DALI (Building Lighting Automation)
DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface, IEC 62386) is a standardized lighting control protocol for building lighting on/off, dimming, and color temperature (DT8). On a single DALI bus, up to 64 short addresses (or 16 groups, 16 scenes) of luminaires / sensors / controllers can be connected.
The DALI driver for this gateway is a stub. Because PC / industrial PC / Linux servers lack the physical interface to directly drive a DALI bus, a DALI master / gateway hardware device is required.
Recommended integration path: Register the OPC UA / Modbus TCP / REST interface provided by the DALI master as another driver in PlantPulse.
Why direct communication is not possible
DALI requires electrically generating a 24V / GND 2-wire differential signal, which is not possible with a standard computer's USB / Ethernet only. Self-implemented solutions without DALI-2 certification are often not legally usable in building lighting systems.
| Hardware Category | Representative Products | Upstream Interface |
|---|---|---|
| USB DALI master | Lunatone DALI USB, Tridonic DALI USB | USB (vendor SDK) |
| Industrial DALI gateway | Tridonic DALI-2 SCI, Helvar 422 / 510, Lunatone DALI-2 IoT | Ethernet (Modbus TCP / BACnet/IP / OPC UA / REST) |
| Built into building automation controller | Siemens DXR, Schneider SE8000 | BACnet/IP |
| Wireless mesh | Casambi, Silvair, Zigbee→DALI | Cloud / MQTT / REST |
Recommended integration path
Most commercial DALI gateways provide interfaces converted to standard industrial protocols. You can select and register one of the existing PlantPulse drivers.
| Upstream interface provided by the DALI gateway | PlantPulse driver to use | Page |
|---|---|---|
| OPC UA Server (cleanest) | OPCUA | OPC-UA |
| Modbus TCP | MODBUS | Modbus TCP |
| BACnet/IP | (Use BACnet driver or gateway's Modbus/OPCUA option) | BACnet/IP |
| REST / JSON API | HTTP | HTTP push |
| MQTT (wireless such as Casambi) | Via Sparkplug B input broker | — |
Recommended for common DALI gateways
| Product | Recommended Interface | PlantPulse Driver |
|---|---|---|
| Tridonic DALI-2 SCI | OPC UA | OPCUA |
| Lunatone DALI-2 IoT | REST + MQTT | HTTP |
| Helvar Router 422 | Helvar Net (TCP) — or Modbus option | MODBUS |
| Siemens DXR2 | BACnet/IP | BACnet |
Stub registration (reference only)
Even for the DALI driver, OPC registration itself is possible, but data will not be collected. Use it only for verifying system configuration.
| Input Field | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| IP Address | (not used, dummy) | 192.168.0.0 |
| Port | (not used, dummy) | 0 |
| Automatic collection | Recommended to disable | OFF |
Common issues
| Symptom | Possible Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| No values arrive after DALI registration | Because it's a stub driver, read results are empty strings | Use OPCUA / MODBUS / HTTP from the recommended integration path above |
| Luminaire status bits registered via Modbus show as 0 | Gateway register map mismatch | Re-check the register map table in the Tridonic / Lunatone manual |
| OPC UA node IDs are too long | The DALI master's namespace exposes deeply per group/scene | Use NodeId alias when registering tags, or use the master-side export |
| Dimming curve seems incorrect | Difference between DALI's 0 | Convert using formula |
Next steps
- Obtain the manual for the DALI gateway's OPC UA nodes / Modbus register map
- Refer to OPC-UA registration page / Modbus registration page
- Technical background: DALI driver (advanced)