connecting to scenarios with blinds and classic switched lights for relaxing scenes or exit buttons… Yes! This is also possible in the case of the RFDALI unit and, moreover, without using a gateway, simply via the web interface of the unit or with the help of a connection to a classic button.

And what does its product manager Alex Elgart say about the product?

“While testing the RFDALI unit, I realized how important the correct temperature of white light is for our biorhythm. I installed the unit in my bedroom. During the summer, I have an alarm on my iPhone set via MQTT to HomeKit to automatically pull up the blinds. I use the RFJA-32B-SL wireless element for this, but in the winter when I get up in the dark, it works fine for me. Therefore, I set RFDALI so that the alarm clock activates a gradual burst of light with a transition from muted white to sharp cold white. This scenario ideally wakes me up and within 3 minutes I’m fresh as a fish. Before falling asleep, on the other hand, I activate warm white with gradual dimming until it goes out completely, 10 min. “laughs” is usually enough for me What if I accidentally want to turn off the light early or wake up before the alarm clock? I turn on the light using the wireless switch on the bedside table. Simply!

And for which function will you try our RFDALI?